A Crazy, Crazy 2 Months

Oh boy. It's been one of those 2 month periods when I blogged absolutely nothing. Generally times like these indicate either having an enormous amount of work, or alternatively living a lifestyle characterized by intense highs and lows. In the first instance, I simply don't have time to write. In the second instance, I don't really feel like writing during the peaks, as I feel like I'll come off like Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic,  and don't feel like writing during the troughs for fear of coming off like Leonardo DiCaprio in the prison scene of Catch Me If You Can (couldn't find the clip...unlucky!)

This particular 2 month stretch had a little bit of both, incidentally. So my last blog post came from my Qingming Festival trip to Kuala Lumpur. Since then, I've gone to the Canton Fair in Guangzhou, Las Vegas, nearly took a job in Hong Kong, nearly left my job about 4 separate times, and ended up staying at my job due to a ridiculous set of circumstances.

So the Canton Fair. It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. Basically, imagine literally every single manufactured item you've ever bought from China. Anything you own that says "Made in China" on it. Think about the incredible variety of these items. And think that (more or less) every single one of those manufacturers was at this trade show. Around 50,000 booths. Selling EVERYTHING. Everything from hairdryers to lightbulbs to action figures to pottery to busses, construction equipment, and everything in between. They even had Tuk-Tuks! I'm pretty sure I even saw some kids for sale. That was a lie, and probably not very funny. But oh well. Also noteworthy about the Canton Fair was the McDonald's in the Guangzhou Convention Center. How noteworthy can a McD's be, you ask?

Well picture this--24 counters. And no menus, per se. Just meals A, B, C, and D. Big Mac, Fried Chicken Sandwich, Grilled Chicken Sandwich, Fillet of Fish, with fries. And no drink orders. Just pre-poured, relatively warm, melty-ice Coke. And imagine it being about the size of a 16-car garage. With lines going out the door all the time. We had about 15 people in front of us in line when we walked in. And within about 4 minutes, we were served. Also of note, the meal was 45RMB, or about $7. This might not sound THAT crazy, until you realize that ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY OF CHINA, a meal at McDonald's costs 15RMB, or about $2.50. Price gouging for the win. I would have taken pictures, but when I took out my phone to do so, an employee more or less tackled me saying "NO PICTURES ALLOWED!!!" Is that all? You'd think it would make for good free publicity....

The Canton Fair also amazed me with its diversity. We had people from, among many others, the following countries come to our booth requesting information for product importing: Pakistan, Lebanon, South Africa, Kenya, Bolivia, Venezuela, Mauritius, Kosovo, and one very outgoing and awkward man from the "Armenia-China Friendship Council". It made the United Nations look like the Tokyo Metro at rush hour. After 8 days in Guangzhou that included my first ever experience with real Chinese Hot Pot (pictured below), we returned to Shenzhen. After a few weeks of working in Shenzhen, it was time to head to Vegas for the National Hardware Show.

So Vegas. We went to Vegas during late April/early May for a trade show. Fortunately, one of my best friends from childhood/high school/college, Dan Gannon, lives in Vegas (this to the surprise of my colleagues, as up to this point I've had a friend in literally every single city we've travelled to for work with the exception of Guangzhou). Anyway, so we went to Vegas for a trade show. In short, it involved a ton of working, and hanging out with Dan a fair bit. I got to meet Dan's best friend in Vegas, former World Poker Tour Champion Joe Bartholdi, who I can honestly say is one of the most genuinely hilarious and genial people I've ever met. Definitely the kind of person you'd like to hang around as much as possible, just a really nice kid (I say kid despite his being 32...shocking). He also happened to write a hilarious song called "Fat Chicks" that he performed in a bar. If I ever get a dying wish, it will be for him to upload it to YouTube. One of the funniest things I've ever heard. Vegas involved a fair bit of gambling (on the trip I was up about $150US, which was excellent), and a fair amount of shopping. Funny side note--one of my bosses wanted me to come with him to the Louis Vuitton Store in Las Vegas. I'd never actually been into a LV store.

"Are you going to get your wife a gift from here?", I asked, with some surprise. It should be noted that this guy definitely makes pretty damned good money by China standards, but as most LV handbags/products don't go for less than like $1,000, it still seemed excessive.

