Today, we look at a summarized view of the US, Italy and Japan.
US - LA, San Francisco, Vegas, San Diego and Seattle
We self drove with 2 large vans and about 18 of us. We spent a lot of time on the road as we wanted to cover as much as we can in 12 days. Our family spent a week in Seattle with our oldest and dearest friends, The Fongs.
People : Very friendly and helpful. We saw random acts of kindness as someone bought a homeless couple dinner from McD. LA was a little scary but we didn't stay that long at night. Only to watch a Lakers game at the Staples Center!! Folks in general are pretty nice.
Service : Service is amazing! People are extremely courteous, helpful with us, efficient especially at the check out lines and very patience. Restaurants, fast food, shopping, airport, The Magic Kingdom, we had a great time with the service folks. If you return a purchase, not only do they not treat you like a criminal like here but they kept apologizing! They apologized that their product was not up to my liking! I was so taken over, I almost wanted to take my purchase back.
Food : Food is very western of course. Burgers, meat chops, fries, pasta. You know the usual stuff. Some are good, some not so. The McD is better simply because they include bacon! But I find our KFC better. The portions are bloody huge though. So we usually share. Mikey went to a chap-fan place called Panda Express and selected 3 dishes and rice. His serving could have served 3! Asian food is also aplenty so no problems here, if you start craving for something Asian.
POI : I need a few postings to do this. Many, many places to go. SF was our favourite. We also visited the Grand Canyon and saw the Hoover Dam. Absolutely breadth taking! Took a game at the Staples Center. Was at Hollywood Boulevard, Walk of Fame, Chinese Theatre in LA. Of course Disneyland and Universal Studios. Drove by the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, Chinatown and Ghiradelli's in SF. Vegas was just the sight and of course the amazing Grand Canyon. We took a helicopter ride to the bottom of the canyon for our river cruise. Seattle was more relaxed for us. It was a very calm and serene time of our holiday and we hung out at the local spots like Snoqualmie Falls, downtown Seattle and of course the Microsoft campus.
Shopping is amazing too. We got to shop at Gilroy during the Black Friday sale. It was crazy!! We were also at Barstow, Desert Hills, North Bend and Seattle Premium Outlet. The American brands are amazingly cheap, so we did go crazy! Best feeling ever!!!
Italy - Rome, Pisa, Florence, Venice and Milan
This was a couple's trip with my cousin and his wife. We went on a tour and spent quite a fair bit of time on the road as well.
People : The Italians are a very talkative bunch but not the most friendly towards foreigners I thought. Still they will reciprocate when you speak to them. We went towards the mid of Summer so the weather was extremely gorgeous and I guess that put people in a good mood.
Service : Not the friendliest bunch as not the most patient. They get snippy if you take too long to decide or try on too many stuff. Since we were on a tour, food was pre-arranged so we didn't get to see too much of the restaurant staff's natural habitat.
Food : As it was a tour, we didn't get to choose what we ate. We had lots of pizza and pasta. Some were good, some forgettable. Highlights were a lobster pasta in Milan, Florentine steak in Florence and a Penang restaurant in Rome.
POI : Similar to the US, this would have taken many postings. It's a country that is cultural, religiously and historically rich. It was the center of Western civilization at one time and is now the head of the Catholic Church. So we got to see many sights from Ancient Rome and churches. Every city had it's own glamour and sights. My only advice is to take it slow, spend more time there and to please buy a ticket to see the mural of The Last Supper by Leonardo DiVincci in Milan.
Shopping : This is the place to buy all the Italian brands as they were cheap! Yea we went crazy. My only problem is that they don't have shirts my size because all Italian men apparently look like models! Best place to shop was in Milan's outlet called Serravalle. But downtown Milan and Florence were good too. We didn't get to shop in Rome though but we were told it was more expensive. Leave some space and cash for Rome's airport! Good duty free stuff there as well. While it's cheaper, you may not get the style or design you want. But shopping is shopping!!!
Japan - Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya
We travel with the whole village this trip for a Winter experience in Japan. There were almost 25 of us and it was our largest group so far.
