Welcome to our blog site!
(the posts in Chinese are written by Julia)
napa winery review
Filed in food & drinks, travelogue, December 8, 2009, 4:04 amso i had the good fortune of visiting a few wineries around napa/sonoma this past summer and here are some thoughts.
first, there’s really not many wineries in the town of napa. most of them are scattered else where around St.Helena, Yountville, Calistoga and elsewhere.
second, napa and sonoma wineries are quite different. napa is much more commercialized, industrialized and tour bus friendly while sonoma remains low profile, quaint, and family oriented.
third, large scale and boutique wineries cater to different crowds. some people like shopping at costco for its value, size and consistency while others prefer trader joes for its novelty and intimacy.
fourth, some wineries are for serious connoisseurs while others cater towards tourists.
i’ll indicate these characteristics for each of the wineries listed below (ranked by my personal preference). please note that i’m no wine connoisseur, my descriptions of each winery is purely from a tourist’s POV:
1) Castello di Amorosa (aka the castle winery): napa, boutique, tourists
routine
Filed in work, August 3, 2009, 2:25 amit’s been almost three months on my current project in silicon valley and my life is settling into somewhat of a routine of work like a mad man during the week and spending time with julia on the weekends.
on the way back to SJC this evening i noticed a few interesting things i’ve taken a habit of doing…
1) flight:
- buy an economist to read on the flight
- put all the inserts in the overhead compartment
- turn off the air vent
2) car rental:
- set the usual radio stations (classical/jazz/NPR/pop)
- position myself on the shuttle bus to be the first one to the hertz counter
- put these items in the car: bottled water, cell phone headset, sunglasses
3) hotel:
- always ask for the same room (558 @ sunnyvale sheraton)
- put all the literature (menu/brochures/etc) away in drawers
- open the window
- plug in all of my chargers in one place
i figured in the highly uncertain world and with my highly uncertain job, some routine would help keep me grounded and have a false sense of consistency…
cars downstairs
Filed in china, February 13, 2009, 10:21 ami like cars. i like to look at them and drive them. wherever i go i like to study the car cultures and appreciate quality cars.
LA is probably the only place in the world where the majority of passenger cars are modified or rigged up. it’s not strange to see old grandmas driving lowered accords with huge exhaust pipes. whether its the tail lights or spruced up bumpers, something is usually done to the car. popular night spots like sunset blvd and old town pasadena are fun places to experience the LA car culture. (where else in the world would you see stretch hummers and pimped out minivans cruising down the street?)
few things i learned from spending three days in a hospital
Filed in miscellaneous, December 14, 2008, 4:23 amsince my endoscopy last friday morning, i’ve been inside a parkway hospital for 50 hours recovering from an appendectomy and here are a few things i learned:
- muscles can atrophy in two days: i didn’t move my right arm for two day (due to IV drips) and i’ve lost some muscle functions. i was trying to pick up something and my bicep started to cramp up.
- morphine makes urinating difficult: morphine relaxes your muscles to the point that i had a hard time urinating (push but nothing comes out)… not a pleasant experience.
trip to yangshuo
Filed in china, travelogue, November 15, 2008, 12:05 pmround trip flight to guilin: RMB 2,200/person
airport transfer to B&B: RMB 220/car
farmhouse B&B: RMB 380/night
float trip down li river: RMB 120/boat
Continue reading this entry »
so how much do consultants make?
Filed in work, November 2, 2008, 8:49 amaccording to HBS’s annual survey, first year post-mba management consultants in china makes around USD 100,000 a year. given the demanding “lifestyle” (working hours) in this industry, let’s see how much on an hourly basis is a consultant worth.
Realistic case:
- $100,000 divided by 12 months = $8,333/month
- Working 5 days a week = $333/day
- Working 14 hours a day (9-11) = $29.76/hour
top 10 china adventures to come
Filed in china, top10, travelogue, , 8:29 amChina is a huge place, after watching BBC’s “wild china” (highly recommended!) i got a few more inspirations:
10) float down Li River at Yangshuo(Guangxi):done
9) swim in the Changbai Shan caldera lake (Jilin)
8) trek across Tianshan (Xinjiang)
7) ski at the largest winter sports development in China: pingtian resorts
finally, back to work!
Filed in china, work, September 13, 2008, 5:04 amafter 2 years of vacation b-school, a whole summer of traveling, and a week of orientation and training, i’m finally working!
it’s a strange and almost foreign feeling. to attend meetings and discuss strategies (in real life context). but the best thing is, of course, earning money!!
b-school was great but it sank my finances to a bottomless pit. (this is how much my hbs degree cost me) now at the poorest point of my life, i’m eager to start digging out of this hole.
very glad to be assigned to a project located in shanghai (no traveling). even better that it’s a big shot CPG (consumer package goods) client! i’ve been trying to get out of high tech related projects and am currently interested in the consumer/retail sector. currently the only downside is that the client is located near hongqiao airport, which means about an hour commute each way every day. but the endless free ice cream we get at the client site makes up for the long commute!
let’s see how long it takes for me to yearn for those hbs days…
how to score 107 points against the redeem team:
Filed in sports, August 24, 2008, 12:12 pm6) have kobe cover his guy 10 feet outside of the 3 point line: how can kobe be the best defender on the best team in the world (which makes him the best defender in the world) when he is constantly beat off the dribble or off high picks? maybe if kobe don’t try to steal every pass/dribble or over-play his defense outside of the 3-point line, he might not have been burned so many times? (maybe he should just play like he played in the nba…)
5) let dwight howard onto the court: why would you ever let a guy who can’t play defense, can’t shoot free throws, actually, who can’t shoot (period) onto the court?
shanghai romance
Filed in china, food & drinks, shanghai, August 23, 2008, 2:14 amrecently a friend asked me to recommend some date places around shanghai so i came up with a list. after reviewing with julia here are some of our favorite date places (shhh… keep this between us so these places don’t get overrun with tourists), not in any particular order:
* tai-kang lu area (泰康路): though this area has changed a lot over the years (more commercialized), it’s still quiet and quirky enough to retain most of its charm and secludedness. rows of quaint galleries, charming cafes, and curious craft stores.
Entries