From my seoul trip^^
Can't believe how much I enjoyed myself just in the short 5 days. ( make it 3 full days minusing off the plane rides)
While I can't much digest the idea of making a living there ( besides not speaking the language), I have been bumped head-on countless times in the streets by impatient koreans in a hurry. They don't apologise for that matter.
But despite the supposedly rude appearance, we were so touched by people who stopped to give us directions voluntarily ( that at one point, they just feel too strange to be kind), we had helpful taxi-drivers who called up other people for help in directions when we were lost... All in all, I was certainly impressed by the warmth of the Koreans.
And of course in Korea, I could do 2 things among others that I enjoyed most.
1. Eating cheap korean food ( I lurrvveeee korean food!)
2. shop and survey cheap skin care.
Oh yes.... I do like shopping for that matter. But shoes and clothes are often the bottom of my list because of the not-readily-available shops for my bigger than average body (er hem..) and the hassle of trying them on. Epecially in winter. Period.
Bags.. well... I won't say I don't like them but usually that 1 item ends the trip. I mean you can't possibly be shopping and buying like 10 bags a day can you?! Window shopping is no kick to me. If I set out to shop, I better be back home with my arms full of bags of things I really like.
But skin care is different! There are so many things to check out! You could start from the cleanser ( for different skin types), the lotion, moisturier, essence ( for different effects, brightening, tightening of pores, anti-ageing...) then you have the make-up base, fountation and the lip gloss is like another shop altogether!
But basically, skin care regime is something I will never get lazy in ( oh yah, I confess I don't bother to iron clothes at times) But I believe a good skin is the only way to save time for make-up and possibly saves you more money on anti-ageing products in the future too!
Last but not least, had the priviledge to travel with a great bunch of ladies^^ it is always not easy to travel in a group and especially when there were first-time meetings among us... but it was also amazing that we kinda hit if off easily and was so agreeable on where to go.
I am already looking foward to my next Seoul trip.. probably in a few months' time~~
3.29.2010
3.20.2010
I found it!
I always have friends who tell me how excited they feel each time they are at the airport (ready to travel out) and how fun plane rides are.
I never understood that feeling.... because plane rides to me are boring, uncomfortable, drying, backaches etc....
I mean I love travelling to a new country or even home but the fun for me starts only after arrival.
Till today!
I am actually feeling perked up and excited about my flight 4 hours later.
Then I understood why!
I have been taking morning flights all these while and was too simply too sleepy and grouchy in the morning to feel any excitment!
Afternoon flights are best!
I never understood that feeling.... because plane rides to me are boring, uncomfortable, drying, backaches etc....
I mean I love travelling to a new country or even home but the fun for me starts only after arrival.
Till today!
I am actually feeling perked up and excited about my flight 4 hours later.
Then I understood why!
I have been taking morning flights all these while and was too simply too sleepy and grouchy in the morning to feel any excitment!
Afternoon flights are best!
3.19.2010
I am heading for Seoul tomorrow evening!
I have been waiting for this day to come eagerly because I have always wanted to go to Seoul! People caution me that I will get sick of Kimchi and garlic but I don't care because they are on the list of my favourite food!
For the records, I can have kimchi soup everyday, 5 days a week! I love korean fried dumplings, pancakes, tofu soup, bbq meat etc.... this is really the first time I am so excited about going to a new country because of the food. I just wish Japan could offer more affordable korean food here...
Not to mention I am also excited about the spa we should be going to. It is an all-in-one thingie.. You get them to massage you, scrub your back, get yourself warmed in the sauna or hotspring, and cucumber facial apparently!
Lastly not to forget, there will be a mass gathering of people from various countires and different timing! A friend flying in from China, another from HK, 3 of us from Japan but on 2 separate days^^
It is amazing how things work.
My only regret: That carol can't join us!
p/s carol: shin said she is interested to go to seoul someday too! Let's go again ne!
I have been waiting for this day to come eagerly because I have always wanted to go to Seoul! People caution me that I will get sick of Kimchi and garlic but I don't care because they are on the list of my favourite food!
For the records, I can have kimchi soup everyday, 5 days a week! I love korean fried dumplings, pancakes, tofu soup, bbq meat etc.... this is really the first time I am so excited about going to a new country because of the food. I just wish Japan could offer more affordable korean food here...
Not to mention I am also excited about the spa we should be going to. It is an all-in-one thingie.. You get them to massage you, scrub your back, get yourself warmed in the sauna or hotspring, and cucumber facial apparently!
