Day 11 (My Birthday)

Great day from beginning to end! The day started with an early morning phone call from my sister, Roberta who is at my other sister's (Courtney) house helping to care for Courtney and Ricky's new baby. She and my new niece (Sidney) serenaded me with a happy birthday song (although I didn't hear Sidney actually singing :-). Got to work and did about 2 hours worth of work until me and three of the team members (Michelle, Cherry and Grace) left to spend the rest of the day at Ocean Park (a competitor). The park is built into a mountain and is nearly surrounded by water. The park was fun, not as fun as Disney of course (or as clean, or friendly, etc) and we had a great day. To me it felt like a cross between Sea World (but not nearly as good) and a local fair or boardwalk (but larger and better). Maybe it's a cross between Sea World and Coney Island. I've never been to Knottsberry Farms, but Grace told me that the person who runs the park used to work there and she thinks it's similar. At lunchtime, we went to the park's sit-down restaurant that overlooks the park and the water. Get this - I ordered Chinese food and the team ordered hot dogs and french fries! We all laughed about that. I've attached a few pictures: us at the park entrance, a panda we saw (we didn't get into the dolphin show), view from the cable car (yes another cable car ride - over a mountain this time because the park is separated into two sections and you have to go by cable car) and us on the Raging River ride. We got completely soaked, but it was like 100% humidity, so being wet actually felt good! Problem is that with that kind of humidity, the clothes don't really dry quickly, so I was still wet in some areas at my birthday dinner! (Oh, throughout the day and evening, I received tons of email messages and e-cards, so thank you so much everyone!)

The team arranged for us to eat dinner at an "American" restaurant named Dan Ryan's. It really was American cuisine with steaks, ribs, burgers, fries, salads, seafood, etc. But it also had a few pasta dishes that were good. The menu had a "warning" that alerted people that the portion sizes were American, so they would be large! Once we got the food, we saw that they were not kidding. As the servers were clearing the plates and people were deciding on dessert, Andy showed us a trick where he bounced a cork and made it stand on one end! I'll show it to you when I get back. After dinner, they surprised me with a cake and the servers and team sang happy birthday to me. I've attached a couple of pictures. If you click on the second b-day pic, you can see the little girl at the next table. After the servers sang to me, she sang to me too (by herself)! Everyone laughed, it was really cute. Then, the sever handed me a knife and asked me to cut the cake, so I asked him for plates and forks. The team started laughing at me because I was supposed to make a cut in the cake and then he takes it away, puts it onto plates, and then serves it to each person individually (like at a wedding). Oh well, I'm sure that's not the last time I'll be embarrassed :-)

I thought the surprises would end, but when I got back to my room, there was this beautiful flower arrangement waiting for me in my room from Dale! The arrangement has 12 red roses with other pretty flowers mixed in; some I've never seem before. What a way to end the day! Then I got to work this morning and there was an interoffice mailing waiting for me with birthday wishes inside from Dyann and Mary! Wow, I wonder when they mailed it?!

Day Nine and Ten

Sunday and it was museum day! We went to the Hong Kong Art Museum, the Science Museum and the Cultural Arts Center. It's impossible to see everything, so I bought a 6-month ticket, which cost $50HK (about $7US). Can you believe that? I can go into like six different museums as much as I want to for six months and it only cost $7! I guess Socialism has its advantages; too bad I didn't know about them when I took that 'Socialism versus Capitalism' class in college. I might have argued for the Socialism side :-). By the way, everything is so clean here and crime is nearly non-existent (although fines are hefty and serious crimes are punishable by swift death - no appeals here!). But, it's actually kind of great! At the Cultural Center, we saw an exhibition of a local artist and we got to vote on our favorite painting (his genre was flowers/outdoor scenery). I can go online August 8th to see which painting one. Andy took several pics, so I'll upload them when he sends them to me.

We walked through the world famous Peninsula Hotel which has all the top designers there (Prada, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Versace, Cartier, Hermes, etc). The hotel also owns a fleet of Bentleys for their high-end clientele. We ended the day by going to a happy hour at the Sheraton next door because it had this roof-top floor bar that looked out at Hong King and having dinner at Morton's Steakhouse. Since we're on company funds, we shared everything due to the price (ordered one appetizer, one salad and one entree), but that was plenty of food!

