January 18, 2012

Lei Ho and Happy New Year!

This is my first post in the new year and I know its been a while since my last post so I will do my best to catch you up on everything I've been doing. As I mentioned in my last post Tucker has returned and after the new year my other roommate Ben also returned. So now we have a full house and there is pretty much always someone in the apartment to talk to so that is nice.

The month of December actually went by really fast we had a few company lunches as well as our company party.  I was part of the planning committee for the party believe it or not and on the day before, I was asked by the company to actually to be one of the MC's for the party. At first, I was a bit nervous but then I decided it would be a good opportunity to put my face in front of our Hong Kong office and meet as many people as possible. The party was 60's theme, I decided to go dressed as the Mad Men style of the 60's, so literally I just wore my black suit, simple.  To be festive I added a Santa hat to my outfit. The party ended up being a really good time even though it was on a Monday. It was all you could drink and everyone enjoyed the games and the excitement of the raffle. The company gave away some big prizes including two ipads and trips to Australia, USA, Singapore, and South Korea.  Here are some images from the event.

In December, we also had a bonding event for just our global marketing team where we went to a popular local pizza joint and made our own pizzas. It was a blast, as it was free drinks and free pizza. When my pizza came out of the oven the manager of the restaurant that it came out perfect and was a perfect pizza. However, I must admit a secret when I was rolling out my pizza I was having a hard time getting the perfect circle so I asked the manager to give me one of the pizzas dough's that had already been rolled out by one of their cooks. In argument I actually did place the perfect amount of sauce and toppings so I did have a hand in conceiving the perfect pizza.  Here are some photos from our night as gourmet pizza chefs.

Some good news that most of you know now is that I was able to take 3 days off and go home for week to celebrate Christmas and New Years with my friends and family. It was probably this single most anticipated trip of my life as I was counting down the days till I would fly home and see my family. Another major reason for my intense avidity, was the fact that none of my Grandparents and none of my extended family save a few new that I would be home for Christmas.
It ended up being the best Christmas of all time, when you are disconnected from your family for a extended time, seeing them on Christmas just made it all the more extraordinary. On New Years Eve I celebrated the coming of 2012 with my friends Nick Zaleski, Billy Mason, Pat White, and my cousin Greg in Hartford. It was a blast and I may have had a little too much alcohol to get on a plane at 9:00 am, but I do not regret a single minute of it.  Tara also came down for a few days during the week so it was good to spend some quality time with her. Aside from spending quality time with friends and family I also pigged out hardcore style on as much American grub as possible.  On Christmas eve I had Pierogi's at Babci's house along with vegetables and other various Polish dishes.  Then on Christmas day we went to my Uncle Jerry's where we were treated to prime rib and lasagna and it they were both cooked spot on.  On Tuesday of my week home, my parents held a holiday party at our house for our family and friends to celebrate and so that I could see as many people as possible.  The food was fantastic for this party as there were a ridiculous amount of appetizers, along with salads and pasta. Besides home cooked meals I also ate out a few times including Moes for dinner one evening and for lunch the following day. The catch is that I did not eat breakfast in between those Moe's trips so I actually had Moes for consecutive meals!

My parents wanted to take me out to dinner to celebrate my 24th Birthday since I would not be home on my actual Birthday. So we went out to dinner to a restaurant in Hartford called First & Last where we had a delicious Italian meal on that night. Also while I was home I was graced with a visit from two very good friends of mine (even though they are from the dirty jerz) Andrew and Matt Mariani. On their trip they were kind enough to bring up a case of Yuengling, they were not the only ones however, Mr. Engel also stopped by with a case he brought up from Eerie, PA. So throughout the week I had two cases of my favorite beer in the world to drink from, can't beat it.

