Hong Kong Entry #13

So this past week was a good week for me, it had some downs and some really big ups as well!  The particular downside was that I got sick again and actually had to go back to the doctors to figure out why the antibiotics they gave me, did not work.  The doctor was actually really surprised that I was still sick, as last time he gave me a high dose of penicillin.  So this time he gave me two options he said that I could either take a different type of medicine or he would give me a referral to a Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor.  I decided that I would try another medicine before going to the ENT, if I was not feeling better within two days then I would go to the ENT.  However at this point I just really wanted to start feeling better, as I am really tired of having a swollen throat, stuffy nose and coughing up yellow stuff every day.  He issued me a high dose of Zithromax the same thing that I alway's take at home Zpack.  As far as taking care of my swollen throat and fever, it worked well, however I still wake up a little stuffy and am still coughing up yellow phlegm. Ah well I guess that it really will never go away, I will just have to suck it up and take care of it when I get back home.
The rest of the week went well however, I worked out and ran everyday except for Friday.  I have been actually getting used to the thick air here.  When I first started running it was kind of hard to breathe as it is just so humid and thick.  Now I find myself running faster and longer, as I am getting accustomed to the climate here.  Work was actually better this week as my CEO gave me a different project to work on that actually interests me.  He has me helping Edmund Yu one of our IT guys at Global Sage. Basically I am helping Edmund develop the small Facebook ad.  Basically the idea of our ad is to grow our database of professionals in the financial services industry.  They click the ad to get a comparison of their compensation with people in the industry at the same position as them.  We give them the compensation but we get to add their information to our database and grow our knowledge of people in the field, which for head hunting is the main objective.  This past week I helped Edmund by writing up a couple automatic response emails that will be sent out after someone has entered their information.
This was the final week that I would be working with Andrew Miller my direct boss around as he and his family left for a three week vacation yesterday.  So I had a meeting with him where he basically told me that he would attempt to get me a long term paid internship at Global Sage so I could continue my job hunt in Hong Kong.  At the end of the week, after thinking about it for some time I told him that if this Englishtown job does not work out then I would go back home and try to land a job in a agency so I could get experience in lots of areas of marketing.  Andrew has been great to me all summer, he has given me some great advice and has become a friend that I definitely plan to keep in contact with.
Other great news from this past week, I found literally the perfect entry job opportunity in Boston at a agency called Hill Holliday.  Hill Holliday has an open position as a Assistant Social Media Strategist which would literally be a perfect position for me to get my foot in the door.  The job is exactly what I am looking for as it is in a great agency with some big time clients like Anheuser Busch, Dunkin Donuts, and the MLB.  Their office is on State Street so its right in the middle of Boston right near where I would be living with Tara, if we end up moving into her fathers apartment.  So I could walk to work which would be great as I could save money by not having to deal with a car.  I talked to Matt Mariani and asked him if he had any connections in the company that would be willing to put in a good word, he did not know anyone but he helped me again by setting me up with his friend Robyn who works for a recruiting company called Creative Circle which places people in marketing/online marketing jobs.  Her company also has an office in Boston and they do work with Hill Holliday so she said she would try to help me out, and she named a couple other big agencies that she works with and asked if I would be interested in those as well.  I told her yes of course and since then she has been working to help me out and asked me to meet a recruiter when I get back which I told her I would be willing.
On the other side of it I am still waiting to hear about the final decision at Englishtown.  Apparently Vanisha the recruiter has been in contact with Jessica and said that the feedback has been good and that she wanted to finish interviews this week and hopefully have a decision on Monday or Tuesday, so we will see.  I also heard back from this guy named Aman Narain who is the Global Head of Online and Mobile Banking at Standard Chartered Bank.  I contacted him to ask him some career advice and how to get into online/mobile banking and what it takes.  So that is exciting, I am going to send him a email and my CV this week as he asked me for it, and then schedule a time to talk.  So in terms of job searching this past week has gone pretty well and I have made some great contacts, as I also spoke with a guy in Boston who is looking for a supply chain finance person to hire for his company.  He also asked for my CV and said we should talk when I get back.
On Thursday for lunch I met up with Ignacio and the other intern he works with for lunch.  We went to that dumpling place that Andrew took me out to earlier.  I have been dying to get back to that place and it was just as good the second time around.  I got an order of the vegetarian dumplings and they were delicious.  They were filled with spinach and tofu and then steamed.  I also found out that they do take out so I think I am going to start eating there for lunch more often as it is delicious, not very expensive, and right by my office.
The rest of the week was nothing really special, as I did not do much until the weekend, where it got really crazy.  On Friday, right after work all four of us Global Sage interns left with our CEO John Wright and headed to his house for dinner. The ride to his house started the night off perfectly as John drives a beautiful BMW 7 series and it is super comfortable and much better then squeezing on the MTR.  When we arrived at his Beautiful home he gave the girls and guys each a room to put our stuff in and settle down, and he also gave us a change of clothes so we could get out of our work clothes.
We had a wonderful time at Johns house, the food was great as was the drink! John's figured we would want to have a Western meal since it had been a while since we had been home, so he had his cook make us ribs, with baked potato, green beans, and a salad.  So that was a nice change of pace from all the Chinese food that we have been eating.
The funny thing is that when we all first got to John's place he offered us drinks and Chris and I took a beer figuring that we would have one then eat dinner and leave soon thereafter.  That was not the case, at all. lol
What happened in reality was, we drank our beers and then John preceded to tell us to start drinking and we should go dig into his liquor cabinet.  So of course we could not say no to the boss so we did.  As we were looking through his extensive collection of alcohol, 1 bottle caught my eye! It was a bottle of Glenmorangie single malt scotch, and thanks to my Father and Grandfather I am a big scotch fan these days. Chris had never had it before so I told him he needed to try it, which he did and we ended up together almost finishing the bottle.  At about 2pm John and Robyn decided they wanted to go for a ride so they took us to a beach to do some night swimming and then they took us to the Peak to see the view of the city.  It was soo quiet, it was amazing as it is always fast paced and bustling here.  After that we went back and John gave us all places to sleep the night.  In the morning we got to have a homemade breakfast consisting of bacon, eggs, cereal, OJ and milk.
We all left John's house at about 12:15 and Chris and I had to rush as we had to catch a 1:30 Ferry to Macau.  However the problem was that we had to go back to City University first to get our passports and clothes. It took us a while and when we finally arrived at the ferry terminal it was about 1:20 so there was no chance we could make it as we still had to go through immigration.  So I ended up buying a 2:30 ferry ticket with Tucker, Stanley and Chris and just eating the other one. Oh well!

