Wong's Weblog
Is that a tattoo…
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This past Sunday, I went with some of my good family friends up to Shenzhen. The plan was to go up, eat some good food, relax a bit, and play some golf. Sounded like plans for an excellent day but was it…
We started the day by taking a bus up to China around 9:30 in the morning. After we passed the two border check points we were picked up by another friend and driven to my uncle’s factory. It has been 2 years since I’ve been back to this area and quite a bit has changed. The city has many new buildings including lots of new sports facilities and dormitories for the 2011 World University Games.
As we were driving to the factory, I reminisced about the last time I was in Shenzhen to visit my uncle. I spoke with my friends about how incredibly insane the driving was in Shenzhen and a short while later, we encountered our first wrong way driver. Yup, there he was, driving right at us. You would think that a median there would clearly allow a driver to determine which lane is the proper one to be driving in. This was not the case. As we passed the wrong way driver, I quickly noticed that there was a stoplight and all the lanes were filled and all of the cars were stopped, which leads me to my next thought. How the H did that driver end up driving the wrong way??
Once we arrived at the factory, we had a nice time sitting down and chatting with everyone over a cup of tea. Oh I’m betting that you think that is so cliche right, a bunch of chinese people sitting around having a cup of tea. Well, we’re in China, so do as the Chinese do right? After tea, we went next door to grab some lunch. Whenever I eat in China, I feel like a King. There is always so much good food. Lunch consisted of 10 different entrees that was served family style. The food was delicious especially the chicken. Chicken tastes so different here in China. Number one reason: it isn’t pumped full of hormones like in the states (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, go watch the documentary Food, Inc and then you can thank me for not wanting to eat anything at all). The chicken is literally a third of the size of the ones we find in the US which is fine because it tastes so very much better. I really wish we could find more free range chicken at a reasonable price back in the states.
Well after lunch, we all drove to the driving range to hit some golf balls. It was a very nice time there and the weather was actually pretty decent out that day. The facilities were extremely nice and the service was wonderful. We all got wet towels to allow us to freshen up. While we were there, I helped give a mini golf lesson to my friend. If you’ve ever played golf with me, you’re probably doing 1 of 2 things or possibly both. #1 You’re probably thinking to yourself, “seriously, he’s giving a golf lesson” and #2 you’re probably rolling on the floor laughing. Yes, I know. I am clearly not qualified to teach anything that involves golf period. In fact, i’m so bad at golf that I should probably just quit. But if I did quit, who would keep the golf economy afloat in AZ…
After golf, we all went to get a massage. Shenzhen is pretty well known for having good massages at good prices. I haven’t had a massage in over a year so I was excited to have a nice relaxing time. The place we went to was like the Disneyland of massage. It was 3 floors of relaxation (I use the term “relaxation” loosely here, you will understand later). The first floor had lockers, showers, pools, spas, billards tables, shuffle board and probably a bunch of other things that I didn’t see. The second floor had tons of lazy boy chairs with TV’s where you could sit and relax, eat, get your feet massaged. There was also places to eat on the second floor. The third floor had all of the massage rooms.
With a myriad of options for massages, we thought things over for about 5-10 minutes. Everything was in Chinese so I just went along with and did the same massage as my friend Kevin. We were “supposedly” doing the same massage as his fiance, Claudia, so we thought… I’m not even going to explain what I thought we were getting in our massage because I honestly didn’t know. I just figured that it would be nice and relaxing because thats what massages are for. All I knew was that the massage was going to last for 110 minutes.
When Kevin and I got into the room, I saw the masseuses bring in these tiny cups. I’ve heard about those before, they use heat to create suction on your back and afterwards they leave little red rings on your back. Claudia came in to our room and told us that once she saw the cups that she told her masseuse that she didn’t want to do that and she told us that we should probably do the same. I thought, well I might as well try it, what’s the harm…
Also, before our masseuses entered the room, I noticed some strange bars that were on the ceiling above the massage tables. I asked Kevin what that was all about. He told me they were for Thai massages and massages where they walk on your back. I thought that was interesting and that it was quite logical to have those to help the masseuse keep their balance.
As our massage began, it was quite nice. Gentle but firm kneading of the muscles in my back and shoulders. Many thoughts came to my head such as: good massage, relaxing, this should be a really enjoyable 110 minutes. After about 15 minutes of this nice, gentle, enjoyable massage, things took a turn for the worse.
