6am again... damn...

So since this guy had never asked me for any help since he decided to stop by my country for some time in his life, I've been thinking of doing some good thing for him spontaniously. So I thought, he hasn't got a laptop yet and his blog has been dead for quite some time, so why don't I write something for him here and maybe some of his friends happen to read my blog then they will be happy to see his updates? Well, actully I don't think any of his friends would read my blog but who cares... I write what I want to write!:P

So the first 2 weeks I have no idea what he did cuz he didn't tell so I'm sorry I gotta skip that part. So far what I know is he lives on the 6th floor of an apt building near his school right behind a well-known student pub called roxy 99. He tried a lot of different food and local food here and he enjoyed the most, but he still doesn't like stinky tofu. He bought some IKEA furnitures and tried to assemble them last weekend. He went to this 24hr book store the other night and got a new book and he seemed to be happy with it. He had his first earthquake here in 6am on Wed morning and got freaked out, and he intended to run out but didn't as he looked out of the window but found no one's in the street. He had the school orientation yesterday and was surprised and excited about so many cute japanese girls in the school (and expect all of them to be in his class.-- os from tina). He's having the first chinese class this morning at 8am and let's see how it goes. So far his chinese pronounciation is quite good so I guess he'll have no problem doing the class.

Hehehe.. I feel I'm looking at a baby boy's growing and I'm excited at his excitement as well. If any of his friends is wondering how he's doing in this strange country, don't worry he's doing quite well here and got lots of friends already and seems to have no problem running around in this city, at least I haven't heard he got lost at somewhere and cried for help. He's been checking out laptops for a while and might get one in the coming computer fair this weekend, so I guess he'll start to blog soon and I'm looking forward to reading his post. Until then, this is his update.

Thanks for your attention. Stay tune and Have a nice day.

Is our distance bigger than the physical one?
If so I'd rather not to make that wish.

It's weird that the jet lag seems not to work to me much when coming back than going to US. The first day I landed around 7am then I kept awake with no problem until 9pm. The second day until I got hom around 9pm I didn't feel sleepy at all altho I pretended I was for some sympathy from coworkers that I shouldn't work too much right after conming back from a long travelling. I expected a severe jet lag like I usually had in US- falling asleept with no consciousness at 4pm- but it didn't happen to me this time. I think I can be proud to say to you people who currently suffered it, "see, I'm doing quite well with jet lag!" Hehe...:P

But then I woke up around 6am writing blog and can't sleep back... eerr...

You know what? Sometimes I just want to be an ordinary person, a standard girl. I don't need a great achievement at work, or any promotion, or any attention, but a stable job which I can live on. I don't need cute guys around, but only a nice hearted, caring guy who doesn't have good looks but sometimes makes me laugh. I don't need a house or a car or fortune, but enough money to spend for food and a small trip once a year. I don't need a lot of friends, but only a good friend who I can share thoughts with.

I don't mind going away to a small island where might not be civilized but has a beautiful seashore and nice sunshine, taking care of a small booth or grocery store with the husband, raising my children and a couple of cats and dogs, or even cows or sheeps or a horse, growing my plants and veges, writing journals in the morning and reading books before bed, and get up everyday with full satisfaction.

This is what I need... a simple, but happy life.

USA trip part 7-- Americans new entertainment- Ma-Jan

This is a hilarious scene that we saw during late lunch in a buffet resturant in Ft Lauderdale.... there were chinese Majan on the tables! Around 6-8 groups of senior ladies were paying full attention on reading those tiny bricks and trying to play along the rule printed on a small card in front of each of them. I wonder how they memorize those chinese characters like 伍萬, 玖萬... etc and how they tell east/west/south/north from the brick 東/西/南/北....

Wahaha... we chinese conquered one more page of your culture history again in 21st century!:))

USA trip part 6- SFO Night

USA trip part 5-- Bird view

Chicago



San Francisco



San Francisco view from Grand Hyatt

USA trip part 4-- Babies on the plane

Baby peeper



Cute little sis

USA trip part 3-- These are what we've done besides shopping...

BOSTON- lobster

FT LAUDERDALE- sashimi boat

CHICAGO- crab

CHICAGO- Korean BBQ

SAN FRANCISCO- crab again

USA trip part 2-- You've been chosen!

The story actually started from a goddamn flight ticket. We'd never have idea how it works but it just goes the way it wants to be, seems no one can do anything with it, according to the counter checkin guy. What had happened was, my ticket got 4 Ss on it, which is only on some people's but not everyone's ticket. In another words, I was chosen by some sort of system! So since the first departure gate, I had been requested for going to a special lane for a detailed checking, including body and everything I carried, in EVERY airport gate I was going in this trip. Sometimes one or two of my workers also got the S mark in some flies. It's kinda fun to me tho, altho we need to spend a lot of time there answering to police officers. The last checking point is the most interesting one. It was in SFO and we were asked to get into a cabin, which looks similar to the air space detoxin cabin that we usually saw in the movie. After you walk in, the air would be shot from up down right left coners to your face and body, which I got shocked a bit for the unexpected air shooting to my hair and face and ass. Then few seconds later the glass gate opened and I got released. See if you're not chosen, how can you experience this kind of fun?;)

USA trip part 1-- Arrival

I haven't got chances to come up online blogging or chatting for the past week, even tho I was desperate to do so. My journey was fun... sort of... if not talking about pushy boss and crazy mom coworker. Well, I only got 10 mins to write down the story of my trip so if you happen to see any wrong spelling or the story ends up in the way that 'I gotta go, ttyl', pls do not mind.

