Friday, February 27, 2004

Long Overdue Update

I'm sorry I have not updated recently. Since we got back from Thailand, there has not many new stories to tell. Sure, there have been lots of arguments with taxi drivers. waiters, and people giving me a hard time for no general reason. Haga and I have gone to parties. We also continue to exercise and try to take care of our health. I haven’t gone to any great new restaurants lately. Although I'm impressed with the pan fried pizza we make at home. I still see my Chinese friends and foreign friends. I completed my fourth speech at Toastmasters; "Is the glass half full or half empty?: the Globalization question".

I've started teaching University of Phoenix Online classes again. I also put together a feasibility study (not really...just copied material together) for a Joint Venture project...got paid $250 for 3 hours work...not bad.

We saw a lot of movies. Some of them were not good: The Duelist (1977 staring Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine...I liked it by Haga thought it was dumb), Lost in Translation (very moving), Boys from Brazil (sort of cheesy), Dogville (must see), and American Splendor (also must see).

Some of these movies reflect thoughts/feelings that occupy me. The message of Dogville (in my interpretation… which seems very different from other viewers) was that communities must be held responsible for their collective moral failures. Lost in Translation was about how being in a foreign country can highlight the parts of your life that lack direction or clear meaning. American Splendor is a biographical movie about an underground cartoonist. The cartoonist is an "everyman-ish" not-glamorous guy with a dead-end job who uses writes cartoons (illustrated by R. Crumb, among others) to express his feelings of pessimism, depression, fear, and despair.

I'm sort of depressed today though. I have not found a great job and I have not come up with good ideas for starting my own company. So in some ways, I feel today that life is not progressing more than it was in the States. And this thought makes me bumbed out. I know...it has been suggested to me before to keep depressing subjects out of this journal. Just this once though I want to "unload" my depression bout onto my readership.

So, 2 weeks ago on Friday I was supposed to have an interview with a company...and 15 minutes before the interview- when I was outside getting a taxi - a lady called me up and said that they are in a meeting that is going overtime and we need to reschedule. She would call me back next week. The call never came, although I followed up twice. Today I got her on the phone and she said they already have their candidate. I told her - in a non-intimidating voice - that I felt she conducted herself in an un-professional manner. She started bitching at me on the phone. If she was in front of me, I would have punched her. For real.

Today I was supposed to have a meeting with a German guy for a Marketing Research position (name seems German..I'm not sure if he is German or not). But he never gave me his address or phone number.

The upshot of all this is that I know I have to get something started myself. The downside of all this is that I am cursed.

So what does it feel like to be Jesse when he is bumbed out? Well, He starts thinking of himself as being in a tragic movie. And therefore starts thinking in the third person. Everything starts falling apart. Friends are moving away (literally and figuratively). Jobs will never come / be acquired. He clearly sees how he is pessimistic/ arrogant/ anti-social/ lazy/ stupid/ inept/ blind (literally and figuratively) / flabby / self-centered. He puts on a stone-cold face but feels like crying and he prays that people can't see that. He loses ALL patience with non-friends/family. Which is OK in China...and one thing about China which is somehow suitable to him. He sometimes deals with this depression by just going to sleep. Or, if the depression is not too bad, eating ice-cream helps.

Depressed Jesse should have been a cartoonist like the guy in American Splendor.

Eventually I stop thinking about myself in the third-person and I try desperately to think of solutions to my problems.

For example:
I need to get a registry of all the foreign owned companies in China and contact those companies. I tried to do this 3 weeks ago; I went across town in traffic to the Foreign Commerce Management Department, but they said they sold out of the directories and maybe they will be in stock at the end of the month (its near the end of the month now). And then I got into an argument about why they didn't tell me it sold out when I called them on the phone.

I need to contact ... that guy from Nortel who seemed to gush over me on the phone but has not responded in the last week... those head-hunters I previously contacted...that cool company that said they almost were going to hire me before their CEO was fired for embezzlement... that Chinese manufacturers of solar power cells and that manufacturer of fuel cells, even though these companies are not making money yet...

Maybe I should create some freelance marketing reports. Maybe I can then sell them. And/or organize some sort of seminar where I get sponsors from technology vendors.

