Annual dinner and...

I am currently in Hong Kong for my Company's annual dinner that happened on Wednesday night. It was a fun time that included a nice meal at the Hong Kong Convention Center and I spent the night getting to know the US secondees that are located in Hong Kong (all of which I had not yet met during my time here in China). After the annual dinner we all decided to go out, one of the guys knows a DJ that we were going to meet in the Wan Chai district. Now I still don't know much about Hong Kong and it was briefly explained to me that the Wan Chai district is not the most wholesome district in the world, again not totally knowing what that meant I went along with them and quickly found out what that meant. You see the Wan Chai district has a lot of "working" women and "working" is in quotes because I am not referring to college graduate professionals. Just walking down the street should have been enough for me to say, "I see you guys tomorrow." But I was thinking that maybe we would be going to a place that wouldn't be too sketchy. We eventually get to a bar that was full of these women and sketchy men. The DJ friend got us seats, but I really could only sit for a little bit before it was time to go, this scene is definitely not my speed. On my way out my butt was grabbed a couple of times, which just reinforced that it was a good idea to get out of there while the night when I did. Without getting on a soapbox, it is actually really sad to watch the interaction of the people in that place to see just how empty their lives are to be spending their time on a Wednesday night at a place like that. Oh well, I was there with some colleagues who we were able to laugh about some of the things going on at that bar, which at least gave the night some redemptive value.

Knife Picking

Last week on my way home from work I was on my usual walk from the Science and Technology Museum to home and noticed the regular street vendors selling their street foods. For those of you who are not familiar with the street food vendors they sell things like lamb kabobs (at least one hopes the meat is lamb), noodles, fried rice, some kind of sweet cake thing in a large block, vegetables, other small treats, and cut up fruits (just to name a few). I noticed that there was one street vendor sitting behind his cart on a little hill picking his teeth. As I inched closer I noticed that he was picking his teeth with a big knife. Just so happens that this vendor was selling cut cantaloupe (or some fruit that tastes and looks like cantaloupe). Just to clarify, the previous evening I physically saw the same guy cutting up the cantaloupe with the same knife that he was currently picking his teeth with. Yum, can't wait to try that cantaloupe fresh with some tooth plague.

Karting

On Saturday night I was able to go and hang out with a buddy of mine, something I don't get much of a chance to do when the family is in town. We went out for a bite to eat and talked and then at around 8pm headed across town to the go karting track (note I am spelling karting with a k cause that is how they spell it). The really cool thing about the go karting track is something that you would never ever see in the US. You see, the track is inside and the top floor of the facility (2 floor facility) is a bar. So, in fact, this go karting place is encouraging drinking and driving. That notwithstanding, it makes for a really fun time to share a pitcher of Carlsberg (finding out I don't really like this stuff), then heading down to the track for a nice race. It was a great night of talking, racing, and sharing some drinks a nice get away if you are ready for a change of pace here in Shanghai. I was not surprised that most of the patrons were expats (it can be a little pricey for locals), but I was really surprised that most of the expats were American (or at least they were fluent in English with an American accent, so I am making the assumption). Anyway, the thing that go karting does is it brings together the 11 people on the track and for the 8 or so minutes you are racing makes you into a little community where you are congratulating each other at the end or swapping stories of hitting each other and laughing about it, things like that. All in all, we left the place at around 12:30am (it closes at 2) and had a great night.

High School Mattical

I had dinner plans the other evening and was leaving the apartment at around 6pm for a friends house. Upon leaving my apartment building, I saw one of our neighbors coming towards me so I waved and said "Hi." She was taken a little back when she took a double take at me and said, "Oh, Hi Matt." She went on to explain that she thought I was a new teenager in the building and didn't think it was me. Now I know that most adults are trying to keep their youth and look younger, but I don't think I do this (if you disagree tell me). I am not sure if I should take being called a teenager a compliment or should I be offended by it. Clearly it tells me that I still have my boyish good looks (note that these boyish good looks, when I was actually a teenager, landed me one girlfriend, so they were not that great), but it also confirms the fact that as a father of 2 kids at 26, I am a little out of place here in China (most expat dads are in their late 30's or 40's). I look back and am glad that I still appear younger then I am, since most people assume I am in my mid-30's (2 kids and in Shanghai with a Company is how most people come to this conclusion).