*Sidenote: I would also like to mention right now that our masseuses did not shut up the entire time we were in there. They only spoke Mandarin and because I wasn’t speaking Mandarin, they thought I was Japanese. They were saying things like they weren’t going to give me a massage or something like that because I was Japanese and because they had a bad Japanese customer last week (lots of Japanese Chinese tension right now because of the captured sailor, look it up if you don’t know what i’m talking about). They finally got the point that I was an American-Chinese but kept on talking the entire time asking far too personal questions like how much money we made, who our families were etc. At one point, one of them turned on the TV in the room. So needless to say, relaxing ocean sounds was not the soundtrack to this massage. *End Sidenote
*Continue “things took a turn for the worse.”…
Somehow, nice massage turned into, ok so you’re standing on my back. Now I see the aforementioned bars on the ceiling being used. The following are the thoughts that went through my head while the masseuse was standing on me: “Well at least you don’t weigh all that much. This feels ok I guess. You’re walking up and down my back, fantastic. OK so the way you’re standing on me is not very conducive to me breathing. Wait, are you seriously walking up and down the back of my thigh right now? GET OFF MY CALVES!! Thank you for getting off my calves and working your way back up to my back. OK this thing you’re doing standing on my butt is not only kind of uncomfortable but seriously awkward. Ah finally, back to my lower back. FREAKING A!!! YOU’RE JUMPING ON MY BACK!!! I am not a trampoline.” This walking around on the backside of my body goes on for literally 25 minutes.
After she finished doing a plyometric workout on my back, she started using some oil on my back which I thought would be a start to some relaxation again. She proceeded to start using a tool on my back which I never saw but later found out was a tool formed from a cow bone. It did not feel that nice from the beginning. Using a credit card and running it up and down your skin isn’t that bad but using a cow bone and forcefully running it up and down your back and spine does not make me jolly fun time. I literally thought that layers of my skin were being peeled off. Trust me, I am not exaggerating and the picture that you will soon see will make my pain yours. This was used all over my back and it was extremely painful when it went up and down my rib area. This lasted a long time. I can’t even recollect the time it took and it has probably been put into my repressed memory bank. I later found out that the purpose of this “practice” is that it helps to open up the pores in your back which in turn help your body release toxins.
Now on to the wonderful suction devices. The masseuse started off putting one on my lower back. I heard a 4 clicks and each time I heard a click, I felt the spot where the cup was get tighter. It actually kind of hurt. It felt like a hard pinch. She left that there for a while while she kept on scraping. Once the scraping stopped, she used another cup , clicked it a few times and started running it up and down my back. This didn’t feel all that great either. She started putting more of these cups on me. I had a few knots in my shoulder/trapezius area, and she put some there as well. I ended up having 7 of them on my back. I originally thought I only had 6 of them but had a nice little surprise when I came home and looked in the mirror. After she placed all of the cups on me, she covered me up with the towel and walked out for a little bit. I asked Kevin who was lying a few feet from me if his masseuse had started with the wonderful cups yet. He said no. A few minutes later, he told me that he finally had some on him. He told me had 6 of them as well. Then he told me that he had 6 on one side of his back. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself. He ended up having over 10 placed on him.
Well after all the pain and misery of having these suction cups sit on my back for what seemed like an eternity, the masseuse came back and too them off. She did another 5 minutes of what I would normally think of as a normal massage, sat me up, did a couple of chops to my shoulders and voila I was done. The masseuse had us put our shirts on and then they left. I asked Kevin to let me see what his back looked like. I stared in awe. I couldn’t stop laughing and then I thought to myself, oh crap, I have that too. Then he saw my back and started laughing hysterically. We spent the next 10-15 minutes waiting for Claudia and another friend to be done with their massages. Once they came out, we showed them our battle wounds. They laughed a lot and we all acknowledged our stupidity with going through and having them done. Then we compared what we had done in our massages. Turns out that our massages were completely different. Somehow they had a very nice, enjoyable massage and feel asleep moments into their massage. We endured nearly 2 hours of pain.
You may have been asking yourself while reading, why didn’t you stop the masseuse when you felt like you were in pain. Well my train of thought with massages is that they are supposed to hurt. The more it does, the better it is for you. Guess I was wrong in this case.
Well, I guess I will show you the by product of this “wonderful” experience…
Now you’re probably doing one a few things: completely shocked, feeling sick to your stomach, feeling my pain, laughing, laughing hysterically or crying from your laughter. It’s ok, I will accept all of those reactions. I laughed a lot too. I still laugh every time I look in the mirror. And do you know why I laugh? It’s not because it looks like I have tire tread marks down the middle of my back. It’s not because I have 5 gigantic bruises on my upper back which can at times be viewable if my shirt hangs down. It’s not because I can’t wear white shirts for the next week or 2. It’s not even because of the fact that I pretty much have giant hickies all over my back. It’s those 2 freaking ones on my lower back. I can’t believe I have a freaking tramp stamp for the next week!!