"No, I need to get the gift for a friend of my wife's sister."
"Well that's interesting. Your wife's sister's friend must be very rich"
"No, they're not. They are having me buy it for a local government official as a bribe to get their child into the best school in their province"

Welcome. To. China. In the 21st century. Bribes no longer are limited to just cash. Louis Vuitton merchandise is now considered perfectly legal tender for the perfectly illegal act of bribing Chinese officials.

The per capita GDP in China is around $5,400US. The bag cost $1,300.

Wow.

I returned from Vegas about a month ago today, and what a month that's been. I had an interview for a pretty interesting job opportunity in Hong Kong, and nearly left my job here to pursue other opportunities until my boss made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Around 20 May, time had come for my "6 month salary reevaluation", or some such thing. I went into my bosses office and reminded him of this, and he bode me to take a seat. Overall, it was a pretty excellent conversation--we spoke first about the fact that adjusting to life in Mainland China had been a bit more difficult than I'd expected, how there had been several times that I'd nearly left work here to return to the US, and the like. At one point I asked if I could start to go home at Christmas.

"Of course, I'm happy to pay for you to fly back to Chicago at Christmas for about a week or so."

Well that makes things a bit easier.

We then got to the point where we were going to talk about my future here. Regarding salary--he made a solid raise offer. I asked for an asinine amount more than that. Basically, I asked for what I'd be making in the US. Only I'm working in a country where, as I mentioned a moment ago, the per capita GDP is $5,400. Not $47,000, as in the US.

He was a bit taken aback by this request, and asked if he could think about it for a few days and get back to me. I said that was just fine. We continued to chat for another 5 minutes or so, at which point he asked me

"Well, if I give you this amount of money, what are your future plans? What do you want to do?"

"I suppose I'd stay here and work for you guys in China for a couple more years, then go work for you guys in the US for a couple years, then around age 28-29 go get a masters then a PhD then go into academia"

Something about that answer must have really pleased this very heroic and very wealthy Chinese man, because his next sentence was

"Well, I've thought about your raise request. And really, the money means nothing to me. And since you've started working here, I don't know why, but I've always liked you. Even when you've acted unorthodox, I've always thought it was interesting. I've always thought that you've been a very good addition to the office. So I'm OK with it."

Win.

The next day he decided to give me some more work responsibilities. I am now completely in charge of our company's expansion into the Australian market. I am going to be heading to Australia about twice per year (this coming year looks to be October and February), and will be setting up our entire operation there. This, in addition to the 3 times per year to the US and once to Germany means I'll be racking up a sadistic amount of frequent flier miles (probably around 100,000 per year), and will be able to take occasional much-needed breaks for living in the PRC. Overall, could not have gone better.

So that's about where I'm at now. A long post, surely, but it's been an eventful 2 months. A week from tomorrow, we leave for a 5-day company holiday to Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Shanghai, a trip where I'll get the chance to see a couple of friends in Shanghai, which will be nice.

Also random recent note--was able to spend this past Saturday night in Hong Kong with none other than Martin "Luther" Zech, an old friend from HKU who just finished a dual masters degree program with Sciences Po (Paris) and Fudan University (Shanghai), and Ben Don, another friend from HK/my trip last summer to Thailand/Cambodia. Martin brought 2 of his cousins to HK, and we showed them a night on the town, involving Wan Chai, trying to break into the Wan Chai Haunted House, and 3am dim sum (photo at right of Sir Ben Hibbert's favorite dish, whatever it is). Overall, an excellent trip town memory lane with a couple of old friends.

On the travel horizon, apart from next week's company trip, I'm hoping to sneak away to either Tibet or Bangladesh sometime in the next 3 months or so, before heading to Cologne, Germany, in September, then Sydney/Melbourne in October. Should be good.

Below are some more random photos from the last couple of months, including a gentle reminder from the phenomenal translators at the Canton Fair, a horribly iPhoto-edited shot of Shun Hing Square at night, and some other shots of Shenzhen. Cheers if you've read this stupidly long update, will try to be more consistent!

You'd better enjoy it in 2 hours.

Shun Hing Square. Must say, the building is starting to grow on me.

Shenzhen Metro. Don't even think about bringing on balloons. Don't even think about it.

