Vacation Time After 1 Yr on the Road

My vacation continued after I returned from Tokyo.  I went to Wisconsin to visit the parents - well actually more so to see my cat, Bode.  My parents have been able to visit me on my assignments so it's not as though I hadn't seen them in a year - still love y'all though :)  Tax is substantially cheaper in WI/MN than Chicago so I wanted to run a few errands before jetting down to see my sister.

After a visit with the folks, I flew down to Texas to meet up with my friend Kyle, whom I have known since 2nd grade.  Of course, I had to go to Sonic while down south.  If you know Sonic you'll understand - he took me to the only one he and I know to be a sit inside and drive through but no drive up. That evening we went to a really nice wine shop where you could taste wine - I had red and he had port, yum!  Next was a sports bar which was really neat but by this time I could hardly keep my eyes open because I had been going on 3-4 hours of sleep a night for the past few days.  I was in bed by 10pm - glorious!

Oh it tasted so good!

Me and Kyle at the Wine Shop.

The next day I drove up to my sister's in Oklahoma.  I was greeted with a warm welcome from my niece and shy one from my nephew.  He was only 10 days old when I last saw him but it did not take him long to warm up to me!  It was a nice relaxing visit with Ryan, Tina and the kids.  Again, I ended up falling asleep at 8pm the night I arrived because I was so exhausted and I had a little bit of a cold.  They took me to a nice hole in the wall place on the reserve to have delicious Longhorn burgers.  I played Candyland and Pretty Pretty Princess for hours with my niece.  My sister was super excited when we went shopping together and she had no kids - we had fun in the dressing room together making fun of the clothes that didn't fit us properly.  I ended up getting the same sweater as her and we both picked up sunglasses - the same kind no less.  My sister was nice enough to set up an appointment to get my hair done with her hair dresser - it was definitely in need of a cut/color; now we shall see how long it will be until I am able to get it cut again :)

Pretty Pretty Princess - it's like I was in Japan again :-)

My sister, Tina, and I after my hair was done.

More pictures can be found at my Picasa page if you click HERE.

Katie Invades Tokyo

At the Base of the Tokyo Tower

Alright, well I didn't really invade Tokyo rather I leisurely toured by myself and with my friend/co-worker Suzuki, who is Japanese.  I have probably mentioned this before but I love this job because of all the connections world wide you make.  I was able to have a personal tour guide one day of Tokyo - thanks Suzuki!  He took me to the Tokyo Tower; the day was fairly clear but not clear enough to see Mt. Fuji from the tower which would have been cool.  I wanted to find the look-down window they advertised in the brochure and....

We thought this was the look down window....a little disappointed

But then we found the one advertised...happier

I am a HUGE sushi lover and the one thing I really wanted to do above anything else was eat Sushi while in Tokyo.  Suzuki was planning to take me to this place that was very popular but had great quality sushi.  It was definitely popular - a line out the door and curved around the side of the building.  Needless to say, I was excited to have sushi but was not willing to wait in that line...my time was precious and I wouldn't be able to tell a difference anyways.  We walked through the ever popular Shinjuku area and found a yummy Sushi place that you stood while eating.

Shinjuku Area - I made sure to cross diagonally in the crosswalk cause it's legal!

After lunch, he took me to a coffee shop that is the most unique shop I have been at.  Apparently they are gaining popularity where Japanese girls can go and practice English while having afternoon tea.  There were butlers - with penguin flaps on their jackets, rules where we could use our camera but don't capture the butlers.  We both agreed that this shop would be perfect to little girls because they treat you 'like' a princess....I felt more awkward at time - I don't need a butler to escort me to and from the bathroom....go about your business thanks.  The best part was when you rang a bell for the butler, they would stop what they were doing and say "Yes My Princess" loudly...I laughed so hard every time!  Although the tea they had there was fabulous and treats were delicious!