I’m on a boat
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Previously on 24:
7:30pm: I was playing footy with my mates in Kennedy Town. My new British friend Damian told me that he was going to play an extra in a film directed by Steven Soderbergh with Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslett, and Marion Cotillard. He asked if I was interested in going with him, I said, “sure, why not.” He told me they were meeting at 3:30 am. I was contemplating it, although at that point, it was unlikely that I would be going because come on, 3:30 am… Then he got an email telling me it was changed to 6:15 am, at that point it was more feasible. I told him to give me a call in the morning and we would see what happens…
The following are the detailed events, albeit vague at times, of my time as an extra on a major Hollywood film. All times are approximate for this day (all the times are pretty accurate up until I get to the set).
12:15 am: get back to the flat exhausted after playing football the entire night, jump in the shower, send casting director a picture of me.
12:35 am: contemplating if I am realistically going to wake up in 4 hours to be an extra. Set alarm for 5:00 am just in case.
5:00 am: Wake up time. Aaaaaaaaahhhh so tired. Need more sleep. Snooze option available? No.. Screw you Hollywood, time for some more sleep.
5:30 am: Wake up call from Damian.
Damian: Hey, are you going to meet me in Causeway Bay?
Me: (pretending to be awake) uh ya sure. I’ll be there.
5:31 am: (inner thoughts) crap, I need to get my suit on, shave, brush my teeth, look somewhat presentable and awake, find a cab, get across the harbor, meet everyone by 6:15 or I’m not going to be in the movie.
5:45 am: miraculously get ready in time, almost forget my suit jacket inside the flat as I got into the elevator.
5:56 am: still have not managed to locate a taxi that will take me to my destination. I am screwed. It starts to sprinkle a little bit of rain. Crap.
5:58 am: found a taxi, on my way
6:12 am: find my friend Damian, go to the meeting spot, looking forward to an interesting day.
6:30 am: meet with the casting agent, he sends Damian, myself, 2 French dudes and an Irish man named Darrin in a taxi to Aberdeen where Jumbo Restaurant (a floating restaurant in the harbor) the location of the movie shoot.
7:00 am: make it to Aberdeen, see a bunch of tents set up. People are getting wardrobe and hair and make up done.
7:15 am: still sitting around waiting for instruction
7:30 am: lined up to get hair done
7:38 am: get some breakfast brought to me while standing in line waiting to get hair done, breakfast consists of dry noodles, shumai and sausage.
8:01 am: getting my hair done
8:10 am: waiting for my friend, Damian, to finish up with his hair and walk over to the ferry that will take us to Jumbo Restaurant where the movie is being filmed.
8:15 am: get on to the ferry with the other extras and begin the wait
9:00 am: still waiting, decide to sleep
10:30 am: wake up, still waiting…
10:50 am: By this time, my butt is seriously hurting from sitting on a hard seat for two and a half hours, they decide to split up the Hong Kong chinese and the non-chinese people to the upper and lower floors of the ferry, I ask them what I should do since they were asking for the chinese speakers to go up stairs, they say they don’t care so I just stay on the first floor with my friend. By this time, my butt is seriously hurting from sitting on a hard
11:30 am: the ferry starts making its short journey to Jumbo
11:35 am: they start letting all the chinese off the top floor off and then they select 30 of the caucasians off the first floor to get off the boat and tell the rest to wait, at this time i’m seriously the only chinese person left on the boat, this sucks…
11:40 am: I’m stuck on the boat with literally only like 30 other people, the other 100+ are moved inside to the set. they decide to let the rest of us off the boat, my level of depression lessens
11:48 am: some of the producers tell us to clear the way so that the actors can walk through to the scene
11:50 am: Holy crap! Gwyneth Paltrow walks by followed by a small entourage!