I must admit that it wasn't just the beer, it was terrific seeing Mr. and Mrs. Engel for a while, and I had an absolute with the Mariani Bro's. Andrew and Matt came up on Tuesday night right after the holiday party and I took them along with Tara, Lauren and Laur's friend Victoria to Hong Kong House in South Windsor for some Scorpion bowls. We not only had a blast but I also found out something about my sister; she knows how to fight! Thats right, you heard right, little miss seem so friendly to everyone has a dark side. The story is I ended up getting mouthy with some kid and his girlfriend did not like it so she slapped me in the face. Lauren decided she did not like the girl hitting me and literally punched her in the face and drew blood!!! Yeap, hence Laur's new nickname "Tyson".

Unfortunately, as you all know all good things must come to an end so after our New Years bash in Hartford, I slept for about 2 hours sitting straight up on my living room couch, woke up at 6:30ish went to the bathroom threw up all the demons, took a shower, said goodbye to all my friends and left with my family to the airport. My trip back to Hong Kong was not the ideal one as I would be stopping in Detroit (which no matter what they say about the city, the airport is beautiful!) for two hours and then I flew to Tokyo where I had to chill for 5.5 hours. and then another 5 hour flight to Hong Kong where I arrived at 10:30 pm on January 2, 2011.

Picture I took on the way to Japan

Even though my stop in Japan was long, I am actually glad I was able to experience as the airport had some neat features in it. The first thing that I checked out was the automatic beer pouring machines. I was recommended to check them out while I was there from my roommate Tucker and one of Michaels lax teammates father.  The way it worked was the worker took my cup and put it in the holder, the machine then slightly tilted the cup and poured the beer from the tap automatically and created a perfectly poured full beer.
They also had all kinds of randomly shaped furniture all around the airport that people were reading on and taking naps, so that was neat. While walking I had the opportunity to taste some free Japanese Green tea which I felt tasted a little different then the green tea I drink in Hong Kong but I really have no idea how to describe it.
My favorite part of the Tokyo airport was the origami museum. So much detail, I took a ton of pics of my favorites from the museum which you can see below.

Santa's Elves in the workshop

T-REX

Angels

flowers and landscape

When I finally landed in Hong Kong and arrived back at my apartment it was about 11:00pm so I quickly unpacked and got ready for work the next day. The following day was January 3, 2012 and was my 24th birthday, I was jet lagged like you would not believe (actually I was jet lagged the rest of the week as well) but my colleagues Jessica and Celia went an purchased a Birthday cake for me which was very thoughtful!

Later that night after work, I wanted to go out and treat myself to a nice Birthday dinner. So I made reservations at the Peak Lookout which is one of the oldest restaurants in Hong Kong and is located up on the peak overlooking the Island. Tucker joined met me in Central and we took a minibus up to the top of the Peak. Dinner was very tasty I had grilled salmon which I have not had in a long time, so that was refreshing. Although I really liked the Peak Lookout and I thought the food was delicious, and a very nice romantic place to take a date with the music and dark setting, I thought that they should offer better sides with your entree. I had a baked potato with my fish and it was literally just a baked potato with nothing else on it. It was a bit odd even the side salad I had was tiny and was hardly a salad.

My Salmon with my plain potato and lame salad on the right.

This is me in front of the old tram up on the Peak. This is how the cable trams used to look back in the day.

The Peak Lookout Bar is not even the nicest restaurant that I have been to since I have been back in Hong Kong. Last week Tucker, Ben and I all met after work in Central and had dinner with Ben's father at SEVVA restaurant & bar in the Princess building. Aside from fantastic food SEVVA has arguable the nicest view of all other bars in Hong Kong. It actually has a 360 degree patio that goes all around the building, below you can see some pictures from our night at SEVVA. I think the single most thing that stood out about SEVVA that sticks in my mind is that while you are looking at the menu, they attach little personal light clips to everyones menu so you can see without struggle....FANCY!

The Caprese appetizer I had...best fresh mozzarella I have ever had. (Tri-color tomato, basil , mozzarella, some sort of delicious berry.)

Prime Rib perfectly cooked with no fat. 

Ben standing on the patio.

This past weekend Ben was quite jet lagged from his trip back to Hong Kong so he did a lot of sleeping. He did make it to the Yacht club for lunch, however Tucker and I took a trip to Stanley market and beach which he opted out of. Check out the mini Lassie we saw in Stanley!

