guess what?!?! i'm on business trip again!!!

well, i'm not in las vegas, i'm not in hk, i'm not in vancouver...i am in seoul, south korea!!

this trip is turning out pretty good so far! not really extremely busy, but weird working hours though. the korean tradition revolves around food and "instant" coffee so much. even at 4.30 in the morning after a night shift, they still wanna do discussion over a hot meal before going back to sleep.

so far the thing that amazes me the most about seoul is the number of churches (Christian) in the city. every city block would have at least one church (that can sit ~100 people). every 3~5 city blocks would have a gigantic church building (ie, the size of a huge cathedral that sits 1000+). according to the locals, the Christian population is 40% of the country. buddhism is next in percentage follow by roman catholics. koreans are definitely very religious people!

from my hotel room i can see one of the gigantic churches!! i'll post the pictures later on in imagestation.

anyhow, our company is working with samsung for the train control stuff for the KRC bundang line. samsung is the largest company in korea by far. it accounts for 20+ % of the entire country's export. samsung does EVERYTHING in korea. if you can name it, they will have it!!

gotta jet now, hotel is 1 hour subway ride from the site office...ahhhhhh~~~ but then, it's a 5-star hotel so i can't complain too much about it! :p

- posted by awylee @ 19:38

 
i am coming home!

this trip is certainly very long. 2 weeks in hk and 2 weeks in shanghai. lots of plane rides in 4 weeks:

nov22: toronto-vancouver (4+ hours), vancouver-hk (14+ hours)
dec03: hk-shanghai (2+ hours)
dec18: shanghai-hk (2+ hours)
dec19: hk-vancouver (14+ hours)
dec19: vancouver-toronto (4+ hours)

me currently in hk airport waiting to get on the long flight back to vancouver. the flight's delayed by one hour, so i'll probably arrive in vancouver around 10.30am and toronto around 7.30pm. can't wait to get back to toronto.

well, i've uploaded some pictures to imagestation: http://www.imagestation.com/members/awy2lee

one more hour to waste... ... ...

- posted by awylee @ 13:23

 
wow, it's been 2 months since i last blogged...

i guess it's not a surprise to know that i am on business trip again. however, this time, for the first time, i am not in las vegas!

i am currently on the second of a two consecutive business trips. i was in hk for the penny bay project from nov22 to dec3. it was another site support assignment just like my duty in vegas before. and i am currently in shanghai as part of the proposal team for the bidding of shanghai subway line 8. my duty for this business trip here is to perform a radio demo and have a lot of meetings with local alcatel people and the customers.

here's what i did so far in shanghai:
friday (dec3):
- arrived shanghai at around noon time. waited at the airport for joseph.s's arrival at 4.30pm
- being treated to fine dining by local alcatel people
- discussion about test plan with local alcatel people until 12.30am

saturday (dec4):
- breakfast buffet at hotel restaurant
- went to science centre
- took subway to "oriental pearl" and aquarium
- went to nan-qian east road (walking street) to look around
- found the shanghai book city (7+ storey bookstore)
- cheap dinner (13 rmb -- noodle and dumpling between 2 people) across from the hotel

sunday (dec5)
- breakfast nearby, had typical chinese breakfast with soy milk (15 rmb b/t two people)
- walked around pu-tse's big shopping mall region
- went back to "oriental pearl" and went up to 263m observation deck to take pictures
- went to aquarium again to pick up souvenirs
- went to check out the "people's square" and "people's street"

it's been an exceptional trip so far where and now joseph and i understand how it feels like to be on a marketing trip!! :p

i'll try to upload my shanghai pictures as soon as possible!!

- posted by awylee @ 23:08

 
most horrible working, eating, and sleeping schedule ever!

