My One Guilty Pleasure
When I lived in Japan, I didn’t watch television except for movie rentals. It was good for me. It forced me to find other methods of entertainment which usually was writing. I never felt bored.
I didn’t expect that my apartment in Hanoi would come with a television, but I’m sort of glad it did. The channels in English are that much, but I do get to watch American Idol. It is my one guilty pleasure. I’m lucky that if I miss it during the week both the performance and the results shows are repeated on the weekend…Saturday AND Sunday! Ha!
While I may get HBO and Cinemax, also NatGeo and Discovery, I find that I still don’t really watch that much television. It’s one habit I’m glad was broken. Just don’t take away my Idol!
On the Bright Side,
Shanna
Never Ever
How tempting is this button? How many e-mails do you have in your in-box. I’m still trying to catch up and organize my files, so I still have more than 1500. Surely, there are some I can delete?
In the midst of a skype chat, I received this stream from my IT Manager today:
shanna
don’t delete emails
never
ever
He had asked my source for information and I recollected but said that I had deleted the e-mail, since the project was completed. That was the response. Never ever.
All I can say is – WHY?
More than ten years ago (wow) I worked for the American Film Institute. While I hated working for a dictator who never washed her hands in the bathroom, I truly loved most all my other colleagues. I have made some of the most solid friendships of my life via the AFI. What was great in the day, was our hallway chats. You’d walk down the hall to the restroom or to someone’s office to check-in and say hello and you would bump into someone and begin a conversation. It may have lasted just 10 minutes, but usually some good idea was sparked and a meeting would follow and something new would be implemented. Lots and lots of projects and programs we born from those hallway chats. Sometimes we even call each other up and ask to meet in the hall; our springboard for creativity. The only thing I miss about e-mails at the AFI was that for a time, we had an “unsend” button. Now THAT is a feature I’d love to have! Especially when I forget to attach the attachment!
At the City Club, I hosted numerous committee meetings. Who dreads these? Not me. You learn a lot about people from group communication. When a committee pulls itself together and starts cooperating, it’s magic. So many great things can come of it. Imagine trying to host a committee meeting via group chat. Yikes. A nightmare! My former GM, Larry also had his management team meet twice a week. We met first thing Monday morning to discuss our goals and at the end of the day on Friday to review financials and give status reports on our projects. We also all ate lunch together as a group, our dysfunctional little family as we liked to say. This helped us solidify our realtions. We groaned sometimes that we were always in meetings. But we never had an excuse that we didn’t know something or weren’t aware. A simple, “I mentioned it in the meeting” would suffice.
Having stepped away from the hard-core business world for a short time, I must say that I am a little disappointed with the lack of talking people do. Others around me may say that it’s an American thing, but I think this is very much a human thing. We are communicative beings. We have been blessed with the skill of language. And while we have had amazing technological developments (who doesn’t love their Mac? ;p ) I’m afraid we are trading one skill set for the other.
To give you another example, our chef came by my office to have a chat. We talked, we discussed, we agreed. For me, end of story. I’m a smart girl, I have a memory, I understood every word he said. But ONE DAY LATER, I received and e-mail which cc’d our GM telling me the same thing. It’s as though there is a need to document every bloody word which leaves our mouths. Why do I need an e-mail to confirm that a conversation happened? And why do I need to keep that e-mail? I simply cannot get my head around this.
Mind you, e-mail and skype is terrific for keeping up with friends and colleagues who are overseas or in another office. Skype has allowed my colleagues and I to transfer large files too big for e-mail and my parents and I to chat for free over the computer. Phone calls are expensive, and computer technology is a blessing in this regard. But C’MON! If you sit across from someone or within walking distance of desks – do we actually NEED an e-mail? An e-mail will never convey your exact tone of voice, your facial expressions, or even your intentions. These are all things which we can only gather in eye contact, body language and intonation. How many of you have read an e-mail and “heard” the tone of the sender. Strongly or even well-written e-mails can come across possibly as angry or upset when the intention is really just to be thorough or clear. As much as body language can be picked up in person-to-person discussions, an e-mail recipient has a near, default-mode of reading between the lines. Let’s not even begin discussion on the decline of our language skills in e-mails. Just to throw it out there – when’s the last time you hand-wrote something longer than one page?