People : I think the Japanese people are the friendliest, most humble, helpful, courteous, etc. I can go on and on with all the expletives. They so helpful that even if they didn't know the answer, they will find someone who does. Also many Japanese folks don't speak English well, though they read and write ok. Another observation is that they are very, very clean. The streets are spotless and even their cement truck and garbage truck is in immaculate condition. We passed by a garbage truck and it didn't smell! How do you do that?? The weird part is that, it's so hard to find a garbage can!
Service : Because of the people's attitude towards others, the service industry is one of the best I have experienced. Everyone is smiling and chirpy, to a point sometimes it's creepy. I don't know if it's the anime thing or something they put in the water but restaurants, shopping, airport and immigration were all very good experiences for us.
Food : I love Japanese food so I had no complaints whatsoever. Though it's interesting to see that they eat very unlike us. The famous restaurants serve a specialty food. For example, a famous ramen restaurant will only serve ramen. Same for sushi or tempura. City folks love ramen as it's fast and quick. In the outskirts they serve in a bento. So you have a variety of dishes. Japanese food however, has very little oil and fat so great for weight watchers. However, their rice is incredible! So be careful that you save on fat but stock up on carbo!
POI : Many cultural sites to visit. We had a great time visiting temples, food streets, cultural villages and the Bullet Train and Toyota museums. My highlight was the samurai class that we took and Mt Fuji. We only managed to shop at 1 outlet, Gotemba in Kyoto and prices are pretty good. However, we bought more snacks back and many, many different flavours of Kit Kat.
So that ends my 3 part summary. I may decide to write in detail of the places that we visited. If you have any such requests, drop me a feedback. Sayonara, Ciao, Chai Chien, Good bye, Choi Kin and Au Revouir!
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Globe Trotting Part II
Continuing my holiday destination reviews:-
Hong Kong & Macau
People : Everyone is rushing in HK. To work, to play, to eat, etc. They walk everywhere and walk really quickly. People are generally friendly but they are also very direct and they will tell you off if they see the need. But it's a very structured and disciplined society and after the SARS outbreak, very clean as well.
Service : Up and mid class places have very good service especially retail outlets. Restaurant, not so much. They may not be rude but they are not particularly friendly either. Other places are very efficient though no one really talks to you.
Food : OMG! This is my fav place for food. Absolutely amazing. Everything is good but not cheap. You can eat street food or restaurant and it taste great. Fav food are Typhoon Noodle under the bridge, seafood at Sai Kung and dim sum anywhere. Macau has some Portuguese food and was better than China but HK is still my fav.
POI : SHOPPING!!! Great places to shop as fashion is trendy though may not always be cheap. Can check out Stanley Market, Ladies Street, Electronic Street and Tsim Tsa Tsui. Victoria Peak is also my fav place to hang out. I also love Repulse Bay, Ngong Ping 360 and of course Disneyland, where you will experience a Cantonese speaking Mickey. Symphony of Lights show at the Avenue of Stars is also amazing. In Macau, people are only interested in the casinos. If gambling is not your fancy, there are many shows you can go to. There is a particular good 3D show called The Bubble Show that you can check out.
Taiwan - Taipei only
People : Generally friendly folks but English literacy is kinda low. Every signboard is in Chinese. So felt pretty useless. We got separated from our families and needed to call them and my batt was flat. Someone in the streets heard us and just loaned us their phone. I thought that was pretty amazing. Prob didn't know it was an international call. Haha!
Service : Everyone's busy so they are not particularly friendly Only at the Taipei 101 Tower did we see some smiles. Food, hotel, bus and subway stations, smiles are pretty rare there.
Food : There are so many night market and so many varieties of food. Just amazing. However, you need to know where to go because not everything is good. We tried their minced beef rice, beef noodle and a place called Ah Choong mee suah. These left a good impression on us. Fishball and oyster omelettes were horrible!!! Pls avoid if you are traveling alone.
POI : Good places to find bargain stuff and fashionable as well. There is a Yeh Liu Geopark and a village called Jiufen. Must visit. The Chiang Kai Sek memorial was enjoyable for me and you gotta see Taipei 101 Tower.
