OTBS The Blog

I’m ready - Bring it!

Sun, 7 Mar 2010 17:25:35 +0700

I'm at home today packing for another trip. It's a bit of business and a bit of pleasure. I first go to Berlin for the annual ITB, a travel trade show. I have a lot of appointments with our overseas travel partners, some of which I already know and some who I have not yet met. It will be a busy week.

On the 13th, I have a big day. I'll turn 40. And to celebrate, I'm headed to Spain! I'll spend 2 nights in Madrid and 3 in Barcelona. I am most excited. Spain has been at the top of my list for awhile now and while I just had a two week vacation, I am trying to use up a few more days of annual leave before they "expire" in March. Nevermind I couldn't take them in 2009...but that's another blog entry.

I have sort of just planned everything at the last minute, actually need to still book my hotel in Barcelona. But for me, this is just a taste of this fascinating place and I really want to do what I normally do when I first land somewhere - take a long walk and just let the city speak to me. Sure, I've printed off some materials, some walking tour suggestions, points of interest. But I'm the type of traveler who likes to look a map, get my bearings and then just go. Considering the birthday I am celebrating, I think this will be a fantastic way to enter into the next decade...totally enthusiastically and with terrific hope that there are a lot of great discoveries ahead.

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers,
Shanna

All Good Things Come To An End

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 12:04:20 +0700

Two weeks went by too quickly. I didn't do enough. I wish I could have seen more people. Squeezed in a trip to San Francisco or even Dallas. That would have been good. So many things going on in my head and my heart. I'm not sure I got enough hugs from my niece. Will she remember me when she see's me on skype through the computer? One more week would have been good. I could have checked a few more things off the list. But then again, these two weeks were not about checking lists. It was about taking a breath and reflecting and just having a good time. And that I did.

I return to Hanoi with a renewed spirit, a new outlook and a host of ideas for what's ahead. I'm really thankful for having a couple of weeks at home. It did me a world of good. Cheers.

Cheers,
Shanna

I Do Not Want To Be Sick!!!

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:19:17 +0700

Of all things that I wanted on vacation, a wretched chest cold is not one of them. It's been building up for a few days, and then the morning I left Los Angeles, I felt like I had been hit by a truck. Today I feel even worse, and just need to chill out. It's no wonder I got sick. My dad and niece, some friends in L.A. are all battling something. No surprise it took hold of me. The change of weather, the wind down from work and a slower pace all made me an unsuspecting victim. I hope I can shake it. I don’t normally like to take medicine, but this Tylenol Complex Cold thingys seem to be haling a bit. Dang!

Cheers,
Shanna

Looking Back to Look Forward

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:47:45 +0700

When you live abroad for a good chunk of time, coming home for a visit can bring about a flood of emotions. I love seeing my family and friends, but I always feel a bit like a stranger or even a foreigner in my own country. Living without has been my m.o. this last year and so stepping into a life full of excess always feels a little awkward. That and all of those drug commercials on TV. What the heck? Of course one visit to Target usually helps me get past my judgement on these superficialities as I can happily stock up on really necessary stuff like flavored coffee and a cabinet's worth of hair products. And after my first cheeseburger at InNOut, I can sort of fall back into the American way of life. (OK I tease. That's not going to happen anytime soon, but I do enjoy my vacations home!)

Vietnam is also a country and experience which is hard to describe to people without sounding completely negative. Everyday of my life is filled with a multitude of small to complex challenges. And this past year was a rough year of transition for me. Vacation came at a really good time. I needed to refresh and refill.

During my holiday, one of my favorite friends I've visited with is one of my oldest and dearest, Holly. The best way to describe how I feel when I visit with her and her family is NORMAL. Not a very exciting word, but at the heart of the emotion, I simply feel like ME. And remembering where I come from and the person that I am, having a good chat and a laugh with a friend I've known forever is really good medicine for a wounded soul. 2009 was a rough year for us both and I am grateful to have the chance to jump these hurdles together. We should never forget who we are and how far in life we've come. Thanks for the reminder, Holly. Love you oodles!

Cheers,
Shanna

My Peeps, Yo Yo

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 13:08:59 +0700

Whenever I make a visit home, I always split my time between San Diego and Los Angeles. L.A. is like the other place I grew up in the sense that the five years I lived there were really remarkable years of growth for me both professionally and personally. And it was in L.A. where I met some the most important friends in my life.