12:02 pm: they move us from the area right off the boat nearer to the set
12:04 pm: we are sitting and waiting once again, contemplating at this point if I’m actually going to be in this movie, depressing thoughts start settling in
1:00 pm: one of the casting agents takes in around 10 people, at this point I give up hope on being in the movie and thinking about how much better it would have been if I hadn’t been sitting around all day in my suit doing nothing, thanking God that the weather was nice out that day
1:10 pm: they decide to take the rest of us up to the set
1:20 pm: they pair me up with this older gentleman, our job is to walk back and forth in the background talking to a waitress and watching people play craps
1:40 pm: They change camera angles and I spot director Steven Soderbergh for the first time, I walk up closer to see them filming the scene
1:53 pm: They pair me up with a young girl to start walking back and forth in the background past the actors, I start chatting her up in cantonese and my chinese is holding up better than expected
2:07 pm: new scene, paired up with another girl, chinese director gives me instructions to walk with her and look around in awe at the amazing interior, starting to feel pretty good about being in a couple of scenes,
2:29 pm: get placed in the background in another scene, this time I get to chat up another girl and grab a drink from the waitress, standing a few feet away from Gwyneth Paltrow
2:54 pm: get paired up with yet another girl, start walking back and forth in the background again, at this point every girl I talk to is apparently a model
3:15 pm: start getting pretty hungry for lunch, it has felt like a full day already, quitting time should be pretty soon
3:36 pm: break for lunch, everyone back on the boat, we get our lunch and start heading back to the dock, word is some will get picked to go back to film additional scenes
3:53 pm: some old dude starts throwing up all over the place in front of me, time for me to exit stage right
4:00 pm: exit the boat, walk back towards tent area
4:10 pm: everyone is lined up again, assistant director is picking the cast to return to film additional scenes, feeling beyond exhausted at this point
4:18 pm: get picked by the assistant director to return, am a bit surprised
5:04 pm: return to boat to head back to the restaurant to film more
5:32 pm: sitting around waiting with the other extras to get hair and make up done again
5:45 pm: get hair touched up
6:00 pm: sitting down exhausted
6:02 pm: make up artist tells me I don’t need make up since I’m wearing glasses, can’t see the circles or wrinkles around my eyes
6:10 pm: get picked along with 3 other guys and 4 girls to film small scene, get moved to other side of the set,
6:23 pm: make up artist comes by again, tells me I need to shave
6:24 pm: shaving…
6:25 pm: done shaving
6:26 pm: they decide I need make up done, and I need to remove my glasses since I had them on in earlier scenes,
6:28 pm: producer is waiting on me to get make up finished, rush me down to get me into the small boat scene
6:32 pm: on the boat, Ms. Paltrow walks in, holy crap this is crazy, she seems very nice
6:35 pm: start driving around in the boat around the harbor taking pics (I wasn’t allowed to take pics of this sadly)
6:58 pm: return to the restaurant, it is looking really cool at night
7:02 pm: walk up stairs to film another scene, wait around for a bit
7:14 pm: get placed with 2 girls at a table, one is a model from hk, the other is from Holland
7:30 pm: holding my own speaking in canto, pleasantly surprised at how well I can carry a conversation, girl is complements my canto
7:38 pm: told to take girl as my date, get up from the table and walk out of the restaurant for the scene
7:50 pm: still filming, well into OT by now, everyone is tired and falling asleep
9:00 pm: filming is done for the day, wait for boat to take us back to the dock and to get paid
9:30 pm: getting paid, feel screwed because my caucasian friends are literally making twice as much money as me but whatever, I did it for the experience
10:30 pm: get home, sleep
A funny man
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One of the investments that I made literally days before the trip was buying a new camera. I started my search after realizing that my camera had somehow vanished. My old Pentax fit comfortably inside a green Altoids can. I guess after years of being easily found within an Altoids can, the miniscule size of the camera was bound to get lost. So I did some quick research. Realized that the camera I wanted was a discontinued Canon G10 and started my search on craigslist. I did not find one in Phoenix but after talking to one of my friends, I was able to locate one in Denver. Now you may wonder, how in the heck am I going to get a camera from Denver into my hands literally days before I leave. Well thanks to some good teamwork from my friends Karen (who is becoming quite a good photographer, become a fan of hers on facebook) who found the camera in CO and my traveling friends Erica and Mariana, who helped traffic my camera back to PHX for me. The whole deal seemed very shady how we handled it but it all worked out for the best 🙂
Now that I am done with that wild tangent here is the camera that I got. 
I have been having a great time with it so far and hope that I can get some good pics from it this trip.
I decided on my first morning out that I would go to TST and get some pics of the city. The weather was still quite hot and humid on this day. I hate the that combination. I ended up taking a minibus to Jordan not remembering that it could actually take me to my final destination. I ended up walking to a completely new nearby named Austin that has some on HK’s newest and tallest high rises. From there I walked to the harbor at TST which ended up becoming quite a long walk for me that day.
Walking. That is an interesting topic that leads me to another investment that I made on this trip, TOMS! By now i’m sure you have heard of TOMS shoes which is a brand developed by social entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie. For every pair you buy, TOMS donates a pair to a child in need. The idea is quite brilliant I must say. It just makes the customer feel that much better about making their purchase. So for the next 4 weeks, these are my primary mode of transportation. 
I’ve got no complaints so far. They are light and comfortable. I can’t really ask for more except for an amazing TOMS tan.
The day was a bit cloudy which would turn out to be nice for photos. I never get sick of looking across Victoria Harbor and seeing this sight.