I am very perplexed by this everything by e-mail trend. Is it a lack of trust? A need for evidence? An innocent back-up for a bad memory? An inability to use a pen and paper to take a note? Are we really operating so much in a CYA mode that we cut conversations short and say, “Can you send me an e-mail on that?” ??? Do people really see e-mail as an effective means of communication? Does anyone realize it actually takes a person a greater chunk of time to write all that nonsense out versus walking over to a desk and telling someone?
Am I alone in this thought or are some of you out there just as tired of all these e-mails and crave face-to-face conversations? Of course I realize that you will most likely e-mail me your thoughts….
On the Bright Side,
Shanna
ITB Berlin
Aside from meeting Paul for a weekend, I was pretty excited to attend ITB Berlin (International Travel Bourse). It’s the largest travel trade event in the world. Within the context of my new job, ths is the biggest learning curve for me – the intricacies of the travel industry.
I was lucky to share a booth with our sister company, Exotissimo. What an eclectic mix of people. Edwin from Holland now lives in Bangkok. Pantanida is from Thailand, but runs our Berlin office. Wah Wah is from Myanmar. And Dominik is German but wrks in our Saigon office. And then little ol’ me from San Diego, California. This is one of the joys of being an expat is that you are always meeting super interesting people.
The exhibition itself, verges on ridiculous. I don’t think we have a convention hall in the US that could compare to the massive layout which is Berlin Messe. The site covers 160,000 square meters. Our booth was located in Hall 26b. We were one of over 11,098 exhibitors. On one day, I had a chunk of time available – 3 hours, and so I decided I would walk around the convention and take pictures of nice booths, as well as shop for brochure designs. I also just wanted to see as much as I could see.
I was already well familiar with the Asian countries. Thailand was at ITB in full force with a huge booth down the center of our hall. It contained a second story, as did many, with a VIP lounge. The Princess of Thailand was present at one of their daily cocktail parties, greeting guests and singing karaoke. She should really stick to her day job – but a lovely woman! Even some of the major islands, such as Phuket, Koh Samui, Krabi and others had a huge booth. Thailand was doing it’s best to recover from the recent bad press they’ve been receiving.
The Philippines were also musically entertaining with a full band firing up at cocktail hour each evening. Our booth was across from Indonesia, which occupied an entire back wall. The stage in the middle hosted a variety of dancers throughout the day. Anytime you passed by India or Cambodia, you could see traditional dances.
And then there was Vietnam. Very little money was poured into the Vietnam booth. It was dimly lit and not warm or inviting at all. No entertainment. No cocktail parties. It really looked like the bastard child of SE Asia. Neglected and crying for attention. They did give out a mini-version of the traditional straw hats. That only served the purpose of making me giggle several times in a day as some non-industry person would walk by actually wearing one of these things. At one point I saw two huge men with what looked like safari gear on. Bellies protruding, cameras slung around their necks and backpacks full of brochures, with their tiny Vietnam hats on their heads, they looked like they were on some other-worldly travel adventure.
I’m glad I wasn’t posted in the Vietnam booth. The overall look was uninspiring, to say the least. And you know, Vietnam really needs to step up the pep. In the Asian market, all of the other countries have these cool slogans. Incredible India. Amazing Thailand. Philippines Wow. Fiji Me. Malaysia, Truly Asia. Indonesia, The Ultimate in Diversity. Uniquely Singapore. You get the idea.
And Vietnam’s slogan? Vietnam, The Hidden Charm. This country isn’t even interested in showing you it’s beauty. In the least, you have to hunt for it – because it’s hidden! What the hell? How about a bit more proactive like: Vietnam, Discover the Charm. Vietnam, Be Charmed. Charming Vietnam. I could go on and on. So there’s a little side project I hope to work on…help the government better represent itself and polish it up a bit! Me vs. the Vietnamese Government. Yeah – let’s see how that one goes!