Shenzhen City Hall after a rain. My office is the middle skyscraper on the left

Really interesting actually, there was a book in the Shenzhen Central Book Mall titled something to the effect of "The History of the World In 100 Objects", the book had been put together by the British Museum (without question the greatest museum in the world, and with a whopping $0 entry fee, also certainly at least tied for least expensive!) using 100 objects in their archives to show the history of the world. #100 was a solar-powered lap and charger manufactured in noplace other than....Shenzhen! 

Area around Masjid Jemak RapidKL Station, Kuala Lumpur, from 2 months ago. I enjoyed it.

Saying Goodbye to Sin City, on to LA: 30 Days of Blogging, Day 14

So as it turns out, today is my last full day in Vegas. It was a pretty solid day.

Started off the morning by booking a bus ticket for a Greyhound for $42.00 to get me to LA tomorrow afternoon. Will be leaving about noonish from Vegas and arriving in LA about 5:30, so shouldn't be too bad, particularly compared to some of the bus rides I've done in Southeast Asia (a one Kellen Hill may remember a particular ride from Phnom Penh to Bangkok during which the bus broke down at 4:00am on the side of the Cambodian highway. Alternatively, he may also not remember that bus ride). Anyway, so booked a pretty cheap bus ticket, so pretty pleasing. It also leaves me with a few days in LA to visit with some friends, which is always good.

After booking the bus tickets, Dan, his dad, and I went out to the desert like 20 miles east of Vegas and shot off some rounds of his shotgun. I was pretty surprised at the amount of recoil that the gun had, although it was a pretty awesome experience overall, just going out into the desert and shooting at various things. For lunch we went to a fantastic Asian buffet, I had a lot of kimchi.

This afternoon while at the Aria, I got a phone call from my friend Mike, a jazz pianist living in LA. Mike had previously contacted me about my coming out there, and had offered to let me stay on his couch while I was there. We chatted for a bit, and it seems that he'll be picking me up tomorrow night in LA and showing me around for a few days. It managed to work out remarkably well, as Mike's schedule is very open on Mondays-Wednesdays, and quite busy Thursdays-Sundays, and I'll be in LA from Monday until my flight to HK on Thursday. Consequently, Mike has volunteered to be my tour guide around LA for a few days, which should be great. Will also hopefully see the lovely Miss Catherine Bumble and her legend of a boyfriend Maximus, who both live in LA. Given that I haven't been to California since I was like 2 years old, I have no idea what to expect really, but I'm sure it'll be a great couple of days.

The sports bets today went pretty iffily (apparently a word I just invented). I had a ridiculous parlay bet for $5.00 at 150:1 odds to predict 8 NFL games correctly on the lines, which, unsurprisingly, failed miserably, so I really didn't care much about that. However, the $50 bet I have on the Cards to win the World Series at -115 got significantly less promising when the Cardinals lost 4-0. That said, they're still tied 2-2 in the series, with 2/3 games at home left to be played, so I've still got to be a favorite on that one. Also got pretty destroyed when I took Indianapolis at +800 against the Saints (i.e. 8:1 odds on my bet). The Colts lost 62-7, though I still feel like they had to be better than an 11.11% to win that game (which would make it a decent bet). And even if they weren't, any NFL game that offers 8:1 is probably not THAT bad--particularly when the team that's an 8:1 dog was like 11-5 last season, and only lost their best player (in theory, their defense should still be respectable. Apparently not, however, as they surrendered a staggering 62 points this week).

Anyway, so not a great day of sports betting, but still a very successful trip on that front financially, so I'll definitely take it. Other than that, again, heading to LA tomorrow, should be pretty good. Hopefully I can come up with something more insightful to write about tomorrow, as it'd be pretty boring if I just wrote about my day, given that I'll be spending 6 hours of it on a bus, so we'll see. See you all tomorrow, have a good one folks.

Lots of Gambling, Mountain Climbing, and Asian Food: 30 Days of Blogging, Day 13

Alright so I've now been in Vegas for like 5 days, and it's been pretty fantastic. Today was a pretty excellent day as far as gambling is concerned, I put $50 on Clemson at -10.5 at -110, and they won by 21, which more than covered the spread. I'd also put $20 on St. Louis through 5 innings with a push if it's a tie at +165, which worked out very well, as STL was winning 8-6 after 5. Their win also made my $50, -115 bet on the World Series overall look a lot better.