I have to CALL Josh and Ingrid (when is the baby going to arrive?)...and Erik and Heidi (and how is their baby?)...and Peter and Annabelle (and Hunter and the new baby to come?). ... Riki and Allison (whom probably don't want to even talk to me because its been so long), and Drew (who last I heard has a good job now) ...and Chris (still in Russia?) ...and Chaz and Carmen (and what are they doing?)...and Bart, Brad, Jeremy, Unagi, Lucia, Matt Seaman, Matt Pitt, Aaron, Anna...oh...and Tony (who should stop worrying, just pack up and travel the world and visit Shanghai while you receive unemployment from the country of France...bastard!)

What else is there to say right now? Passover is April 5th...anyone reading this is invited to my parents house in San Diego...but you need to RSVP. I will probably be there, but Haga unfortunately cannot. The weather is getting a little warmer. I'm excited about taking weekend trips out of Shanghai. Haga's taking golf lessons. I need to get running shoes because I run 3 times a week on the treadmill. On Valentines Day, we spent the y day in a 5 star hotel about 3 blocks from our apartment (we won a free-night stay at a Chanukah party), and we had a good time. Some peasants stole a canister of metal from a local nuclear power plant and took the canister to an unlicensed recycling center which processed and sold it...the canister actually contained radioactive selenium. Peasants also steal manhole covers...so I have to watch out for open manholes when I walk around. Gary Newson - the mayor of San Francisco - makes me proud to proclaim I'm from California and even prouder to say I'm from the Bay area.

Love you and miss you all!

Thursday, February 05, 2004

Thailand II


Tony and Amy on the River Kuai

On Saturday we went up to spend the night on a houseboat on "The River Kuai". The same river which is in the movie. I don't think I saw the movie from start to finish...and I didn't see the bridge. The river was cool. We didn't do much but hang out and talk. And we had some pretty serious conversations. But it was good. Our room didn't have lights; we used a lantern.

Sunday we came back from the river and then had a buffet at the Sheraton. The food was good. We paid very little for it because Amy is well connected. But, like in China, better food can usually be found in cheaper places. At night I saw "Rules of Engagement" on DVD. Horrible movie - don't see it.

Monday we flew to Phuket. Thai airlines commuter flights have more leg room than Eastern China Airlines (and most American carriers). The flight was easy and comfortable. In Phuket, we went down the West coast to a beach called Bang Tao. We stayed in a one-and-a-half star bungalow hotel 5 minute walk from the beach. After we checked in, Haga and I went to the beach and there is where we stayed. The beach at Bang Tao Lagoon was good...not as good as other beaches we saw, but I was so happy to swim in the warm ocean.

At night we went to the Muslim restaurant night market. In general, Muslim food in Thailand is the same as non-Muslim food: spicy bean-sprout mango salads, spicy shrimp curry, fryed stuff. Muslims in Thailand seem slightly more observant than Chinese Muslims...but that is not really saying anything. BangTao seems mostly Muslim. There are prayers played on public loudspeakers 5 times a day (I sort of like that). But no one stops to pray, or closes shop on the Sabbath. Some people wear head-coverings (for men and women) and some don't...and there does not seem to be any issues between people because of what they wear.

In the night market they sell foodstuffs, sandals, shorts, sarongs, army clothes, etc. I noticed that Thai people seem to like military clothes. I believe that Thai people are very proud of military service and fetishize military equipment (like I secretly do), although they are generally not supportive of militarism.

Tuesday I rented a scooter and we went to a beach 5 minutes away. There we hung out all day. I swam and read a book on the beach. We pee-ed in the ocean. We ate deep-fried sweet-potatoes and bananas.





Riding a scooter is very fun. I drive slow and I get nervous around cars. There are some rice farms close to the bungalows. I will not forget riding the scooter, with Haga on the back, passing rice farms on the sides… warm wind… full moon.

Wednesday we went on a snorkeling trip.

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip.
That started from this tropic port,
aboard this tiny ship

We left at 8 am to the other side of the island, where we boarded a boat. There were other passengers:
Millionaire and His Wife/; Taiwanese family - 2 very cute little college girls who couldn't swim, father who spoke Japanese and Chinese with us, mother who wore clothes over whole body to keep out of sun
Movie Star/; 1 single traveling alone Taiwanese girl - she cut her foot open somehow on the boat's propeller)
The Professor: an old German tourist
The Skipper: 14 year old Thai boat boy who made Micah "I'm board" faces the whole trip.
Mary-Ann: that would be Haga
Gilligan: who do you think?
Extras; 2 Italians -one of which was allergic to tomatoes; an American middle-aged guy with rented Thai girl; and a good looking mid-western young American couple.

