What, no Letters?

Because nobody ever sends me a random greetings card or snail mail letter or the like, I usually check my letter box about once a fortnight (we're so English here in Malaysia), that's check my mailbox about once every two weeks. :) Anyway, I had ALL of my household bills arrive on this one occasion. How mean is that? Anyway, I'm sitting here all irritated like because it seems like so much to me. Then I did the conversion to US Dollars and decided to quit complaining. :) Just for your amusement, I thought I would post what household bills I have and what the rate in USD would be. Here they are:

Water - 2 months: $6.00
Broadband Internet 2 months: $77.10
Electricity 1 month: $202.90 (I run my air conditioning 24X7)
Gas (cooking) 6 months: $8.70
Sewage 6 months: $13.91
Satellite TV 1 month: $31.30
Total Household Bills: $339.91

Now, looking at the fact that I live in about 1500 Sq Ft. condo in a hot and humid country, that's not too bad. Why is it that I complain so much? Probably because it looks like a lot more when I'm making out the checks and total 1,172.69 Ringgit. That just seems like too much money to me. :)

Since Temaire decided to post random apartment/condo drama, I thought that I would do the same:

To understand this story, you have to know that culturally, the Chinese people are different than the rest of the world. I mean, that makes sense, right? I'm not saying that it is good or bad, just different. Part of the difference is that it is culturally driven to be first at everything. This is easily seen not only in Malaysia, but America and China as well. I mean look at it, who is the top of the class in School? Chinese. Who is the top ranked country in Olympics? China. When there is a line to make a right hand turn (Malaysia mostly) who will go to the front of the line and block traffic in the through lane to try and butt in to line and be first group to turn right? Nine times of ten, Chinese. For those of us who are not Chinese, this can be frustrating!

So, last night after work, I'm standing in the lobby of my condo, waiting for the elevator to arrive because I don't think climbing 28 flights of stairs sounds fun. :) There are three Western guys there and the other two (Auzzies I think) were talking a lot of nonsense that I couldn't understand (throw a shrimp on the barbie). As the elevator door opened, the occupant had his whole house, so I moved to the side to give him room. There was about 6 inches between me and the wall. When the guy on the elevator got off, the Auzzies started to get on when all of a sudden...I'M PUSHED OUT OF THE WAY. Literally, the Chinese lady PUSHED me out of the way to get between me and the wall and squeeze her way on to the elevator before me! She literally moved me a few steps to make way. She made me drop my phone which was in my hand and my backpack slid off my shoulder and luckily didn't drop on the floor (laptops don't like that much). While I was bending down to pick up the phone and muttering something about her being a selfish cow, she said to the other guys (who were in shock and horrified) in a not nice way, "He's too slow and I have to pee!" She then pushed the closed door button so that I would miss the elevator. As the door was closing, I shoved my hand in the way and climbed on the elevator. I explained to her, that if she did that again, I would file a compliant with the condo association and have her fined for being "discourteous." She again started to snort some witty reply to which I responded by......yes, you guessed it....pushing the button for EVERY SINGLE FLOOR in the building. She lives two floors above me. The Auzzies responded with belly busting roars of laughter. It was beautiful. Now, before anybody tells me I should be ashamed of myself for being racist or bigoted, please know that I'm far from that. I have great respect and am awed for the Chinese people, their culture and language. This one particular cultural aspect is "quirky" to me. But I'm sure that there are tons of things that the Chinese find "quirky" about Americans or Westerners. Can I get an Amen to that? :)

OK, now I'm waiting for the McDonald's McDelivery guy to show up with my fillet (pronounced fil-at in Malaysia) of fish-like substance and fries. I love that McDonald's delivers 24X7. Now if we could get the Thai place on the corner to do the same :)

Ciao!

-S

Saber Toothed House Crickets

OK, to understand the title, you have to remember that I lived in Manila and toured all over the Philippines staying in...umm...less than ideal hotel conditions. However, I go to Shanghai one time - staying in a five * hotel and what do I get? Yes, you guessed it...BED BUGS. LOVELY! So, I have had to disinfest everything. My sheets, comforter, clothes, dog's beds, dog toys, backpacks, suitcases, suits, EVERYTHING. I also had to get some anti-bug (flea, tick, scabies, bedbugs, etc) shampoo for the dogs. Thank you very much, that was 50 bucks. Anyway, we'll see if I've managed to kill them all. :)

I've been home for four days and I'm just barely getting around to posting some pictures of my trip. All in all, it was a VERY good time and I wouldn't trade it for the world - even if I did get bed bugs and my legs look like I've got some advanced form of a flesh eating disease. :)

Yummy Chinese Food

Random Shanghai Buildings

Not Sure what a "tunned" is, but suppose they mean "tunnel" :)

The Bullet Train at 401 Kilometers per Hour

Travelling at 431 KM/h (268MpH) *Shanghai Countryside*

Shanghai really was a great experience that I wouldn't trade for the world. My only regret is that I wasn't there long enough and the time that I was there a lot of it was spent in a conference. :( I want to go back when I have more time to leave the city and tour some of the country-side. I was able to make some friends while I was there that would be willing to be my tour guides, so now I'll I need is a bunch of money and flea collars for my bed. :) Any trip back to China will have to wait until I have a chance to go to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand - in that order.

Ciao,

-S

p.s. for those of you who have asked, my INR (coumadin) levels are fine. I was checked just before going to China at was at 2.5. I also checked on Friday (when I got back) and I'm at 2.5 :) thanks for being concerned!

