It's Been a Month!

Hi everyone!

I really shouldn't be blogging right now because there's just so much work to catch-up on, but I found myself in that situation where there is so much stuff I want to blog about that I felt like waiting for when I had a huge chunk of time! Realistically that won't happen!

Many events / milestones since I've last blogged:

• Two day trip to Manila (or more accurately Makita), Phillipines - awesome trip!
• Two more trips to Shenzhen, one of few places in China where Cantonese is useful
• Past the one month mark and about half way to coming back to Toronto!
• Really getting into work and enjoying what I do!

Things here in Asia, as we learned on our previous trips to China, must be "flexible". Believe it or not, the same applies to work schedules! Planned activities come and go. I didn't do as much travel as I thought I would, but by the end of this week, will have talked to or visited each of the 11 countries in our Area. Its been really good working with people of different countries in Asia. There are distinct differences, but also a distinct Asian and also E&Y culture. More on that in a subsequent post (fascinating to me!).

I have a crazy next week coming up... and if things work out... a crazy next few weeks before I come back to Toronto. Things that should not move - Saturday trip to Shenzhen to pick up a bunch of custom made shirts and a suit that I ordered. Sunday I head to Seoul, Korea. Will have to work in the afternoon, but hopefully will get a chance in the evening to have some authentic Korean food for dinner and take in either the night market or the electronics market. We have an intense day of meetings Monday and then I pick up the 7:45pm plan out of Korea to London, UK!

I've never actually been to London before. I've always wanted to and looking forward to this trip. This will be my first global meeting for the project that I'm on. Its a critical meeting for us and it'll be a great catch-up and networking with the global leaders on what we'll be doing in 2007. Arrive Tuesday morning, have meetings until Friday afternoon, but don't leave until Saturday. Tuesday to Friday will be packed with meetings, but the theme of these global meetings are - work hard, play hard. Wednesday night we head to Fulham ground to catch a football match, Thursday night we have dinner at Quaglino's (this is apparently supposed to impress me.. but naive about such restaurants - Norm? Thoughts?). What I'm enjoying about this role is really getting to meet new people and experience some new culture. Everyone has rolled out the red carpet for us in introducing their business to us as well as their city / country. It's been awesome.

The nice fringe benefit to all of this is that I get to connect with friends in different parts of the world. Looking forward to catching up with my Waterloo roommate of many years J and his with M. Been wanting to visit them for years. They spent a little bit of time in China a few years ago and their story and interest in mainland China certainly played a part in our early interest in China. The plan is to meet up in the city Friday night for Indian food and hit an old English pub. Saturday morning (or knowing my friend, late morning) will be meeting up with JL who is on secondment with EY to London. She's only been in London a little longer than I've been here. We also have another coworker who is on secondment in London... so it'll be neat to catch-up on what is happening in their life. It's nice to have friends like this where you share such a deep bond ... J and I don't see each other often, and to be honest, we're pretty bad at calling or even emailing, but we seem to be able to pick up and get right into conversations of substance. I appreciate the friendship we share. I'm also a bit worried - J asks really good, deep and convicting questions!

So... that brings me back to HK Sunday December 3rd. Teaching my first, but very important event in Taipei on Tuesday December 5th. My original ticket has to come back to Toronto is on December 20th. However, there has been this course in Cleveland Ohio scheduled for December 12-15th. I've known about this event right from the beginning... and we haven't committed for me to attend yet. In any other circumstance, I'd be going for sure, we were just hesitant due to timing and the small window we have to get traction on my project prior to January (January is the start of the "busy season" for auditors, so we don't get to touch them much from January to April).

We keep swaying between a 30 to 70% chance of me attending the Cleveland session. I've made the mistake of getting too excited about it to the point where if I don't get to go, it'll be a big disappointment for Sandra and I. Its really the homesickness speaking. Attending this session will mean that I get to drop in to our cell group winter retreat the weekend of December 9th up at Horseshoe. It also means that I fly home to Toronto early - December 15th! Didn't do a good job at managing expectations... so might as well share this with all of you! We'll see what happens.. it does seem a little ridiculous that I would have only been on the job two months and then back home for a 16 day break! (there will be work between the 16th and Christmas...but you know how it is!)