My feet took me as far as a few of the European halls. I walked through Germany, a stark contrast to the colorful and mix of cultures in the Asian halls. Deutschland was designed very clean and simply. And Spain. OMG. Class, elegance, sophistication, power. I could have stayed in that hall all day. Very chic design and all of the people working were just beautiful. Impeccably dressed and stylish. The Spanish men are just gorgeous. There are no proper words to describe. Even though I was wearing a tailor-made suit, I fear I looked like a little ragamuffin in comparison. Oh those Spaniards! As much as I have always loved Italy, I think it is Spain which calls for me to live there someday.
The convention center at ITB Berlin is so huge that I couldn’t make it to some of the halls I really wanted to see, like Africa and South America. I would have loved to have seen Italy, too. Of course, I was curious about my home country – USA!
On the fourth day of the convention, the public is welcomed, and MY GOD was the stage is set for people watching. Our booth received great foot traffic on the business days. so the public days were nuts. And how weird are we humans? I put our CDs out and people would just come by and take one without having any clue what was on the CD. I also had two sets of picture books, which I use in my sales pitch. Gone. Why anyone would think that the heavy material was a brochure is beyond me.
While most of our tables were set with brochures for people to take, there were still a few appointments scheduled. And being the hospitable people we are, we had coffee ready and a bowl of tea cookies and snacks for our special guests. Yet members of the public would see the small bowl of treats on the table out of the corner of their eye and bee-line it for the cookies, take two or three and return to the traffic flow around the hall. BIZARRE.
Totally indescribable behavior aside, I realize that for some of these folks, they may never be able to afford to travel to Indonesia or Thailand or even Vietnam, or any host of other countries represented at the exhibition. And for them, this event served as a bit of a dream catcher. Bob and Betty, hand in hand, spending an entire day collecting brochures and CDs and give-aways from all over the world. They may even hang a few of the posters they received and sit at the dinner table saying, “Let go to Cambodia sometime, darling.” And if that makes Bob and Betty happy, to have a dream like that, or if it inspires any of the children present to backpack through South America one day…well then, what’s the harm? I just wish people wouldn’t get caught up in the frenzy of getting free ‘stuff’ and act like morons! Shameful!
Post-exhibition hours, I went along with the my colleagues for cocktail parties and dinners, even stayed out late a couple of nights. I learned a lot, saw much, observed every moment. With each person I met and each meeting I conducted, I realized more and more how happy and lucky I am to have this job. This is a very cool position to be in and I am very much looking forward to all that is to come. This big huge trade event is just the tip of the iceberg!
On the Bright Side,
Shanna
Privacy Please
We Westerners sure love our space. And we adore privacy. We put a fence up around our homes and stick signs up to say KEEP OUT. At hotels, we have the option of letting everyone know that we do not want to be disturbed. Even on SKYPE, you can select a status of “do not disturb” which, frankly I wonder why someone wouldn’t just log off, but that’s a story for another day.
We value our personal space and privacy. As much experience as I’ve had and as much traveling as I’ve done, I still value it, too. But this is not the case in Vietnam.
As soon as I moved into my apartment, I noticed that while I was away at work, people, someone, who knows who, had been in my apartment while I was at work. I would return to opened curtains, new paintings hung on the wall, or a note left on my coffee table telling me that the internet was working. At first, I tried not to get upset, because I realized that they were simply trying to check on things and spruce the place up.
After the dust settled, though, I told the manager that no one needed to enter the apartment any longer, that I didn’t want strange people going inside. And me being me, I’d booby trap the place before I left in the morning so I would know exactly if someone had entered and where in the apartment they had been.
One day as I left for work, I was told that a maid would start coming to clean my house and that she would start that day. I thanked our receptionist but politely declined the service. I didn’t tell them I would use only someone I know and trust. When I came home that night, I knew someone had been in my house, but not a maid. I called the manager and expressed my displeasure. He assured me it wouldn’t happen again.
But it did happen again, not long after that and I had to have a face-to-face meeting with him to let him know exactly why it was unacceptable for someone I don’t know to go into my apartment when I am not there and when there is no appointment. He agreed that only by appointment or if I was home would his security or maintenance staff enter. I told him that if an unwelcome entry happened again, I would change the locks.