Mini Lassie!

Me at Stanley Beach

Here is a cool pic I took at the yacht club.

That's it for this post, as it is just waaaay too long at this point. So I am going to stop it now, but fear not I will be posting here again very shortly as I still have a few more things to catch you up on, including some Chinese words and phrases that I have learned, cute pups I saw while I was home and a look at Chinese New Year decoration in Hong Kong!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Hello Everyone!

Today is a big day! Today is the birthday of one of my favorite people in the world, my Father. Yes, today William H. Greider Jr. turns the big 51.  My Dad is one of the people I look up most so I am very appreciative of him being born! Happy Birthday Dad, I love you man!
Looking forward to the opportunity to work together too!

December 10, 2011

Hello Everyone! Ni Hao! Lei Ho!

So it’s been an interesting week since my last post. My roommate Tucker returned from his US holiday on Sunday. So now I have someone else in the apartment besides my shadow!  This past weekend I really did not do too much, Ben came over Friday and stayed at the place all weekend so we pretty much just hung out and watched movies.  Then on Sunday Tucker came back like I said, so all three of us were in the apartment together for the first time since Tucker left. To celebrate his return we decided to go out for Sunday dinner together.  The restaurant we went to is called “The Jockey”, it is located in Happy Valley right next to the race course and is owned by an American. It is actually right next to Happy Valley Bar and Grill, the place I sometimes go after Lacrosse. 

Ben and I actually had the same thing; a blue cheese bacon burger. I thought it was overpriced for sure, the burger was not bad, but not worth $15 US. Tucker was actually so jet lagged that he barely took any bites of his meal! So after dinner we just went straight home and crashed for the night.

Actually on Saturday, Ben went out to lunch with his Father and a family friend so I spent some of the day running errands. I finally got a haircut, the first one I have ever got in Hong Kong! The place I went to came recommended from a few of the guys I met on Thanksgiving, they told me I had to ask for Ash to cut my hair.  So on Saturday morning I called up ‘Vickies Salon’ and booked an appointment for 2:00 pm.

 I planned on taking the tram from Causeway Bay to Wanchai where the salon is, however when I got to the tram stop, I realized I had no idea which tram I had to get on! So I ended up just taking a taxi and told the driver to take me to Wanchai Market, as I knew that it was near the Salon.  However, when I got out of the taxi I found Wanchai market but could not find the salon anywhere! So after walking around in circles for about 10 minutes I finally just called the salon, but that did not work at first because I could not understand much of what ‘Vickie’ was saying. I guess when I did not show up for a while, she realized I was still lost and had an English speaking worker of hers talk to me.  I finally found the place with help and only had to wait for about 10 minutes to get my haircut.

Overall, It was a pleasant experience because I thought my haircut looked nice and he service was superb. One thing that really stood out was that after receiving a haircut I always hate little hair particles all over me.
Even when they blow dry it off there are always some left itching. So at Vickie's they will rinse off your hair after the cut as well! Compared to the other places that I saw this was a terrific price as well, it only cost $136 HK and every other place cost around $200 or more!

After I was all done with 'Vickies' I decided to walk around the Wanchai market for a little while as I had never seen it and heard it was quite big.  I'm really glad I did as well because I ended up purchasing a couple items. The market is huge and just like the Wet Market we have in Causeway Bay, there is a section for fresh seafood and meats, except unlike in

Causeway this section in Wanchai is actually inside a building. The outside section of the market is composed of 3 adjoining streets and just like most of the markets in Hong Kong you can buy just about anything there. I ended up leaving with a bag of mixed candy, a huge bag of almonds and also a Santa Cap. I bought the candy because I knew it would get eaten between Ben and I, and the almonds were for work as I like to snack. If you buy them at the grocery store the price triples for far less. The Santa cap cost me $10 HKD and was basically a impulse buy, however their is a chance that I will be doing a Christmas bar hop on this coming Saturday so it could come to good use then. If not then I will wear it on Christmas as I open my gifts and video chat my family.

