Still Traveling

I am still traveling. I am in a northern city of China-An Shan, the third biggest city in Liao Ning Province. Here, the life pace is much slower than Shanghai. People earn less money but can enjoy good life. I like the weather here, not so hot, so humid, compared with the weather in Shanghai. But I could not sleep well during the night, the bed of the hotel felt funny. So I felt very tired all day yesterday. After work, the general manager of Anshan plant invited us to have dinner with some of the employees. We went to a restaurant called " Fat Mom Dumplings" and ordered six kinds of dumplings. And the dumplings here are really really delicious. The food was great, but it's just that the general manager talked too much. I was dying to leave the table and went back to the hotel room and slept. Finally, we left the restaurant at 8:30pm.

So, I am leaving at 12 today. Now, I am drinking my morning coffee. I will read more news on the internet, then watch some HBO:-)

One thousand Years of Good Prayers

I read about stories about Li Yiyun. She went to US in 1996 and now she did become successful by publishing her first book. But I am wondering, if she was not Chinese and she did not write something about China,which foreigners are extremely interested in, would she become a successful writer as she is now?

I did not read her book yet, but I would like too.

Business Trip

I am a so-called white collar office lady working in the office from 9am to 6pm almost everyday. For most people like me, they must love the idea of having occasional business travel out of the office and out of the town. There are many reasons for loving travelling:

1. You can get out of the office and breathe the fresh air;

2. You may meet interesting people and see interesting things during the trip;

3. You can live in expensive hotels paid by the company and enjoy the high-quality services and free cable TVs-especially HBO;

4. You can have sufficient travel allowances to try some special food in different places;

5. If time is permitted, you can even go some sightseeing in the city you are traveling.

But I don't like business travel at all although I don't have many chances to travel that much. There are several reasons for not liking it too.

1. I am a paralegal and I am always traveling with legal counsels. As everybody knows, few people like lawyers. Wherever we go, we are picking troubles. So people hate us, although they look nice;

2. As we don't have Corporate Credit Card, we have to pay everything for the travel ourselves first and then get the reimbursement later from the company. It means that we have to keep every receipt very carefully, otherwise you cannot get your reimbursement. It is very difficult to keep all receipts especially when you are traveling for a long time or you are really busy. Plus in China, you cannot always get your receipt. Many restaurants are evading taxes by not providing receipts to custmomers. And it could take one month to get back your reimbursement from the company.

3. Some hotels are really terrible and you can never judge a hotel by how many stars it has. Some five-star hotel is worse than three-star hotel. The tap water is smelly, the bed sheets are not clean (sometimes I get red rashes on my body)

4. For an almost vegitarian like myself, it is a total disaster eating every meal in restaurants. They don't have as many good food for vegitarians. Most of the food are meat, they are very oily with high calos and they are insanitary too. I am always missing my home-cook meals when I am traveling.

5. The last but not the least, being away from my little cozy home makes me so uncomfortable. I get used to my bathroom, my kitchen, my bedroom, even my own coffee cup. I hate to work in a different office or in a totally strange place during the day and live in a hotel at night.

So what do you think? You like business travel or not? Of course, you will definitely hate traveling if you are a saleswoman or salesman. But do you like it if you work most in the office?

PS: I am traveling to An Shan next Week:-(

Dumplings Party

Ah, I don't know a group of friends sitting together and wraping dumplings can be so fun. Look how happy we are!

I can make a dumpling in a shape of fish, which I learned from my grandma. Cortney and Christina tried really hard to learn it from me, but they failed:-( Now I can continue to show off my unique skills, ha..

Ah

My boss praised me for my work:-) Ah, happy day!

New way of Living

Yesterday I went to a drug store and weighed myself. Oh, my God, I cannot believe that my weight is over 50kilos now. It's so terrible. I haven't exercised for almost two months! So today I rearranged my time schedule.

6:30 am get up

6:50 am go out and jog in the park

7:30 am come back and shower

8:00 am eat breakfast while watching MTV in the music channel (soy bean milk, bread)

8:30 am leaving home

9:30 am arrive in the office and start to work

Well, I mean my schedule is not perfect. I was late for work for an hour. But at least I got up earlier to do some jogging at the park and I ate a real breakfast this morning. Tomorrow morning, I will do the same but I will try to save more time in showering and eating and arrive in the office by 8:45am. My boss cannot be travelling all the time. I have to come early to work.

What do I feel right now? I feel good, not sleepy or tired although I got up 1 hour earlier than before. So, Grace, Keep doing this!

Guess which one is me?

I hate waiting

Wow, it's already 8 o'clock in the evening. My friend hasn't come yet. I am starving. Whew, I am going to eat a late supper and going to bed late again today. Try not to be late for work tomorrow!

I need another space to express my feelings

I don't know Blogger is connected with goole. Well, I thought I had a blog somewhere in here two years ago. But I couldn't remember the username or the password. So I guess it is lost! Since I have a new gmail account, I am starting my blog here! My MSN space is a dangerous space to express my feelings now. So many people read it everyday. I cannot talk about my work, the people I know, or the sharp pinions I have. So I moved it here. I think it's good for me! Well, warm welcome to Grace, haha....