Lastly not to forget, there will be a mass gathering of people from various countires and different timing! A friend flying in from China, another from HK, 3 of us from Japan but on 2 separate days^^
It is amazing how things work.
My only regret: That carol can't join us!
p/s carol: shin said she is interested to go to seoul someday too! Let's go again ne!
3.08.2010
Quite tickled!
Quite tickled by my cousin who fwd the below to me. enjoy!
================================================
The Silent Treatment
A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realized that the next day, he would need his wife to wake him at 5:00 AM for an early morning business flight. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, "Please wake me at5:00 AM " He left it where he knew she would find it.The next morning, the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight.
Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't wakened him, when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said, "It is 5:00 AM. Wake up." Men are not equipped for these kinds of contests.
WIFE VS. HUSBAND
A couple drove down a country road for several miles, not saying a word.An earlier discussion had led to an argument andneither of them wanted to concede their position.As they passed a barnyard of mules, goats, and pigs,the husband asked sarcastically, "Relatives of yours?"
"Yep," the wife replied , "in-laws
WOMEN'S REVENGE
"Cash, check or charge?" I asked, after folding items the woman wished to purchase.As she fumbled for her wallet I noticed a remote control for a television set in her purse."So, do you always carry your TV remote?" I asked.
"No," she replied, " but my husband refused to come shopping with me,and I figured this was the most evil thing I could do to him legally.
"UNDERSTANDING WOMEN(A MAN'S PERSPECTIVE)
I know I'm not going to understand women. I'll never understand how you can take boiling hot wax,pour it onto your upper thigh, rip the hair out by the root,and still be afraid of a spider.
W O R D S
A husband read an article to his wife about how many words women use a day...30,000 to a man's 15,000.The wife replied, "The reason has to be because we have to repeat everything to men..
.The husband then turned to his wife and asked, "What?"
CREATION
A man said to his wife one day, "I don't know how you can beso stupid and so beautiful all at the same time."
The wife responded, "Allow me to explain.God made me beautiful so you would be attracted to me; God made me stupid so I would be attracted to you!
WHO DOES WHAT
A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning. The wife said, "You should do it, because you get up first,and then we don't have to wait as long to get our coffee."The husband said, " You are in charge of cooking around here andyou should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee.
"Wife replies, "No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Biblet hat the man should do the coffee.
"Husband replies, "I can't believe that, show me."So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testamentand showed him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says........ .."HEBREWS"
God may have created man before woman,but there is always a rough draft before the masterpiece.
================================================
The Silent Treatment
A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realized that the next day, he would need his wife to wake him at 5:00 AM for an early morning business flight. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, "Please wake me at5:00 AM " He left it where he knew she would find it.The next morning, the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight.
Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't wakened him, when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said, "It is 5:00 AM. Wake up." Men are not equipped for these kinds of contests.
WIFE VS. HUSBAND
A couple drove down a country road for several miles, not saying a word.An earlier discussion had led to an argument andneither of them wanted to concede their position.As they passed a barnyard of mules, goats, and pigs,the husband asked sarcastically, "Relatives of yours?"
"Yep," the wife replied , "in-laws
WOMEN'S REVENGE
"Cash, check or charge?" I asked, after folding items the woman wished to purchase.As she fumbled for her wallet I noticed a remote control for a television set in her purse."So, do you always carry your TV remote?" I asked.
"No," she replied, " but my husband refused to come shopping with me,and I figured this was the most evil thing I could do to him legally.
"UNDERSTANDING WOMEN(A MAN'S PERSPECTIVE)
I know I'm not going to understand women. I'll never understand how you can take boiling hot wax,pour it onto your upper thigh, rip the hair out by the root,and still be afraid of a spider.
W O R D S
A husband read an article to his wife about how many words women use a day...30,000 to a man's 15,000.The wife replied, "The reason has to be because we have to repeat everything to men..
.The husband then turned to his wife and asked, "What?"
CREATION
A man said to his wife one day, "I don't know how you can beso stupid and so beautiful all at the same time."
The wife responded, "Allow me to explain.God made me beautiful so you would be attracted to me; God made me stupid so I would be attracted to you!
WHO DOES WHAT
A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning. The wife said, "You should do it, because you get up first,and then we don't have to wait as long to get our coffee."The husband said, " You are in charge of cooking around here andyou should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee.
"Wife replies, "No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Biblet hat the man should do the coffee.
"Husband replies, "I can't believe that, show me."So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testamentand showed him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says........ .."HEBREWS"
God may have created man before woman,but there is always a rough draft before the masterpiece.
