The best presenter goes to...

ME! So the story is that this past Friday and Saturday, our office had a "PR bootcamp" where we all had to spend the night at a hotel (I'm not complaining because it was a gorgeous hotel and because I'm a Director, I didn't have to share a room!) and do a case competition. We were in training allll day long and then at the end of the night, we were given a case to work in groups of 6 to come up with a fantastic presentation the next morning for a panel of judges. We had a case about this new Japanese firm that wanted to expand their presence in China but had no idea how to do it. My group came up with the coolest project, but we ended up not winning. The winning team won $2000RMB (which is like $300USD) and tickets to some concert here. I didn't really care cuz I had no idea who the rock star was but it would have been nice to split that cash. However I didn't know that we also had a category for best presenter and I WON! I was so tired that I didn't even know that they announced my name! :) I got to take home $1000RMB all for myself. But being the good daughter that I am, I gave the winnings to my mom who is here now in Shanghai with my dad. She was excited and I'm sure she'll spend the money wisely :)
That's just the short story...not too exciting, but I just found it hilarious that I won! Until next time...

THE worst nightmare travel...

Boy oh boy... do I have a great story to tell. Well, I had to fly to Beijing for work and of course, whenever I travel, it never fails to be a great story. On Sunday, I left Shanghai for Beijing so I can be there for a meeting on Monday. I arrive about 2 hours late, which is so not a big deal considering that flights here are always delayed. I am LUCKY that my flight was ONLY 2 hours late. Upon arriving at the airport, it was a complete mob scene outside for taxis. I thought to myself, I have to stand in line so just put on your ipod and be patient. Well, that lasted all of five minutes when I was shoved from behind by this damn guy with a pushcart full of suitcases. The line was so crowded that it spilled outside of the roped area. So after a few more shoves, I turned to the guy and said "if you touch me one more time with that thing, I am going to hurt you, as*hole." He didn't understand English of course, so I had to improvise my Chinese and attempt to say a*shole in many different ways. I think he got the hint. BUT, when I get to the front of the taxi line, this dude decides to cut in front of me. I lost it then and went off on him. It was not pretty and I'm sure a few Americans who were in line were offended too. HA! It's just so hard to accept this type of behavior, especially when they all LOOK LIKE ME!
After arriving at the hotel, I had a freaking conference call at around midnight so of course I didn't get to bed until around 1am. I had to wake up at 6:45 the next morning for another meeting and if you know me well, I am SO not the morning person. So the day goes with meetings and then a late dinner with clients. I knew that Tuesday was not going to be any better, so I thought I'd get to bed early. I was COMPLETELY right on the money when I said Tuesday was not going to be any better. I get to the office to prepare for our presentation at 2:00pm. We go through the presentation and finish about 3:45pm and I had my bags all packed and ready to go because I was catching the 4:50pm flight back to Shanghai. Unbeknownst to me, THERE WAS A TYPHOON in Shanghai!!! I was rushing my butt to the airport and to tell you the truth, it was because I had amazing seats to the US Women's World Cup soccer match, so I had to make the flight. Well, I get to the airport and miss my flight. Luckily, there is a flight to Shanghai every hour so I get the LAST seat on the next flight, which would put me in around 7:30ish and I can still get to the stadium on time. I was so excited but of course, I spoke too soon. I am sitting at the gate and wondering why the hell were we not boarding the flight. There were not flight attendants around to answer any questions and of course, this is when I start getting angry (as usual). I went to the information counter (which of course really isn't an information counter cuz