obscuredolfin's Xanga

the world is right again

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 04:33:57 GMT

my apartment has furniture (thanks in large part to ikea and my dad's help in assembling furniture) and doesn't look like a hurricane hit it anymore. i'm pleased! [on a side note, i have perhaps the nosiest landlady on the face of the planet. she's always around and asking questions...and is super strict about what i can do in the apartment.]

also, whole foods has green and black chocolate on sale :p

the world is good!

Operation Next Phase of Life Underway

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:37:18 GMT

::sigh of relief::

Job: Check
I'll be working at Recycline (www.recycline.com - yes, I know the website isn't stellar) as a Product Development Associate. We make environmentally friendly oral care, kitchenware, and tableware, mostly from recycled plastics (polypropylene). It's actually very cool because there aren't that many products out there that use recycled PP (it's the stuff in your yogurt cups) and not all towns recycle it because it's not profitable to. We don't use very much post-consumer waste right now because we don't have a good source for it, but I definitely think that is on our horizon (as are biodegradable plastics - we also recently made kitchen cutting boards from post-consumer recycled paper).

We're only 14 people (including me and a new marketing associate), but growing quickly. As of last year, we are in select Target stores and all Walmart stores, and we released an exclusive kitchen product line to Whole Foods. In the future are new product lines and old product makeovers.

What will I be doing? Something of everything...conducting LCAs on our products, pursuing certification for them, sourcing new materials, testing new materials, packaging design, product design and idea generation, communicating with the manufacturers and product design firm we use, keeping track of stock, purchase orders...etc.

Apartment: Check

After a weekend of calling seemingly everyone in Massachusetts and setting up appointments to visit apartments (we visited 8 in total in both Porter Square and Walltham) - I've got an apartment. It's a small (cozy?) apartment in Waltham right off Moody St., a convenient 5 block walk from work and the commuter rail. Come visit me sometime..but only a couple at a time, please, unless you want to experience life as a sardine :p The worst thing about this place is there's no laundry in the building. Oh yeah, and it's obnoxiously pink (not pretty pink, but IN YOUR FACE pink). But it's affordable...and tenancy at will, so I can find a new place whenever I want. This way, I can get out of Waltham and move to Cambridge if it doesn't suit me...plus there's a TKD place like three blocks from my place.

So what's left in Operation Next Phase of Life? Furniture. Moving (Feb 4). Actually cooking for myself. Getting internet. Yay become an adult!

(There, Mel. I keep my promises! ;)

augh...housing

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 23:11:55 GMT

Super stressed about finding housing. So, I found a job in Waltham (will post on that later. maybe. who knows..) and I'm really excited about it but that's being WAY overshadowed right now with having to find an apartment looming over my head.

I'm supposed to start on Feb 4th - but have the first week be telecommuting so I can get an apartment set up, etc. So, I have a little bit of leeway in finding an apartment, but not much. Most of the February apartments have been filled already - obviously, only the ones that no one liked are left. Bah.

I want to live in Cambridge - there's a super convenient commuter rail train that goes from Porter Square to Waltham in 10 minutes. I'm also on a pretty strict budget because I'm not making that much money (working for a quasi-startup). Conclusion: only studios for me. There isn't anyone that I know (anyone? anyone? someone?) that is also looking for housing and I really don't want to live with Random Person from Craigslist who is Most Likely Dirty. Small studios. And not that many to choose from, either. Le sigh.

Other plan is to live in Waltham, where the same amount of money buys me more space (but there aren't really any cheaper apartments in Waltham, everything is at least $800) but I won't be able to save any money by going to Waltham.

Plus, I'm in NY, which makes visiting places super difficult. I'm coming up on Monday or Tuesday. So, my Planet Oliners, if you have any leads, let me know! I will bake you cookies...

No. Time. Gah.

Leaving China...

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 12:32:33 GMT

Tomorrow I get on a plane to fly back to New York - it will be so strange to be back in the States after being in China for so long. I suppose that I should be used to it by now, having traveled so much this summer, but I will miss lots of things. Strangely enough, I don't really miss many American things - except chocolate and ice cream (which Hong Kong has, but China does not). :)

I'm actually in Hong Kong now, which is why I can actually blog - I swear, I fully intended to during my trip! But the Chinese government had other ideas, and blocks all blogging websites. China is so different from Hong Kong - as a special administrative region of China, many laws (such as the One Child Law, which is now something like the One Child Unless You Have Lots of Money Law) don't apply here, and there are laws that do (like all official signs have to be in both English and Chinese). People here are rich; people in China are poor. Cars here don't hardcore try to run you over and actually obey traffic lawes. There aren't large numbers of severely overloaded bicycles, scooters, or motorcycles in the streets fighting with cars (think three or four people on a scooter and two on a bicycle, one sitting on the back). People here have iPods; people in China live and eat where they work as cheap labor, saving money for their family or for themselves so that they can start their lives. The sky is usually blue in HK; in Chinese cities it is rarely blue and always smoggy. The differences are incredible.