So everyday for a few weeks, I maintained my simple booby trap and would come home quite pleased that no one had been inside. That was until the Friday before I left for Berlin. The little piece of black paper was not in the door jam. I looked up and down and could not see it. My heart started to race as I put my key in my door and opened it. I could see the little piece of paper in the middle of the hallway. Someone had been inside.
I looked around everywhere, checked all my belongings, checked everything and then sat down on the couch and tried not to get angry. I wasn’t sure why someone had been inside, maybe something happened and there was a legitimate reason. But it felt SO VERY WRONG. I felt invaded, taken advantage of, all sorts of other horrible emotions. I mean – who came in? What did they do? What did they look through? Did they sit on my couch, watch a little TV? Before I got too worked up, I called Mr. Thien, the manager and asked him who had entered my apartment and why.
He responded that the security guard had entered the apartment because he needed to water the plants (I have a window box and a palm on my balcony). I explained that I water the plants every weekend and that in addition, the weather had been wet and rainy the entire week, so there was no need to water the plants. “Oh, I see,” was the quiet response. No apologies, no additional excuses. I asked him if the security guard had an appointment. “No.” I asked him if I was home when the security guard entered. “No.” So I reminded him of our agreement and he left me with, “It won’t happen again.”
You bet your sweet ass it won’t!
I had the locks changed. And I can’t even tell you the peace of mind it provides to know that no one can enter my home except me. I can’t wait for the phone call from Mr. Thien where he says, “Shanna, our security guard tried to enter your apartment today, but maybe you changed the lock.” And this will actually happen. And when it does, I’ll let you know!
On the Bright Side,
Shanna
Yup! That’s me!
I am posting this photo and this entry merely as evidence that I am still alive and well in Hanoi. What you see here is me “assuming the position”. As of late, that is in my office, at my desk, slaving away at the computer, either writing articles for newsletters, reading e-mails, reading reports, writing reports, writing e-mails (way too many!), managing my team or coming up with some *brilliant* idea of how to market and sell our six properties! I’m also likely to be setting myself up for a slipped disc in my neck again with my horrible posture, hunched over my laptop – but that’s a story for another day!
I really want you to know much I love you, I miss you, I am thinking about you and wishing I had the time to take a huge breath and break and touch base with each of you personally. I’m in my third week of “OH MY GOD I HAVE SOOOOoooo MUCH TO DO” mode. But I think all of us have been in this situation where a new job, a new adventure, a new chapter in life is nothing short of all-consuming. And so it is for me. I’m lucky if I remember to brush my teeth before I go to sleep (OK. That was totally an exaggeration! I only forgot to brush them on Monday night.).
As you can see I haven’t lost my sense of humor. Nor my enthusiasm for what I am doing. I am so proud to be the Director of Sales & Marketing for Apple Tree and I am thoroughly enjoying living in Hanoi (what I experience of it when I’m not in the room you see in the picture!).
My favorite 15 minutes of the day is my motorbike ride to work. The “Tang Man” (real name: Anh Tanh) picks me up at 8am most mornings. I hop on the back of his bike with my brief case between us and purse clutched over my left shoulder. I watch with wide eyes as mornings in Hanoi unfold. Sights of ladies selling produce, men setting up their barber shops against tree trunks, families of four on a motorbike, random people trying to cross insanely busy streets, buses full of middle-aged tourists, and young “cool” guys without helmets all whiz by in a blur. But the wind in my face and the sights and sounds (even the smells sometimes) are all so exciting. It’s a thrill. I can’t wait to get my own motorbike and learn the city streets.
I hope you can lend me your patience and understanding. I miss my routine of writing, of updating my blog, of chatting with you. Love and miss you oodles and will write again soon.
On the Bright Side,
Shanna
Holy crap!
UPDATE #4: A new water heater has been put in. I was told that the only way to hold the damn thing up was to hang it by the “cables” and “wire” in the the manner you see in the photos. It had to be done this way because I’m on the top floor and they can’t secure it to the cement wall??? OK?
Today I came home to see how they repaired the roof. Essentially, they just slapped A LOT of plaster over the bad patchwork they did last week. And tomorrow they will paint. And then it’s a done deal.