"for a 3 hour tour. A 3 hour tour"

(Actually it was more like 8 hours)



We took the boat to Phi Phi island. We snorkeled or swam five at five different stop-points. The scenery was beautiful. One of the places we went to was where they filmed the Leonardo DiCaprio movie "The Beach" (I never saw it). On one of the islands was an Indian film crew filming a musical / romantic segment of a movie. The actor was wearing a sleeveless shirt, mirrored sunglasses, pompadour, and scruff ... He was an Indian Don Johnson.

The Taiwanese family kept saying the water was deep, but I didn't feel it was deep - I could see the bottom about 20 feet below. I dived down about 10 feet and grabbed hold of rocks and coral. Unfortunately, I stabbed my figures on a vicious spiky sea urchin on one of my dives.

I'm not sure how healthy the coral was. Most of it was grey. The fish were incredible. All bright fluorescent colors. I saw puffer fish, eel like fish, star fish, small fish, big fish, etc.

We came back at 5:30 PM. Somehow I dosed off during the return trip, even though the boat was skipping on the swells. At night, I went out with Tony to a local bar. We met up with 5 girls; Tony's friends whom he met previously. None of them spoke English, so I didn't really talk with them. It made me appreciate how much more enjoyable traveling is when you can speak to locals in their language. The bar-band was cool. They played a lot of punk rock. We bought a bottle of whiskey for our table, and somehow the waiter kept filling up my glass without me knowing it...so I became rather sick.

On Thursday a slept on the beach and rode the scooter around.

Friday morning, Haga and I rented a boat to go to a local snorkeling spot. The boat was a "long-tail" - a long shallow boat with car engine on the back. We went to a little rocky island off-shore...there were no other boats or swimmers around. Afterwards, we slept on the beach. We ate fried banana fritters, spicy salads, and noodle soup. All good.



Friday night Amy arrived. We hung out at the beach next to the bungalows.

On Saturday Amy and Tony checked into an fabulous expensive resort Hotel- "The Cheti" (Amy got a huge discount because of her connections). Haga and I went to the beach with them by their hotel. Their bungalow had hard-wood fixtures and paneling, ocean-view, fruit basket, modern-art decoration panels, free use of the catamaran boat (not that Amy and Tony know how to sail...and there was no wind in the afternoon…and they were too chicken to let me sail).

I swam out to a water platform about a half kilometer from shore and sunned myself for a 1/2 hour. I'm pretty burned now.

I gave swim lessons to Amy and Tony. I think I forgot how to swim and I definitely don't know how to teach it anymore. I thought I would be able to teach both of them how to swim within an hour...I think I would have needed at least 6 hours to teach them how to swim well. They seemed to appreciate my instruction though. I primarily taught Amy, focusing on breathing techniques and timing. Amy seemed exhausted, but she demanded I continue lessons, so I wound up teaching her for about 2 1/2 hours. There was some improvement. Tony didn't want too much swim lesson. But actually Tony doesn't need much. He has a powerful kick, but his breathing timing was off (and, of course, breathing timing is everything in the water).

At 6PM we got on a taxi for the Phuket airport. We flew from Phuket to Bangkok at 7. We waited until 2:40 AM to fly to Shanghai. Arrived in Shanghai at around 7AM. Took a taxi from Putong. The driver missed our exit and I yelled at him. We got home at about 9AM. Slept until 12:30PM, when we went out to get some Wonton soup. Had to watch out for drivers who don't stop for pedestrians. It was 45 degrees F in Shanghai.

So now we are back. I'm looking for a job. I'm going to start teaching English classes in the mean time and start up teaching University of Phoenix Online classes. I have some interviews with a French company this week; I don't know how that will turn out...they seemed sort of weird and antagonistic when I talked to them on the phone. We like it here in Shanghai even though Thailand is sort of like an enlightened, clean, slightly boring paradise. No cars to run you over or people to argue with there. Overall, this was a great vacation.

Monday, February 02, 2004

Thailand I


At the feet of a giant gold reclining Buda

The feeling of peeing in the ocean is surprisingly pleasant. I do not know how my urine effects the local ecosystem on the beaches of Thailand...but it produces a warm relaxing sensation in my bathing suit.

