And on my way home…
My week long adventure in China is coming to a close. I’m laying out my clothes and getting ready to head home tomorrow morning.
And I’m quite ready.
Not that this hasn’t been a fascinating trip, but I think I wasn’t in vacation-mode. I miss work – sitting on the sidelines and watching the emails fly around without being able to really help to resolve any of the issues has been incredibly difficult.
Plus I miss my apartment. My cat. And my girlfriend.
Impressions of Shanghai: very loud and crowded and difficult to navigate. I learned enough to know that the people that I met are undergoing a cultural shift and there was something going on there just below the surface. The folks at my office there were very pleasant and very helpful but it wasn’t until 2 days later that we got feedback about what we showed them. They didn’t tell us anything while we were there.
Shanghai felt toxic to me. Pollution is horrible and people smoke everywhere. I’m such a wimp now – the smoke bothers me a lot more than a former bartender likes to admit. Maybe my view of Shanghai was just too limited and I missed some key part of the culture there that would have had me saying “Wow, this is amazing…” but it wasn’t there for me.
Hong Kong has been a step in the right direction to me. It feels like the big pulsing international city that I was expecting. There are crazy malls everywhere here, a wonderful, clean, modern subway that appears to get you wherever you want to go quickly and cheaply and the people seem full of life and energy.
The food has been great in both cities, but the restaurants in HK are more relaxed overall.
In fact… off to dinner with Scott and his boyfriend.
SF – I’ll be home tomorrow and I cannot wait.
