SlavicNerd

Thursday and Friday were overall pretty low-key. Finally I got a good night's sleep, so moving forward there should be no more jetlag :-) Thursday was a full day of work - I spent the first half of the day with my admissions counterpart and the second half leading a training for the whole Southeast Asia team. Lunch was catered by the restaurant I had gone to on my first day, propaganda, but they screwed up my order so instead of the duck curry I got duck spring rolls. Life goes on. After the work day was over I grabbed a Filipino beer with my trainee to kill time before our dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse. Lebanese, Brazilian - Ho Chi Minh City has it all - can't say I would have chosen to eat either ... read more

Celebrating one's 30th 3 nights in a row and then embarking upon a ~22 hour journey in the sky is not highly recommended, but hey, you only turn 30 once. Sunday morning I was out of bed by 9 after already oversleeping to frantically throw more things into my mostly-packed suitcases and head to Logan for my 11:55 flight. It was gonna be a doozy - 12 hr 40 min to Dubai, then 7 hr 30 min to Ho Chi Minh City. I was flying Emirates for the first time, so I knew it wouldn't be truly nightmare-ish based on the qualify of the airline, but realistically i spent that first 12 hours drifting in and out of consciousness and turning away drinks from the over-attentive flight attendance. The flight was surprisingly empty and I had ... read more

After the GEA event was over we took a cab to Shanghai's other airport to the west, Shanghai Hongqiao International, where most of the city's domestic flights depart from. I would be flying China Eastern Airlines, China's second largest airline and a member of the SkyTeam Alliance, which includes Delta, Air France, and other more well-known partners. Wuhan, with a population of over 10 million, is the capital of the neighboring Hubei Province and the most populous city in central China. It's also a transportation hub and as such is known as the "Chicago of China, or at least Wikipedia seems to think so. My coworker had told me that the city was known for two specialties - "hot and dry" noodles and duck necks. I already had two clear goals. And I would fail at ... read more

My first night's sleep went reasonably well considering all of the warnings I received regarding the jetlag, but people are also basic and don't know how to help themselves adjust. I woke up a couple of times in the middle of the night but fell right back asleep, and by 6am I felt relatively well-rested. Due to the crazy commuting situation for the millions of people in the city, our offices don't open until 10am and people work a later shift as a result. That being said I had a solid 4 hours to get some work done, hit the hotel gym, get ready, and do breakfast before meeting Monica to walk over to the office. The breakfast area was legit - everything from sushi and kimchi to eggs benedict and western-style pastries were available. I ... read more

The next two days in Tel Aviv were an absolute blast and full of sun, sand, dancing, and debauchery. Established in 1909 on the outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa/Yafo, the city is very young and vibrant and has the 3rd largest economy in the Middle East, killer nightlife and a round-the-clock culture. Not sure how our group of lushes survived! After our first late night we let ourselves sleep in a bit before heading out for a sushi lunch and a break from Mediterranean cuisine. In fact, Tel Aviv apparently has the highest number of sushi restaurants per capita after New York and Tokyo, so we had to give it a go. We found a fun little place with an outdoor patio and really reasonable "businessman" specials with 3 courses - much needed. ... read more