Right now I'm in Starbucks in Shanghai writing this. I'm having some problems. I felt happy to be home, yet at the same time I felt homesick for San Jose and San Diego. I also immediately missed the warm (maybe a little too warm) sandy sunny beaches of Thailand. I missed how Thai people drive with courtesy. I missed how they don't stare at me or Haga. I missed how they act friendly. (IMHO, every place has friendly people, but Thais, like Japanese, value politeness and they think showing a friendly face is a part of what it means to be polite). I find that I like Chinese people's higher "volume" voice better though. And although I appreciate how complaining is not "cool" in Thailand, I think China is more suitable for me in this area.

OK. So here is the synopsis.

Left on Wednesday the 21st at 10AM. It was the start of Chinese New Years. We left early because we thought there would be a lot of traffic. There was no set fireworks or activities going on; Chinese people generally like to go home on new years, eat (and drink a lot) with family, and maybe watch the cheesy entertainment variety show that the Beijing entertainment authorities put on every year. I think they watch it in the same way I watch the Superbowl - I don't really care about the game, but it stays on during the Superbowl party. Individual contributors were lighting fireworks off all around Shanghai. Because the geography is relatively flat here, we saw fireworks in every direction. I imagined that the fireworks was part of a sending-off party just for Haga and I.

On the bus, we talked with two nine-year old children who sat in front of us. Their family was going to Thailand for vacation. Chinese kids usually seem well adjusted and friendly to me...at least the kids that have brother / sisters (or substitute siblings ) around them. There are also a lot of chubby spoiled single child kids around. If I'm friendly with a child, they always refer to me as "Uncle," even if we just talk for 5 minutes. The kids' parents also refer to Haga and I as Uncle / Aunt. Its sort of nice. Anyway, the kids asked us riddles, which we didn't really understand because our Chinese level is not good enough yet. I tried asking one girl the Riddle of the Sphinx:
"OK. I got a question for you. What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon..."
"Uncle, Its a man! That's an easy one!"

China Eastern Airlines sucks. The food is horrible and there is no leg room. They do have an in-flight magazine with lots of profiles and pictures of airline attendants. Somehow the pretty one's in the profiles seem to be missing from the crew of the plan I was on.

Arrived in Bangkok at 1:30AM last Thursday the 22nd. My friend Tony and friend Amy picked us up and brought us to Amy's house, where we slept.

Did I say this is a synopsis of the trip? I have not even gotten to the trip yet!

Amy is a very cool woman. She is pretty. She is 32 and single (not counting whatever relationship she has with Tony, who is determined to move back to America and be a corporate whore even though he will receive 3000 Euros a month unemployment package for the next two years after his layoff from NEC France). She owns a house in a gated community in a Bangkok suburb. She has a lot of interior design taste. (one exception: there was a ceiling lamp in the guest room which was deliberately paced there so that I would repeatedly hit my head on it). She is well organized, but comes off seeming very casual and laid back. She is inquisitive, intelligent, and warm. If she moved to America, I think she would be most at home in San Diego. She is also a devout Buddhist. I’ve talked with a lot of non-observant Buddhists, Jew-Buhs, and Commie-Buhs, but I think she is the first devout Buddhist I have ever really talked with.

On Thursday we all went to see the tourist spots. We saw some markets, a giant gold reclining Buda, and some other stuff. I'm not impressed with Asian temples: where Amy sees a visage of the personification of kindness and enlightenment, I see power systems, mineral extraction, and idolatry. I gave Amy small doses of my opinion and we had interesting conversations.

Haga and I separated from Amy and Tony for a while. We wound up getting a little lost. And we discovered that taxi drivers and "TukTuk" drivers (basically motorcycle cart taxis) jack up their prices for foreigners. Taxi drivers also shut off their meters, claiming the device to be broken. They try to cheat us while keeping pleasant smiles on the face; Haga and my reactions were more Chinese.

At night, we ate a cool restaurant on the river. The food (and most food we had in Thailand) was delicious, but too spicy. The main foods that I ate were a) mango or papaya salad with mint and an unbearably spicy pepper that I accidentally ate, b) Pat-tai - fried noodles with bean sprouts, mint, and an unbearably spicy pepper that I accidentally ate, c) rice - noodle soup, with mint, fish balls, and an unbearably spicy pepper that I accidentally ate, d) Muslim curry over rice, with chicken, shrimp (somehow Thai Muslims don't have a thing against eating shell fish), mint, coconut, and an unbearably spicy pepper that I accidentally ate.

On Friday we went shopping all day. I bought a Speedo bathing suit, a surfer shirt, and lots of other stuff. At night we fulfilled our dream; Haga and I saw Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

That’s it for today. I'll summarize the next week in the next post.