Yes, Yes I am wearing a Tiara

After being completely full from sushi, tea and treats, we walked for a few hours around Tokyo.  We visited the Meji Shrine, although I didn't go to far inside because it would take forever with the crowds of people, took me to a market place that also were full of people so I just looked...didn't have any space to take stuff back anyways.  The next day I walked for hours around the Imperial grounds and gardens.  I could tell that in the Spring time it would be beautiful however it was Winter and everything was brown.  

I liked the Old to New perspective!

My favorite spot in the gardens.

Luckily, Suzuki was able to meet up for dinner again as well as Junpei, another co-worker I had yet to meet who is Japanese.  We went to a traditional Japanese restaurant and I of course had traditional Japan beer with dinner.  I miss the food from Japan!  

Me, Suzuki, Junpei

Shinjuku at night

The short time I spent in Tokyo makes me want to go back and explore more of Japan, I loved it!  More pictures can be found HERE.

Christmas in China and Bringing in the New Year in Seoul, S. Korea

We were RELEASED = China job completed.  No one thought a release would happen in time for Christmas though.  Many people were able to make it back to see families.  Me, on the other hand, well I decided to take advantage of being on the other side of the world to see Seoul and Tokyo before heading back to the States.  I knew I would be able to see my family when I got back - love y'all; thanks for understanding :-) 

Christmas Day was spent in China.  Tom and I had a quite relaxing evening in the lounge at the hotel drinking wine, eating yummy h'ordeuvres and desserts while watching CSI: Las Vegas, and movies Death Race and Four Christmases on TV.

I had never been to S. Korea so I was super excited to see Seoul for New Years.  However, we ended up staying up until 4am each night causing a early afternoon wake up...not the best for seeing the sights but we were still able to enjoy some.  The weather there definitely prepared me for the cold blast I was expecting back home.  The 1988 summer Olympics were held in Seoul and I wanted to see the Olympic park.  Being freezing cold and windy to me who did not have winter clothes, we didn't end up walking around the park but warming up in the free museum - which was really neat and modern however we did find many mis-spellings in the English translations....even mis-spelled Beijing as Beijinf.

The Flame's Still Lite

In front of the Entrance to Olympic Park

In trying to find the Seoul Tower cable car entrance we came across this area that appeared to be an old traditional Korean village complete with an ice sculpture. It was really neat to look at and crawl around....

                               

 
Our New Years was spent bar hopping all night in the area of Itaewon, the foreigners street.  It didn't really feel like I was in a foreign country because everywhere we went was not really Korean.  It was fun and I made sure to eat a late night burger at Uncle Kim's street food!!  Dominic and Luis, who have already been there for a few weeks on assignment, met up with Tom and me in Seoul for new years.

Luis, Dominic, Me, Tom

More pictures of my time in S. Korea can be found on my Picasa page,  HERE.

Interesting Chinese Encounter

Last week I ran out of minutes on my Chinese SIM card and needed to replenish.  On a whim I decided to carry my phone in my hand instead of putting it back in my pocket...seriously, don't ask me why.  As I was crossing the crosswalk a Chinese woman starting waving at me as if she knew me.  She was probably in her late twenties sporting an 80's style Tina Turner hair style, red camouflage T-shirt which read Army, black mini skirt with tights complete with the knee high boots. 

She took me by surprise when she actually stopped me in the middle of the crosswalk.  Since the crosswalks are death traps here in China, I made sure to walk back to the corner as she was rambling to me in Chinese following my lead.  Never once did she speak English even though that's pretty much all I was speaking; I really only knew how to say "I don't know" in that sort of situation.  Even so, most Chinese people do not understand me when I do try to speak Chinese.  She started pointing to my phone and her phone - still rambling in Chinese while I kept repeating I don't know.  I thought she was going to translate something using her phone as many people in the refinery I work at do so often.  With no hesitation she grabbed my phone and put in her number, pressed talk and made sure my number appeared in her phone.  She made motion of calling, while continuing her ramble in Chinese, gave me a hug and then walked off waving back to me.  I made sure to save her number, as Random Army Chinese Gal, in my phone in case she did end up calling.  I figured she wouldn't since our conversation did not get very far on the street...

