jEn_niED's Xanga

Business Trip

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 03:00:52 GMT

Just came back from an intense 4-day-and-a-half business trip last Sunday. It was pretty tiring as we made it to five cities in four days. This trip to Changjiang Delta definitely gave me a totally different insight towards China.

Shanghai. I was super happy to find The Coffee Bean by the hotel. A cup of yummy vanilla latte after a decent breakfast. What can I ask for more? It was my second time to the Shanghai Expo. Nice and fun atmosphere again.

Suzhou. Headed to Suzhou after a quick look at the Shanghai Expo. Suzhou is probably the nicest city I have ever seen in China. It surprised me by how modernly developed it is. The new industrial district I went was comparable to the Silicon Valley, with a touch of Chinese art remained.

Changzhou. A morning visit to a laser firm in Changzhou. Dined at a sophisticated Chinese restaurant for lunch.

Wuxi. The Ballet Train Station in Wuxi, followed by Peach Blossoms gardens in Yangshan district. Too bad we didn't get to try Wuxi rib bones this time.

Zhangjiajiang. Finally came to my favorite work with Dad- to check out woods.

Beijing. Back to Beijing the new airport in the midnight. Just realized the day I left Beijing was actually the first day it opened to the public. Check this out, people. Is that nice?

P.S.There were non-stopped business meals during the entire trip. Good food could turn very bad when there were too much :( I MUST go on diet now to get back in shape!!!

Pre-Olympics Water Polo Match/ Classic Movie Soundtrack Orchestra

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:39:34 GMT

It's a long day today. We basically traveled around the whole Beijing.

We started our day at Alameda for some good latte and filet mignon with Ned and his friends. Strangely, they didn't serve brunch today. A 200RMB lunch is a little expensive but the good steak and nice environment definitely worth it.

Then to Olympics Village to see the Good Luck Beijing Water Polo Game. My first time watching water polo. I realize it is a super tiring sport. First was Shanghai vs Guangdong: exciting except that it got quite dirty towards the end. And then the second was China vs Australia: pretty depressing to see the Chinese team keep losing to the Australians. Overall, it was a fun Olympics experience! =]

Went to Wudaokou for dinner after the game. We ordered so much coz I was super hungry. Late for the the National Orchestra performance and missed my favorite Disney movies part. They were already playing the last Disney song from Pocahontas when we got in. The rest of the night was mostly music from movies before I was born, so Im not too familiar with them but it was a very awesome performance still!

(no pics coz my camera battery died after the water polo game =[ )

This coming week is gonna be very stressful. write-ups, readings, project presentation, and business trip- ALL happen within a week. I should be happy about it coz I know I will miss this kind of school stress once I graduate!

Adidas Ad

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 07:40:38 GMT

Bravo! Finally done with my Advertising Management paper. Typing the whole thing in Chinese was SO painful. I'm glad that it's all done now. Btw, I wrote my paper on the Adidas Olympics ads. If you haven't seen them before, they are pretty cool.

I can barely stand and walk now. I swear my yoga instructor totally wanna make us fly or sthg. My legs are hurting like a bitch!!!!!!!!

敦煌壁画

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:23:53 GMT

I made it to the National Art Museum to see the famous 敦煌壁画 after facial yesterday. There were too many people. My whole experience there was mostly being pushed by people and interrupted by the non-stop arguments every corner between the staffs and local people there, when they tried to take pics in some halls where pics are not allowed. The artwork reminded me that the Buddhism is from India, no wonder the Buddhas in the paintings are so dark. I personally don't have much appreciation towards Buddhist artwork. Awesome history record, not so much of an art to me.

Sand Storm

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:59:30 GMT

March in Beijing is the sand storm season. It's so nasty and dirty everywhere. I gotta wipe my floor every day or else I would step on levels of dust. (ill~) Yesterday was even more nasty, the whole sky was brown in the morning. And when I breathed, I could feel the dust.

The dirty air seriously doesnt do good to my health. My coughing problem is bad. don't stop coughing until tears come out. sigh, it's esp. embarrassing during my yoga class, when everyone is so quiet. But when the instructor says b-r-e-a-t-h~ i-n~, I started to cough non-stop again! (it sounds like a joke, but it's not even funny :\)

Other than the nasty air, things in Beijing have been doing not bad. (Sorry that I barely talked to you guys since I left the States) I have less drinking and partying, coz my party frd has a severe allergy, and can't drink alcohol no more, but more sight-seeing =] We finally find time to go to 天壇 and 頤和園. They are both very worth-going. I should upload my pics to show you guys soon. umm... we also tried many new restaurants in Beijing.