London & Paris
People : People on the street were a lot friendlier in London than Parisians. Everyone is saying "sorry", "excuse me" and "good morning, afternoon, etc". Getting around was easy and folks were very helpful.
Service : Funnily, restaurant people in London were not as friendly as those in Paris. They were more surly and more curt. Those in Paris were chatty, smiling always and patience since we needed help with the French menu. Those in retail outlets were also pretty friendly and helpful, both places.
Food : What can I say? London bad, Paris gorgeous!!! We only had one good meal in London, on board a ferry opposite the Eye of London. Almost every food we had in Paris was amazing. From the Nutella Crepe to our Foir Gras. There was a fish place that didn't really get me going but everything else was absolutely gorgeous!
POI : Too many to mention! The favs for me, British Museum, Tower Bridge, Greenwich Meridian Line, Stonehenge, Big Ben, Bath, Eifel Tower, Notre Dame, Seine Cruise, St Michael's Fountain and Louvre.
Continuing to Part III........
Hong Kong & Macau
People : Everyone is rushing in HK. To work, to play, to eat, etc. They walk everywhere and walk really quickly. People are generally friendly but they are also very direct and they will tell you off if they see the need. But it's a very structured and disciplined society and after the SARS outbreak, very clean as well.
Service : Up and mid class places have very good service especially retail outlets. Restaurant, not so much. They may not be rude but they are not particularly friendly either. Other places are very efficient though no one really talks to you.
Food : OMG! This is my fav place for food. Absolutely amazing. Everything is good but not cheap. You can eat street food or restaurant and it taste great. Fav food are Typhoon Noodle under the bridge, seafood at Sai Kung and dim sum anywhere. Macau has some Portuguese food and was better than China but HK is still my fav.
POI : SHOPPING!!! Great places to shop as fashion is trendy though may not always be cheap. Can check out Stanley Market, Ladies Street, Electronic Street and Tsim Tsa Tsui. Victoria Peak is also my fav place to hang out. I also love Repulse Bay, Ngong Ping 360 and of course Disneyland, where you will experience a Cantonese speaking Mickey. Symphony of Lights show at the Avenue of Stars is also amazing. In Macau, people are only interested in the casinos. If gambling is not your fancy, there are many shows you can go to. There is a particular good 3D show called The Bubble Show that you can check out.
Taiwan - Taipei only
People : Generally friendly folks but English literacy is kinda low. Every signboard is in Chinese. So felt pretty useless. We got separated from our families and needed to call them and my batt was flat. Someone in the streets heard us and just loaned us their phone. I thought that was pretty amazing. Prob didn't know it was an international call. Haha!
Service : Everyone's busy so they are not particularly friendly Only at the Taipei 101 Tower did we see some smiles. Food, hotel, bus and subway stations, smiles are pretty rare there.
Food : There are so many night market and so many varieties of food. Just amazing. However, you need to know where to go because not everything is good. We tried their minced beef rice, beef noodle and a place called Ah Choong mee suah. These left a good impression on us. Fishball and oyster omelettes were horrible!!! Pls avoid if you are traveling alone.
POI : Good places to find bargain stuff and fashionable as well. There is a Yeh Liu Geopark and a village called Jiufen. Must visit. The Chiang Kai Sek memorial was enjoyable for me and you gotta see Taipei 101 Tower.
London & Paris
People : People on the street were a lot friendlier in London than Parisians. Everyone is saying "sorry", "excuse me" and "good morning, afternoon, etc". Getting around was easy and folks were very helpful.
Service : Funnily, restaurant people in London were not as friendly as those in Paris. They were more surly and more curt. Those in Paris were chatty, smiling always and patience since we needed help with the French menu. Those in retail outlets were also pretty friendly and helpful, both places.
Food : What can I say? London bad, Paris gorgeous!!! We only had one good meal in London, on board a ferry opposite the Eye of London. Almost every food we had in Paris was amazing. From the Nutella Crepe to our Foir Gras. There was a fish place that didn't really get me going but everything else was absolutely gorgeous!