That being said, I love Hong Kong, enjoyed visiting China a lot but could not see myself living there, and will post photos on Facebook of the amazing things in China (from old favorites like the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, me playing with pandas!, the beautiful mountains along the river in the southern city of Guilin, visiting my dad's village, and tastytasty food...). Hope to see everyone soon :)

a timeline of pictures...

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 13:44:11 GMT

Before dinner purchase...

A super cute fish purse!! My mom and sister don't like it, but I think it's adorable! And then....

It has a little fish inside! Sortof like a coin purse....the lady wouldn't bargain me for it, though :( But I liked it so much that I bought it anyways...

...dinner before I ordered it...

these are live 'lan yue ha' (sp?) ... 'pissing shrimp' (also called mantis shrimp) they're called that, i believe, because they piss on themselves when you cook them :X don't worry though, cantonese people are smart and they spear them (torture them) before cooking to make them pee before cooking...

here's the super tasty big shrimp after cooking!

and we also got tastytasty crab...that were SO super spicy! there was an incredible mound of chiles and red peppers served with the crabs...yummy crabs! we ate at this street establishment where they have toilet paper rolls on the tables for napkins (most restaurants actually don't give you napkins at all). There are plates, buckets, and crates of fresh seafood that you can choose from...while they have this sort of thing in NY, the seafood are usually in nice aquariums as opposed to just on a table. I guess they have such a high turnover that it doesn't matter.

Anyways, here's the crab both before and after eating...look at how much SPICY is left!

More food and a temple/garden

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 07:21:57 GMT

Hello, everyone! I'm going to blog in pictures today, because I'm super lazy. (I wonder when I'll hit my upload limit - I'm not resizing my pictures...)

For lunch today we went to this place that makes rice noodles fresh when you order them - you can get rice noodle wrapped shrimp, fried dough, beef, or whatever [ha cheung/cheung fun, for my chinese readers...not many, i imagine :)]. tasty! Plus, I had tasty curry fish balls for you, Janet! :) (P.S. Janet, what must I eat/do when I am in HK? I saw an ad for snowy mooncakes from Wing Wah today and I am definitely going to try them!)

We went to the fish market...tons of stores, all with displays of these bagged fishes (and plants, too!). We caught them in the morning when they were just putting everything out. I imagine that they sell most of these fishes a day - can you imagine?? [Please to click for better detail!]

To fulfill our sightseeing quota of the day, we also went to a public garden, temple, and nunnery (Chi Lin Nunnery, Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple, Nan Lian Garden). Look at these two trees that are intertwined...

Then we had tasty dessert! I had another crazy awesome drink, plus fresh fruit and this really good sago-coconut-ice cream-pomello thing...

Tonight!

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:28:39 GMT

After playing Paper Mario (N64 emulator - addictive!), I got my dad out of the hotel to walk around and explore the area around the hotel. We came across two dessert places within a block - score! I can't wait to try them...

We went to Mong Kok, which turns out to be only about a ten minute walk from the hotel. It's a pretty happening area of HK with some of it closed off as pedestrian only. One of the streets within the area is the famed 'Ladies Market' that is open until about 2am and has stalls and stalls of purses, clothing, jewelery, and cutesy stuff for sale. Anyways, we went to the Mong Kok computer center - my dad wants to get a Chinese keyboard for my grandpa and I just wanted to look around at the vast amount of goodies available. The selection is amazing...it's a total geek'gasm! (maybe the next time I go I'll take pictures..but if you've ever been to a computer show, it's like that, but more dense, modern, and well lit, with lots more cutesy things.)

Then, one of the best things about going out with my dad, is we ate lots of tasty tasty food and spoiled my appetite. I had this tasty drink that had mango jelly and milk/cream of some sort and grapefruit juice with pomello..or something..who knows! It was really good...and not at all like bubble tea. The mango jelly was mostly solid on the bottom and it was jello-y and not tapioca-y. Then we had the tasty little cakes that were coconut flavored, yumm! And THEN! Then, ladies and gentlemen, we had TAKOYAKI! Well, I mostly had takoyaki...I haven't had takoyaki in a really long time (and the stuff in America doesn't really cut it). It was good but not as good as in Japan..but just as I had finished my takoyaki (from a street vendor), we came across a store that made JUST takoyaki, and all different kinds!! MMmm I will try that tomorrow. And then I had taro bubble tea. :)

so here are the promised pictures...and I promise that soon there will be pictures of non-food items, too. =)

Hong Kong!