Now my friends and I are planning some trips for the couple month left. We really wanna take time off to go to Tibet, then the news came out and we have no hope to go no more. The Chinese government don't even let anybody in. The funny thing is the news yesterday said Tibet has already returned to normal~ MY ASS! They even blocked you-tube again so that no one can say what's exactly going on in Tibet. Can never trust what the news tell you!

so yea, we changed the plan to 西安 to see 兵馬俑, 華山... and hopefully 少林寺 too if time allows.
I feel like there are so many things I want to do, yet so little time left. School is getting more busy now, as mid-terms and presentations come up. I am also busy with my dad lately, going on a business trip to Shanghai next week and back on Sunday midnight, when I have a presentation on the next day morning~ whee~ I will see how I am gonna make this work. (Oh I might see Anson there. )

That's about it for the updates. I still gotta get back to work. It's 8:50 in the morning, I have about an hour to finish my paper (in Chinese ). Depends on the time, I reli wanna go see the 敦煌壁画 at the National Art Museum. Today is the last day. Hope I have enuf time.

Alright, guys, take care. I will update more when I am more free. Hope you all have a wonderful Spring Break! =]

ENVY ME, COZ IM ON EAP!! XD

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 07:14:49 GMT

Hi, guys! Aloha~~~~

WOW, I seriously haven’t logged on to xanga for too long, to the point they even changed my password.

So yea, since my class is canceled today and I got some little free time home, doing nothing, let me update myself a little bit so that I don’t look like I’ve disappeared =]

For those of you who don’t know yet, I am on my second EAP in Peking University now (ya, this bin-tai top university in China), taking regular and MBA business classes at 光华 (Guanghua School of Management). And of course, sometimes studying with these smart ass kids isn’t fun at all. They aren’t necessarily smarter than Haas people (HELL YA, Haas ranks 3rd in the nation again, btw), but they are definitely way more aggressive and cold-blooded. I swear I was like in a battlefield last week when we did our presentation and debate. I totally experienced the true meaning of 唇槍舌劍, murder people without seeing blood. CRUEL! And that’s how people survive at 光华.

Aside from school, my life has been interestingly busy! China still keeps amazing me every single day. Let me put it this way, their fashion, lifestyle, interests, manners, mindsets, culture, sense of hygiene, “common sense,” and so on so on… are all VERY INTERESTING. The whole TIC “This Is China” thing, LDZ “La Du Zi,” “自high” and many other chin-glish vocabs have become major inside jokes among us.

you know I got really frustrated when I just came, like how I was rejected to take Chinese class coz I'd lived in Hong Kong, how I fought to get my passport back at the 公安局 (SO ironic that the officer bitch suddenly became all nice and asked for my number after she heard me translating for a Japanese guy, so shallow!), being cut in the line, pushed and stared at for million times. But the longer I've stayed here, I started to get used to the life here... I mean I am still very annoyed by the bad traffic, awful pollution, Chinese people's rudeness, greediness, their bad attitude, low efficiency, etc... but we learned to laugh it through with TIC!!

I like how we are in China for this long and still try every single way to live an normal American life. Oh I’ve just found a new supermarket called Ole (like City-Super) when Debbie and I went to Modern Beauty for facial yesterday. The mall is operated by MTR, they have all the HK stores and a fake Victoria-secret, hahah!! My new life-saver in Beijing~ YAY! And speaking of shopping, it’s SO true that you can buy service and respect with money, but I also feel like we need to fight for our own money wherever I go in Beijing.

Another big part of EAP is, of course, PARTYING!! Somehow, there are just some different sort of parties/ celebrations going every weekend (starting from every Thursday). This month we first started with a few Halloween parties (I was a flight attendant!! heheh, I am obsessed, I know~), then we went on our Fall EAP trip down south to Wuyishan and Xiamen the following weekend, more drinking and crazy fun in the hotels and on train. And then I got hella sick back from the trip, but still, to celebrate our success in the class debate, completion of my job application, and simply the fact that it was a Friday, we went to 后海 bar street to party again. Then Saturday night was other EAP kid’s birthday party, we went to an All-you-can-Eat and All-you-can-drink-beer Japanese restaurant (食べ放題！remember?) And then yesterday was facial and shopping, and we spotted a Bad-Girl Party poster. Since we each spent quite a lot at the mall yesterday, we got free tickets in. =P

Of course besides partying, I am having lots of fun in school too. The way 光华 professors teach are so much more interesting than you think. We went on fieldtrips and had dinner together to share their professional experience. There are so many CEOs, CFOs from the big names coming in to give talk. (Even though only Swire has interested me so far). Some HK senior government officers came to BJ last month during 十七大. I went attending a class with them and "tried" to help out with their 吃喝玩樂... but you know, TIC, Jennie Ho just can never be a good tour guide here. That was really fun coz I feel like I was back to the Civic Education class in middle school, hahaha. And this little connection would probably help when I go back to HK, too bad I have no interest with the governmen whatsoever. And some other big project was helping to host a lecture for the CEO of China Value with our US-China Business Assoc. last Friday. I was back to my publicity job again, hahaha~~!!!