Today was a work day; nothing special to talk about (a few more meet & greets). But, tomorrow (my B-Day), we're heading over to the competition (Ocean Park - similar to SeaWorld) and the team is taking me out to dinner (some American joint called Dan Ryan's that has BBQ, wings, fries, beer, etc; you know all the stuff that the think an American would want :-)

Day Seven and Eight

Day 7, Friday - had my first team meeting (Research and Forecasting). Everyone talked about their projects, so it was great to hear what everyone is working on. Also, I reviewed three reports that were sent out Friday night! Had dinner in the hotel, watched tennis on TV, went to bed early.

Day 8, Saturday - a day of sightseeing with Andy. We spent nearly the entire day at Ngong Ping which is atop a mountain that you can only get to by cable car. The cable car ride is 25 minutes, but it has spectacular 360 views. We had a very clear day, so you could see for miles. We could see Tung Chung Bay (Andy kept calling it Wang Chung :-) and the Honk Kong International Airport. Up top, we went on a "Walking With Buddha" adventure that was a multimedia audio-visual experience that taught us about the life of the man (Guatama Siddhartha) who became Buddha . We also watched a cute kids film called "A Monkey's Tale" that taught children the power of sharing. Then we hiked up to the Big Buddha which sits on top of a steep hill (of course) and has a million steps to get there (of course). We walked around the gardens and Monastery and watched people light incense and pray. Then we explored the shops in Ngong Ping Village and there were some REALLY cool shops: a tea shop for Jenn, a chopsticks shop, lots of jewelry shops, and a massage center. There were lots of food places too, including a Starbucks (which had a line out the door!). After about 4 hours, we boarded the cable car again and headed headed back down the mountain.

We got on the train and headed to the Gold Coast, which is kind of like a beach community, but located in an urban area (I know, it's hard to picture). Since everyone lives in high-rises, there are lots of people, so it feels urban, but Hong Kong is also an Island, so there's lots of water and beaches. The Gold Coast is more like a suburb of Hong Kong. We went there because when Andy was in here three years ago, that's where the temporary housing was, so we figured there's a higher than average probability that I could end up there when I return. The area is really nice and there's lots of reasonable priced restaurants (unlike downtown Hong Kong), shopping, and, there's a beach with a very nice Italian restaurant whose owner remembered Andy and said he hopes we come back! We even checked out the supermarket just to make sure it had all the essentials (beer, decent wine selection, etc :-). Seems like a fun place to live.

Okay, I'm tired so I'm signing off. Tomorrow it's tour all of the downtown Museums day!

Day Three through Six

The work week is almost over and it's been very interesting. But before I get into it, many of you have been asking about pictures. I forgot my camera, so Lori and Andy have been taking pictures for me. Lori leaves tomorrow, so hopefully, if her husband Joe sends me the pics quickly (no pressure Joe!), I'll have them posted early next week. Andy doesn't leave Hong Kong until August 14th, so you'll have to wait awhile for those. Since I'm in the land of shopping (specifically technology, you should see the cell phones and cameras here!), I'm actually going to buy myself a new camera this weekend when I go out exploring (stayed tuned).

Warning: non-Disney people may find this next part boring :-) The week has been great! Lots of Meet & Greets with the clients to understand their research needs/wants. Everyone here is really friendly and committed to making this place a success. Being 12 hours ahead of the East Coast (15 hours ahead of Corporate), allows for a real entrepreneurial spirit here. With not as many layers, everyone here has extremely high responsibility for their work. There's a tremendous amount of passion in senior execs and it's great to see. My team is fabulous (I have 6 direct reports and three of them have direct reports of their own)! They're really young and extremely hard working. They remind me of my team at WDW, except for the really young part (Jenn you're excluded because you are still really young :-). Additionally, most of them have degrees in Statistics. They seem to like me and they're taking me to the competition next week on my birthday (a place called Ocean Park). Oh, I almost forget, in case you were wondering, all IT departments are the same. I'm still having issues with my computer. Call me a stereotyper (is that a word?), but I assumed that IT at an Asian company would be better than an American company, LOL! Also, I took a preview tour of a new attraction that we're going to do a show evaluation on. It was really cool! It is a Zoentrope (there's one at DCA) and it was truly incredible. It will really give guests a surface understanding of how much effort it takes to create animation.