While I was taking some pics of the city, I was approached by a Hindu man in a turban. Well all I knew at first was that he was a man with a turban, I did not realize he was Hindu at first but thats beside the point. He came up to me and said “I can tell you are a funny man.” I kind of laughed it off and said thank you. Then he proceeds to take my hand and start giving me a palm reading. It was quite uncomfortable to have a strange man start giving me a palm reading. To be respectful, I allowed him to do this thing and do his spiel. He said a bunch of stuff that I can’t remember. He stopped touch my forehead which was also weird and then stopped to write something down. I looked down at his feet and he was rocking out these sweet Adidas shoes with rainbow shoelaces, double rainbow all the way across the sky… (if you don’t get that reference watch this), and I told him he had some sweet kicks. He didn’t respond to my comment. Maybe I wasn’t so funny to him which is kind of ironic no? So he finished writing whatever he was writing, crumpled it up and gave it to me. He proceeded to ask me what my favorite color was. I said blue (in hindsight I should have said some ridiculous color like periwinkle). He told me to open the note, and lo and behold it said blue. Creepy huh? He then told me to wear blue from on Fridays from now on and yada yada yada he opened up his little book, saw some pictures of hindu gods in there and he asked for money. So I lied to him and told him I didn’t have money because I just came in the day before. He’s like I don’t care give me your American money. I took out my change purse (don’t make fun of that because it is necessary to have on in hk) and gave him $1 HK dollar (equivalent to a bit more than 10 US cents). He mockingly laughed at me for my generous offering to him. I guess I was funny after all 🙂
TACOS!!
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Tacos in China? What? Well you don’t have Mexican’s making them here like back in AZ. You got Chinese making them tacos. Man that sure sounded not politically correct huh…Anyways, my friends told me about this place in TST East that had this great taco deal on Tuesdays kind of like Taco Tuesday back in AZ at Del Taco. Well this was pretty much an all night happy hour with $10HKD tacos which for my American friends comes out to like $1.20USD. Ya, it ain’t as cheap as Taco Bell but what are ya gonna do? So, after months of salivating at the thought of a Chipotle burrito or anything Mexican for that fact, we finally got a group together to go.
So Jeff, Katie, Ben and myself ended up going to this restaurant, Tequila Jacks. It had the atmosphere of a Mexican restaurant with crates of Mexican beer everywhere, Aztec looking wall paintings, a bar and of course futbol on TV(soccer, football, whatever you want to call it). I felt right at home again. I used to eat Mexican 3-4 times a week. Not having any of it for 3 months, was probably the longest stretch that I ever want to go without it. I heart Mexican food. So right off the bat we ordered 3 tacos each and I had a Dos Equis, yuumm Mexican Beer.
The food came out relatively quick. I wouldn’t call these tacos fancy by any means. They were ground beef with a bit of salsa and some cheese. It had a nice spice to it which was well…nice. Finished the 3 tacos off relatively quickly and then I ordered 2 more along with another beer. I wouldn’t hype it up as the best tacos in the world by any means because I could have made the same tacos at home but It was a good meal. I left satisfied and content and in the end, thats really all that matters in a meal. $120HKD for 5 tacos and 2 beers is not to shabby for a dinner. I would give it a 7.5 out of 10 but that is probably because I’ve been spoiled with such fantastic Mexican food back at home such as Chipotle, Filiberto’s, Ramiro’s, Fiesta Burrito and every other hole in the wall place that carries deliciously unhealthy carne asada burritos. I await the next time my taste buds get to taste the sweet sweet taste of Southwest Mexican food.
Me no speak Chinese??
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Soooo you know how I said I was going to try to tutor for work while I was out in HK…well I finally did last week. It took a couple of months after I applied because most kids were still in school so the tutoring center didn’t need extra teachers but summer session just began so it is pandemonium inside the center with kids everywhere. The owner of the tutoring center called me the day before and asked me to show up and discuss and teach the next day so I thought hey, it doesn’t hurt to earn some extra cash. Well I showed up at 11:00 AM the next morning to start helping as an assistant to one of the other teachers who was a young Eurasian college student that lives in HK. First session went great. We tag-teamed teaching 3 kids a lesson on words that end with the letters “an.” It was a joyous time of teaching phonics and saying sentences such as “Emily cooked with a pan“, “Emily stayed out in the sun far too long and got a tan“, “Emily drank from a soda can” and so on and so forth. Good times. Good times.
Second session started at 12:00 pm. There were 8 kids so we split into 2 classrooms of 4. I had 2 little girls and 2 little boys that were around 8-9 years old. Their names were Gigi, Serina, Edison and Kevin. Cute little kids I would have to say but would they stay that way…
Our lesson that day for them was based on reading comprehension and the topic was “The first day of school.” Oh, the wonderful memories of the first day of school. Heck I can remember my 1st day of school pretty vividly. My mom dropping me off at school and me not wanting to get out of the car so I would pull on her hair so I could stay with her. Ya, that first day of Senior year high school was rough, uhhh I meant kindergarten… Anyways, we read a story about these twin girls that were experiencing their first day of school and we talked about what they ate for breakfast and how they were late to school because of an accident and then finally the twist in the whole story was they switched backpacks accidentally when they got to school!! I love these crazy children’s stories with twists.