POI : Too many to mention! The favs for me, British Museum, Tower Bridge, Greenwich Meridian Line, Stonehenge, Big Ben, Bath, Eifel Tower, Notre Dame, Seine Cruise, St Michael's Fountain and Louvre.
Continuing to Part III........
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Globe trotting
I am blessed to have had the ability to globe trot a little. Every year end, I plan a holiday with immediate and extended family members. They will include my cousins and my in-laws. So since my posting about our trip to Australia, I have had the pleasure of visiting Greater China, Korea, London & Paris, Italy, US West Coast and Japan. So how does a Chindian take all these different cultures? As someone that comes from 2 cultures, we are typically very interested and sensitive to the cultures of others. There are many difference as to the folks in these different countries. So I have compiled and summarized based on the criteria of friendliness of people on the street and service folks, food, shopping and places of interest. Let's start with:-
Australia
People : Folks are typically friendly but I think they don't like Chinese folks that much, especially in Melbourne. Brisbane and the Gold Coast seems more ok. They don't voluntarily help you but they will if you approach them. Some reluctantly, some more helpful. The Asian community are very helpful towards other Asians though.
Service : Retail folks are very particular about the time they close. Most close at 5pm (What's up with that!!) so when you walk in at 4.45, they give you that exasperated sigh and stare and are typically unhelpful. Then again only us Asians will enter a shop just before it closes. I have not seen an Aussie do that. As for food, it will depend where you go to. Some up places are more tolerant, mid class not so.
Food : There is a lot of Malaysian, Chinese and Indian food in Melbourne. So if you get tired of all the ham, bread, cheese, pasta, burgers, you have a lot of Chindian comfort food. One of their burgers made my list of comfort food and that's something they call The LOT. It has...the LOT. Meat, bacon, ham, fried egg, more bacon, etc.
Shopping : I think most folkd don't come here to shop. I've not seen any good shopping places. Maybe it's just me.
POI : Gold Coast's theme parks are for those who haven't been. Surfers' Paradise is nice and decadent, though full of Chinese retailers now. If you are into animals, take a 2 hours drive north to Sunshine Coast to visit Australia Zoo or Steve Irwin's Zoo. In Melbourne drive along the Great Ocean Road to Grampiens National Park and stop at small towns along the way. Philip Island is a good visit, stop by a Chocolate Factory and also the Twelve Apostles. City wise, is like any other city though the Yarra River is quite picturesque.
China
People : I say this with all objectivity. Most folks are loud, boisterous, dirty and rude. They knock into you, spit everywhere and children will pee anywhere. If you want the toilet, just follow the smell. Hygiene level seems to have been set to medieval times. Not every toilet outside of Beijing has modern plumbing. In the 21st century!!! We found a toilet with feces on the wall!! Like this person was during a mural or his a$$ exploded or something!!!
Service : They are more friendly and very attentive as most city restaurants and up market shopping places goes by a rating system. Airport service is also very efficient.
Food : For me, this really sucked!! The food we had was not as good as back home. Really bad. If you followed the tour food, God help you. We had some good food like Peking Duck and a meat BBQ buffet place. But mainly was not too my liking.
Shopping : It's shopping haven. Knock offs and non-branded stuff are cheap if you don't mind the quality. We bought some non-
branded stuff and some of them were quite good in quality.
POI : This is the place to be. You history coming out of your ears! We went to the usual palaces and temples and of course the Great Wall. My highlight was the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an. Absolutely amazing!!! China has also many beautiful sceneries.
Korea
People : Pretty ok. Friendly folks and they speak English. Didn't have any incident in memory.
Service : Very friendly folks. Even those who sold hot choco and churros in a cart, were chatty and friendly. Since most meals come with side dishes, most folks are patience with our constant refilling of it.
Shopping : There are some duty free outlets in the city and the airport for tourist. Snacks are worth buying and so are cosmetics. Everywhere else is more pricey.
Food : I love Korean food. They BBQ, Kimchi soup, grill stuff, the rice and the ox tail soup. Every meal was good for the Chindian palate.