Some of the Fresh Seafood

Small portion of Wanchai Market

Taco Loco

When I decided I was done venturing around the market I started walking towards Central because I wanted to visit the H&M store and, see if their were any part-time openings. I figure I should get a part-time job to add a little extra cash flow for my everyday life.  When I finally arrived at the H&M store I  immediately became lost as it is humongous! The store is the only one in Hong Kong and it is 4 floors. You enter on the second floor and I had no idea where the mens section was so, of course I went all the way up to the fourth floor before I realized I needed to be on the bottom floor!  The place was super busy as it was a Saturday so when I finally got a hold of an employee I was disappointed to find out they only took applications online.  However, I went all the way to Central and I was not about to make the whole trip a failure so I decided to go grab a burrito at 'Taco Loco'. I find Central is a terrific place to just sit and people watch as there are so many people coming and going.  Taco Loco is located right in the heart of Soho and there are bars all around it, luckily as I was eating I had some entertainment as their was a large group of people doing a bar hop.  They were super drunk and dressed up in all different types of outfits, so I enjoyed my lunch and watched them.

Some of the people in the Barhop

Demonstration (not real thank god!)

After that adventure I met back up with Ben and we decided that we really wanted to play Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 so we went and picked that up, we ended up beating the campaign by the end of the night.  However on our way to the store we saw this demonstration which I captured in the picture below.  It was people who were demonstrating against the Chinese Government for the way they treated the Falun Gong people. Apparently, it was a huge thing that I guess I just never heard about, but some of these people were tortured others killed and some even had their organs taken and sold for profit; which they are demonstrating here.

Monday was an exciting day for me this week as I finally was able to go pick up my custom suit which my parents bought me as a Christmas gift! It came out great and I really like the way it looks on me, but I will let you be the judge. My only issue with it is the fact that I asked for the inside liner to be a baby blue and they forgot so it ended up being just plain black. They ended up giving me $200 HKD off for the mistake so I let it slide.

Mr. Taco Truck Burrito's

Taco Loco was not the only Mexican place that I have ate at recently, in fact on Wednesday, Tucker and I decided to grab lunch together. He has this app on his iphone that you can search for any type of food around your location and it will give you results plus rating, pictures and reviews.  So we searched Mexican and found this place called 'The Taco Truck' and it was located in Quarry Bay which is 4 stops on the MTR away from Causeway Bay. Yesterday after work Tucker and I headed to Happy Valley to watch the horse races. It was a big event at the race track as it was the Cathay Pacific International Jockey Championship. They even had fireworks which Tucker and I watched from outside the track so we could get a nice view of the fireworks.  

At the track we met up with a couple of our English friends who live in our building on the 17th floor.  They are a good group of guys and all work as engineers here in Hong Kong. Out of all of us I think only one of us won any of our bets, so it was pretty much a losing night.

Yesterday (Thursday) was a pretty regular day, went through the motions at work got home and was pretty exhausted.  I did not go to the gym because I had to meet a couple friends in Wanchai at 8:00pm so, it would have been cutting it close.  Tucker decided he wanted to tag along so we took the tram to Wanchai together.  We met my friends at Mes Amis which is a popular bar in Wanchai, the reason we were meeting was because one of the kids I play Lacrosse with Jordan Wong, is leaving Hong Kong. Jordan is from Canada and plays lacrosse at Bellarmine University. He is a good kid and I will miss hanging out with him, he says he really wants to come back here after graduation so hopefully he does!  One of the other guys we met with Jordan West-Pratt is also from Canada, however he lives here with his wife and they both are teachers at one of the Hong Kong high schools.  He is a great guy and I am really glad that I was able to meet and become friends with him.  He has played professional box lacrosse, and when he and his wife were teaching in Berlin he had the opportunity to play for team Germany which is something really special.  Anyway we had a few drinks then Jordan Wong and his friends had to leave to go to their going away party, so Jordan West-Pratt sent him off with a bang by buying us all shots.  This shot he introduced us to was a custom shot that apparently one of his buddies came up with. Its called the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and is a mix of Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Johnny Walker and Jose Cuervo.  It sound terrible and to tell you the honest truth, it really isn't in fact its actually not bad.  From there Tucker and I grabbed some Ebeneezer's for dinner, and then took the tram back home.