So, as I was teaching them they had confused looks on their face, then I thought oh yeah there was vocabulary on the front page and I skipped right over it. Stupid me. So we went back to the 1st page and went over the vocabulary. I explained words like accident by using 2 pencils and making them collide. I said to them “this is an accident (took 2 pencils and smashed them into each other), Boom!!” It seemed like a great example at the time but unfortunately I was wrong, yet again… They started taking everything on the desk and made things go “Boom!!” Fantastic, I should get a star for my teaching capabilities.
We got to the word “term” and for the life of me, the most simple word in the world (not really) and I just was not getting through to them. I tried to explain, “a term is a period of time, like right now boys and girls, you are on summer term, and when you go to school in September, that is your 1st term of school.” Right, that makes sense doesn’t it? Made sense to me! So as I kept on trying to explain it to them, I overheard one of the girls, Serina, speaking to Gigi in Cantonese saying “what is he talking about” and Gigi would reply “I have no idea.” Also, by this point, Edison was quite restless and put his head on the ground and then the girls kept on yelling at me to speak Chinese. They kept saying in English, “we know you can speak, just talk to us in Chinese.” Of course I was carefully instructed to say “What are you talking about, I’m from America, I can’t speak Chinese.” But of course we all know that’s a lie haha, oh how devious and tricky us adults are…
So my kids kept on getting restless and did not want to do any of the activities and Edison putting his head down did not help the situation because then Gigi started putting her head down on the table. You may ask where Kevin was during this whole time, well he was the quiet one so we don’t talk about him. The girls kept on talking in Cantonese and of course I understood so I would interrupt their conversations with what they were talking about in English but kids, they are the cutest things, they didn’t even pick up on me understanding their chinese, I was just so sneaky.
We got to the part where they were supposed to write about their 1st day of school. Let’s just say they were not happy to have to write a paragraph now on their 1st day of school after answering questions about the twins from the story before. They kept on raising their voices and I kept on trying to reason with them. I went as far as to tell them what to write exactly and still, barely a budge on their efforts. I would then go on to explain with threats like, “Now Gigi, your parents are paying a lot of money for you to learn here. You need to do the work or they won’t be very happy.” So a tip to you future tutors, the threat of parents usually works on little kids. Class ended, I graded each of them for the day (I was a bit too gracious on their scores, I’m way too nice) and we said our good-byes.
After class, I discussed the schedule of when I would work with the tutor center’s owner (I forgot to mention that at the time I was and currently still am full time volunteering on Mondays thru Thursdays at my church). She said, “I’m going to need you on Tuesday and Thursday from Noon to 1:00 PM.” So I quickly thought to myself, “hmm, 2 hours a week right in the middle of my day” and I responded with a “No, thank you very much.” And that my friends, concludes my illustrious career as a childern’s english teacher.
Day 4
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I left the mainland on this day but before we left, we played a round of golf. The facilities were beautiful and they had a fantastic clubhouse for the players, which included private lockers, individual rain showers, sauna, etc. The course was very nice also. It was very green with lots of foliage everywhere. When we got changed and ready to play, I was kind of shocked because we each had our own caddie. I’ve never had a caddy before. I had two thoughts, wow this is the coolest thing ever and why do I suck so bad at golf. I started the round off with a pretty shot on a par 3. I got probably 30 feet from the whole so it was an easy chip and at most a 2 putt right? Nope, I shanked my chip and chipped again, then proceeded to 3 putt on some ridiculously slow greens. Great start to the round. My round that day consisted of a lot of draws and then switched to slicing the ball. It was nice to have the caddy position me and even give me the line on putts, which helped tremendously. Near the end of the round of some par-4s I started to actually hit straight so instead of my ball going to where I was hitting before, I pretty much killed some drives they were no where to be found. All in all, I realized that man I am really bad at golf and I should never touch another club in my life but lets face it, that’s not going to happen.
Day 3
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I was rather tired on this day due to all of the late night festivities of the prior day. Most of this day, I just finished reading a book and learned some more Mandarin. Not really too much happened in the day time but at night we set up a basketball game against another factory nearby. Finally, I could see a glimpse of what street ball was like in China. We walked to the other factory, which took about 30 minutes, and when we go there, most of the workers had gotten off work and were standing around waiting to watch the game. Many of these factories have recreational courts in them for their workers, so it was commonplace to see basketball courts, badminton courts and table tennis tables around the factories. When we go there we shot around and actually warmed up like game. I was shocked to see that there was a referee there also. This game was legit. At first my team was dominating. We went ahead by as many as 20 points and then some new guys started showing up and playing for the other team. These new guys came in and they actually took the lead. We played 4 quarters for nearly 2 hours. It was exhausting but at the end we came back and won by 10.