POI : There are some history but not much and nothing beats China anyway. So they turned their attention to their dramas and K-Pop. Touristy places are sets for movies like Winter Sonata at Nami Island and Mount Sorak and something called All In. Pretty creative.
To be continued...........
Australia
People : Folks are typically friendly but I think they don't like Chinese folks that much, especially in Melbourne. Brisbane and the Gold Coast seems more ok. They don't voluntarily help you but they will if you approach them. Some reluctantly, some more helpful. The Asian community are very helpful towards other Asians though.
Service : Retail folks are very particular about the time they close. Most close at 5pm (What's up with that!!) so when you walk in at 4.45, they give you that exasperated sigh and stare and are typically unhelpful. Then again only us Asians will enter a shop just before it closes. I have not seen an Aussie do that. As for food, it will depend where you go to. Some up places are more tolerant, mid class not so.
Food : There is a lot of Malaysian, Chinese and Indian food in Melbourne. So if you get tired of all the ham, bread, cheese, pasta, burgers, you have a lot of Chindian comfort food. One of their burgers made my list of comfort food and that's something they call The LOT. It has...the LOT. Meat, bacon, ham, fried egg, more bacon, etc.
Shopping : I think most folkd don't come here to shop. I've not seen any good shopping places. Maybe it's just me.
POI : Gold Coast's theme parks are for those who haven't been. Surfers' Paradise is nice and decadent, though full of Chinese retailers now. If you are into animals, take a 2 hours drive north to Sunshine Coast to visit Australia Zoo or Steve Irwin's Zoo. In Melbourne drive along the Great Ocean Road to Grampiens National Park and stop at small towns along the way. Philip Island is a good visit, stop by a Chocolate Factory and also the Twelve Apostles. City wise, is like any other city though the Yarra River is quite picturesque.
China
People : I say this with all objectivity. Most folks are loud, boisterous, dirty and rude. They knock into you, spit everywhere and children will pee anywhere. If you want the toilet, just follow the smell. Hygiene level seems to have been set to medieval times. Not every toilet outside of Beijing has modern plumbing. In the 21st century!!! We found a toilet with feces on the wall!! Like this person was during a mural or his a$$ exploded or something!!!
Service : They are more friendly and very attentive as most city restaurants and up market shopping places goes by a rating system. Airport service is also very efficient.
Food : For me, this really sucked!! The food we had was not as good as back home. Really bad. If you followed the tour food, God help you. We had some good food like Peking Duck and a meat BBQ buffet place. But mainly was not too my liking.
Shopping : It's shopping haven. Knock offs and non-branded stuff are cheap if you don't mind the quality. We bought some non-
branded stuff and some of them were quite good in quality.
POI : This is the place to be. You history coming out of your ears! We went to the usual palaces and temples and of course the Great Wall. My highlight was the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an. Absolutely amazing!!! China has also many beautiful sceneries.
Korea
People : Pretty ok. Friendly folks and they speak English. Didn't have any incident in memory.
Service : Very friendly folks. Even those who sold hot choco and churros in a cart, were chatty and friendly. Since most meals come with side dishes, most folks are patience with our constant refilling of it.
Shopping : There are some duty free outlets in the city and the airport for tourist. Snacks are worth buying and so are cosmetics. Everywhere else is more pricey.
Food : I love Korean food. They BBQ, Kimchi soup, grill stuff, the rice and the ox tail soup. Every meal was good for the Chindian palate.
POI : There are some history but not much and nothing beats China anyway. So they turned their attention to their dramas and K-Pop. Touristy places are sets for movies like Winter Sonata at Nami Island and Mount Sorak and something called All In. Pretty creative.
To be continued...........
CSI for the young
Some of you may think that CSI began around the year 2000 with CSI Vegas. I am a big fan of the show and it's spinoffs. I still follow it today and have downloaded the series. However, as I was watching the show and the antics of my kids and nephews and nieces, I realized that CSI started at a VERY early stage for us Gen-X kids. As a Chindian, it would also mean that I have the universe's most disciplined parents. This does not mean that they are very disciplined in what they do. It means, they will discipline your a$$ for every wrong thing you do. Sometimes even when you haven't done it.....yet!! That's how strong these genes are.