3.07.2010
3.03.2010
The story goes on...
So now will be part 2 of my blog post on that USA counterpart.
Yes, the one who didn't turn up for the meeting.
I emailed her to confirm our re-schedule meeting and at the very last line, I sort of asked her why she didn't turn up.
As a true blue irritating white ( so I say irritating because there are non-irritating ones around) she said that while she got the timing wrong, she was connected to the PC for 15 mins waiting for us to come online and hence wasting that previous time with her family because it was a sunday. She added on that, the time for our next time meeting is actually out of her work hours and she is only doing it for US because she has lessons before that and she could be back at home just in time to do it.
Before I shot my mouth off again. I do and I really DO appreciate it when people does things out of their convenience for the sake of others. But hey, have some professionalism will you?! This is YOUR job! If you are going to do it, then do it joyfully and not complain and then write a whole load of family-related personal issues to a complete stranger. I really don't understand why they will mingle family issues into work-related emails.
If you think that is a waste of your previous time with your family, then don't agree to do it! It is your right to reject it in the first place. Then of course that will depend on how your company deals with such issues in the future.
In any case... I don't understand why my team, as a complete non-related party to this issue has to step in the middle of their office politics and let ourselves be the vessel for venting their anger.
Yes, the one who didn't turn up for the meeting.
I emailed her to confirm our re-schedule meeting and at the very last line, I sort of asked her why she didn't turn up.
As a true blue irritating white ( so I say irritating because there are non-irritating ones around) she said that while she got the timing wrong, she was connected to the PC for 15 mins waiting for us to come online and hence wasting that previous time with her family because it was a sunday. She added on that, the time for our next time meeting is actually out of her work hours and she is only doing it for US because she has lessons before that and she could be back at home just in time to do it.
Before I shot my mouth off again. I do and I really DO appreciate it when people does things out of their convenience for the sake of others. But hey, have some professionalism will you?! This is YOUR job! If you are going to do it, then do it joyfully and not complain and then write a whole load of family-related personal issues to a complete stranger. I really don't understand why they will mingle family issues into work-related emails.
If you think that is a waste of your previous time with your family, then don't agree to do it! It is your right to reject it in the first place. Then of course that will depend on how your company deals with such issues in the future.
In any case... I don't understand why my team, as a complete non-related party to this issue has to step in the middle of their office politics and let ourselves be the vessel for venting their anger.
And.... just as I was typing this ( half way during break in the office), another example of us being stuck in the middle as a innocent third party while the co. above involves themselves in more internal broil...
back to more headaches.
3.02.2010
Working in a Japanese company….
Or japan is really all about apologizing profusely…
I think I blogged about it sometime ago but it is still something that I cannot accept nor grow used to after working in Japan for 3 years.
(Oh yah it has been 3 years!! 3/1 marks the 3rd anniversary of working in Japan and in my current company!!)
I really hate it. (Hate to use the word hate) when something happens and my colleague tell me, “In any case, let’s apologized first”
I do not hate to apologize. I only detest it when 1. It is NOT my fault nor has ANYTHING to do with me. (I do apologize on behalf of my colleagues) 2. Saying sorry does not SOLVE the problem at all and is only providing the most convenient escape route out. (Some Japanese thinks that once they apologize, they can close the case and not think about remedies or prevention for future possible case.)
Actual case 1.
I wrote an email on behalf of a user to the IT team of HER co in US to request for them to do some setup on her PC. After all the arrangements have been done, the IT personnel just conveniently forgot about the meeting and the user waited in vain for her for 2 hours. But well, since the job is to be done via remote-desktop, it wasn’t really like she wasted her 2 hours anyway. But guess what, she came back to me and blamed me for the 2 hrs wasted.
Hey! I was like “huh??” I wasn’t the one who didn’t turn up. It was someone from YOUR own colleague! Why do I have to apologize on behalf of YOUR own colleague! And the best is that IT personnel didn’t even apologize to me nor explain why she didn’t turn up! She once again, conveniently asked for another meeting. Does my apology solve the current problem of her skipping the meeting? NO!! Will it prevent her from forgetting the meeting again?? Answer is NO!! again!
So I wrote an email again to politely tell her, that while I deeply regretted what happened, I am in no position to guarantee such things will not happen again if her colleague does not cooperate, adding on that we will think of remedies to prevent such things from happening again.
Guess what?
No reply from her.
Ungrateful brat.
