• Don't transfer balance from credit card to credit card. Even if the transfer is free, there is always some hidden cost such as finance charge.
• If you do transfer balance, always pay the full amount charged to the account. Even if you pay the total balance for current pay cycle, it's applied to purchases first. Transferred balance remains and incurs higher interest rate.
• Don't use credit card in foreign country for small amount. Foreign exchange fee plus the purchase amount is not worth it.
• Don't book theatre shows through travel service unless you can select your own seat; book directly with the theatre. Otherwise, you may end up sitting far left or far right for the same price.
• Always print a map to the hotel. Even if you have an address to the hotel, the taxi driver may pretend he doesn't know and give you an unwanted tour of town, jacking up the taxi fee.
• Don't book connection flight separate from your main flight itinerary. If the connection flight time changes or cancels, you're screwed.
• When traveling to Europe, think smaller. Use smaller bag for carry-on and lighter load than you'd normally do in the U.S. It's impossible to remember pound to kilogram conversion and everything is smaller in Europe, anyway.
• Stay fit if you want to travel abroad. There is a lot of walking and carrying involved. You can't expect to drive from place to place unless you can afford a butler to accompany you.
• Home sweet home... so true!

Most immigrants make their home the first city they land and spend most of their lives there. For my family, this is Los Angeles -- the city of angels. I didn't leave Southern California until after school. Then I began traveling abroad before I even had a chance to visit the other coast. Hence NYC visit last week was a great excitement for me until I experienced its noise and rude people. Well... my memory of it has faded a bit; I can now talk about the great experience I had in NYC.

I took an hour cruise around Manhattan island and had a close-up encounter with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. To many people, these are just a monument and a site in a history book. On this day when my boat went-up close, it just dawned on me about my own roots as an immigrant. Growing up in the States and living in culturally diverse cities, I often forget that I was once a stranger to this country.

I wondered and wondered... what state of mind my parents were in when they had determined to immigrate to the States. My dad was 52 years old at the time and my mom, 43. With 3 young kids, they had just enough money to buy plane tickets, rent an apartment in LA downtown, and buy a Toyota Corolla (cheapest car at the time). I remember that my parents went to work the next day we arrived (we only had $100 left so they had to earn -- fast). We 3 kids stayed in the apartment all day. We were told never to go outside; otherwise, we'll get shot. In retrospect, I don't know how we survived. But we survived, and we are all at a more affluent position and safer environment than before.

I cannot imagine what it would've been like had my parents remained in S. Korea. One thing I know... my parents had great courage and conviction in order to make such move. All immigrants, for that matter, share the same courage and conviction/hope. I am grateful to my parents and appreciate deeply those who exercise such courage and conviction everyday!  

Have you heard how you become your job? The first thing a dentist looks at is your teeth regardless of place and purpose. The first thing a hair stylist looks at is your hair. Well... I guess I can't hide my job. I was walking along the Broadway street, and the first thing that caught my eyes amongst all fancy Broadway show bulletin boards is this "page not found" browser error.

My Chinese friends told me about stinking tofu. I never saw it, never had it and didn't even bother to try. I believe them totally when they said, "it smells like used socks".

Well, I found a wine that smells like cow dung. In my journey to becoming a wine connoisseur, I decided that I must get out of my comfort zone and try other varietal than Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. So I ordered a glass of Italian Chianti at a restaurant the other night. The first round of swirl-sniff-swirl-taste turned out fine. I thought it was similar to Cabernet except it had more powerful fragrance. Then I let it sit until my dish arrived. When I sniffed again (out of habit, I guess), I smelled what I first thought of as "earth". Then it reminded me of my long drive down the Interstate-5 across Bakers Field, California --- cow dung!

Someone warned that some old world wines stink. The experts describe it as "earth" or "herbaceous". To me, this Chianti was truly cow dung!

