Columbia Women in Business Conference - 2008

Attended the CWIB Conference at Columbia today, it's so nice to be back in school. Snow was at, at least 5 inches when I left the house and how I had almost, just almost decided not to go. I am so glad I did! Keynote speaker was Andrea Jung, Chairman and CEO of Avon, what an amazingly inspirational speaker. She talked about the key qualities of leadership:

1. Passion
2. Compassion
3. Courage
4. Humility
5. Pride
6. Perservereance
7. Pride
8. Purpose

The one hour talk just sped by Andrea was inspirational, sincere and just so amazingly down to earth. It made me want to work at Avon! At the end, she showed a video of the Avon breast cancer walk and their fight to find a cure. I was an inch to tears, but seeing that it was a professional environment, fought it back. I am so glad I went...the goody bag was full of great stuff too! :)

Gull's Cove

After brunch yesterday, we visited Andrej's new studio in Gull's Cove! The first of our four friends to close on the new apartment, everyone was very excited to go see what the inside of this mysterious building looks like. Overall, it looks great! Giant windows, very classy hard wood floors, new appliances, a giant kitchen counter top, all very posh. The kitchen is a bit big for the unit, but hey...overall, great. Congrats to Andrej!

I can't wait for the joint housewarming event!

E&E Wedding

Euhan and E-laine are officially married, much to their relief...haha. The ceremony was at the Hilton and I think it went off wonderfully! The bride was beautiful and the groom, was...well, the groom. Although after the event, we heard from E-laine about the variety of mishaps that did not go "as planned" all of that was invisible to the innocent attendee. Even the food, which we had been warned would be bad...was not bad at all!

After the wedding, the bride and groom generously offered t take us around Malaysia. We went to Malacca for chicken rice, and Penang for hawker street food (Asam Laksa, Cha Kwei Deow, yummy), not to mention the crucial stop in Ipoh for ho-fun. Between all the eating, we also saw some famous sites and did some shopping.

Had tons of fun, (despite getting a tour guide intent on sabotaging the trip). Thanks E&E!

EE Wedding

Hong Kong Part III - It is III now isn't it?

I'm wrapping up my Hong Kong entry in a third entry...

Wednesday -

Went to SZ to go shopping, bought a bag and tons of DVDs. Many good movies and stuff and Japanese TV series. :) Love buying this kind of stuff in SZ.

Had dinner with Dad and his colleagues.

Thursday

Back in Hong Kong, met with Elaine for buffet lunch at the Shangri-La. The food there is absolutely amazing. The variety is endless and the portions small enough for you to get a good taste of all they have to offer. Not to mention, everything was excellent. After lunch, when shopping with Elaine in Pacific Place area.

Had to run after picking up two items from Zara (50% off!!) to go pick up Grandma. To celebrate Helen's birthday (yet again) we went to buffett (yet again) at the Mandarin Oriental. It was Grandma and her four grand-daughters, quite sweet if you really thinkg about it. The food was good, but I actually liked Shangri-La better. Also there was a group of rather barbaric Hong Kong people (or they could be mainlanders) who fought for the king crab legs. I managed to snatch a few, but it wasn't pretty! Because it was Helen's birthday (for real this time, 7/19) we got a free bottle of champagne and cheese cake. Since we had dessert at the buffet already, we wrapped the cheese cake to go. So thick skinned... :p

Friday - 7/20
Lunch at the Veranda, semi-buffet at the Peninsula Hotel.

Day in a Life in Hong Kong - Karaoke and more karaoke

7/15, Sunday

- Had breakfast at CRC - pork chop ramen noodles...yummy
- Walked through Victoria Park to go to Causeway Bay, shopping time! But it was so so so hot, went to Sogo with Ma and Ba (seeking constant AC) but didn't manage to find anything interesting to buy
- Ba left to go home and do some work, Ma and I went to karaoke "tea". Met up with Helen, Heidi and E-Ma only had 2 hours!
- Dinner at Wako 和幸 for yakiniku dinner. The ox tongue was so good! We started celebrating Helen's birthday...haha...

Helen's birthday is on 7/19 BUT there are multiple discounts at restaurants 7 days before and after her birthday, hence we're taking full advantage of the situation or as Hong Kong people say it, get all the "Jetso"!