So we had to be very creative in how we hide the evidence of our wrong doings. I feel that we would have made excellent CSI officers as we would know where to look for said evidence and what to make of it. The Gen-Y and Z? Forget it! When my son and nephew was 7 years old, they were very into Pokemon. One time while they were watching Pokemon, we gave them their milk for the night. They set it down next to them and as all accidents are attracted to toddlers, one of them spilt his cup. They looked at the spilt milk, said "Oh-oh", got up, moved to another location and continued watching.
If it was us and we did that, they would need forensic experts to separate our mangled corpses! How time has changed. During our time, we would become CSI to hide said evidence of the spill. I would have sat on it to absorb the milk while my cousin will distract anyone nearby. We will then proceed to get new pants for me while he walks behind me to hide the milk stain. I will change while he's the lookout. It's important to change into something of similar colour so as not to invite questions. After that, we have 2 options with the stained pants. We could hide it and throw it and feign ignorance when asked about the pants. OR we could frame my brother. Either way, it would have been done meticulously so that nothing points back to us.
Now of course, our kids volunteer information to us. Like when they dropped their phone or knocked something over. I know what you are thinking. Why in the world would I give my kids a handphone?? The answer, so that they won't bug us! That in itself is a new social world to us. We can't punish them for coming to us and admitting their wrongs. So you smile, tell them they did the right thing and to be careful in the future. Anti-climax right??
All said and done, the chances of us getting away with it was really low. Our parents still found out and half murdered us. So why still do it? Survival man! It kept us on our toes. But looking at the situation now, we could learn a thing or two from our kids and they could a learn a thing some of our CSI skills to survive.......as long it's not to con us!
So we had to be very creative in how we hide the evidence of our wrong doings. I feel that we would have made excellent CSI officers as we would know where to look for said evidence and what to make of it. The Gen-Y and Z? Forget it! When my son and nephew was 7 years old, they were very into Pokemon. One time while they were watching Pokemon, we gave them their milk for the night. They set it down next to them and as all accidents are attracted to toddlers, one of them spilt his cup. They looked at the spilt milk, said "Oh-oh", got up, moved to another location and continued watching.
If it was us and we did that, they would need forensic experts to separate our mangled corpses! How time has changed. During our time, we would become CSI to hide said evidence of the spill. I would have sat on it to absorb the milk while my cousin will distract anyone nearby. We will then proceed to get new pants for me while he walks behind me to hide the milk stain. I will change while he's the lookout. It's important to change into something of similar colour so as not to invite questions. After that, we have 2 options with the stained pants. We could hide it and throw it and feign ignorance when asked about the pants. OR we could frame my brother. Either way, it would have been done meticulously so that nothing points back to us.
Now of course, our kids volunteer information to us. Like when they dropped their phone or knocked something over. I know what you are thinking. Why in the world would I give my kids a handphone?? The answer, so that they won't bug us! That in itself is a new social world to us. We can't punish them for coming to us and admitting their wrongs. So you smile, tell them they did the right thing and to be careful in the future. Anti-climax right??
All said and done, the chances of us getting away with it was really low. Our parents still found out and half murdered us. So why still do it? Survival man! It kept us on our toes. But looking at the situation now, we could learn a thing or two from our kids and they could a learn a thing some of our CSI skills to survive.......as long it's not to con us!
A lot of catching up
It's been a while since I last posted. I just wanted to give you a quick summary of what has happened. Our children has grown up and they are now entering 18 and 14 respectively. Which gives us a whole new world to work with. This is new territory for my wife and I. How to deal with 18-year old teen who has that irritatingly know-it-all mentality but you know he is just as dumb as a door nail. How do you know when to let go, when to slowly reel it in and when to yank it like there is a Florida Marlin on the other end fighting for dear life.