A friend told me that NYC is a great if you don't sleep. I agree whole heartedly. My room was on 32nd floor (I think that's far enough from ground level), but I was able to hear the taxi honking and police sirens crying until midnight or so. Once the outside noise quieted down, I could hear the inside noise when people from the bar began returning to their rooms. By 3 am, all was quiet... however 3 am EST is 6 am PST, so I was wide awake by then. I was a walking zombie with bloodshot eyes during meetings. People must have thought that I stayed out late, partying too much...

~~~

I read an interesting article on New York Guides (sometimes the thick hotel magazine in your room is quite useful). A Los Angeles native visiting NYC wrote about New Yorkers and their attitude this way: "It's not that people here are nicer or ruder than anywhere else, they're just more efficient: being rude is a waste of energy, and residents conserve every drop. In a borough averaging 26,402 people per square mile (roughly 10,000 more people per square mile than the next densest American city, San Francisco), finely honed social skills are essential to survival."

This made sense, so I began demanding the next day... instead of asking.  "Sir, which way is ___?"  versus "Excuse me. I need to go ____. Could you tell me how I get there?" and "Please don't deliver newspaper to my room." versus "I called the other night that I don't want newspaper delivered to my room. Could you tell the delivery agent?" -- Worked a lot better!

I tell you...I don't do well with "near but far" places (read my earlier blog). I've been around the world with bigger time zone gap and had no problem adjusting because I just skip a night's sleep and make it up on the plane or the first night. But how do you make up 3 hours gap? 8 am EST meeting is practically 5 am PST. That means I need to wake up 3 am PST to get ready... <sigh!>

And what's up with New Yorkers? They're so rude! I mean the hotel receptionists are so rude; what side of bed did they wake up on?!

And the streets... I can handle the streets since I received enough training from growing up in L.A. But the endless honking and regular police sirens... I'm glad to stay in the meetings all day. So far, NY is yet to impress me :-(

I ran into an old friend the other day. We haven't seen each other for years so it was a serendipitous reunion. He told me that he landed a full time job 2 years ago and was excited that he is sort of "next-in-line" to his boss. I thought that's pretty impressive for someone who's been on the job only 2 years. Only later... I checked the company address book and found by standard job title that he has many, many ladders to climb before he can take his boss' position. Poor dude! He probably hasn't figured out yet how the corporate system works.

My good old friend reminded me, however, to reflect on what's important to me and my career.

Glory, honor, power -- they're hard to let go when you have them. That's human nature, but I wouldn't go out of my way to seek them. To me, they are by products of good, worthy job. But then... I worked long enough to know that's not how it works in corporate world and definitely not in politics.

Money, on the other hand, I don't mind having. Despite its poor reputation of being "dirty" or "the other master", money is a means or a useful thing to me. No more, no less. Good thing about my company is that I can still get a raise without the glory, honor, and power to some extent.

People is very important to me. I seriously believe that you rub off of each other in any given society. You might as well rub off of good quality people and help yourself to become as good or better that way. Working with good people can take loads off of your work.

Looking back in my childhood days, college years, and when I just began my career, I must say that these thoughts of mine haven't changed much. They must be my life-long values, so there you have it. I am now ready for any stones or tomatoes...

We drove up to Canada for a site visit. Of all the countries I visited, I have hardest time adjusting to Canada because of its similarity to the U.S. and dissimilarity at the same time. Perhaps it's the same language (except the frequent use of eh?) or same store logos such as Sleep Country (Canada instead of USA) or simply the convenience of proximity. I often forget that I crossed the border until the reality hits me.

I had to reimburse the vendor for lunch fee, but all I had in my pocket was USD. Not even the Canadians want USD now; the last time CAD exceeded USD was 50-60 years ago -- they said. So I had to scramble to withdraw some CAD from ATM.

On the drive back, everyone wanted a boost of caffeine so we stopped by Starbucks. For lousy CAD 3.75 per cup, I was short couple of cents and ended up paying by credit card -- what waste on foreign exchange fee!

I should look at the bright side... the Canadians drive on the right side of the road. Thank God for that!