these people are clueless) to ask for some help and all they said was "we have no information right now." I said, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN!??! Again, they ignored me so I finally slapped the desk very hard with my hand and said, ANSWER ME. So they did. How is it that I have to act completely insane to get an answer you ask? I don't have a freaking clue...So after an hour of waiting, they start boarding for my flight. The plane was parked like ten miles away so we had to take this stupid shuttle to the plane. I was so happy to sit down that I didn't even care that I was stuck in literally the middle seat. I forgot to say that the waiting area in the airport had NO seats! That's what made me even more angry than anything. How can you have an airport with not enough seats to accommodate people? I wish the Chinese government can answer some of these easy questions. Anyhow, the flight attendants start the emergency exit stuff demonstration and we're all set to go. We wait for about 35 minutes and no movement. After an hour, the other Chinese people on the plane start complaining. The only thing I was complaining about was the smell of the guy's FEET behind me. I rang my call button and told the flight attendant to tell the guy behind me to put on his shoes. Needless to say, that was awkward! HA! After an hour, the PA systems reports that the flight is canceled. I was going to cry by then. So we had to get off the plane, get on the damn bus again, and be shuttled back to the airport terminal. In the bus, this dirty German dude starts chatting it up with me cuz he overheard me calling my travel agent to tell her to get me on the next plane out. He asks me what we should do (and the first thing I said to myself was "WE?") and I said I will help him if he needs it. So we walk together to the ticket counter when we got back to the terminal and he said "want to get a drink?" I was about to tell him he's on crack, but thought I'd try to be nice. I said, I need to get out of here and get to a hotel room and sleep. He kept trying to convince me but I politely declined. As politely as I can possibly be at that time...Now, here is the biggest issue. So I go to get my ticket changed for tomorrow but the guy in front of me was offered the LAST seat on a flight going to HongQiao airport, which is about an hour from the Pudong Airport where I'm supposed to land. HOW the hell was that going to work considering that the airport was closed? It's like Dulles airport and National airport distance. I was FURIOUS and again started yelling at the desk clerks. I said, how is it that their flight can take off AFTER mine is canceled due to weather. They of course could not respond. I asked for compensation, but they declined due to bad weather. I said forget it, I'm not going to waste my time on these fools so I walked outside to find a taxi. I then realized that I didn't book a hotel room and don't know my way around Beijing! I called my hotel from the night before and just my luck ALL rooms were sold out. Yippie! I had to call my colleague who was able to call around and set me up in this local hotel but was given the suite. SO... basically, I am stuck in a hotel in Beijing until the damn storm passes. I know I should not complain considering that people are stuck OUTSIDE of their homes and in the water but man, I just want to go home!!! I know you all know that feeling...a hotel just isn't your own home. So freaking tired...
Today, I FINALLY received my personal items from NYC. Funny thing is that I'm not even there to get it. My parents had to go to my place to collect my goods from the shipping company. AND NOW, I can't even go home to enjoy my stuff because I'm stuck here in this damn hotel because of this damn storm. What is wrong with the world these days? Better question, what is wrong with a country that is sooo developed and yet soooo underdeveloped?
Let's all pray for me tonight and think happy thoughts about me getting home to Shanghai tomorrow in one piece. I can tell you that the next time someone asks me to go on a business trip, I will strongly oppose. It's just not right to subject me to this kind of crap! :)
Until then...

Work consumes me...

