Unsaid Reason

There’s something within
That’s telling me that I’m just playing it too cool
I could pretty much lose everything
I never had an apple
that tasted so… so sweet
Given the chance, the choice
Take me for all I am

-- Bamboo's "These Days"

The Letter K

What I'd like to know is how Koreans can come up with such awesome romantic comedies. And for a bunch of people who yell and hit eachother as a way of communicating, they sure do come up with the sappiest plots ever.

My respect for Korean movies just sky-rocketed, thanks to Love, So Divine. I'd like to think of this movie as a way to stick my tongue out at everyone who keeps bidding me good luck at finding a priest to marry. The Koreans have heard your jokes, people, and they made me a movie to make me feel better! LoL.

Lastly, where does the Korean movie industry find these 6-foot actors? Why are they all hot? And how does a girl choose between Kim Rae Won and Kwon Sang Woo? How?

Deo Gratias for globalization!

Take Me Back

Thanks to jetlag, I've been a lazy motherfella the last two days. All I've been doing is watching DVDs, sleeping, and eating. All that in China time, mind you. My current sleeping time is about 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. I wouldn't complain, but my butt needs to be up and running in local time by Monday because there is a huge pile of work for me to do in the office. Ugh!

Anyway, oh China, I miss you so. Like I told Pen when I was still in Hong Kong, I felt at home there in a superficial way. Everyone looked like me and no one even gave me a hard time about my pale legs. That's acceptance, man. LoL! Everyone thought I was Chinese anyway. Even when our board member told the waitress that I need to get an English menu also, the waitress didn't bother, thinking that he was joking. So by the time we got to mainland China, I didn't even bother acknowledging the waitresses anymore: I just let them take my plate, re-fill my glass, whatever the heck they want to do because it would take a longer time for me to go "English only, please" and have them blink their eyes at me twice before it registered to them that I'm really not Chinese.

And I really think that the Chinese has more of an influence on the Filipino culture than we give them credit for. The way they like gathering around lots of food, the way they make sure everyone in their party gets taken care of, their humor...all so Filipino, don't you think? We were spoiled rotten alright.

After two weeks of just watching Channel V, I swear I'm in love with Mandarin music and music videos. Even when I was coming home, my headset was on Channel 12, the "Route to Asia" channel. I would kill to have the playlist tracks listing, by the way. And eventhough I didn't see Ken, I did see a famous person. He was eating in the same seafood restaurant as we were in Guangzhou. Only one of our people got a pic taken with him; I was already hallucinating from cold medicine by that time.

I love Hong Kong and if I had more time, I would've probably loved Shanghai, too. These cities are as modern as they come and the only thing I really wish is for Manila to get its act together and be like one of these cities in the future. Better late than never, right?

Anyway, I will be back in China in 6 months. It's a shame that I'm going to the very same place that I've created a slogan for: "Say No to Guangzhou."

Straight Trippin'

I arrived at about 1 p.m. today. I wanted to get home because I was almost half-puking on the plane from my equilibrium being totally off, but now I'm having withdrawals. You can't just travel with an entourage with no less than 6 people everyday for two weeks and have the group disappear just like that, nor can you eat Chinese food at least twice a day for two weeks and not miss eating with chopsticks. It doesn't work that way.

The last days of China were quite whirlwind. Once we got in Dalian, we just spent one night at the hotel and checked out the next day. We held our technical seminar (where I did make my speech to a group of at least 80 chefs plus a couple of representatives from the U.S. government), then flew to Shanghai. I spent one night in Shanghai and flew back to Seattle the next morning. Jetsetting indeed.

But no trip is complete without a trip, like literally. Jane picked me up from the hotel and we rode the taxi together to the Maglev station. I told her that I'll be fine going to the airport alone. After hugs and thank yous, I grabbed my two luggages from the x-ray machine and dragged them onto the escalator. Granted that this was the first time that I've done this since throughout the entire trip, I had two Asian men who knew what it means to be gentlemen. Anyway, I probably didn't drag the wheels of both luggages far enough to catch the very end of the escalator "step" that I was on, so both luggages horribly fell backwards. One caught my shoe, so my right shoe came off as well. This went on as the escalator was climbing mind you. I swear, I thought we were all going to go tumbling backwards. Anyway, thank God that we didn't. I managed to get a hold of my shoe and put it on, then get my two luggages standing upright by the time I reached the top. When I got there, the two security guards were on deck to grab my luggages from me and set them on the platform safely. I didn't bother to look back at Jane because I didn't want to see her horrified face. HaHa! No one else was on the escalator at the time so I didn't hurt anyone else, but myself. I don't think those on the platform already saw what happened, but I'm sure those watching the security cameras got a kick out of seeing that unfold before their eyes. I dare anyone to top that embarrasssing moment! LoL.

So Much for the 8s in My Birthdate

Now in Dalian. Still sick.

Getting here was a hurdle in itself. Instead of arriving in Dalian itself, we got re-routed to Shenyang due to bad weather. We had to go old school and ride a van for four hours to get to Dalian. I asked if Dalian usually gets bad weather and my OMR said no. Hence, I think I'm bad luck.