Day 2
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The second day at the factory was not extremely eventful so I finished a book in the morning and then one of the interns taught me how to speak mandarin the rest of the day. She was a very good teacher and afterwards I felt very confident that if I actually get to be put into an environment where I have to use it throughout the day, everyday, I will be able to catch on rather quickly.
That night, there was a company dinner. These dinners happen every other month or so and they are usually hosted by one of the departments of the company. I thought, Yaaay another dinner but this was no ordinary dinner. This was a Chinese business dinner where you drink red wine. It’s both traditional and cultural to have these types of dinners in China. I was not prepared for what this night would turn out to be.
First off lets just make it clear up front, everyone knows that we Chinese can’t drink a lot in the 1st place. In fact, after doing research most Asians do not have an enzyme that breaks down alcohol thus causing the redness in their faces and the quick tipsiness.
So at this dinner, there were around 30 people. The night starts off slowly with a lot of joking around and mingling and then you start off with some appetizers. This is probably a 14 course meal so about 4 courses into the meal, the workers start toasting each other and the boss. They say their toast and then it’s bottom’s up. I should also mention, the night starts off with very little alcohol in the glass but by the end of the dinner things get out of hand. At first, I just sat there quietly and joined a couple of toasts because if you don’t it is very impolite. After a while, people started noticing the new guy (me) and then I started getting toasted.
The fun didn’t end at the dinner, there was much more hilarity that followed this night. We left the dinner and headed to…yes, you guessed it, a Karaoke Bar!!! Like that’s not stereotypical at all… This was no ordinary Karaoke Bar. Us Asians know how to really do it right. These Karaoke Bars are not like the open night mics that we have in Phoenix, they are like private vip rooms. The mics are cranked up all the way and you can barely hear the music, what you hear is a bunch of Chinese people yelling into the mics. All I can say is my descriptions of this event do it no justice. The only thing I could think of the entire time at the Karaoke Bar was, “why don’t I have my camera, why!” And yes, I did sing some songs. I sang “You’ve lost that loving feeling” by the Righteous Brothers and I sang a duet with my uncle “My way”, which I thought was was an Aerosmith song (I was wrong). I also sang a couple Japanese songs. To sum it up, that was a most interesting night and a memorable one.
Mainland Extravaganza Pt 1
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Day 1
This past week I got to go up to the mainland and visit one of the factories that my uncle manages. Not really having any expectations, I had no idea what to really expect of the few days that I would get to spend up on the mainland. The drive from HK was only about a couple of hours. When we arrived, we got a quick lunch with my uncle’s friend. They spoke Mandarin during lunch. This gave me my 1st test of how much I could really understand the language. Well, I left that lunch pretty much not knowing anything that was said. One of he 1st things I noticed was that people in China drive on the right side of the road like in the US. I always thought they drove on the left like in HK and in Europe. I asked my uncle about that and he said some people from HK get confused when they drive across the border and drive on the wrong side of the road. I thought that was pretty funny. Now, the thought of it was funny, but when it actually happened to us later that day, not so funny. I don’t think I will ever touch a steering wheel in that country. I was literally scared to death at how people drive. Most streets don’t have medians, let alone lanes to keep your car in. In fact, most of the 4 way intersections didn’t have stop lights. The way it works is, you drive full speed up to the intersection, ease off the gas a little bit to see if anyone is coming and then you keep on going. The intersections that did have lights on them, some people just blew right through it like there was no red light. My face was in utter shock. I asked my uncle, “is this how it really is?” His response, “This is China.” I couldn’t stop laughing after that.
When I got to the factory, I got to meet a few people that I would be spending the week with (otherwise known as the young English speakers that I could communicate with). There were 3 young ladies there that were just finishing up their 1-month internships before they went back to their university to finish graduating this summer. I spent most of my time with them as well as one of the guys that worked in the office of the factory. They all showed me around the factory, showing me the different departments and the processes for the development of the product. It was all very interesting seeing the product move from a raw material to the finished good. My supply chain class actually came in handy for once. On the site of the factory, there is also a very large dormitory for the workers. I stayed in one of the dorms next to my new found friends. Then one of the most kind things happened to me. One of the interns that was with me when I got to my room said, “the floor is dirty, we need to mop your room.” The floor really wasn’t dirty but she proceeded to go back to her room, got a mop and mopped my floor for me. I was kind shocked, she by no means had to do that and when I insisted that she didn’t have to and she still did it anyways. This reinforced some of my preconceived notions of people form the mainland as very hardworking and on top of that, very hospitable.