I just hope when that thing snaps, I’m not in the shower!
UPDATE #3: Oh, I forgot to mention that I now get only 4 minutes of hot water. Yeah. That’s just not going to work…
UPDATE #2: Not only is the roof a mess, but my bathroom has a sweaty smell to it that is reminding me of the Seinfeld episode where he gets a smelly car back from the valet…remember that one? Yea, not so funny when that’s what your bathroom (the one next to your bedroom) smells like!
UPDATE: Round one of “Let’s fix the heater” is finished. This is the condition the heater and the roof was left in. The manager will come by my apartment tomorrow morning (or so he says) at 9am. Let’s see what happens next. I’m all for adventure, but this is not the fun kind, ne?
Original Story…
So….I’ve been working from home during Tet and at about 1pm, thought I would take a quick stroll around the neighborhood to see what people were up to and to see if the little market had opened yet.
Did see much of the neighbors, but scored with the market! Yes! The couple who runs it are super nice people.
I came home, put down by bag of goods, went into my room to put away my purse and noticed white little rocks on the floor, coming from the bathroom…and then all over the bathroom. And then I looked up and saw the heater coming out of the roof.
What the hell happened? The water heater just fell down? It didn’t burst because there is no water spouting out. It just looks like it tried to escape out the roof panel but got stuck! Yikes!
I’ve called the manager and sent him a photo from my phone. I’m waiting for someone to come fix it. Thank goodness I wasn’t IN the shower when this happened! Holy crap! I don’t even want to go anywhere near this thing, and I’m usually pretty good at fixing stuff!
I hope he/they/someone can come soon…..
On the Bright Side,
Shanna
Happy New Year and Helloooo!
I’m such a dork! – I have no idea why the Press Club photographer thought this was an opportune time to take a photo, but it actually is fitting for the swirl of emotions of the past 1.5 months.
There is no question I have been a busy little bee since arriving in Hanoi. I used this really dorky photo of me for this post, because that kind of sums up how I feel at certain moments. It’s a combination actually of surprise, joy, misunderstanding and happiness. It’s bizarre at moments, frustrating in others, and amazingly wonderful in most.
It must be the same everywhere in the world – when you start a new job, you are bit consumed for a good month or two, yes? And so I have fallen into this phenomenon for the past 6 weeks. Mostly I have been at work, attending work functions, meeting people through work and have had work on the brain for most of every day. It’s a big job ahead of me, a good challenge, and I love it. A little hard work never killed me!
Yet I’ve still had a few moments here and there to observe life in Vietnam, to laugh at a situation, to take in a new culture and to attempt getting cozy in a new apartment (even though I haven’t been home so much!). Here are some notes I’ve taken as I’ve been blazing through each day here:
At Work
- At Christmas time, we had the local orphanage as our guest choir. They (mostly girls) came dresses up like little Christmas princesses, complete with tiaras and sang all sorts of songs…just no Christmas carols!
- For New Year’s Eve, we had a huge party on The Terrace. Indeed, we were THE party in town! I really didn’t know what to wear, with trying to mix business and pleasure, so I opted for a (big surprise here) black shirt with my black pants (the outfit in this photo). Not bad except that what all our waiters and bartenders were wearing, too.
- No matter, I met a very cute Austrian boy who was in Hanoi on vacation who didn’t seem to mind the all black attire. He arrived a bit after midnight, but I got my NYE kisses in after all. Yum.
- I get e-mails addressed to “Shanna oi”
- Some of my co-workers don’t close the door to their bathroom stall and think it’s OK to pee when talking to me.
- On the way back to work one afternoon, I saw a very large, very pink and very dead pig in a trash can, feet sticking straight up in the air.
- I caught a bad cold just before the big trade event in town. I met some key players in the company with my stuffy nose and a voice like a toad. Great first impression! And also on all the new contacts at the trade event!
- Vietnam hosted the Asean Travel Forum for the first time. It was a very poorly organized event (but that was done my folks from Singapore), and at the end of the event, when all of the exhibitors had left, a gang of thieves came and stole all the furniture from the booths. This does not fare well for Vietnam. It’s bad on so many levels. What’s worse is that one week later, the event organizers have yet to contact us and we have been unable to get help from the police. Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore!!!