Stanley, Dennis, Ignacio, and myself

The Macau Splash party was insane! It was like one of those MTV Spring Break pool parties you see on TV and think "Wow that looks awesome wish I could be there).  There were so many people and the pool at the Hard Rock was awesome.  It had a out of water and in water bar, a DJ Island in the pool, where Lil' John and other DJ's performed.  They had give away's at the door which was really cool, I got there late with the guys so originally I did not get one, but Amanda hooked me up since her company planned the event.  The door gift bag, had a Splash Towel, Hat, and big cup for drinks in it.  One thing they were doing the entire time of the party was giving out free shots.  They had girls carrying these tubes with mixed drinks in them and they had a hose with a spout that they could pour directly into your mouth.  I must have been given 10 of these shots throughout the night.  I met so many people and made so many new friends.  I became buddies with one guy just because we both had the same scar on our shoulders from collar bone injuries! By the time that Splash was winding down and the pool area started to empty out, I was feeling quite exhausted.  However I knew I had to suck it up and go up to the room and get dressed for the party at Club Cubix in the Hard Rock.  

The Cubix party was okay, it was jammed pack and hard to move around because of the number of tables in the place.  On top of it I was super tired from Splash, so I didn't really do much except watch T-Pain perform.  I actually did not even buy one drink!  It was a cool thing to go to once though, and it was funny to watch T-Pain and his posse shower the crowd in Champagne. Ross and Ignacio both got soaked!  I left Cubix with Mike P. at around 4 in the morning, because I was supposed to catch my prepaid ferry at 7am.  So I figured I would get some shut eye for an hour and a half.  However that did not happen....AGAIN!  So all in all over the course of the weekend I paid for 4 ferry tickets and only used two of them.  Ah well it was well worth it as the experience was amazing.

Can you find me?

For more Splash pictures go to my Facebook Page or to www.splashmacau.com