FREAKING Awesome

My informants in the US (informants being my wife and my parents) have told me that Maddie is learning all kinds of new words being in the US and hearing all the conversations going on around her. Well, she has also learned some not so good words, specifically related to my wife driving in the US. I am told that the other day she tried to open a door and the door wouldn't open. Upon finding out that she was not able to crack open the door, she kicked the door and yelled "Freaking Door!" Remember the parent scale that I had going, I was around a 4 on the last reading, well this incident brings me down to a 3. While kind of cute that my daughter would say freaking, if she is saying that at 3, I can't imagine what she will be saying at 13. Needless to say, my wife is trying to encourage her to stop saying that.

All the while, every time she says it both my parents turn to Renee to say "I didn't teach her that." You see there is something about grandparents, you see they tend to corrupt your grandkids. In corrupting I mean, they give in whenever the grand kids cries, they buy them candy and give them what they want more then a parent would. Basically the more time you child spends with the grandparents the more spoiled they get. So naturally we have asked our parents to try not to spoil the kids or do things for them that we wouldn't do for them. As a result, anytime Maddie picks up a bad habit my parents either accept blame or immediately turn to us to tell us that "I didn't teach her that."

I didn't expect that

One story that I didn't mention from the trip home happened in the parking lot of Walmart (come on now, get your heads out of the gutter). My wife, a cousin of mine from Curacao, and I were sitting in our car waiting for our other cousins to finish shopping at Walmart. While waiting I was just doing some people watching. I noticed a couple (probably in their mid 30's) walking to their car and the man was wearing jorts (jean shorts for all of you who are not in the know), I noted to myself that jorts have been out of style (sorry to all you jorts readers out there)...well they were never in style and chuckled to myself over this. I looked away and then all of the sudden heard a man say unusually loud, "Oh!" I looked over and noticed that the man's jorts had fallen completely off of him and onto the ground. Now the man had a bag in each hand so he couldn't immediately catch the pants when falling or immediately pull them up. While this was hilarious in itself, it was also funny to watch as his girlfriend started to crack up and laugh at the guy. It was at this moment I told my wife and cousin to look and I couldn't have picked a worse time. The guy puts down his bags, bends over, only to reveal that he was not wearing any undergarments. It was then that my wife let out a scream that resembled something of laughter/terror and I was speechless. Note that this would have been an opportune time to let a "hey good looking" whistle, but I totally missed the chance....oh well I am ready the next time it happens.

I always wondered how gravity always worked in favor of jorts. I mean I have seen so many people that wear baggy pairs of jorts and yet have only seen a falling down incident once in my life. There must be something in the combination of cotton and denim that makes them defy gravity...maybe NASA should look into this for all astronauts, eliminating many of those embarrassing space walk incidents of the past.

All alone.....

So I got back to my apartment after my trip to walk into a completely clean (good), but empty apartment (bad). It was this mix of emotions of feeling good to be home while at the same time having something missing from home (my family).

As much as I thought it would be good to have some time away from my family, not that I was looking forward to it, rather I was thinking it would be some good relaxation time. Turns out it really stinks being away from the family. It is one thing to be on a business trip, which I have done a good amount, it's another thing to have to come home to an empty 20th floor apartment each night with no one around. As much as it is hard sometimes to have 2 kids running all around and sometimes driving you crazy, its another to be away from the family for 3 weeks. Conceptually its good because Renee and the kids get some extra time in the States while I can keep working, it is just not that easy and not that fun. Oh well, I can just continue to count down the days.

My Ride Home

I want to start by saying that at this point my wife and kids were going to be staying in the US for another 3 weeks so I was on my own for the flight home).

