Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Well here I am in my room chilling for the first time in what seems like well maybe a week.
Kuba's birthday was yesterday and we had cake etc at Rose's dinner party on Sunday night.
I was dreading going to work on Monday because I decided I didn't like it anymore but it's been sweet. This chick who never used to say a word to me now makes chit chat with me in the mornings and even smiles. Progress. Last night in my marketing tute there was no group presentation so four of us stood up and gave a talk about our jobs and what we do etc. I'm not the best public speaker and I ended up like one of those people who couldn't finish a sentence properly eg "We're actually a boutique company - we're premium, high quality, small, and expensive, so yeah, we're a boutique company" etc. You get my drift. I was totally upstaged by the next person. You know the Big Pond ads with the dad telling his son about the great wall of China? Well, the next person was the account manager for that campaign, and she spoke as confidently and as eloquently as someone who would bloody deserve that job. Fuck. The next guy was a vet and offered some really interesting insights into the vet business. Eg customers can't be segmented into income brackets, because it all comes down to the individual relationship of the owner and the pet. Eg a rich guy might replace his dying dog with a new one even though he can afford to give it surgery while a poor family will love their dog so much that they'll make huge sacrifices to save it. And then there was an interesting guy from Sri Lanka who worked for a non-profit organisation of 12 people. Anyway lots of people asked me questions and I somehow managed to answer them which was nice. Should make up for my failure to hand in homework for the past two weeks.
In other news, I'm officially flying off to China. Just for a month, but should be enough to forget about the real world for a while. I got an email from Adam an American friend I knew in Taiwan and turns out he's moved from Shenzhen to Shanghai so we'll be able to meet up when I get there. Also Maryann another American friend I knew in Taiwan (they both went to UMass and already knew each other before Taiwan actually, but weren't friends!) is living in Beijing at the moment and has offered me her couch. Yay! Should be able to afford the accommodation in Harbin now!! Winter is Harbin's busiest time for tourism because of the Ice Lantern festival and it will be about 20-30 bucks per night. I also want to climb Taishan which along with going to Shanghai I didn't get to do last time for various reasons. Sweet. Now I can't believe I wanted to go to Thailand. If I wanted to go to the beach I could get on a bus and spend $1.40.
Oh I also bumped into an old UNSW uni friend at uni last night and it turns out Harbin is her major city. The poor soul is specialising in finance. Anyway I'm going to hotpot with her on Friday. Dude hotpot seems like the new black these days. Glad I'm in on it! Speaking of the new black, I check facebook at work (naughty naughty) but only when I have a few minutes to spare.
¶ 19:29 Kuba's birthday was yesterday and we had cake etc at Rose's dinner party on Sunday night.
I was dreading going to work on Monday because I decided I didn't like it anymore but it's been sweet. This chick who never used to say a word to me now makes chit chat with me in the mornings and even smiles. Progress. Last night in my marketing tute there was no group presentation so four of us stood up and gave a talk about our jobs and what we do etc. I'm not the best public speaker and I ended up like one of those people who couldn't finish a sentence properly eg "We're actually a boutique company - we're premium, high quality, small, and expensive, so yeah, we're a boutique company" etc. You get my drift. I was totally upstaged by the next person. You know the Big Pond ads with the dad telling his son about the great wall of China? Well, the next person was the account manager for that campaign, and she spoke as confidently and as eloquently as someone who would bloody deserve that job. Fuck. The next guy was a vet and offered some really interesting insights into the vet business. Eg customers can't be segmented into income brackets, because it all comes down to the individual relationship of the owner and the pet. Eg a rich guy might replace his dying dog with a new one even though he can afford to give it surgery while a poor family will love their dog so much that they'll make huge sacrifices to save it. And then there was an interesting guy from Sri Lanka who worked for a non-profit organisation of 12 people. Anyway lots of people asked me questions and I somehow managed to answer them which was nice. Should make up for my failure to hand in homework for the past two weeks.
In other news, I'm officially flying off to China. Just for a month, but should be enough to forget about the real world for a while. I got an email from Adam an American friend I knew in Taiwan and turns out he's moved from Shenzhen to Shanghai so we'll be able to meet up when I get there. Also Maryann another American friend I knew in Taiwan (they both went to UMass and already knew each other before Taiwan actually, but weren't friends!) is living in Beijing at the moment and has offered me her couch. Yay! Should be able to afford the accommodation in Harbin now!! Winter is Harbin's busiest time for tourism because of the Ice Lantern festival and it will be about 20-30 bucks per night. I also want to climb Taishan which along with going to Shanghai I didn't get to do last time for various reasons. Sweet. Now I can't believe I wanted to go to Thailand. If I wanted to go to the beach I could get on a bus and spend $1.40.
Oh I also bumped into an old UNSW uni friend at uni last night and it turns out Harbin is her major city. The poor soul is specialising in finance. Anyway I'm going to hotpot with her on Friday. Dude hotpot seems like the new black these days. Glad I'm in on it! Speaking of the new black, I check facebook at work (naughty naughty) but only when I have a few minutes to spare.