Last night, Dan's parents arrived for the weekend, which was pretty great. Given that his mom is Japanese, and his dad travels to Japan a lot, we ended up going to a pretty phenomenal Japanese restaurant in the Chinatown neighborhood of Vegas. I just had Dan's mom order for me (unsurprisingly, in Japanese), and the meal ended up being magnificent.

Today ended up being a pretty solid day. This morning, we met up with Dan's old math professor, Dr. Saad, and one of his students, as they were here for a math conference. We decided to take them on a hike up Sunrise Mountain, a mountain immediately behind Dan's house that offers incredible views of Vegas. Unfortunately, the only footwear I had other than a nice pair of Hush Puppies was my flip-flops, so I climbed a really rocky mountain wearing flip flops. I lost a considerable amount of blood. Overall though, it was a pretty awesome climb. Dr. Saad is Lebanese by ancestry, and was telling us that when he was younger living in Lebanon, they lived in a very mountainous desert area similar to Vegas. Consequently, despite being a 50 year-old man, he was by far the most adept climber, and pretty much put us all to shame. What an absolute legend, really.

After the climb, we played a poker tournament at the Aria Resort and Casino, which is literally the most ridiculous building I've ever seen (seriously, have a look at the link, just an unbelievable engineering feat). Dan's dad bankrolled all of us for 50% of our winnings, and both Dan and I were knocked out after several hours. Pretty disappointing overall, but still a pretty cool place. Following that, I went over to the Wynn to hang out in the sports book area and watch the World Series game while Dan played poker in the cardroom. A note on the alcohol served in Vegas casinos-- it's all free if you're playing cards, and it's all top shelf. For example, the other day I was asking a player next to me at the poker table if he supposed they'd be able to make me a vodka/tonic with Absolut vodka, and not charge me for it (as I was under the impression that Absolut was a pretty solid brand). He replied saying that he'd be absolutely shocked if this casino even carried any vodka that was worse than Absolut, and that it would be bottom shelf for them. And that yes, they would without issue give me free drinks with Absolute vodka in them. After awhile we got a call from Dan's dad saying he'd been eliminated from the tournament, so we went to dinner at an all-you-can-eat Korean barbeque, which had to be one of the top meals of my life. Really just unbelievable. Definitely a big, big fan of kimchi (incidentally, we were discussing earlier today what foods we would choose if we were to only have two different foods for the rest of our lives. My answer was kimchi and french fries, which I feel is a pretty awesome combination).

Anyway, so the plan for tomorrow is for Blaine Curcio to shoot a gun for the first time ever. We're going to head into the desert a few miles outside of Vegas with Dan's dad and shoot Dan's shotgun a bit, which should be interesting provided no one gets shot (and frankly, even if someone gets shot, that would certainly make things more interesting. Also more tragic). Again, I've never shot a gun in my life, so I assume I'll be pretty incompetent at it, but eh, definitely something that should be done at least once, and what better place than the desert near Vegas.

Interesting to note the staggering number of Asian tourists here. I'd have to wonder why they bother to come all the way to Vegas when Macau is so much closer to Asia, and also just out-of-its-mind in terms of gambling excellence. I suppose it's very possible that a lot of the Asian tourists are actually Asians from California, but I haven't really seen anything that would imply that. Either way, lots of Asians here.

Tomorrow, Dan and I have an absurd parlay bet which essentially involved picking the results of like 8 different NFL games, and if you get them all correct the payout is approximately 150:1. Dan put down $100, and given that I have no interest in betting very much money on a 150:1 shot, I put down $10. If nothing else, every single line that we bet on has either stayed the same or moved in our favor since placing the bet, so we'll have to see how that all works out. Needless to say, if that does win, I'll be pretty freaking pleased.