7/16, Monday
- Went to the US Embassy to get my H1B visa stamp. No glitches, as usual, actually surprisingly fast! I think I skipped a couple of numbers.
- Consulate asked me if I knew why Australians paid more for their visa...I said...uh no. He said, because they charge Americans more to go to Australia....oooooohhhhhh....well that's fair. :)
- Walked to IFC in search of AC and lunch. Did some shopping at Zara, big big sale, up to 50% off! Had lunch at yummy Sushi restaurant in IFC, I love that shopping center, big and air conditioned.
- Karaoke tea again, this time with TY. Went from 2PM to 7PM and then I left for dinner.
- Dinner with MY at Shanghai Garden in Hutchinson House.
- Also met with Rose and her BF, what a pleasant surprise! Food was ok, but nice to meet with old friends from Columbia again. Everyone sounds like they are liking their work and enjoying life. Busy...but good! Good sign! :)

7/17, Tuesday
- Had lymphatic drainage appt at 12PM, so had quick breakfast then off to Wan Chai
- That lymphatic drainage is some massage! The treatment is supposed to help you relax and most importantly to help move the liquids in the lymph system that is responsible for helping rid the body of it's wastes. After the treatment I feel fully relaxed, cleansed and...sore. :) It's a tiring exercise!
- After meeting up with Ma, went to Central to pick up some referral form for her heart treatments.
- Met at 翡翠 yummy 小籠包 place in North Point.
- Dinner at karaoke to celebrate Helen's birthday yet again, free cake and champagne with dinner. It's amazing how good the food got at these karaoke places, the salmon I ordered was definitely mid-scale NYC restaurant quality. The food is HK is nuts, it's not easy to find a place with bad food.

HONG KONG IS SO TIRING!!!! Too much to do, too little time.

Hong Kong (again) - July 2007

To make sure I actually write in my blog more, I'm going to start trying to be short and to the point on my posts. Here goes:

- Emergency trip for Grandma's funeral
- Flew to HK on Continental (SUCKS), no power in seat (as in no TV, no reading light, NOTHING!) on 7/11

• So I watched Memoirs of a Geisha on my laptop (good flick)

- Arrived 7/12, had dinner at home
- Funeral prep, shopping for stuff to give to guests (tissue, 1 dollar coin and candy in one envelop)
- Night "wake", stayed in funeral home and greeted guests from 4:30 to 10PM.
- 7/14, actual funeral, had to give thank you speech, prepared until 2AM the night before. Was very sad, crying during speech. But I think it came across sincere.
- Daddy was very very sad, much more so than I had anticipated.
- First christian funeral in HK, I definitely prefer this to the buddhist ones. Much more peaceful.
- Went to burial site in Pok Fu Lam...very nice, ocean view and breezy.
- Lunch with guests at East Lake restaurant.
- Went home to rest, was exhausted...ate dinner, slept by 8:30.

Hawaii Trip - the Conclusion

What can I say, 7 months later I never go around to finishing my Hawaii trip posting...few quick conclusions for my own future reference.

1. We missed the wedding
2. We did end up making it there! Loved Oahu but had difficulty finding stuff to eat there that's not Japanese! :) We did brunch at Lulu's on Waikiki, yummmy...2 inch piece of tuna sashimi.
3. We met up with Milli and Sugi (the wedding couple) in Kauai. Did not plan to both be there at the same time, but there we were! Pretty awesome.
4. Hiked the Kalalau Trail (a bit of it), dang it was tough. Thought after Peru I could handle anything.
5. Snokeling...AMAZING! Crowded but beautiful, so many fish.
6. Volcanoes on Big Island...wish we could see more. The island had "grown" too big for the hike out to see the lava.
7. Loved the airport on Big Island...real island feel.

Hm...guess that's it, will add more when I think of more.

December 23rd – Day 2 (aka Continental SUCKS!)

Again at Newark airport…this time waiting on standby on the 1:20PM flight. Again, oversold so of course, again, we couldn’t make it. Once again, I ended up camping out at the Service Desk as Ricky fumed away.

Oh, and get this...

1. Continental cancelled all our return flights again...with no explanation

2. Even though we had a confirmed flight for 12/24, that was also miraculously cancelled

3. They said they couldn't guarantee that we can get our CONFIRMED flight back because "corporate" is no longer allowing for oversold flights

We called for the manager, and the people at the service desk just ignored us, telling us to use the courtesy phone. So ask I sat on the floor rechecking our return flights, Ricky used the courtesy phone and we waited and waited and waited and all we got was, oh well, it's going to take a while. Finally, Ricky called Continental, got a manager on the line and managed to rebook the flight. So much for not overselling flights anymore "per corporate". We were still on the oversold list, but at least our flight was confirmed!! (We hope...)