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:12:12 GMT

I'm in Hong Kong (after 20 hours of flying!) and even though it is two in the afternoon my parents are jetlagged and sleeping next door. So what else is a girl to do besides blogging when everyone she knows is sleeping....? ;)

I'm in Hong Kong for five days, Guangzhou (southern China) for a week where we're staying at my uncle's place and using it as a base to go back to my dad's village, Shenzhen, and for lots of bargain shopping, then on a 12 day tour of Guilin, Shanghai, Beijing, and Chengdu (panda bears!). Then I'm back in Guangzhou for two days, HK for two days, then back home on Oct. 1st. I'm going to be here for the MidAutumn Moon Festival!! Veryvery exciting...mmm moon cakes, and lantern parades... And so the Lee family trip around China commences...(and also, because the US dollar doesn't suck in Asia like it does in Europe, we'll be staying in nice hotels...woohoo!)

On your way out of the Hong Kong Airport, much like they have customs or passport control, there's a 'Temperature Detection Section.' Signage indicated that it's used to detect SARS...isn't that crazy? They check out everyone that is walking by on infrared to see if they're running a fever...stinks for you if you have a cold. :)

It's hot in Hong Kong and is all hustle-and-bustle in the Asian way. I again wish that I was a better Cantonese girl so I can communicate with people. I'm surrounded by mountains again, but instead of the ice capped gloriousness that is the Swiss Alps, it's hot, smaller, and majestically rising out of the water mountains that are the Hong Kong islands.

I'm so lucky to have been able to travel so much this summer - and I cringe at the thought of my carbon emissions. Maybe once I get a job I'll calculate how much it would cost to offset my emissions (a rough calculation says over $500. ouch). I'll probably be periodically updating (with pictures, even!)..so stay tuned! (Only two more hours before my parents are scheduled to wake up from their nap...time to play games!)

Yummy yummy!
There's a supermarket right across from our hotel, so we chose some tasty treats...
here's the cutest package of doufufa (it's a sweet soy bean dessert) ...
i love the cute things in Asia (i know, so bad for the environment )

back home :)

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 23:23:24 GMT

back home in NY, with enough Swiss chocolate to keep me fortified for a long while yet... :)

Because I have nothing better to do, really, I've uploaded photos already on Facebook for your entertainment pleasure! Now, perhaps I will relearn my Chinese for my trip...we're leaving on the 29th to go for a month!

Sortof sad about leaving all of my YES friends...and about not going back to Olin in a week.

An encounter with dirt and shooting stars

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:39:52 GMT

Today turned into a beautiful day - the fog lifted and the sun shone. When I first arrived it was like this, and I didn't fully appreciate how lucky we were to have such wonderful weather until it became blinding white outside with fog which obscured everything. After the last lecture today, we had an hour before dinner started and two and a half hours before the next planned event, so a bunch of us decided to take advantage of these rare free moments to go visit a waterfall that we had seen on a previous hike.

Now, I am not an outdoorsy person - I am a city girl. I've gone hiking only a few times before and certainly didn't have the right shoes for it (just sneakers). As it turns out, there is no path that goes to the waterfall - so as intrepid explorers, we (there were eight of us) decided to climb up the mountain, through the forest, to the waterfall. I've never done anything like this before - it is probably the most exposure I've ever had to dirt. We were climbing up the steep slope, with lots of squishy moss and plant growth underfoot, rocks and faller trees, and other nature-y things. It was beautiful and the air smelled like thyme...but I was mostly scared the whole time. We were climbing over rocks and below fallen trees, over plants and up hills. Most of the people I was with are much more outdoorsy than me and they really helped me out...I almost gave up when I accidently grabbed this ridiculous plant that stings you. The pain is not excruciating, but it hurts and doesn't go away for like 12 hours. Anyways, when we got to the waterfall, it was incredibly beautiful and majestic. I'll post pictures later :)

The way down was super hard because of the steepness - sometimes I felt like I was just barely controlling my fall down the mountain. The natural wetness of the forest made me slide down onto my ass a few times, but luckily I never slid very far. I made it back down, though, only to run ~15 minutes back to the hotel (partly uphill) so that we would have enough time to eat dinner before the movie...needless to say, we greatly enjoyed the cold waterfall water that we brought back. :) The hike was an amazing experience, even thought I was frightened half of the time...I think that I will stick to real trails from now on. :)

At night, after dinner and a movie about peak oil with the producer (it's actually quite crazy how much they plan in a day - for example, today the last thing ended at 11:20pm and the day starts at 9am. there are some breaks in between, but they're short coffee or meal breaks), a few of us sat outside on a terrace, watching the stars. There's some sort of meteor shower going on, so I saw my first shooting star, as well as many others after that one, too. It was so beautiful and great.

I have never been in so much contact with nature and it's pretty amazing.