-s

Shanghai Noon

So...I had to scurry home for this post...you notice that I'm following a movie trend for my post titles?

At any rate, had a busy morning looking for a place to eat...found one. They serve Chinese food! :) We we're looking for Dim-sum but couldn't find any. When we got back to the hotel - because I had to change t-shirts as I was sweating like a dang pig; we asked where there is dim-sum. The hotel guy said, "Ummm...everywhere!?!?" When we exclaimed that we couldn't find any he said, "oh ya, in Shanghai to get to restaurants you have to look up. All the restaurants are on upper levels of buildings and so is their signage." OK, that's not exactly what he said, but I had to translate from broken English to something that made sense. :)

Anyway, I've changed my shirt (and washed my pits) and am ready to go out after a quick nap. I have to elevate my legs as my cankles are the size of tree trunks right now. :( Times like these are the only times that I hate having this clotting issue and being on Coumadin. :( The price that one pays to stay alive hehehe

OK, will post pics this evening

Ciao,

-S

Shanghai Express

Well, I'm here safely and soundly - well, safely anyway. :)

To Temaire - I'm glad that I'm on here again too. Too bad you didn't see my previous posts, they were...well, just marvelous. Thought of you on the plane here today as they played steel magnolias in Chinese...kinda not the same. :-/ I too hope that I am able to see everybody BEFORE 2 years...haha...will for sure be after the 1st of 2009.

To Katie - if you had my friends, you'd moderate too. :) I actually had the experience with the business card thing today and you're right, it is strange. Of course, I thought you you whilst I was eating my Chinese food. The reason that I thought of you was because of the fish with the head, fins and tail included and how much you weren't impressed. LOVED IT! Did you know that they look at you weird if you ask for, "Chinese food?" The funny hotel concierge - luckily spent considerable time in USA - said, "just ask for local food. People will look at you funny if you ask for Chinese food - Mainly because all food here is Chinese." HAHAHA - funny guy him

I am loving the weather here as it is about 80 degrees with 75% humidity. It's a dream compared to what I'm used to. :) Of course, I'm still sweating like prostitute on confession day, but it is cooler temps here. I am GRATEFUL that I'm not here in December when the white flaky ick will fall from the heavens.

Tomorrow, we're going to do some more touristy type things here in Shanghai and pretty much wear ourselves out so that we're don't go crazy during the conference - we'll welcome the rest; to be sure.

I've taken a TON of pictures here but I'm too lazy - no no no I mean tired - to post them here now. I'm sure tomorrow I'll make time to post a ton of pictures. The items on the agenda for tomorrow will include temples/churches/pagodas/ancient Chinese secrets - no no no I mean culture. :))

One last note, I got an email from Terry yesterday saying that Jessica's Chase was pretty seriously hurt in an industrial sized accident in their not so industrial sized kitchen. So sad to hear that he's hurting and has to go through all of that being so young. Every time I think about it though, I'm grateful that he and nobody else was more seriously injured. Hopefully they make decent toddler strength pain relief (my mouth hurts thinking of the poor little guy).

Ciao

-S

p.s. please utter a tinsey little prayer for my back as this bed is soooo hard. I think that it is made of cement with a bit of fabric on top to fool me. :(
-s

Shanghai (mid)Knights

For those of you who visited by blog before, i have deleted my old posts from the Philippines. Sorry, but it wasn't nice to have it jump two and a half years to the present not knowing what happened in between. Therefore, I made the decision to get rid of it. :)

So, I'm leaving for Shanghai China tomorrow morning AT 2:30! I think I saved about 20 cents by booking this flight - it seemed a good idea at the time. :) Anyway, I will have to drive to the office and drop my car and catch the last train to the airport by 12:00. On the way back I will have to get a taxi/limo to bring us back because we land after the last train for the night.

I had to go to the Chinese consulate this morning to fetch my passport and visa to enter the country. Yep - you guessed it - Sherwin (co-worker) and I waited until the last possible moment to get visas. I'm still trying to figure out why it costs more to process my visa than it does his. Being Filipino, he only had to pay RM130 whereas I had to pay RM430. It just doesn't seem that it should cost 3.3 times for an American than for somebody from another country. The extra fee only applies to Americans and no other nationality. So, while I'm complaining about the cheating in the Olympics, I'm also to complain about that. Also, they don't tell you about the fees until you're to pick up your passport. What am I going to do, let them keep it? It's not like I can just say, "forget it, it's not worth it." A passport is pretty important when not living in your own nation.

Luckily enough, Shanghai is in the same time zone as KL so I won't suffer the whole jet lag thing like I did when I returned here from the USA. When I went to the USA a couple of weeks ago, I had no troubles at all. I landed in SLC about 8:30 or so and stayed awake until about 11 or 12 and then crashed until the next morning. When I woke up, I was fine and didn't suffer at all. When I came home to KL, I landed at noonish and then was screwed up for a week! I couldn't sleep at night and wanted to crash all day at work. So as I was saying, that shouldn't happen on this trip unless I can't sleep tonight on the flight. Luckily we're in business class so we should be able to get *some* sleep?

So, we're going to Shanghai for a conference which is on Monday and Tuesday of next week. We're land EARLY tomorrow morning (Saturday) and will have the whole of Sat/Sun to just do whatever. Hopefully, we can get some cool touristy things done. Also, our flight is late on Wednesday so we have that day as well. :)

I'll try to post some pics while I'm there in China but if not I will as soon as I get back. Maybe I'll see something there (other than good Chinese food) that I just can't do without...we'll see.

Cheers!
-S