The tough part about making a visit these days is splitting up my limited time between everyone and having those too-short moments be meaningful. But I think I managed to do well this visit. Even stopped by the City Club and after a good chat with Larry, remembered exactly the stuff I'm made of - important during this challenging time in my life.

Worst part of Los Angeles - the traffic! THAT, I do not miss. It took me two hours+ to get out to my friend Sheryl's house. Absolutely maddening. Even in the slower lanes, you have the jerks who get right up on your tail and ride your bumper. And for some reason, the drive between San Diego and Los Angeles seems to have gotten longer. Well, driving in the pouring rain up to L.A. probably doesn't help the situation any. But for as many times as I've driven that route, it seems to have been stretch out a bit! It has - right? ;p

One of the fun things I got to do in L.A. was go see my hair stylist. Josef is my favorite. And I've gone to him for years now. Even living abroad, I usually plan a visit to Umberto's in Beverly Hills. I'm not really a Beverly Hills kind of girl, but I have always splurged on my hair. In Japan even, I found a great stylist in Howard and would visit him on my visits to Tokyo. My hair is kind of my thing. And I let Josef do whatever the heck he wanted, because the look on his face when he first saw me said it all...The no bangs, one length thing was NOT working for me! And you know he made a good point. Bangs point to the eyes and if you have a pair...well then. So the bangs are back and my hair is all layered up and ready to grow...let's hope that it will continue to grow quickly and get past my shoulders soon! This photo here shows off the new look the day after it was cut.

With two of my dearest friends in L.A. I discussed the issue of SKYPE. I'm telling you now, this is a fabulous tool to stay in touch and communicate. It doesn't matter if you have video or not. Just to be able to talk live and hear your voice - that's a lot of goodness right there. I use it all the time for work, as our offices are spread out over SE Asia. We chat, speak, hold conference calls and even send documents. So please....please please please. Load up skype on your computer and let's stay in better touch - I MISS YOU!!!

Cheers,
Shanna

She’s The Cutest LIttle Girl...

Mon, 8 Feb 2010 11:46:18 +0700

This little girl is quickly becoming the highlight of my vacation - and only on day three! My cutie-pie little niece, Laniah will be two in April and boy is she full of personality already. This picture is from one of the many moments we spend in the front yard. NaiNai loves her little chair and umbrella. She is never without her sippy cup and her "nummy nums".

I am delighted to have the time to bond with this little one. I had about 8 months with her before I moved to Vietnam and while I know she recognizes my voice, I want her to remember me...cool, wacky, fun and playful Auntie Shanna.

My sister, Angie, will have her hands full with this little one in year two. Laniah is very clear as to the things she likes and doesn't, the things she'll do and wont. NO is said very distinctly and with lots of conviction. But for goodness sake, don't tell this child NO - ever. Say this to her and her lower lip goes south, her hands are on her cheeks, her head slightly bows and she looks up at you as though you are the meanest person on the entire planet. Say NO to her for something particularly important to her and you get these gestures coupled with her elbows propped on her knees and a fake cry. Diva-licious!

I hope two weeks will be enough to get my fill of this little love-bug. But my hunch is that I could spend all day every day of my vacation with this adorable munchkin and not quite get my fix. Maybe I need to get one of my own? ;p

Cheers,
Shanna

Vacation’s All I Ever Wanted...

Fri, 5 Feb 2010 23:35:53 +0700

I knew immediately that I had landed back in California. Standing around the luggage carousel, I watch as nearly everyone put their phone to their ear or talked loudly with their hands-free robotic ear piece safely clipped on. I'm sure every single person on my flight was some super major important person who just couldn't wait one more second to retrieve all those way super important and urgent messages!

Walking though the terminal on the way to the United desk, I heard a smattering of "right on" and "dude" and "cool" with a sprinkling of "that's how I roll" and "you know what I'm sayin'?" Aaaaahhhh...California. Home.

With boarding pass in hand to San Diego, I waited at the gate and heard the following conversation between two ultra-hip dudes, sitting right behind me...