OK.. sorry I sounded so bitter. But I think Japanese should just get out of their shell, stop thinking that the world revolves around them. (Hey they do think that they are in the centre of the world)
Stop categorizing people (white are not necessary the best) and start to treat humans as real humans.
And I really don’t see why my life should all be just about apologizing profusely for NOTHING. We need to jiang li.
I think I blogged about it sometime ago but it is still something that I cannot accept nor grow used to after working in Japan for 3 years.
(Oh yah it has been 3 years!! 3/1 marks the 3rd anniversary of working in Japan and in my current company!!)
I really hate it. (Hate to use the word hate) when something happens and my colleague tell me, “In any case, let’s apologized first”
I do not hate to apologize. I only detest it when 1. It is NOT my fault nor has ANYTHING to do with me. (I do apologize on behalf of my colleagues) 2. Saying sorry does not SOLVE the problem at all and is only providing the most convenient escape route out. (Some Japanese thinks that once they apologize, they can close the case and not think about remedies or prevention for future possible case.)
Actual case 1.
I wrote an email on behalf of a user to the IT team of HER co in US to request for them to do some setup on her PC. After all the arrangements have been done, the IT personnel just conveniently forgot about the meeting and the user waited in vain for her for 2 hours. But well, since the job is to be done via remote-desktop, it wasn’t really like she wasted her 2 hours anyway. But guess what, she came back to me and blamed me for the 2 hrs wasted.
Hey! I was like “huh??” I wasn’t the one who didn’t turn up. It was someone from YOUR own colleague! Why do I have to apologize on behalf of YOUR own colleague! And the best is that IT personnel didn’t even apologize to me nor explain why she didn’t turn up! She once again, conveniently asked for another meeting. Does my apology solve the current problem of her skipping the meeting? NO!! Will it prevent her from forgetting the meeting again?? Answer is NO!! again!
So I wrote an email again to politely tell her, that while I deeply regretted what happened, I am in no position to guarantee such things will not happen again if her colleague does not cooperate, adding on that we will think of remedies to prevent such things from happening again.
Guess what?
No reply from her.
Ungrateful brat.
OK.. sorry I sounded so bitter. But I think Japanese should just get out of their shell, stop thinking that the world revolves around them. (Hey they do think that they are in the centre of the world)
Stop categorizing people (white are not necessary the best) and start to treat humans as real humans.
And I really don’t see why my life should all be just about apologizing profusely for NOTHING. We need to jiang li.
3.01.2010
The hype over
Finally... all the hyper is over for winter olympics... I was literally glued to the TV in the past week especially on news of Asada Mao, one of the 3 ladies competing in the ladies Figure Skating component.
You can go google on her.. She was Japan's best bet for a gold medal but lost out to her long-time rival, Kim Yuna of Korea.
Well... though my heart ached really big time for Mao because she had waited a long 4 years for this. 4 yrs ago, though she won the world championship she couldn't qualify for olympics because she was underage ( at 15).
When interviewed about her emotions regarding getting a silver, she tried to give comments that she is happy blah blah blah... but she couldn't contain her tears and she started crying.
This is the first time since I started watching Mao 4 years along unable to control her emotions.
She is usually humble and positive, looking on how to improve herself for the next competition.
But.. what really impresses me.. or makes me a little shameful is when I see how these girls at 19 has such a clear goal in their minds, ( the Korean girl's 19 as well) and how they overcome each difficulty in their performances with unceasing practise.
There was the Tokyo marathon 2010 yesterday and a comment a runner made stayed in my heart.
He said " As long we we do not give up and don't stop running, we are slowly but defintely moving forward."
Indeed... must apply this to my life too.
You can go google on her.. She was Japan's best bet for a gold medal but lost out to her long-time rival, Kim Yuna of Korea.
Well... though my heart ached really big time for Mao because she had waited a long 4 years for this. 4 yrs ago, though she won the world championship she couldn't qualify for olympics because she was underage ( at 15).
When interviewed about her emotions regarding getting a silver, she tried to give comments that she is happy blah blah blah... but she couldn't contain her tears and she started crying.
This is the first time since I started watching Mao 4 years along unable to control her emotions.
She is usually humble and positive, looking on how to improve herself for the next competition.
But.. what really impresses me.. or makes me a little shameful is when I see how these girls at 19 has such a clear goal in their minds, ( the Korean girl's 19 as well) and how they overcome each difficulty in their performances with unceasing practise.
There was the Tokyo marathon 2010 yesterday and a comment a runner made stayed in my heart.
He said " As long we we do not give up and don't stop running, we are slowly but defintely moving forward."
Indeed... must apply this to my life too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)