- I just have to say this, and it is not very nice, but at the trade event the weirdest people I met happened to be American. Why do we feel the need to talk so much? And what’s with all the catch phrases and corporate lingo? We really need to relax a bit and learn how to just sit down with someone, relax and just have a normal conversation. Please.
At Home
- In finally moved into my apartment on December 28th. I have a long way to go before it feels cozy and mine, but I am happy to finally have a place to call home. Living out of a hotel is simply not fun at all.
- In the beginning, the manager said that 4 single men who worked for Ericsson were moving into the building. I could only dream and hope. In reality, 6 men and 1 woman, all Phillipino and doing IT work for Ericsson moved in. All very nice, but no hot single studs like I was hoping. Is that so wrong?
- It’s totally normal in Vietnamese culture to go into a tenant’s home when they are not there and have not set an appointment or invited you in. I’ve had several discussions with my manager and am two seconds away from changing the locks. You see, I booby trap my apartment everyday, with a simple piece of black paper in the door jam. So I know exactly when someone has been in my apartment. You, too, would be disturbed if you saw how often this happens.
- On one occasion when I was home and had the “security” man and the maintenance man here to fix my water heater (I was getting only 4 minutes of hot water), the “security” man thought it was ok to make himself at home and take an empty bottle from my cupboard, open the windows and water the plants in the window box. Since he couldn’t understand me and wouldn’t listen, I finally grabbed the bottle from him and said, “No!” He just smiled back at me.
- Now that the water heater is fixed, I get a whopping 7.5 – 8 minutes of hot water from the 30L tank. Boys, that may be plenty of time for you, but for us girls, it’s nearly impossible to wash/condition our hair and shave our armpits and legs and bikini lines in 8 minutes.
In General
- The current exchange rate is 17,500 VND to US $1.00. Even so, there are 500, 1000 and 2000 VND notes. However at the grocery store, when they are out of 1000 VND notes, they give you this change in the form of candy.
- On that ‘note’ the Vietnamese currency is called Dong. Dong. Dong. Dong. How can you not laugh?
- Mr. Thanh (pronounced like Tang), is my motorbike driver and now pipcks me up everyday from my house to take me to work. I SMS him something like… 15.1.09 7:30am ok? …and get a response “OK”. That’s about as much communicating as we can do for now! But it works!
- Until I get my own motorbike, I am also taking taxis to get around. These are more expensive than motorbikes and I hate the fact that the drivers never seem to have change. So when your meter says 20,000 and all you have is a 50,000 note, you have to argue with the driver a bit to get your change.
- I finally bought a vietnamese phrase book, but haven’t the faintest clue how to pronounce anything in it! And for some reason, Japanese doesn’t work in this country!
- I can see a lot fromt he back of the motorbike on the way to work. One of my favorite sights is men getting a haircut from the barber. A barber who has hung a mirror from a tree trunk and plopped a chair on the sidewalk. These stations are everywhere!
- I’ve had two suits made by my new tailor. Good looking suits. In V-style, the suits are very form fitting. In fact, when I lift my arms, the suit jacket goes up with ’em! I’ll have to work with them on that. My suits look nice, though when I’m not moving too much!
- There are plenty of places to find amusing forms of ENGRISH. I like the menus in particular. At the City View Cafe you can get a “Generous turnip with tomatoes.”
- We Americans haven’t played too nicely in SE Asia. I had to pay $10 more for my visa to Laos than my buddy Kurt. He’s Swiss. The Swiss know how to play nice.
And on that note, I’m off to Laos tomorrow! I’ll visit our two properties there and get to know Luang Prabang as a destination. Since I didn’t get to visit Laos this past spring, I am more than eager to visit now. After Laos, my schedule is a bit more calm and I hope to fall into a MUCH better routine of updating the blog and photos. You can see there are a few updates below…especially one on my boxes! Thanks for keeping in touch and tuned in. Check back soon!
On the Bright Side,
Shanna
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