Dude 1: Have you ever been to that restaurant Helen Back?
Dude 2: Hell and back? What?
Dude 1: No. Helen Beck. It's play on words. It's a pizza place. Do you know it?
Dude 2: Oh, that's funny. No. Is it good?
Dude 1. That place rocks, dude. It's like my favorite pizza place.
Dude 2: Really? Sounds cool.
(1 minute pause in the conversation)
Dude 2: So what's the style?
Dude 1: Of what?
Dude 2: Helen Back. What style is it?
Dude 1: What do you mean what style?
Dude 2: Like, what kind of toppings do they have?
Dude 1: Dude, it's a pizza place, you can get whatever you want. Their sauce is the bomb.
Dude 2: That's cool. I'll have to try it out sometime.
Dude 1: Yeah, you should, it rocks.
Dude 2: Yeah.
(another pause)
Dude 2: Do you know about McGuires?
Dude 1: No, never heard of it.
Dude 2: Oh, it's the best. But I don't think they have one in San Diego yet.
Dude 1: Probably why I don't know it.
Dude 2: Right on. If it was here, you would totally know it dude. It's really good.
Dude 1: Oh yeah?
Dude 2: Yeah. It's good to go there when you are like totally starving and stuff cuz you'll leave full. That's for sure.
Dude 1: Cool. Sounds awesome.
Dude 2: Man, I love that place.
(pause and then the begining of a conversation about a co-worker)
Dude 1: I don't really know him that well, but he seems cool.
Dude 2: Do you know what he does when he's like, hanging out?
Dude 1: You mean like activities?
Dude 2: Yeah, like what kinds of things does he like to do?
Dude 1: I really don't know. But he's cool.
Dude 2: Yeah, he's cool.

At this point as I was jotting down notes from their mind-blowingly intelligent conversation, I had the urge to turn around and smack the two of them and yell, "You two are exactly the reason I don't live here! You idiots!" But I imagine that random act of anger would be met with a really profound come back such as...

Dude 1: Wow. That was like totally unnecessary and uncool of you.
Dude 2: Yeah, totally uncool.

Welcome to California! Let the vacation begin!

Cheers,
Shanna

Another Day Another Dong

Tue, 2 Feb 2010 22:06:45 +0700

Sometime in July my company decided to pay all of us expats in Vietnamese Dong (VND). This decision came after the government cracked down on accepting dollars. We had to change all promotional materials, menus and such to VND. This in itself is a bit of a nightmare. Instead of $130 per person you list 2.400.000VND per person. Perhaps you can see where that gets confusing, especially for tourists. There are other, more lazy reasons for this decision, but that’s another blog entry.

This movement toward a dong-only system is bad for the country. VND is not an internationally exchanged currency. So even if I go to Thailand for the weekend, I can't change my dong for baht at the Bangkok airport. Thailand wont accept the currency. The only place I can use dong is in dongville, and that's Vietnam. And let's face it - I can't even say the currency name with a straight face, much less take this worthless currency seriously.

Managing my finances in dong wouldn't be so bad if there weren't so many restrictions on what I can actually do with the dong, once I am paid in this currency. Here are the only things I can do with the dong directly deposited into my VND account at HSBC.

1. Keep it in the account (never gonna happen).
2. Withdraw in VND ( a must for daily expenses).
3. Transfer in foreign currency to account in foreign country
4. Withdraw in foreign currency provided I have proof of air ticket and visa, if needed, and explain for what purpose I need the money. (The tellers can be more aggressive than immigration. Upon going to London I had to argue that as a US Citizen I did not, in fact, need a visa for the UK.)

If the direct deposit from my company is not earmarked as salary, then items 3 and 4 are null and void. I'm stuck with the dong. The only place I can exchange dong for dollars is the black market, the gold/jewelry stores peppered throughout the city. The hotels (even the 5 Star ones) wont exchange money this way either (total bullshit - good luck if you pull too much dong on your stay in dongville) and not all of the "exchange" booths at the airport exchange money in the other direction. When I went to Laos in October, I had to go to 4 booths to accumulate $500 because 2 of the booths refused to give me USD, despite being a money "exchange".

In order to make bank transfers online, you have to set up your online banking. Fine. You have to register the bank(s) you want to transfer to and if you plan to transfer a decent amount of cash, you have to "apply" to raise your daily limits. Done.

So last night when I went to transfer funds to my US account, it wouldn't process my transfer because it said I was over the daily transfer limit. (I so wish I was talking large sums of cash here, but it’s a normal amount to prepare for a two week vacation in the US.) So apparently the paperwork I filed months ago was pointless and never processed. I was pissed.

Today I went to the bank to check on that paperwork. I had to fill out the form a second time. I’m assured that it will be processed this time. And so then I went to get my cash, because frankly, between now and Friday, I don't have the time to dilly dally around with a wire transfer. I don't really have time to make a personal appearance at the bank, either and wouldn't need to had the damn people at the bank processed my paperwork!!!