That's really it for now, I do have a big weekend which I am pretty excited about! On Saturday night we will be celebrating my friend Pramond's birthday at this club called "Prive".  Pramond actually rented out all of the tables at the VIP section in the club so it should be one hell of a time with friends! Then on Sunday I will be pretty busy working on a project during the day but at night I will have my second Lacrosse game with team Skyers, after the game Tucker and I talked to Jordan about getting together for a couple beers.  So I am looking forward to that as well.
All I have left to say is Go Patriots, Go Bruins! Until next time...Adios!

November 30, 2011

Lei Ho Everyone!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their family and friends!  I was invited to my boss Jessica's home for Thanksgiving.  We actually had our Thanksgiving dinner on Friday instead of Thursday because in Hong Kong they do not give any day's off for it, as it is not a common celebrated holiday.  Which, if you think about it makes sense, why would people in Hong Kong care at all about when the Native Americans and the Pilgrims came together and celebrated thanks.  Anyway, dinner was FANTASTIC, Jessica's boyfriend Scott is a wonderful cook and he made every dish that we would have back home and he made them very well. I have never been one to enjoy stuffing at all, however I actually ate and enjoyed his stuffing.  He bought a 15lb turkey and also a chicken and he cooked the Chicken inside of the Turkey and they both came out perfect, the meat was not dry at all! I would have to say my favorite dish was the mashed potato and the yams, the yams especially. He cooked them with brown sugar and put walnuts on top of them... delicious.  I brought a bottle of Glenmorangie scotch which Scott was very happy about and enjoyed it with me.  I also told Jessica I would bring an appetizer so I brought my signature Monday Night Football dip which, everyone devoured so that was nice.  In total their were about 15 people there and I was able to sit and have a conversation with just about all of them, all very nice people and people who I will actually probably see again.  Overall it was a terrific way to spend a Thanksgiving if I could not spend it with my family, Scott even had the NFL games playing!

Jessica and Scott giving the Turkey Taste Test!

After dinner we had some drinks and then most of us continued the night down in LKF. We all had a ton of fun and I got to know a bunch of these people really well.  I almost did not go out with them because, I was stuffed and did not know if I could do a night of drinking but, I am really glad I went as we all had a blast.
Aside from that I have not done anything really different than the past few weeks.  I have done quite a bit of networking, since my last post I have gone to a couple networking events and met quite a few people.  This city is literally networking on steroids, if you go to these events you would have to be blind and deaf to not walk away with at least 10 business cards. So that part is easy, from there its all on you to follow up.  I am finding you can really get a lot out of Hong Kong as long as you are willing to apply yourself and meet people.
On Sunday I actually had my first Lacrosse game with the "Skyers" (no idea what the name stands for or means) which is one of the teams that I will be playing for in the league they have here.  We won

14-1 so it was a good victory.  Most importantly I had a lot of fun, myself and one of the Jordans on the team who plays at Bellamarine actually did a "Ham and Cheese".  I swept over the top with the ball, pretended to do a fake flip to Jordan who then ran hard down the side and acted like he had the ball, when really I had it the whole time and just had to go drop it in the net, because the goalie was not looking.  After we went to this nearby bar called Happy Valley Bar and Grill and had a few beers and a burger, so it was a great way to end the weekend.