However, while I was at work that night, she called!  I did not answer the call in time but luckily there are translators here at work.  I had the night translator call her back and talk to her since I could not understand.  Apparently, she thought I looked Russian when she saw me earlier, which I have heard that comment multiple times from workers at the refinery.  She lives in a part of China that is close to the Russian border and she speaks a little Russian.  She wanted to get together with me because I looked very friendly and kind.  She did appear to be a very nice woman but unfortunately I do not have a translator with me all the time and not sure our next conversation would improve any in understanding one another.  Maybe I will run into her again...I mean, how can you miss an 80's style Tina Turner hair cut in China?!

Thanksgiving 2010 in China

I did not think I would still be in China for Thanksgiving but as I have always said with this job....you never know what your plans will be or when you will be leaving from your current assignment.  Just before Thanksgiving I was able to get two days in a row off and took a mini trip to Hong Kong.  It also worked out that I did not have to make the trip alone, Tom was able to join me.

We arrived in Hong Kong late Sunday night and hungry.  Since we had been in China for a while (Tom longer than me, but still...) we were definitely looking forward to eating more Western type food.  Tried Outback Steakhouse but it just closed.  Saw a sign for a Thai place that was open til 3AM but it probably took a good 15 minutes wondering around the area of the sign before we figured out how to get there.  Since Hong Kong is small and expanding, they expand up!  Since both Tom and I had been to Hong Kong before, we were not interested in doing tourist things but more so in getting good food and relaxing.  After sleeping in until noon, we ate Subway for lunch, Haagen Dazs ice cream for dessert, walked around the pier area on HK island, and made our way to the Kowloon side to watch the Light Show at 8pm.  The light show consists of corporate buildings which have lights on timers that go with the music along with lasers blasting from the very top - very cool!

Afterward we met up with Tom's friend Maggie who is from Hong Kong.  One great thing I love about this job is the connections you can make with people.  Tom met Maggie when he was working in Belgium.  You meet people from around the world allowing you to be able to reconnect in other parts of the globe as well!  All three of us went to Outback for dinner and then to a midnight movie - Skyline.  The next day Tom and I went to the grocery store to pick up items we can not get back in Qinzhou along with some Thanksgiving dinner things.  We had kebabs for lunch and made sure to pick up Subway again to bring back with us for dinner.

On Friday the UOP crew had Thanksgiving dinner and celebrated Ben's birthday.  We were able to get Parky to allow us to use his projector at his bar so while eating dinner we could watch some football games on delay.  Combine that with the feast we had made equals just like Thanksgiving back home. Turkey did not make it to the table but I think the meat we did have made up for that.  The feast included 2 pigs, 7 chickens, brats, 50 mashed potatoes which were peeled, cut and mashed by hand, sweet potatoes, stuffing, deviled eggs, green beans, and cranberry sauce.  Definitely had left overs!  While we were eating dinner we noticed a few Chinese people with really nice cameras taking pictures of our festivities - which we had no issues with but found amusing.  Brent ended up doing the 'Chinese' thing and just butt into what they were doing so he looked over their shoulders while they were at their computers.  Apparently they spoke good English and he found out they were posting the pictures and story about our Thanksgiving get together on the website for the town called qinzhou365.net.  All and all it was a great Thanksgiving!

Internet connection not allowing me to load pictures into the text at the moment but feel free to check out more pics from Hong Kong and Thanksgiving  HERE

A Little Late on the Update

I know, I know...I have received many reminders from various people that I have not updated my blog in a while.  I thank everyone for your push and sorry it has taken so long.  In the past 2 months a lot has happened which I will try to shortly sum up and then direct you to my newly developed Picasa page in which you can view more photos.