Plan is to leave for LA on like tomorrow night or Monday morning, hang around there until Thursday (still have no idea what time my flight to Beijing is--should probably check that), then fly to Beijing--->Hong Kong on Thursday sometime. Should be pretty great getting back to the greatest city in the world (speaking of which, today Dr. Saad and I were discussing our favorite places that we've been to--he's been to a number of countries in Europe, Asia, and the Americas and said that his favorite cities are Rome, Istanbul, and Paris. Certainly respectable choices on the first two, I'd imagine Paris is also a pretty good choice, but having not been there I can't really make a call on that. However, Rome and Istanbul are both pretty unbelievable cities. When he asked me what my favorite cities were, the very obvious first choice was Hong Kong, and after thinking for awhile, I decided to go with Seoul and London as 2/3, which I feel are pretty respectable choices. Now watch as the 4 people that read this blog all go to these cities, and there is a consequential huge increase in tourism!)

So that's about it for now. Will hopefully think of something insightful to write about tomorrow, as the last couple of posts have been pretty straightforward and just summarizing what I've been doing out here. Thanks for reading, see you all tomorrow.

The Process of Buying a Gun in Las Vegas, and Other Assorted Musings: 30 Days of Blogging... Day 12-ish

So I've skipped a few days of blogging due to travel/being quite occupied in Vegas, so I'd like to offer my sincerest apologies for those who have been enjoying my 1-post-per-day shpeal.

Anyway--some interesting highlights from the first few days in Vegas. Most notably, my friend Dan, who recently moved out here, has decided to buy a gun, due to the fact that Vegas is a ridiculously dangerous city with a LOT of home break-ins. Given that Dan lives alone in a huge house not far from the Strip, he felt like a shotgun would be a wise investment. Now my opinion on guns is pretty indifferent, I don't really care about gun ownership one way or another, I think the chances of me ever owning a gun are pretty damned close to 0%, and I think that there should probably be a pretty high level of accountability when it comes to who can/can't buy guns. The process here in Vegas was just absurd, and I feel like many of my friends in Oz/UK are just going to be completely shell-shocked by this.

Basically, all he needed was an ID. We went to a place called "The Gun Store" (pretty hilarious/convenient name, must lead to an unbelievable amount of hits on Google), and Dan asked the guy behind a counter what type of shotgun he'd recommend. Within literally 45 minutes, we were walking out of this store with a shotgun and 30 shells.

The guy asked a few questions, i.e. where does Dan live, has he ever had a criminal conviction, and is his driver's license current. The answers "Vegas, no, and yes" were apparently sufficient, as he informed us that we could buy a gun and walk out of the store with it today. After going over the ins and outs of various shotguns, he had Dan fill out a pretty brief form, did a background check, and ohbytheway, at NO POINT DID HE ID ME AT ALL. Now granted, if Dan were buying the gun for me, or if I were a criminal or terrorist, I probably wouldn't walk into the store with Dan when he bought the gun. That said, you'd still think he'd at least make sure that I'm 18, or that I'm not a criminal/terrorist. But apparently not. A pretty absurd process if you ask me, but welcome to Las Vegas!

So apart from the gun-buying, it's been a fantastic 3 days of free alcohol and gambling. Currently have some good sports bets out, and was up considerably in poker before getting all-in last night with AT on a board of AT9 and having the guy call with T9 and catch a 9 on the turn for a boat. Got to love losing when you get all-in as a 90-something%, but at the same time what can you do. Have also been able to have some Raising Cane's chicken here, which is literally the best chicken in the world. Have yet to decide when I'm leaving for LA, probably Sunday or Monday, we'll see how things go I suppose. Flying to Hong Kong in 6 days, should be magnificent. Interesting to note that everywhere in Vegas has slot machines, including fast-food restaurants, the airport, and gas stations. Pretty hilarious. Also, there's an "Occupy Wall Street" protest going on at the strip here, a lot of people dressed like the guy from V for Vendetta. Definitely holding up traffic quite a bit. Today Dan is giving a speech at a math conference at UNLV, presumably I'll have a few stiff drinks and watch that this morning. Certainly I'll have no idea what he's talking about, given that I'm not at all familiar with high-level mathematics, but we'll see how it goes.

Generally speaking, things are going well, weather in Vegas is fantastic and again, getting ready to head off to Hong Kong. Will hopefully get back on track with the 1-blog-post-per-day goal, I suppose we'll just say the multi-day gambling/free alcohol binge which led to no blog posts was just a bit of a break from the writing. Apologies for anyone that was hoping for blog posts the last few days, see you all tomorrow.