Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Reality

I miss having a simple life, where I have friends that I can talk to and trust.

Everyone around me backstabs each other everyday, and playing two-face is their specialty. I wonder if this is the company culture, or the Chinese culture, where you must do this to your colleagues every moment to show your strengths/values. I understand that the real world is competitive, and that you're likely stepping on others to move up the corporate ladder. But isn't making things up about others a bit too much? People start spreading rumors and commenting that I spend a lot of money lately, because I'm wearing clothes that they've never seen before, and I go back to Taiwan every other month. Just because you've never seen my clothes doesn't mean they're new. And do you have a problem with me spending my own money and getting discounted tickets to visit my parents? I don't think about leeching every penny off or taking advantage of everyone else, nor do I despise things that I have no knowledge of.

Everyday I have to constantly remind myself what I believe in, and what proper manners should be like. I'm afraid that I'll eventually lose myself and become one of them (manner and integrity-wise) one day.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Back to blogging

I decided to come back here, a place where I can record the ups and downs I experience in this crazy country. I certainly do hope that there will be more ups than downs, but for now that's just wishful thinking.

Today is my last Friday on the road for this project (before the National holiday at least), and probably my last Friday in this city. My first project on the road has been a rather easy one - very light hours and certainly no work past midnight or on weekend. My biggest fear/obstacle is dealing with the local people. I have no idea what anyone from the company is really saying in the heavy Chinese accents, and a lot of the times I don't understand a word because of the culture and slang terms. My interview notes are all over the place. I just hope I can get a ME (Meet Expectations) for the engagement review.

I'm really looking forward to going back and not having to eat what I don't like to eat - gross, dirty, weird food like pig brain, donkey meat, horse meet, pig blood in intestine membrane, overly seasoned/MSG-ed vegetables and hard-as-rock beef. This is definitely an unforgettable experience working in tier-3 cities in China and for state-owned enterprise clients who do not care anything but their own power.

My social life for the rest of the year looks very exciting, including a trip to Taiwan in October, a trip to Seoul over Thanksgiving, and possibly Hong Kong or somewhere else in Asia for Christmas. On top of that, Kaidi is finally moving to Shanghai to make me miss Taipei less! And I might see Sara in October/November. Anita *might* also be moving to Beijing for work (*crossing my finger*) Woot!

Finally the picture of the day is pig brain for hot pot, our Friday team dinner @ Xiao Fei Yang (Little Fat Sheep), a HK-listed hot pot restaurant chain. They also serve bull's brain and other weird stuff. I didn't eat any but the broth probably got some of that flavor already. Gross! ><


Wednesday, February 17, 2010

I'm in love!! :)

Finally!!!

After being single for more than 2 years, I was fortunate enough to have met the cutest boy in the world just right before Valentine's day! :) He's got the most innocent eyes, the prettiest face, and the best physique. Most importantly, he loves me very much!!


He's a Siberian Husky (a very pure one)!! My dad's colleague found him in a park on his first day being a stray dog. We haven't got a chance to bring him to a vet yet, but he seems like no more than 2 years old. However his head is already bigger than my dad's.


After a long debate, we decided to name him "Tigger", like the Tiger friend of Winnie the Pooh. My mom wanted to name him Tiger after Tiger Woods because of the golf player's numerous love affairs... I thought Tigger was more appropriate since I wanted him to be loyal to me ;) I would've kissed him everyday if I didn't know that dogs played with their poop with their mouth and nose sometimes...

Tigger refuses to eat anything but buttered bread and lean meat. He's lost quite a lot of weight since we found him, because he would rather starve than eating dog biscuits which we use to feed the other three dogs of ours. He also howls a lot whenever he's bored or feels left out. I hope he'll get use to the new environment soon and start eating regularly. I'm really worried that he'll become even more depressed when we go to Indonesia tomorrow.

Ah, many things to be updated since my last entry. I have to wake up in 4 hours to leave for Indonesia. Hopefully I'll get to write a bit more about the bullet points below by the time I come back.

  • Going to Bali, Indonesia for the first time! 2/17~20; with my parents
  • Got a 32G iPhone for NT900 using my dad's existing phone plan
  • Going to Shanghai next Thursday (tentative) for a team building function on 2/26~27. Possibly start working on 3/1
  • Need to find an apartment in Shanghai ASAP!

I'm going to miss Tigger so much when I go to Shanghai!!!!!!!!!!!!! :'(

Thursday, January 7, 2010

It's a day worth celebrating

Because I finally got a full-time offer. :)

Okay fine, it was 6 days past my ideal deadline: one of my birthday wishes was to find a job before the end of 2009. Nonetheless, I found one in the end. It was a company that I think I will like, and a position where I will surely learn a lot from. But the excitement of the morning offer call disappeared when I was told to start as soon as possible... my dream of working part-time at various places, as well as those spontaneous backpacking plans all just vanished. And frankly, after living with my parents for the last few weeks, I start to think about how life would be different if I were to live by myself in Shanghai. What a greedy, spoiled rat!

Anyway, I'm still very content that I have finally secured something. I just hope that it'll be beneficial when it comes to b-school admissions in the near future. I have until 5pm this Friday to reply to (most likely to confirm) the offer.

Time to study for GMAT. Seriously...

Friday, January 1, 2010

Pointless dreams

Please stop coming back if it's not going to happen. It sucks to dream about that and then wake up knowing that you'll never get what you want. And because of these dreams, I dread about going to sleep, and waking up from it.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

50+ degrees Farenheit in Taipei

Normally, I would consider a temperature in the 50's to be "great" if I were in Evanston. It would be warm enough for me to wear my short Zara trench coat with short sleeves inside. I would take a walk along the lake on the way back home, or even go shopping in downtown Chicago to celebrate the warmness regardless of the actual season of the year. However, for the last few days, I felt like I was freezing my butt off when it was in the low 50's in Taipei. Dressing in my winter gears including thick coats and beret hats didn't seem enough. I tried to stay indoor as much as possible, but I still found myself sneezing. Apparently heaters are not commonly installed in Taiwan. Therefore, I still had to wear exactly what I would wear outdoor when we went to any restaurants no matter how high-end they might be. This really puzzles me... how high-end or classy can a restaurant be when you are all bundled up and trying to enjoy a meal? Perhaps that's why there isn't any world-renowned, top-of-the-class restaurants in Taiwan.

This reminds me of my endless restaurant excursions in the US with Michelle and SooMin. Michelle also just emailed us a list of the best restaurants around the globe. I guess I will be missing out on the fun for an indefinitely long period of time... until I manage to get myself back to the US (hopefully in the near future).

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Friendship

I had not felt so disappointed because of friends in a very long time, but to my surprise, it was you that made me feel this way.

I had always treated you as one of the best of the best friends. Although I'm not always as considerate and thoughtful as I should have been, I've always given you the most genuine opinion and help that I think a true friend would provide. Even though sometimes other friends would kindly remind me to not give in my whole heart, I had never hesistated when it comes to our friendship. I believed that you were different from what they told me, but unfortunately, I was once again fooled by myself.

Now that I have no values to you anymore, I guess the best-friendship will end here. I know I will move on eventually, just with much less faith in people. From now on, you'll be nothing more than one of those friends.