sunday:
- arrive in vegas airport at around 9pm
- arrive at new hotel at around 10pm
- found out that they dont have kitchenette, so the plan of eating instant noodle is scraped
- went to bed empty stomach

monday:
- woke up at around 7.30am (jetlag)
- went to the site office at around 10.30am
- no key to access the office, end up going to a local electronic store for shopping
- lunch at chinatown
- back to the office at around 2pm and sort out the test schedules
- went back to the hotel to rest a bit from 3pm to 7pm
- back to the office intending to work until around 9pm and goto dinner
- coworkers need help on their testing, ended up helping them until 11.30pm
- could not find any restaurant (incl. fast food & sit-down) that is still open on my way back to the hotel
- ended up getting a bowl of salad and a hotdog at the 7-eleven next to the hotel

tuesday:
- arrive at office after lunch at chinatown
- data analysis until around 6pm and found out problem with a testing component
- went to local electronic store to get the part
- early dinner at mcdonalds
- back to office to begin testing and found out train is under repair
- helped coworker with their work while waiting for the train to be ready
- train still not fixed at 12.0am, can't stay awake anymore and went back to the hotel
- went back to hotel to sleep until 8am

wednesday:
- got up around 8am, watched movies until 12pm
- went to eat japanese food (one california roll and sunomono)
- went to outlet store to get a new winter jacket
- went to las vegas convention center for the 'global gaming convention'
- went to imperial palace intending to have a good lobster dinner, but i did not have reservation, so cannot get a table
- went to the hotel and decide to eat dinner after i get my testing started at 8pm
- coworkers were doing another testing causing me not able to run my testing. ended up helping coworkers with their testing until its completion at 3am
- my testing started at 3am and i went back to hotel to sleep right after the test started
- 7-eleven doesnt sell hotdog after 12am, ended up buying a muffin

thursday:
- got up at 8am to call into control centre to close my test
- went back to bed and got woken up by firm alarm at 10.30am
- back to bed again and slept until 12pm
- decided to work around 1 or 2 hours before heading for lunch, but found out that my testing will start at 4pm
- busy preparing for the test, and here i am...again empty stomach waiting to begin my test


summary of work schedule:
- monday: 10.00am-3.00pm, 7.00pm-11.30pm (9.5 hours)
- tuesday: 2.00pm-12.30am (10.5 hours)
- wednesday: 5.00pm-3.30am (10.5 hours)
- thursday: 12.00pm-? (? hours)

summary of meals eaten:
- monday: lunch at 11.30am (chinatown), dinner at 12.00am (7-eleven hotdog)
- tuesday: lunch at 1.30pm (chinatown), dinner at 6.00pm (mcdonald's)
- wednesday: lunch at 1.00pm (jap. rez), dinner at 3.30am (7-eleven muffin)
- thursday: havent ate yet

summary of sleep schedule:
- sunday night: 1.00am - 7.30am
- monday night: 1.00am - 7.30am
- tuesday night: 1.00am - 11.00am
- wednesday night: 3.30am - 8.00am, 8.00am - 12.00pm


- posted by awylee @ 16:05

 
oh boy! arent i happy these few days! :)

let's see, where should i start....last thursday after work i picked up my new car! and at night, i made an offer to a condo and the seller accepted it! and yesterday i went to apply for the mortgage and got a rate of 4.4% for a fixed term!

on top of that, i am going to vegas next week in which i am actually looking forward to go! for several reasons:
- i am anticipating working only 4-6 brainless hours a day (7pm - 1am?)
- i signed up for the global gaming expo (http://www.globalgamingexpo.com) that will take place in vegas next week
- i am not staying at an hotel other than candlewood suites and amerisuites this time
- i am flying united airline (i can get aeroplan points!)
- most likely will be able to leave vegas on schedule (how many times have i said that)
- i am connecting through chicago (another city that i havent been to)
- i am stopping over in chicago for the weekend to visit my brother!




- posted by awylee @ 23:43

 
it's pretty interesting that peter and i were just chatting about it on sunday, and now it actually happened.

oh btw, i am still in toronto! :p still do not have any plan on business trip yet. the last business trip of any sort that my department (excluding my manager) had was my supervisor's trip to las vegas for the grand opening of the monorail system.

i will be picking up my new car in a day or two! pretty excited about it! haven't driven a japanese car for a long time ! :p



- posted by awylee @ 22:05

 
this is quite a rare occasion, i dont have many things to do at work.

the las vegas monorail project had been suspended indefinitely (probably for at least two more weeks). i just completed a test report for the korea project and there is nothing urgent for me to do.

the past two days are probably the shortest consecutive workdays that i have in a long time. yesterday arrived at company at close to 10.00am and left at 5.30pm. today arrive at 9.40am and left at 6.00pm.

and now i am bored, i think i'll just go to bed early again! :p

- posted by awylee @ 22:42