Enough about work! I've been going to the gym pretty regularly, but I got locked out of my room this morning! I went to the gym and when I came back to me room, my key card didn't work! Maybe it got close to my BlackBerry holder that has a magnet. I had to go back to the gym and they called up to the front desk to let me into my room. Good news is that I weighed myself while I was in the gym and I am down two pounds! WooHoo!!

Still eating zucchini and salmon every morning for breakfast. I have Chinese food at lunch and dinner. Lori and I went to the other hotel (the Disney Hollywood Hotel) and we got pizza! Ooh, the pineapples here are fabulous. I eat them as much as I can. Speaking of pineapples, this place really feels like a tropical island. It's got lush scenery, heat and humidity. Everyday the temperature has been at least 33 Celsius (someone please tell me what that is in Fahrenheit!) and sunny.

Well, that's all I got for now, check back in on Sunday as I will have recapped my weekend!

Miss you all :-)

Day Two: Sunday

I had a shrimp dumpling, smoked salmon, zucchini, cheese, bacon, and a small hash brown for breakfast! The food here in the hotel is very interesting because the buffet caters to Asians and people from the West!

We went to the visit to the city of Hong Kong and it was very interesting. At first I felt like an alien because everyone stared at me. But as the day went on I got used to it. It probably would have been better if I wasn't with Lori who is blonde and blue-eyed! We truly stood out, talk about an odd couple :-). We had a great time though! We did a self-guided walking tour of Central HK that is in my guidebook. However, what the tour book didn't tell us was that HK is nothing but hills (think of San Fran but way worse) and to see the sights on foot, you had to climb these incredible staircases! No wonder everyone here is so thin. I probably sweated off 5 pounds and my calves look like oranges! We saw lots of cool things including an aviary, a botanical garden, a green house, a mini zoo, a tea museum, and a kid's fencing competition! And everything was free!

But, the most incredible thing we saw was the scores of women just hanging out in the public areas (I took pictures); anywhere there was shade. I can't even describe to you how it looked. At first, we thought the women were office workers on their lunch break, because they all had lunches and were sitting on blankets, playing cards, scrabble, bingo, etc. But then we realized that there were way too many of them and they were there the entire time we were (4 hours). We asked Joe about it on Monday, and he said they are all Domestics who live in people's houses. Apparently, TONS of people have Domestics and on their day off (Sunday), they all come downtown and hang out together. Most of them are from the Philippines. It was crazy!

Day One: Saturday

Went to the park today and it's wonderful. It's a little smaller than Disneyland in Anaheim, so it has a quaint feel to it. The castle looks small too (but I thought the same thing about DLR the first time I saw it because WDW's is so big!). The rides are a little different, the parades are different; everything is a little different, but it still feels like Disney. I thought the characters were more easily accessible; it felt like there were more of them roaming around. The F&B is all Chinese (I took pictures!), but all of the signage is in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin (known as Putonghua and is the "official language of China).

The Lion King show was EXCELLENT. It was very different from ours and has these flame-thrower/juggler guys and a women that does air ballet swinging from a wire (similar to the red sash guy in Cirque)! Everyone in the show was Asian, except for the 4 main characters (the Narrator, Simba, Nala, and the evil Uncle-can't remember his name -Skar?) who were of African decent. And boy could they sing!! I'm always so impressed with the talent we have in our Parks!

We got back to the hotel (just in time for happy hour!) and then ate dinner at the pool bar. I had this fabulous Thai beef salad, it was spicy, but really good. We drank a few more glasses of wine (with Andy) and then went to bed.

Disneyland Hotel

The hotel is beautiful and looks just like the Grand Floridian! We check in and Lori is on the Concierge level (which has complementary buffet breakfast, nightly happy hour with appetizers and desserts, and a viewing area for the nightly fireworks at the park). The view from her room is of the China Sea (it's spectacular) and the giant maze of shrubbery, just like you see in old movies. Since they're at 99% occupancy, I am on the first floor, but I do have a view of the pool :-)

I walk into my room and I can't turn the lights on (remember, it's about 8:30pm, so it's dark)! I'm fumbling around clicking light switches and nothing is happening. So, I'm thinking, 'great, not only have I been relegated to the basement (the lobby is on the third floor), I have a defective room!' I call the desk and it turns out that I have to put my room card key in some wall unit thing by the door and that activates the switches! It's an energy conservation feature. It's actually pretty cool, because I just grab my room card as I'm walking out the door!