I had planned my trips so that I would have 1.5 hours of a layover in Chicago on my way home from Baltimore to Shanghai. Turns out that my flight from Baltimore to Chicago was delayed 1.25 hours and while I didn't think I would make my Shanghai flight, they assured me I would have time. Well we landed at around 10:15 (my Shanghai flight was at 10:36) and they opened the doors to leave the plane at around 10:22, so I had about 14 minutes to get to my flight. I sprinted right out of the gate and ran as fast as I could about 300 yards to my Shanghai flight gate and it turns out that they were waiting for me and another passenger from the Baltimore flight, but they were about to close the gates. I ran onto the plane and was a little out of breath only to find that the plane was less then half full. I took pleasure in knowing that I would not have to sit next to anyone on my flight especially because I was a little sweaty from my run. The flight went okay, it was really long (14 hours) and the fact that I forgot my Ipod along with the audio in my seat not working at all made the flight all the more longer (imagine, no personal music and not even having the chance to catch some of the in flight entertainment). I brought a lot along to read, but I wish I could have had something else to listen to during my time on the flight. The other big thing was that I had a stuffy sinuses during the whole flight and when we were landing my sinuses felt like they were going to explode, I have never had this feeling (and I have had stuffy noses before), but I couldn't believe the feeling, it was pretty bad.

Family Reunion

We had two main reasons for heading home this time of the season, the first had to do with my niece's wedding, the second had to do with my side of the family was having a reunion. Folks were coming from China (that would be us), Australia, Holland, Curacao, and from different parts of the US. So while it was only a gathering of about 20 or so people, it was a pretty big deal for all of us to be getting together. It was good to see the family and to have them enjoy Maddie and Jacob, we got to have one night of Indonesian food (my grandmother's speciality), we went out one night for steak and crab cakes and then we had a BBQ one night. The highlight for our family from the Caribbean was going to a local Chinese Buffet, which for some reason they really enjoyed (yes being that I was on vacation from China, I did not go near the place, I was enjoying some down time from Chinese Food).

Trip to Baltimore

After staying late at the wedding, we got about 4 hours of sleep and headed out to the airport to fly into Washington DC. The airport was surprisingly crowded for 5:30 in the morning on a Sunday, but we eventually made our way through security. Both Maddie and Jacob were a little cranky when we were getting onto the plane, so the people around us were not too happy thinking that our kids were going to be a terror on the plane. Well after lifting off our kids were back to sleeping and they slept basically 3.5 hours out of the 5 hours on the flight, so they were the last thing that we needed to worry about. Most of you know that most US domestic flights no longer serve meals, well after being in Asia on really quality airlines I must say I do not look forward to flying US domestic flights. We picked up our car and headed home. Thanks to my younger sister's boyfriend, we surprised the family cause they thought we were arriving on Monday, but we got in on Sunday...my mom's face was priceless.

The Wedding

The wedding was an outdoor wedding at a country club. The weather ended up being great (some people were worried it would be too hot, but it wasn't too bad). I didn't get to see much of the ceremony as Maddie and Jacob wanted to play, but from what I heard it was really nice. The reception was also very very nice, the food was surprisingly good and Maddie and Jacob had a great time dancing. I even danced with my father in law's sister, Aunt Lu Lu and everyone in the family now says that I am her favorite, turns out I do know how to butter up the family.

Funniest part of the wedding (for me) was that they had the kids sitting outside of the reception area. They ate first (customary) and then the food was served to the adults. The only down side to serving the kids first was that they were done way before all the adults. Midway through the adult's meal the place brought out the desserts and they set them right in front of the window in front of the kids. So the kids had to suffer staring at the desserts while the adults finished their meal. I would glance over every once and a while and notice that there would be 2 or three kids with their faces planted on the window drooling over the desserts and looking like they were suffering, pretty classic.

California

Our first stop was Northern California for my niece's wedding, my niece by the way is older then me, many people are confused by this fact, but I think its cool. We met Renee's parents at the airport and then drove north of Sacramento to Roseville. Over the next couple of days we would gradually be meeting more and more of Renee's family that I had never met. So I put on my happy face and tried to do my best to remember the names of all the people we were meeting. Her family is great and really nice, so it was good that not only did I get to meet them, but also that they got to meet Maddie and Jacob. We all had fun hanging out before the wedding and getting to know people.