A week after I returned from Hong Kong my parents were inbound for a visit.  I met up with them in Beijing where we took two full days of tours which included the Ming Tombs, The Great Wall (Mutianyu section), Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, a Jade factory, Pearl gallery, and a Silk factory.  The first day in Beijing was more relaxing; we went to the zoo.  I was super excited to see the Panda, which we did.  Perfect timing in a sense where the Panda played in the bushes before climbing a tree to settle in for his or her mid morning nap.  I was a little depressed with the rest of the zoo however because the animal areas were not kept up too well.  It appeared as though the zoo was in it's prime maybe in the 60's but has not been maintained very well.

After Beijing we flew to Xian to see the Terracotta Warriors as well as the Bell and Drum Tower.  Behind the Drum Tower there is the Beiyuan Men Islamic Street Market where you can buy little trinkets and street food.  I recommend going to this street market if ever in Xian.  I also recommend going to the  Defachang dumpling restaurant (on the 2nd floor) to get a course of 18 different dumplings.  The shapes they come in are very cool!

After my parents left I had to work for the next 2 weeks straight...needless to say I was exhausted.  I told myself I didn't want to travel and do tourist things...just relax.  There isn't much in Qinzhou to do so I hoped a short flight to the island of Hainan. There I stayed at a nice beach resort and spent 4 days just reading and napping on the beach, it was glorious!  Got a lot of sun too - no sunburn though!

The crew here used to be around 30 people but recently the customer released more than half so we are down to 13 people.  That being said the schedule has changed so much where I do not really have a long stretch of days to travel to many places.  I am due to a visa trip so will be heading to Hong Kong again soon.  We have been able to make our own fun around here in Qinzhou though.  I was here Halloween weekend; I dressed up as cat-woman and the guys were dressed in toga's - options are very limited here.  We went out Saturday night and were the only ones in costume however the next night, other UOP people went out, and the bar was decked out in Halloween decorations being that it was actually Oct. 31st that night.

Halloween Saturday Night

GXPC Dinner - Remaining Crew (3 people already gone from this picture even)

 

All and all I have had an amazing time here in China - as I expected nothing less.  Not sure how much longer I will be here or where I will be heading next but I update this as soon as I know more.  Until next time...which I vow to try to not make so long!

View pictures from the past 2 months and before at http://picasaweb.google.com/KatieMarcene 

Visit to Hong Kong - Mini UW ChemE Reunion

This past weekend I made my way to Hong Kong (HK) to visit my college friend, Claudia. Another college friend, Sophia, happened to be in HK at the same time so we all met up for lunch one day. Traveling to and from HK for my first time was just as interesting as the say in HK.

Travel to HK: I worked evening shift until 12:30AM Saturday morning for which I arrived back at the hotel at 1:20AM. My taxi left at 4AM to get me to my early morning flight on time. I had yet to pack so needless to say I did not sleep that night. Since the flights straight to HK were too expensive I traveled to Shenzhen and that is where the journey begins…

Flight to HK – check, went well
Find Bus from Shenzhen to HK – check, able to catch 1st bus
Arrival to Customs to Enter HK – check, waited in line for 1.5 hours
Find Bus after Customs to HK Railway stop – check, it happened to be the last bus I checked
Arrival to Correct Railway stop – check, luckily it was the last bus stop so I could not miss it but it did not drop me off right in front but I had a map to find my way.
Contact Claudia to tell her to come get me – fail, SIM card purchased in mainland China not able to call phones in HK since it is technically international.
Purchase HK SIM card to call Claudia – check and fail, able to buy SIM card but kept receiving a message stating Claudia’s phone was not registered so call failed.

At this point my mind is racing because I have no clue how to reach Claudia and no address to take a taxi to her house. Since HK is more westernized, I was hoping there was Internet cafes someplace close so I could email her. Ask and I shall receive – there happened to be free Internet stations inside the train station! I was able to get a hold of her and she came to the station to pick me up. Only waited an hour and half since I first arrived which I think it quite short.