Then there is female puberty kicking in with my daughter. Coming in from all sides that you feel like a lone space fighter being attacked by tiny hormonal Cylon space fighters coming from everywhere! Not a pretty picture. My son just completed his O-levels which is similar to high school finals and he now stands at a crossroad of what to do with his life. As a Chindian parent, which means we have the strongest education genes in the universe, college is a must. However, I am open enough to accept Chindian gut wrenching fact that he won't be a doctor, lawyer or engineer or accountant. I mean it took tons of morphine and valium to stop me from ripping his spleen out so that he will have to take up medicine to cure himself and law to sue me.
So as he sleeps until 2pm everyday and wakes up watching Anime (let's come back to that, what the hell is up with this Anime crap??), I am left wondering if he has any blinking idea of the path he wants to take. Scarily it seems there isn't any sense of urgency from his exterior. That would mean there is a plan right? WRONG!! His mind is a blank. IF I had to sell his mind right now, it will fetch a very high price as it's hardly used!! So I will have to figure this out for him but I am trying to figure it out WITH him and not FOR. Wish us luck!!
There is my princess. I took a sabbatical from work to spend some time with her. She is having problems with her school work. She's not doing well (or as well as we expect) and she seems to be exposed to some crazies in school who think that faking suicide is cool and a great way to get attention. Don't get me wrong, I am very sensitive to teens who are genuine depressed or deprived. I'm talking about attention whores who fake it.
Anyway, I got to spend time with her and to understand her more. Hopefully I was able to help and she now understand us a little bit more. She is very bright and has a fantastic sense of humour. She is also musically inclined (oh she took up drums! How cool is that!). She, however, is painfully shy and has the attention span of a gnat when it comes to books. It's like "Ok, this math problem needs you to look at the diameter of the circle and HEY I remember One Direction having a song about that! Let me turn on YouTube."
Yeah she's really into One Direction, Taylor Swift and some other teeny boppers. She just started her Anime phase though. I am hoping to curb it before it becomes terminal.
So that's us these past few years. WE have taken trips to China, Korea, Europe (Paris, London, Italy) and Japan. I will share some insights to all about that. So until next round.....Have a great 2015, God Bless and take care.
Then there is female puberty kicking in with my daughter. Coming in from all sides that you feel like a lone space fighter being attacked by tiny hormonal Cylon space fighters coming from everywhere! Not a pretty picture. My son just completed his O-levels which is similar to high school finals and he now stands at a crossroad of what to do with his life. As a Chindian parent, which means we have the strongest education genes in the universe, college is a must. However, I am open enough to accept Chindian gut wrenching fact that he won't be a doctor, lawyer or engineer or accountant. I mean it took tons of morphine and valium to stop me from ripping his spleen out so that he will have to take up medicine to cure himself and law to sue me.
So as he sleeps until 2pm everyday and wakes up watching Anime (let's come back to that, what the hell is up with this Anime crap??), I am left wondering if he has any blinking idea of the path he wants to take. Scarily it seems there isn't any sense of urgency from his exterior. That would mean there is a plan right? WRONG!! His mind is a blank. IF I had to sell his mind right now, it will fetch a very high price as it's hardly used!! So I will have to figure this out for him but I am trying to figure it out WITH him and not FOR. Wish us luck!!
There is my princess. I took a sabbatical from work to spend some time with her. She is having problems with her school work. She's not doing well (or as well as we expect) and she seems to be exposed to some crazies in school who think that faking suicide is cool and a great way to get attention. Don't get me wrong, I am very sensitive to teens who are genuine depressed or deprived. I'm talking about attention whores who fake it.
Anyway, I got to spend time with her and to understand her more. Hopefully I was able to help and she now understand us a little bit more. She is very bright and has a fantastic sense of humour. She is also musically inclined (oh she took up drums! How cool is that!). She, however, is painfully shy and has the attention span of a gnat when it comes to books. It's like "Ok, this math problem needs you to look at the diameter of the circle and HEY I remember One Direction having a song about that! Let me turn on YouTube."
Yeah she's really into One Direction, Taylor Swift and some other teeny boppers. She just started her Anime phase though. I am hoping to curb it before it becomes terminal.
So that's us these past few years. WE have taken trips to China, Korea, Europe (Paris, London, Italy) and Japan. I will share some insights to all about that. So until next round.....Have a great 2015, God Bless and take care.
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