Really want to share more about what I've really been experiencing and thinking about but that'll have to wait for another day. Here's a laundry list of some of the themes I've been thinking about and hope to one day journal:

1. Importance of building culture, community and identity in groups (e.g. workplace or otherwise);
2. Importance of thinking through and understanding the downstream consequences of our decisions or what we build (e.g. how the Hong Kong mid-levels escalators has transformed this area, processes we build in the workplace, etc.);
3. Multi-culturalism. What does this mean? Comparison between Hong Kong "multi-cultural" and Toronto "multi-cultural". Very different (quick note: I joined my expat boss and his foreigner "mates" to have beers and dinner in Lan Kwai Fong and Soho on Friday - very interesting experience and mixed emotions);
4. Music and culture (yep, me thinking about music). Specifically how important music appears to be to Flippino culture (We were invited to after dinner music and drinks at Merk's Bistro and reach Richard Merk live and loved it! http://www.merksbarbistro.com/';
5. Classes of people - the number, result, transition between levels, etc. (conceptually Canada has fewer "classes of people" where China has lots; and
6. Consequences or impact of our lives on people.

Yes, lots of stuff going on in my mind... Lots of good conversations with coworkers and old friends (for those of you "older" Waterloo friends, I'm meeting with with K-Y.N. from California tomorrow night.

There are some lighter moments in my life too. Here's a few off the top of my head:

1. In North America, some nicer hotels will offer free shoe shine. You call the desk to pick-up your shoes and they're done the next morning. I figured I'd take the hotel up on this offer in Manila with all the walking I've been doing. One in the morning, I call for a shoe shine, housekeeping says "right away sir". Twenty minutes later (and in bed), I get a knock on the door, after ignoring it, I get a call to say that the shoes are ready for me. Some things work differently in Asia!
2. At all buildings and malls we went to in the Philippines you get patted down for guns! the security at the EY Tower carries a shot gun! At the airport, after my driver put away the bags and got into the car said, "sir, we're ready to go, will you please make sure your doors are locked before we head off?!?" Not sure if these were fair first impressions, but a little concerning.
3. I was stupid and left some of my HK money in the safe at the hotel in Taipei! Thankfully remembered before I left the city or someone else checked in!
4. I'm not losing weight anymore, I'm gaining weight as I travel more and as my Cantonese becomes more proficient and I discover new places to eat!
5. I got my first haircut alone in mainland China... after making sure it was in a mall, lots of people, lots of windows and that it really was a "barbershop". If you don't know what this means, ask someone who knows more about mainland China!
6. Realized the hard way that the Shenzhen Metro stops around 10:30pm! I also cut it close by getting through the Lu Hu (Shenzhen to Hong Kong) border at 11:55pm last Saturday. Just because the last train from the border is at 1:00AM it doesn't mean that the border is open past 12:00AM!?!
7. On the same trip, I ended up at Tsim Sha Chiu after midnight. Chung King Mansions is not a place you want to be at night! I finally saw the squads of HK police that we used to see on the HK police Chinese soaps growing up.
8. Even if you struggle with Chinese and not sure if you can "order" at a restaurant, it's not really a big deal in Asia. The line-ups are long enough that someone is bound to order something that sounds good!
9. If some of the above sounds like stuff you don't want to tell your parents about, against my better judgment, someone ordered this Thai raw shrimp dish.. basically raw shrimp on a chili salad.. It was awesome! No issues the next day.
10. I'm including some pictures of a couple of Jeepneys that you see all over the place in Manila (no, I didn't take these pictures, it's called images.google.com). I believe they are the cheapest form of public transportation. A Philippines version of the HK mini-bus. It just goes along the route and people jump on and off. Another interesting tidbit - my coworker who picked me up everyday was explaining that in Manila (not sure if its a city or bigger rule), to combat traffic, the government decided that ALL cars would have a day of the week where your car could not be driven from 7am to 7pm! Yes, all cars, based on your licence plate number, even buses, taxis, delivery trucks, etc. The law is enforced, etc. Can you see this working in your city or country? It did help with traffic and people just live with it!
    

Okay... that's it. Have to get back to work to see if we can get some of this stuff done and make Cleveland happen.

ray