So now today is Wednesday and I actually just had dinner with someone I met at a networking event last week.  His name is Diederik Heinink from Holland and he has started his own Public Relations company out here in Hong Kong called C-People.  I actually met him through my old boss and friend Andrew Miller from Global Sage. Diederik has been a great guy to talk to though as he is very experienced in the Marketing/Communications industry, so I have received some solid advice from him. Another reason we had dinner tonight was because he wanted to see if I was interested in doing some contract social media work for his company, so we got together to discuss that and just social media in general. I am actually really interested in doing this contract type work on the side as it is really neat because you get to work with a lot of companies who otherwise I would have no connection.
So that is where I am at right now in my life here, busy busy busy.  I hope everyone at home is doing well, I look forward to hearing from all of you so don't be shy and email me if you have some time.  Also, I am very proud of my newest blog www.adchatting.com so if you have some time give it a read, also I would appreciate any comments or criticism that you might have on anything I have written.  One way that you can actually help me as readers is, if you read my blogs and find what you read interesting   than go ahead and share them with your social networks to help me reach people that I would not normally be able to.  The buttons below the posts such as the Facebook "Like" the Google +1 and the twitter tweet button are all very clickable so please CLICK! lol
Well until next time, adios and buenos noches!

November 21, 2011

This is the artwork we bought for our wall, we call them the laughing brothers. Can you guess which is mine?

 
   So I guess its about time for a post in this blog, I am sorry if I have been somewhat ignoring it but, I have been pretty engaged in my new blog.  My new blog that I recently just created is called AdChatting, the reason that it really excites me, and I have been so involved in it is because, I actually bought the domain for it, so I own it!  This believe it or not has been something that I have been meaning to do for sometime. Advertising and marketing tactics are concepts that I am really interested in as they are ever changing and can be very different.  So on my blog www.adchatting.com all I do is take a look at different advertising and marketing strategies and discuss what is good and what is bad about them.  My hope is that professionals in these industries will use my blog to discuss these different advertising and marketing campaigns and tactics.  This will enable me to not only network and engage with these professionals, I will also be able to learn from them.
     Aside from buying my own domain name and starting my blog, a few other exciting things have happened to me in the past weeks.  Along with joining California Fitness gym, last week I went and got a phone plan from the service called 3 here.  The exciting part is not the phone plan, its the actual phone I got with my plan, the Iphone 4s!  This phone is everything its cracked up to be, its pretty damn awesome.  The siri technology is unreal, it's wicked smart and you can ask it just about anything including the meaning of life. If siri does not know the answer to your question, she will tell you and then ask you if you would like her to do and internet search for you which is cool... to me at least lol.  So to say the least I am really pumped about my new phone! Also on Saturday I went with my soon to be roommate Ben to a tailor to get fitted for a new suit.  The place he took me too, is a tailor that he and his Dad have been going to for years.  When I got there I could see why, as the quality was superb and the prices were really reasonable.  In the US you can spend thousands of dollars on a custom suit, here I was able to get the suit with an extra pair of pants for less than $450 dollars.  The service is fantastic as the first time you go, they measure you out, and let you pick all the color and style that you want for your suite. Then they bring you in for a fitting to make sure everything is the way it should be, after the fitting you can pick your suite up in days or, they will ship it to you anywhere; and I mean all the way back to the US anywhere if you want.  The suite and iphone 4s were gifts from my parents, as one would be my Birthday present and the other my Christmas present, so I want to say thank you Mom and Dad and I love you both tons, and... I would give both gifts back if I could spend Christmas and my Birthday at home with you guys. (But if not then I don't mind keeping them)