While the highlight of the trip was definitely the wedding, I must say that I found my new favorite supermarket in the world. The former champion was Wegmans, but alas I found a new market, Nugget Market, in Roseville that takes grocering to the next level. The employees were extremely nice, actually genuinely nice as opposed to the clearly forced courtesy you get in most places. The market was clean, produce looked fresh, great selection of items, all over just a really great grocery store that I would actually want to go to (I'm not a fan of most run of the mill supermarkets).

Plane Ride to the US

In an attempt to catch you all up on our trip back to the States, I have written a series of blog entries that will give you the highlights from our adventure back home.

Our flight from Shanghai to Seoul was slightly delayed, which typically is not a problem, but with only a 1 ½ hour layover in Seoul before catching our connecting flight to San Francisco, any delay does not bode well for us. We were flying on Korean Air, our first time, so we were looking forward to the experience. After a half an hour delay, we got onto the plane, which, to my surprise, was completely filled. I was surprised because we were on a 747-400 (for those of you not familiar, this is a really big plane) and the trip is less then 2 hours on a random Wednesday during the week. The plane was a new plane that had the seat back entertainment that would have been awesome for the kids except for the fact that they slept through the whole ride, but I definitely won't complain about that. The best part of the trip was during lift off when we were about 7,000feet in the air, Maddie's juice cup (which contained grapefruit juice) started to make noises and then all of the sudden started spraying juice all over Renee's leg, it was pretty cool and something I have never seen (not too cool for Renee). Overall the rating for Korean Air is a solid 8.5 out 10, great service, nice clean plane, but the delay didn't help.

We arrived at Inchon Airport and I ran from the transfer area (the story of my life as you will see later) to the Singapore Airlines desk to make sure we were all set for our flight. After some negotiations on making sure we all were sitting together, we were able to sit down for 5 minutes before having to load onto the Singapore Airline flight to San Francisco. Can I say that Singapore Airlines is the best airline in the world absolutely 10 out of 10, I don't know how I can put myself through the suffering of being on a US domestic carrier, they are about 10 notches below Singapore Airlines (so basically a 0), the service was great, the plane was nice, the food was…a good 2 steps up from typical airline food, oh yeah and the kids slept almost 8 hours out of the 11 hours on this flight, so again no complaints in this arena, actually this was by far the easiest 14 hours of flying with kids I have ever experienced, they just slept the whole way, which makes for a nice smooth trip.

The Good Ole US of A

We are heading out of China (me for a couple of weeks and my wife and kids for a month) going to America. We leave today, so there might be less and less writing on this thing over the next couple of weeks. So for all 3 of you out there that wait and wait for updates, I just wanted to tell you that your lives can go on for the next couple of weeks until I get back, then watch out, this thing will be bigger and better (is that a good cliffhanger to leave things on?? Will you really come back?)

You're afraid of what?

Kids go through many stages of fear where each stage has a different character; monsters, boogey men, Nick Nolte, and men with clip on ties. Now my daughter has claimed to have feared many things from bats to robots (not sure why she is afraid of this one), but last night was the weirdest one yet. After her bath my wife started to comb her hair and she began to get squirmy. My wife asked her what was wrong and she explained, "I'm afraid of coins in the bathroom." Now I had just emptied some coins out of my pocket right before the kids got into the bath, so that explains the coins in the bathroom, but I have not idea why coins in the bathroom would cause fear. In fact, I can think of many people that would ecstatic to find some money in their bathroom. Anyway, not sure if there is a phobia for this, maybe coinandflushobia (sorry that was really bad), but I hope she can get over her fear as this could cause some problems later in life, believe me I know.

I'm laughed at...all the time

As you know from prior posts I have gotten into bike riding and while my dreams of Lance Armstrong have been shattered already, I still move forward. I normally do my bike riding in the morning before it gets too hot (for those of you not in Shanghai it has been around 100F over the past week), well this weekend I decided to ride in the evening after church. I put on my riding garb that I normally wear that includes a bike helmet. Now for those of you who know me, you know that my head is pretty rotund, almost meteoric like. Well when you add a not so aerodynamically produced bike helmet, it appears as if my head is reaching levels that only the Tower of Babel could reach, yes my head is like Sputnik. Needless to say, I entered onto the elevator only to find that a 3 year old boy and his Ayi began to laugh at me and my enormous bike helmet head. Yes, even 3 year olds still laugh at me.