All these big events along with tennis and yoga practice every week, and then more presentations, projects and papers fill up my entire schedule til the end of next month. That’s why I said my life is super busy but I really enjoy it!! =]

Now I am looking forward to our big Thanksgiving dinner at a 5-star hotel this Thursday and the Bad-Girl party on Saturday~~~~~~~~~~!!!!! Hahahahaaaa, SO HAPPY!!! hehehee

Captain said I will get a birthday cake when I come back!!!

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 02:13:15 GMT

Everyone heard that now!!!

February 2008 it is!!! Don't eat your words!!!!!!!

A THANK YOU NOTE

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 10:09:55 GMT

I have actually abandoned xanga for a while. just wanna take a few minutes to say thank you to you all who remembered my birthday, called, sent me notes, msgs, emails and cards.

When I checked my email the next day after my birthday, the 80+ new emails all from facebook really surprised me. luckily, they aren't spam. HAHA!!! you guys are awesome!!

YAY!!! I am 21 now!!

My birthday week somehow is also my busiest week during my 4-month stay in Japan.
Too many things going on recently, making me losing the excitement of this "Big 2-1."

Another Birthday Party this Friday, with two other birthday boys, and Alice's graduation celebration. It's a 4-in-1 Party. Should be fun... although I'm exhausted from these couple days !!

MY BIRTHDAY WISH:

NOW, all I want is to spend as much time as I can with my family. I want my dad to see me going to PKU, walking on the Greek Theather's stage, and be pride of me. I want him to see my brothers growing up, see me doing well in our company.

Well, I am not worry with this bossy dad at all. 世界中一番元気なビジネスマンだから！絶対信じるよ！負けないだろう！！

Monday, June 18, 2007

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 08:22:40 GMT

Trying to keep myself busy and happy now...

SO! There are many funny things going in our classes.

Try to answer the following discussion questions:
1. When was the first time you own a cell phone?
2. What did u ususally do on weekends back in elementary school?
3. Will you share bed with a guy frd if u know he is gay? Guys, share bed with a female frd if she is a lesbian?

My classmate Yukio is so funny. He bets a dozen of beer with Brett to make our Monday "Obasen" sensei laugh. Every Monday he is making all these lame jokes... but the obasen is just too emotion-less...

An email from EAP just now... just that you know.

Wed, 30 May 2007 08:01:30 GMT

Dear EAP Students in Japan:

I hope you have been enjoying the spring and early summer weather we’ve 
been having!  It’s a great time to get outside, especially before the rainy 
season starts (usually mid-June).

I wanted to let you know about an incident that took place in Tokyo last 
weekend.  One of our students was hosting a visiting friend from the U.S. 
The friend, who had been to Japan many times before and was familiar with 
customs here, went out drinking in Shinjuku with some new “friends” he had 
met.  What happened after that is unclear; somebody may have slipped some 
sort of drug into the friend’s drink, or he may have gotten very drunk. 
Whatever the case, by morning, nearly $2,000 had been taken from the friend 
through a combination of coercion and deceit.  A police report has been 
filed, but probably the money will never come back.  At the bottom of this 
e-mail, I’ll also paste in a recent similar incident report from the U.S. 
Embassy; this incident took place in Roppongi.

These kinds of problems frequently occur in Shinjuku (especially Kabukicho) 
and Roppongi.  The victims can be both male and female, and sometimes 
violence is used or threatened.  As we stressed at your arrival 
orientations, please be careful.  If you are going out at night, make sure 
you are always with people you know and that you know and respect your own 
limits.  I’d hate to have your Japan experience ruined by a disaster like 
that which happened this past weekend.

Best,

Michael Bourdaghs

Director, University of California Education Abroad Program Tokyo Study 
Center

-------------------------------------------------------

Incident in Roppongi

------------------------------------------------------

The US Embassy has received another report of an incident in Roppongi.  An 
American citizen recently reported that he was drugged at a Roppongi area 
bar and his credit card charged $7,000 for drinks he has no recollection of 
ordering.

As always, persons are strongly advised to exercise caution and common sense 
when frequenting Roppongi at night.