Nihao
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So this is my first blog ever and I am speaking to you from the future, kind of, not really. Well its Monday April 14 from where I’m at and I am 15 hours ahead (future haha, I am so lame).
So I’m guessing some of you are wondering What? China? Why? When did this come about? Huh? Well its kind of a complex answer. One of the big reasons, go to learn Mandarin so the next 8 months are for the next 20 years of business. That was a big reason but so many more come into play. Leaving Scottsdale. I’ve been a Scottsdale boy my entire life, definitely needed a change. I wanted to test myself, my character, my faith. Who am I when I am stripped away from all the comforts of my life? Who will I choose to be when the people that know me are half way across the world? This is a trip of growth, discovery and adventure. One of the true inspirations for this trip was from a book “Barbarian Way” by Erwin McManus. In the book, he told of a story of when he and his wife were out doing yard work when their son appeared standing outside the second story window of their house. He asked his dad if he should jump. Erwin said “Go for it,” the wife says “are you crazy?” As a child you have such a sense of fearlessness, innocence and need for adventure. Society tames that wildness away as we grow up. Risks become harder to take. Life becomes a routine and easy. So, there I was on the second story window and here I am jumping off to see what this adventure will bring…
We had a long day of traveling, which started on Saturday April 12 at 4 am, flew to LAX where I have a 4-5 hour layover (WHY do I have a layover for that long in LA??), get on a 747 and finally get into Hong Kong after a 15 hour flight. Before we left LAX, they asked for 20 people to give up their seats for the flight and in return would offer a upgrade to business class, $500 in future plane tickets and free hotel for the night in LA. FYI, if you’re ever taking a flight to Hong Kong and this offer comes up, take it. Let me tell ya, 15 hours in coach is not exactly the most comfortable of arrangements and no Britt, seating on this plane was nothing like the Holiday. They played some pretty good movies during the flight. First up was Enchanted. I was skeptical at first because come on, have you seen previews for this movie?? Princesses, Princes, talking squirrels in New York City…Well I walked away (figuratively) from the movie thinking ahhh that was cute. Next movie up, August Rush. I’ve been wanting to see it for a while but never got the chance. It was a good one, made me want to play the piano again but lets face it, that’s not going to happen while I’m gone. Movie #3, National Treasure, which also turned out to be another movie that I wanted to see. This was a fun movie with all the puzzles and such and lets not forget the amazing acting of good ol’ Nick Cage. Guess it’s not really that hard to be amused when you’re sitting in a prison for 10 hours. Now this is the point of the flight when tears started rolling down the face for 10 minutes. Not because of National Treasure, but because I say to myself, saying 8 months is sure easier than actually have to live it, man I’m going to miss home L So what I’m learning right now is “live one day at a time”. Now for Movie #4 was The Great Debaters. Wonderful movie that I’ve seen before and highly recommend. Unfortunately I feel asleep because being up for 30 something hours straight takes a little toll on the body. So I guess the point is, there was pretty good entertainment on the flight. So the flight seemed to drag on forever even with the movies and all. We land and the last thing our pilot said to us was “Well, we got here no where close to on time but…at least we’re here.” Haha that’s funny… NOT.
Leaving the airport we take about a 40 minute drive to Kowloon where my Aunt and Uncle live. Driving through the city, I forget the grandness of this urban utopia from my last trip here 5 years ago. There are amazing freeways, mass light rail transit (Yes, I am a strong supporter of this in Phoenix), ridiculous architecture all over the place, crazy cool lighting that shines up the bridge just because it looks sweet, buildings that change color top to bottom, 30+ story high rises all over the place, I mean this place is pretty fantastic. I’m very excited to go around and explore everything.
Here is where I will be living for the next couple of months (i’m figuring out the picture thing so if it doesn’t work too bad). A 10th floor, 850 square foot flat with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, office, kitchen, dining room and living room, I bet you can’t do that in Phoenix. Oh ya, I forgot to mention that this sells for about $750,000 today. $500/ft at Optima doesn’t sound too bad now does it? Woke up early this morning to a true Urban lifestyle. Woke up, didn’t even change from my baller shorts and Dodgers shirt, didn’t do my hair, didn’t, looking like a total scrub I walked down stairs around the block to get breakfast (and yes I think people looked at me funny). My mom, grandma, sister and myself had a hearty breakfast of rice porridge for under $10 US. Not too bad. Then we went to the grocery store a few stores down got some food and walked back up to the flat. I’m telling you, this is a fun lifestyle and I am glad that I get to experience this over Suburbia over the next few months.
I’ll try to post as much as I can when I get free time and a select few of you know who to call to get me out of you know where if I don’t post at least once every other week J My friends, I love you all and miss you. Take super good care of yourself until we speak we again.
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