It's been a long time since I have had the chance to write. Apologies to those 3 people that actually read this :) haha...Anyhow, work has been consuming my life and I am seriously in dire need of a vacation. Speaking of vacation, China's holiday is coming up. In China, we get one week off in Oct and one week off in May so I'm soooo looking forward to my upcoming vacation! I've just bought tickets to go visit family in Taiwan and then to see my sister in Hong Kong. Just learned that a long lost friend of mine from GW has been living in Hong Kong for the past year and I will be seeing him on this trip as well. That should be exciting considering that I have not seen him since 1998!
OK so back to the story at hand...how work is killing me. I have been trying to seriously figure out how to work with the Chinese people here. I know that sounds funny considering that I too am Chinese (although at times I tell people I am anything but Chinese) but it seriously is extremely tough to work with the people here. Let me just give you the short version of why I don't think I can ever do business here. So basically my job is to go and meet people in the healthcare/pharma world. China is so backwards with the way they conduct business. We are given the opportunity to go and hear an agency briefing to see what new drugs the pharma companies are coming out with. They ask us to go and help them get the word out pretty much. They also want all of these "insider information" on how to work with the government. I basically don't know diddly squat about the government and really don't care to. But I have to do what I have to do...
So I have to talk about some nightlife...I have been having a pretty damn good time here in Shanghai. When people ask me what there is to do in Shanghai, I always say eat, sleep, party, and start all over again. The other night, my roommate and I went to a housewarming party where three girls from England and Australia live in this gorgeous huge place near Plaza 66 (a very well known building in Shanghai). It felt so good to be away from a bar and just hanging out at a person's house. A crap load of people showed up and most of them are from overseas. There was only one local person there and of course, she was with this white dude. Everyone was looking at her and whispering to each other how she was after his US passport. Ha! I know that's mean, but it's so damn true. I met these really cool guys from Atlanta and Mexico so we decided to ditch the party and go out to see the city. These guys have been in Shanghai for a long time now and are well known around the city so we didn't have to wait in line for anything. We went to this bar on top of the roof of a building called Bar Rouge and the entire bar is lit on fire! It was a show. Plus the weather is getting so nice here so being outside was fantastic. The bad thing was that I did not intend to stay until 4am because the next morning I had meetings with some business school folks at 8am! Let's just say the next morning was not a pretty sight. :-) Anyhow, the party was great and we stayed forever.
So until next time...

Night out...

Last night, my roommie moved in and we decided to go out to celebrate. Well, we surely did do it up. We went to three different bars and didn't get home until around 4am. What a nice night! The weather was gorgeous, the people were fun, and I actually didn't get in one fight with anyone. Well, that's not entirely true. I was about to beat this girl up at the bar because she didn't have a clue what courtesy meant when walking up the stairs. She just pushed an pushed and finally, I just turned to her and said "WAIT." That didn't go over too well. She just pushed again and I decided to push right on back. I think she got the hint. :-)
So we started the night at this place called Hello Two. No idea what that means, but it had Johnny Walker drinks for cheap...cheaper than other places. It's weird how expensive liquor is here, but our mission was to go out to drink. Most drinks cost around $8, which is equivalent to what I would pay in the States. You'd think it would be a lot cheaper. Anyhow, Cole (my roommate) had some friends meeting us out. They're all from the States, one from Houston, one from Boise IDAHO, and another from Chicago. We sat outside for the longest time just drinking and chit chatting. It was a grand ol' time. We watched tons of Chinese drunk men walk around tripping over themselves and yelling at all of the cab drivers who were trying to hit them while they attempted to cross the street. Next, we went to this bar called Zapatas which is famous for expats. There were no locals in sight so it was interesting. It was a dance place and had decent music for all of two minutes. Then they started playing the crappy Euro crap. People in there were dancing on the bars and I had to attach these two photos. One of these photos shows my Indian boyfriend who was dancing the entire night on the bar with a pair of sunglasses on. I was DYING of laughter and of course, being me, I had to walk up to him and tell him what an amazing dancer he was. My friends would not hold their laughter back. I know, I know, I'm a bi*ch, but it was just so hilarious. We were amazed at all the guys who were up at the bar dancing. Never see that in the States. Quite entertaining...
After a while, we decided to leave and walk down the street to this bar called Mao. It was actually a lot of fun. The place was really nice and I think I want to go back there. It was a hip bar with hukkah (sp?) stations. My friends decided to get a hukkah and smoke it together and cost about $15USD. I have no idea if that is a reasonable price, but I went and danced and drank instead. It was a lovely bar. I have to go back...didn't send up taking any photos cuz by then I was a bit inebriated.
So all in all, a good time. Glad to know that I have a roommie now. He's easy to get along with so we'll see how long this lasts (or how long I last with a roommate!) Until next time...