Shanghai Thanksgiving

Hello. Its Thanksgiving (well here anyway) and I wanted to wish you all a very happy day filled with turkey, stuffing, pies and many, many glasses of wine.

A VERY SPECIAL Happy Birthday wish to Kelly! Happy Birthday girl! I know you will not disappoint my many, many glasses of wine wish!

Its about 4am Thanksgiving eve for your NYer’s and I have a feeling that my mom is still up cooking and Mel most likely just went to bed, both preparing their Thanksgiving feasts. I am missing you guys! Do me a favor and give the people you are spending this day with a huge hug and kiss.

Ok so before I launch into my Shanghai trip. I am sticking with the family tradition of saying a few things that I am thankful for this year:

Wonderful friends and family. God its so amazing to wake up and know that I have all of you in my life (cheesy I know) but I really can’t explain it. Both here and there….I AM A LUCKY,
1. LUCKY person.
2. This amazing opportunity I am experiencing
3. That I didn’t die scuba diving
4. Singapore Airlines
5. This Blog (thanks Jeff).

Ok on to the trip. Shanghai is my new favorite Asian city. What a great place. Unlike Hong Kong and Singapore, where you can feel that you are just in the Chinatown section of any American city, Shanghai feels like Asia. Not one of my cab drivers spoke English so it was an adventure every trip I took. Can’t really put it into words but there was such a vibe and energy to just being there. And the buildings and different neighborhoods are really unique. I didn’t get to explore as much as I wanted to but on my next trip which I will make sure is soon.

I was staying at the Grand Hyatt which I came to find out is in, what was once, the tallest building in the world. The lobby of the hotel is on the 54th floor of the building! My room was on the 74th floor. This struck me as very odd…don’t you think?? That being said the view was AMAZING! My one complaint was the room was so “wired” and technically advanced that it literally took me ½ hour to turn the lights off before going to bed. Imagine my annoyance and grumbling at 1:30am my first night! I was literally saying out loud “I HATE TECHNOLOGY” .

So I had another “first” during this trip. I conducted my first meeting with someone who did not speak English. I had to bring an assistant with me to translate. It was strange and I am not entirely sure they were not talking about me behind…well I guess in front…of my face. I felt like I should have had those United Nations earphones on! It was funny but by the end of the 2 hour meeting..I felt like I could understand and was actually answering in English before Vivi translated. He was using his hands a lot so I guess that helped. It was pretty cool though.

Ok I just realized that this entry is pretty long already and I may be losing some of you so I will wrap it up (sorry I am on the plane so could type for hours). So here are some highlights from my favorite business trip so far:

* Lost in translation: Out to lunch with one of the girls from the office who speaks English well but this went totally wrong: [she was complaining about her workload] Me: The day must fly by! Her: Nope I really don’t travel for my job. I guess the word fly threw her.

* At the dinner I was looking for my first speaker who is Chinese. I was looking and looking and realized he was right in front of me Me: oh wow there you are: Him: Its hard to spot me in a room full of Chinese people huh? NOT AGAIN (remember the pantry scene). I was like haha..no, no!! Do I have “I think all Asian people look alike stamped on my forehead??

* At the restaurant, I went to the bathroom and there was a funny, stale water smell so I asked Vivi to ask the manager in Chinese for a candle or air freshener. She was looking at me really strange, turned red and started to giggle….I then realized that she thought I took a big #2 and need to cover the smell! Now I was the one turning red and giggling!! I was like oh no, no, not me!!!!

* I ate jellyfish for the first time and loved it and spotted turtle ovary on a menu!!! Come to think of it that could be just like a whole bunch of cavier!! Humm…could be tasty!

Alright I will stop now!

Love you lots.