Activities in HK: Saturday afternoon and evening Claudia and I went around to the shops of HK and I bought a bunch of things – all practical of course or gifts. We ate at this yummy Japanese place where we ordered pizza that used rice as the crust and no pizza sauce. It was delicious. I much rather eat these than American Pizza! She also took me to a place that makes the best dried meat I have ever tasted. I bought about 2kg worth of various meats (pork, chicken and beef) to take back with me and for my parents to try when they come.

Beef and Fish balls with noodles

Best dried meat place ever!!!

Sunday was a day of touristy activity of sorts. We took a bus to Kowloon which is across the harbor from HK and took in the sea line view of the skyscrapers. A ferry ride brought us back to HK and we went to the Victoria’s Peak to see HK from a bird’s eye view. It was somewhat hazy but the view was still nice. Actually the view from Claudia’s parent’s condo was just as nice but just lower down on the hill. After the peak visit we were walking back to take public transit back to the shopping area, we saw a large group of people walking across the road into this park area. It happened to be a peace walk for the HK tourist victims whose bus was hijacked in the Philippines. Tens or thousands showed up for this walk and the street was just filled with people dressed in black and white – quite the site. Claudia and I met up with Sophia for lunch and ate at another Japanese place – yum! That night, Claudia’s parents took us to a real local restaurant that served yummy seafood. It wasn’t a fancy place but the wait was out the door, literally. Luckily her Dad is friends with the manager so we did not have to wait long for a table. I tried for the very first time, squid meatballs and spaghetti with black ink as the sauce. Quite delicious actually but I did not want to eat too much and stain my mouth black. To avoid this problem I squished some beer around in my mouth.

Peace Walk

HK view from Kowloon.

Vitasoy drink keepin' up with the times!

Eating a squid meatball with ink as the sauce.

 Travel back from HK: I was not sure how long to plan for customs clearance on a Monday morning from HK to China so I assumed it might take as long as it did coming into HK. This meant I needed to leave at 5:30AM from her condo to catch the bus departing to the customs point 6AM to ensure on time arrival to the Shenzhen airport. Claudia’s mom arranged the taxi for me and her dad was kind enough to walk me down that early in the morning. The taxi driver dropped me off and I saw a bunch of buses so I assumed this was the correct spot since this location is different than that I got off at when I arrived. The ticket I bought was substantially less than my before and I did not see the company’s logo on the side of the buses in this depot. I asked how to find the correct bus to the Shenzhen airport and they said that they did not take me there. Come to learn that this location is not correct – not the fault of Claudia’s mom but the taxi driver who did not listen to her instructions. The man at the bus depot directed me and pointed in the general direction I needed to go. I reached the corner and there was no way to cross except under the street. I came up on the correct side I wanted – by luck, and started walking towards the building me pointed at. By this time, 6AM was fast approaching and I did not want to miss my bus so I started running. Soon came to realize I had no clue how to get to this bus station terminal. To my luck there was a runner passing me, and 99% of those in HK speak English, so without hesitation I said “Excuse me, do you know how to get here?” as I pointed to the map of the bus location. Without him I do not think I would have been able to easily locate the bus terminal because I had to go inside of a mall, up to the first floor, to the bus company’s desk. I had missed my 6AM bus but there was a 6:20AM so I was all good; I was even able to check into my flight there and obtain a boarding pass!
My timing for getting to the airport was a little overboard. There were absolutely no lines and I had to sit around in the airport for 2 hours. I did not get much sleep while in HK and prior to departing so 2 hours felt like forever! I arrived back to Nanning at noon and did not have to be at work until midnight so I took a cheaper mode of transport back – the bus. However, taking the bus adds an extra 1.5 hours onto the trip back so I didn’t get back until 3:30PM – which only gave me 5 hours of sleep after eating some dinner before going to work.

It was a great adventure and I was exhausted after it was finished but would not have change the experience!

Thanks Claudia for a great time!