In Hong Kong

This is not a good sign. I’m currently waiting for my last connecting flight to Taipei at the Hong Kong airport. When I got off the plane from Munich, the humid and warm breeze blew right into my face. Dios Mios. And I’m not even home yet. I know it will be hot, humid and unbearable. But, feeling it firsthand is different. The plane nearby that is boarding right now is heading to LA. Maybe I should hop onto that plane instead.

Another not-too-good sign. I cannot hold a conversation in total Mandarin. Seriously, I left Taiwan almost for a year and a half, hardly been speaking Mandarin. It’s going to be worse then when I was working. Great. Maybe now I can say that my English is better than my Mandarin. (Originally, my Mandarin is as bad as my English.) What can I do in work. Before at Deloitte, it was okay, we use English quite often. But, I don’t think that is going to be the same case with my summer job. I hope they forgive my Chinglish.

Yet, and another not-too-good sign recently discovered. While typing this blog right now, I can see my reflection on my monitor… and… I gained weight. I was suppose to loose weight during the past two weeks so I can pig out in Taipei for two weeks. I actually had a plan, to cook extremely healthy meals, which is not so hard for me. But, I had not considered the fact that we are all (almost all are) leaving, that means, a lot of farewell dinners. Mismanagement, failed projections, wrong model, inadequate analysis… I did better on my strategy midterm than this.

Didn’t I say before that I love Lufthansa. (Remember the incident where Lufthansa moved me to a private jet flying business class?) Add one more too it. Determined to eat as healthy as possible when possible, I ordered a special meal from Lufthansa, a low-sodium diet meal. And my god, wasn’t that good. Either my tongue has changed, or chefs nowadays can cook very delicious diet meals. I couldn’t even tell I was eating a special meal. (And yes, it was low in sodium and low in fat.) They actually have more than a dozen special meals that you can choose from 24 hours before the flight. They even have Indian vegetarian meals. I should try a different one on my return flight. Okay, one draw back of a diet meal on the plane. I AM HUNGRY NOW!!! I got a Twix bar I sneaked off the plane to Munich. Eat or not to eat. I’m not a sweets person.

Hey, I’m so old. My two connecting flight (BCN-MUN-HKG-TPE) is about the same as it was back in college (BOS-DET-OSK-TPE). But it wasn’t this long. I mean, it didn’t feel that long. But just now, on the longest leg (MUN-HKG), I felt so restless. Maybe I didn’t plan well. I didn’t even have a book. Well, I did. I had my Spanish book. But didn’t feel like reading it while LEAVING Spain. When I was in college, I used to fly to Taipei with a friend. Guess that time flies when you are entertaining someone (or being entertained).

Got my 3^rd term results back, better than the second term. Well, up ‘till now, it’s the best term, especially considering that I really, really, REALLY thought that I was going to flunk corporate finance. Hehe, I got a solid B for that course. The only upset was macroeconomics. I was aiming for an A, but a B+ instead. But, considering how bad I was in econ back at Wellesley (despite it being my major), I should be happy. Happy, but not proud. Only thing to be proud of is corp finance. Well, one more thing to be proud of, my first year performance as a whole, even practically all individual courses (except for, hehe, managerial accounting). Sorry daddy, guess after all these years of trying (and working at TNS/Deloitte), I’m not really made for accounting. (Inside joke, ignore it if you want.)

Hey, there is free Wifi here. I’m going to post this blog now.