     During the week I have been on my own as no one is ever here except me but, on Friday's and Saturday's, Ben the kid who is moving in to our apartment has been hanging out with me, so that has been a nice change of pace.  This past Saturday we walked across the street to this bar called "Inside Out."  It's a fairly large bar and on the weekend it is always packed so its actually quite fun.  We went there for dinner on Saturday and to watch Ben's favorite "Futbol" aka soccer team Arsenal.  They won so Ben was pumped and I had a good meal and a bunch of cheap beers, so I enjoyed myself as well.  It is definitely a place that we will be going often as it is literally 2 minutes away counting the elevator ride. Too keep myself busy during the week after work, I have been working out everyday, blogging, cleaning my apartment and reading quite a bit on blogging and of course advertising!  On this past Sunday I ventured to "Gateway Grocery Store" in Shuen Wan, basically it is like a mini version of Costco or Sam's.  It's very small but they sell all American products in bulk, the problem is that items shuffle in and out of there so often that its hard to tell what items will be in the store and when.  It is also  quite expensive because, I only bought a few items and it cost me more than, I spend when I go shopping at the local grocery store.   So I do not think I will be going there very often unless I want to get something that I use a lot in bulk, such as Skippy Super Chunky Peanut Butter.  (I literally eat PB & J everyday during the week for lunch.)
     So this week is the week of Thanksgiving, and as I have mentioned in the past I will be going to my boss Jessica's and her boyfriend Scott's place to celebrate.  After much debate with myself, I have decided that I will bring my famous "Monday Night Football" dip over their house, along with a bottle of wine.  I think they will appreciate it, as most people who have tried it have really enjoyed it.  I am just happy to be going somewhere for Thanksgiving as it will help me not think about missing my family like crazy.  On top of that I will have a chance to meet some new people as they are having a bunch of other people over for dinner as well, so I am really looking forward to that.
     The last thing I want to talk about on this post is how freaking proud of my father I am.  My Dad is one of the most smartest and easy going people I have ever met.  If you know him, you know he is not one to take advantage of any one, or over stay his welcome, he is one who usually gives other people a hand, rather than receive any sort of help.  So in my opinion a time to recognize him is wel overdue! Well this past Sunday exactly that happened, my Dad was inducted into the Watertown Football Hall of Fame, (he actually graduated from Watertown where he was a stud safety!) He received the award due to the countless hours he has put in for over 20 years refereeing pop-warner, High School, and College Football.  Even with a full College schedule he has served on the Hartford board and the CT valley board as President.  Most of all he has been recognized for his love of the game, I honestly don't think I know anyone aside from Bill Belichick himself who has more passion for "America's game".  The best football team I have ever been on in my entire life was actually coached by him, we ran a no huddle offense with a direct snap to the running-back.  We had a whopping total of 7 plays, which we ran perfectly because we knew them inside out, we could go on two and draw the opposing defense offside every game.  We went undefeated the entire regular season and lost in the playoff's to who else WATERTOWN, because of a few plays that did not go our way.  What a great team that was, and some of the most fun playing football I ever had.  My Dad would have made a hell of a coach had he chosen that route upon graduation, he has it in his blood, not to mention he graduated from a school (Springfield College) that breeds coaches (Steve Spagnuola, Charley Casserly, Kevin Spencer, Dave Magazu, Mark Banker, Paul Ferrero and my former Lacrosse Coach John Klepacki who has received National Lax Coach of the year honors, just to name a few).  So today I tip my hat to you DAD, CONGRATULATIONS!