So, I filled out my withdraw slip and waited in line. (Remind me to mention in another post how the Vietnamese do not like to wait in line and find no problem in just going up to the counter ahead of people.) Once I made it to a counter and elbowed a couple line-cutters out of the way, I was told that the maximum amount of USD I could be given "today" was $1000 (This figure, I was told, changes on a daily basis depending on the bank's USD cash situation. It's a frickin bank!!!)

I explained the situation about the unprocessed paperwork and told the teller that had HSBC done their job months ago and processed my paperwork, we wouldn't be in this situation. I would have been able to smoothly transfer the funds I wanted. I went round and round with the teller and actually said the following on more than one occasion, "I am the customer. I already did my job. The bank has not done theirs. " And a few "I should not have to work this hard to make a withdrawal. It is my money." And also, "I am not leaving here until you give me the cash I am asking for." One thing this country does not understand is customer service. But let's just say that persistence does pay, and I left with my desired amount of cash.

I can't tell you how annoying it is that even this aspect of my life comes with a set of challenges. Everything requires extra effort, but this is an area I really don't want to have to put up a fight. She works hard for the dong just doesn't have the same ring to it. Dong dong dong. Nope, still can't say it with a straight face. Stupid dong.

Cheers,
Shanna

Strange Demands

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:51:07 +0700

The driver was late picking me up at the airport this evening. When he arrived 45 minutes later than scheduled, he clearly looked perplexed. Once in the car, he explained that there was an accident on the road and as he had no passengers in the car, the police stopped him and demanded that he take one of the victims to the hospital. He told me that the police can pull anyone over and demand these kids of things and that he is in no position to refuse. Hung was clearly irritated and did not want to be involved. He was also relieved that the victim wasn't a big bloody mess.

Can you imagine?

Cheers,
Shanna

GLEE!!!

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:06:05 +0700

Fortunately for me, the Star World channel replays the shows of the week on Saturday and Sunday. I just caught the first episode of GLEE, which will now be shown every Wednesday night after American Idol. My friends Mette and Sarah both watch this show on Wednesday night when it first aired and said that they thought it had potential but that it wasn't what they expected. It sure has been played up a lot this month, so i thought it must have fallen short of the hype. But for me - OMG - I loved loved LOVED the first episode and cant WAIT to see the rest of the season!

What some of you may or may not know about me is that I was a theater kid when I was young. I've posted a couple photos below from my performances. I loved taking the drama or voice classes and remember all too well the auditions for the plays. I never got a lead role, but Mr. Russell, the theater company director was always so kind to call me and congratulate me on my role as the townsperson or bunny rabbit or whatever other general role I was chosen for. I practiced so very hard for auditions, but when the moment of truth came, I was so nervous, I failed to sing the song how I practiced, and would undoubtedly fall out of my singing voice.

Fast forward to high school. I was an all-American girl. I played sports but was also a cheerleader. I was part of the popular group of kids. I went to school dances and proms with the greatest enthusiasm. And I also watched every performance of Ensemble.

Mixed Ensemble was a group of 32 students, half girls and half boys. The concerts would being on a classical note and grow progressively toward pop tunes and big song and dance numbers. At our school, this vocal group drew not only musicians, singers and dancers, but football players and basketball stars, cheerleaders and tennis champions. It wasn't dorky to be in Ensemble, it was beyond cool.

I never found the courage to audition for Ensemble in the first three years at school. The group was so talented. I never thought I would be good enough. But my senior year approached, and I realized it was my last chance. I nervously made my way to the audition to sing for Joretta Wright, our teacher and director.

The audition was tough...you couldn't bring a song to sing, she just asked you to sing well know tunes, patriotic songs and even some children's music. I sang America the Beautiful and Mary Had a Little Lamb. I sang confidently and sincerely, hoping to secure a spot in the group. The next day, I went to the Ensemble room to look at the paper on the door. And my name was on it. I made it.

Ensemble was by far one of the highlights of high school. I loved the music and the choreography. I met one of my best friends in my life, Holly, and one of the greatest loves of my life, Hap. I loved being on stage and performing and when we went to Boston and New York on tour, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Ensemble was cool.

GLEE may be off to a slow start for my friends here, but as I watched it today, I was overcome with emotions and memories of a very fond time in my life. I can't wait to follow the storyline and see what other memories come to light. For today, I'm content to go through my day humming some of the songs we sang back then. I still remember them all.

Cheers,
Shanna

From the “Trouble With Angels” production.

Me with Prince Charming from Cinderella.