Day 21

Today was another work day.

Yesterday there was a Typhoon Signal. This one was level three. Usually it's level one, which doesn't mean anything (I've seen it three times since I've been here) but yesterday's was supposed to be worse. It wasn't that bad. There was a lot of rain and wind and the door to my apartment was moving around on its own because of the wind outside. It's rained every day for some time now, almost a week.

This weekend I'm going to Macau (the former Portugese colony, 'gambling capital of the world') for a couple of days. I met some people when I was out last weekend that happen to be going at the same time, and someone I've known here for a while has a contact in Macau, so I'm set to go without spending a lot. I look forward to eating Portugese-style food, whatever that is. The great (not) thing about Macau is that instead of Hong Kong, where I only speak one and a half of the official languages, I can go to Macau and speak zero of them. Fact: I have never been to a country where I could not say a sentence in the official language, so this will be a first.

Now, I have some goals to lay down about professional, personal, and cross-cultural development.

Some goals of mine will be:

Personal - To 1) learn and document (through my blog) the cultural and political dichotomies between the Mainland and HK, and to 2) Come back with a better understanding of what I am studying and working towards;

Cross-cultural - To 1) have a working knowledge of some basic Cantonese phrases and vocabulary, and 2) to be able to be understood at McDonald's;

Professional - To 1) Learn about international trade, and how it is conducted by companies like Interpro, where I work, and 2) to emulate those processes on a smaller scale and broker goods between countries.

Until next time.