Also I would also like to mention that out of all the Moms in the world, I got really lucky of drawing the best.  I will tell you I miss my family a lot, and she has been her wonderful self sending me Halloween and Thanksgiving cards, letting me know she is thinking about me; which means so much to me.  Also my fantasy football team has won 3 in a row and is starting to get back on track so thats good news as well!
Till next time... ADIOS!

Me with the new Iphone 4s (jesus my nose is big!)

November 8, 2011

Hello all been a little while since I have posted, few updates for you all.  Unfortunately since my last post the Patriots have dropped two in a row making my two weeks not exactly ideal.  However I have been able to withstand these detrimental events by living in one of the most exciting cities in the world.  Since being here I have picked up cooking stir fry noodles for dinner.  It's pretty simple and always proves to be a pretty tasty dinner.  Right down the street we have something called the "Wet Market" and it is a huge market where they sell ton's of   fresh seafood and fruit and... they sell it really cheap.  So one day I bought a big bag of fresh shrimp and threw that in a stir fry for dinner.  A picture is below of that stir fry taken by my roommate Tucker is below!

This week I had to head back to the grocery store to pick up more groceries and I ended up buying some chicken breast to throw in this weeks batch of stir fry.  So as you can tell I have been eating a lot of stir fry for dinner.  Lunch has been a similar story as I have been eating Peanut Butter and Jelly almost everyday with an apple or an orange.
Sam actually left at about 9 yesterday so I have been by myself in Hong Kong for a full day now and its no big deal I am keeping myself busy with work, chores (cleaning, dishes, laundry), sending out resumes and of course the gym.  I have been going to the gym just about everyday since the end of last week.  Right now I have a free pass that I have been using, but tomorrow it expires so I will have to officially join.  They gym is called California Fitness and is not bad, they have a ton of machines and the only downside is that after work it is really busy but I always manage to get done what I need to.  It is the cheapest gym that I could find, but is still pricy at about $48 US a month.  However, it has a ton of upside as it is literally a 3 min walk from my house, when you go in they give you a gym towel and a larger shower towel which is awesome for me, because I sweat a ton.  The showers are great as they are all personal, and they have shampoo, conditioner and body wash dispensers in all of them.  Then when you are done showering they have a ton of mirrors with complimentary body lotion, qtips and blow dryers.  So I figure I can save a ton of money on water this month by showering at the gym!!! lol
Our friend Ben has committed to moving in with us, right now he lives with his Dad here in Hong Kong, however his Dad was just re-married and with Ben coming in very late on weekends he is ready for Ben to get his own place.  So Ben will be moving his stuff in throughout this month, staying here on and off, and will officially move in after Christmas.  He is taking his Dad by tomorrow to show him the place and then we are all going out for dinner as they invited me to come along.  More good news, my boss and her boyfriend are planning on having Thanksgiving at their flat and they invited me to come over as they are both Americans as well.  Jessica (my boss) said that her boyfriend Scott said I could come as long as I wore his Jets jersey, I told her I would consider it as long as no pics were taken and it was never spoken of again.  I am secretly planning on cursing it if he actually makes me put it on! Patriots Nation for Life!
Last Friday I had lunch with the man I consider my mentor out here in Hong Kong my old boss from Global Sage, Andrew Miller.  We had a good catch up and he gave me some pointers about my job search in the future and even said he would connect me with some of his close friends in the PR and advertising businesses.  So I have to put some stuff together to send him, which I am trying to do by the end of next week.  That was good to see him and some other people at the Global Sage office that I have not seen in a while.  I also video chatted with Pete on Sunday and was glad to hear that he will be making the trip out here either in February or January.  Lauren and Tara are planning on coming in January, so it might be more fun for him if he has them to hang with while my roommates and I are at work.  The only problem is the sleeping arrangements, we can only really fit one comfortably on our couch, so if he chooses to do that then we will have to find an air mattress or something.  However February might be an interesting time to come as well as it will be Chinese New Year and the city will be quite lively.
That brings us to this week, I have been really busy at work and have not had much time after work to do anything aside from send resumes, workout, eat and chat with Tara.  After all that I am usually wiped and head to bed around 11 or 11:30.  I have been hitting the gym pretty hard and have not been really spending any money aside from the groceries, so today after dinner I was having what I call a "Gloria Craving"meaning I was having a heavy crave for my mother and I's favorite dessert; ICE CREAM.  I was not able to say no so I caved and went and got myself a cup of chocolate frozen yogurt ("mmm that does sound good!!") there was strawberries, peaches and mango on it though so it was not entirely unhealthy.   I guess, the only other really good news I have is that I beat my league leader in Fantasy this week bringing my record to 3-6.  I have already decided that I will be staying up late this Sunday to watch the Patriots play the Jets, I am a little worried since the Patriots have been playing like the pre- Icebox little Giants!  I hope they can find a way to beat the crap out of them, that will make wearing that stupid Jets jersey so much easier.  Well thats it for now, I will once again leave you with some Cantonese phrases.
These are actually really hard to pronounce correctly, as apparently there are 6 different tones when speaking in the Cantonese language!

Take me to (if you were talking to a cabbie) - Dai orr huieee
where is the MTR Station - Kay tik jom hi bean?