So we got in LAX safely and nothing to talk about until I called to this guy who also happened to be on his way to taiwan. I landed in LAX around 7pm and msged him but i got no reply. So I thought he might be still in mexico or something. Then before I went boarding around 9 something I called him a again, then we realized we both in LAX at same time, just one in Int'l terminal and one in domestic. It was soooo funny and unbelieveable. I had 20 mins to go for boarding on the flight to Boston and he's heading to taiwan. Well, some times God just like to make some jokes on us so what can you say?

Then after hung up the phone we entered into the tunnel to the plane. It took us around 30 mins to settle down in one another's seat and also allocated our luggages for which a poor guy's had no little space to put so he had to check it. Then the ammouncement was made that due to some mechanical problem we have to get off the plane and reboard again until the further notice. Jeeze... so all of us took another 30 mins to take out our luggages and get off the plane and wait in crowded waiting room for the repair of the aircraft. One hour later we finally got on board again and it took us another 30 mins to settle down ourselves.

Ok gotta go. Will put on more stories later.

So I'm flying...

away again on Sunday night. This time finally I can go to somewhere 'well-developed'- USA. The trip will last 2 weeks and stop by Boston, Miami, Chicago, and San Francisco. I will have to transit to domestics in LA airport, where I got some good memories although I don't really like LAX itself. My last visit to Chicago and SF was 2 yrs ago. Time really flies, but I still remember the coldness when walking along icy Michigan lake, and the smell of sealions by the fisherman's wharf in SF. I still remember everything happened in that trip and I can even tell you one story everyday for 101 nights. You can read archieve of my first several post in 2003 for some stories. I'm very excited at being able to go back again after 2 yrs, when I've gained more experiences, got more maturity in mind (also in age), and changed some ways of thinking. I may have different feelings toward same city or same street. It's gonna be cool.

Also I'm going to Miami our head office for a stop and I'm quite expecting it. Not only can I get to know how US office looks like, but also get to check out those coworkers who are only known by names on emails, and bring info back to my secretaries and other curious people. Hehe... gossiped us, aren't we?:P

I'm not ready to go and haven't packed up yet. I will only do it on Sunday afternoon. Oh one more exciting thing... we'll be staying in Hyatt Grand in SF! I can't believe my company can be so wasted, or Hyatt in SF is in same level as Marriot? Don't worry I will let you know once I check in there.:)

--My little favorite little chick buddy... The Chicken Little!:)

Hey!! New bike lane from Tamshuei to Jing Shan (gold mountain) is opened! 5 km long along north coast sea shore! Anyone's interested?;)

Genie Day

My friend Genie won the best host of youth program in radio golden bell awards! I'm so proud of her and also proud to be her friend! So I'm gonna make this day as Genie Day to reward Genie's great achievement and celebrate for her.:)

Finally I know some 'celebrity' in Taiwan!*_^
Good job Genie!

Freakout

I'm living upon 'deadlines'. Deadline for quotation, Deadline for dispatching samples, Deadline for preparation for buyer's meeting, Deadline for new development, Deadline for submitting travel request and visa application, Deadline for showroom arrangement, Deadline for credit card/phone bill/rental payment, Deadline for food storage, Deadline for membership, Deadline for partnership......

My calendar is filled with red remarks, my mind is also occupied by numerous dates and the tasks for those dates. My stomach always gets taut spontaniously when I think of those deadlines, no matter the task is big or small. Sometimes the deadline for work comes before or along with some good things I'm expecting. In this case I would always be confused with myself, should I stay happy to expect the good ones or feel nervous for the coming of the deadline? My mood would be facing a dilemma situation. And this is just how I feel at this moment.

A friend is coming here soon and I'm very excited about it. While before that I will have 3 deadlines to meet which don't excite me at all, and one travel to be made. I'm anxious but also happy, expecting the day but also wish time to go slowly. I think I'm going crazy....

Transition Time

Requesting a salary raise to your boss is always a challenge. Even tho I'm professional in negotiating price with buyers and bargaining cost with vendors, I still couldn't do well on talking about my own raise. Before going in to my boss's office, I consulted 3 of my friends for advice to my idea: walking into the boss's door, putting my salary list on his desk, and reminding him to review my salary structure in a more fair way.

None of my friends agreed with my way, and all of them advised I should go for a milder, less direct one which is 1) bringing up my financial difficulty, which can be made up with the story like I have to pay house loan, school loan, and also rentals, insurance, family expenses.. etc, and the little salary I'm earning is really not enough for my living; 2) bringing up my achievements and benefits to the company in these 2 years, and showing him my great loyalty and faith to the company and consider to add a few on the current amount.

It's very interesting to hear 3 friends from different areas spoke same thing to me on this matter. It seems always a big issue to not only yourself but also your boss, cuz when people bring up this issue it usually means: 1) you start to sense your effort is not equal to your earnings, and you're not satisfied with company's offer; 2) you're ready to quit if your request is not taken. On the other hand you're facing a big challenge with the possible outcome: 1) your request is rejected but no one will tell you that, instead your project will be dismissed or your chance will be taken over by somebody else; 2) your request is under consideration, but you get no clue when you'll get a positive answer; 3) your request is taken, but the addon is much less than your expectation; 4) the least possible one, your request is taken and you get what you want.

Oh yes I did think of those scenarios and my contingency plan. You must be curious of what I said to my boss when I finally walked into his office. Well, I still chose to go for my original idea: I put the salary list on his desk, and asked him, with my full sincerity, to review my salary as well as my value, and give me a reasonable raise which I've never requested since joining in this company 2 years ago. Instead of bragging in front of him that I've brought 1 million USD sales figure to this team, which made 2 millions a year totally, I advised him humbly to give me some encouragement for my performance thru the raise. Did I hint him my expectation? Oh of course! I said well, maybe add on 1 at the first number of the amount, before tax is acceptable. He answered me with helpless voice: "I'll see what I can do".

In 2 months time I shall get some clue or a clear answer. Let's wait and see.