A belated Easter tale

To quote How I Met Your Mother: Jesus waited THREE days to come back to life. It was perfect! If he had only waited ONE day, a lot of people wouldn't have even heard he died. They'd be all, "Hey Jesus, what up?" and Jesus would probably be like, "What up? I DIED yesterday!" and they'd be all, "Uhh, you look pretty alive to me, dude..." and then Jesus would have to explain how he was resurrected, and how it was a miracle, and the dude'd be like "Uhh okay, whatever you say, bro..." And he's not gonna come back on a SATURDAY. Everybody's busy, doing chores, workin' the loom, trimmin' the beard, NO. He waited the perfect number of days, THREE. Plus it's SUNDAY, so everyone's in church already, and they're all in there like "Oh no, Jesus is DEAD", and then BAM! He bursts in the back door, runnin' up the aisle, everyone's totally psyched, and FYI, that's when he invented the high five. That's why we wait three days to call a woman, because that's how long Jesus wants us to wait.... True story.


So while I waited slightly more than three days to post this, it was enough of a departure from the norm that I will deem it still relevant for this place. Nary a Sunday passes here that we do not reflect upon the week and wonder where the time went, and how unfulfilling the weekend had been. As I do not check back through this blog, I worry that I will take another jab at a dead horse, but in SZ, there is little in the way of extracurricular activity. Weekends here remind me a bit of weekends in the last year of college: what do you guys want to do tonight? *shrugs* go to latenight? And everyone would away to the same basement party and partake of the same inane rituals that college students all to often partake of.

There is little difference here really, and our little tribe is reluctant or nearly unwilling to continue this way. So Easter provided a welcome departure from the norm, and a select handful whisked away to Hong Kong for the night to have dinner at an Italian restaurant, eat lamb, drink wine, and sit in a cozy place where if you let your guard down for a moment, you'd swear you were no longer in Asia. That was precisely the goal. A beautiful meal was followed with a post-dinner constitutional walk, followed by a small round of properly made (see: rare) cocktails and a sorely-missed session of good conversation.

This all sounds dull as hell, but I need to reiterate a point: at no point in that evening did I feel like I was in China, or Asia, or anywhere really. It was tunnel vision if you want to call it that. Think about the last time you were with a small group of people and you couldn't tell what city you were in because you were simply focused on each other. The venue you were at played a proper role of supporting actor, or hired help, always there and serving but never distracting its patrons from their evening. Now I sound like a snob. You know what, I'll take it, because it is so rare here.

There I've ranted.

Let's play catch-up

photo from Monday atop the Peak in Hong Kong

It is getting warm here again. Temperatures in the low 80's with humidity varying between awesome and awful: 40-85%. This will be our third summer behind the Great Firewall, the Largest Market, and a host of other deserving superlatives both positive and negative.
From car wash, to high-end detailing car care, to education consultancy, to summer education program to HR consultancy, to management consultancy to financial advisory firm in 26 months.

I sit in an apartment now, 50 stories above a maddeningly busy free trade port and international border. I get out of bed at a reasonable 8 am, have coffee and cereal across the table with Olivier, check emails, news, last nights sports scores. We create an attack plan for the day, usually someone has meetings in Hong Kong, I am still getting my financial sea-legs and as a result go through exercises with our clients books, draft memo's for clients and the internal team, and have a couple episodes of Family Guy or American Dad ready for when lunch arrives.

We worry about visas, our status as guests in this country are never certain, and we quietly talk about our fears as a small company/family out here. We stress over the ineptitude of various systems out here, a lack of professionalism on both sides of the coin, and a desire to be successful for our clients' sake and our own universal well-being.

Temperament, patience, diligence, professional demeanor, personal obligation, and disciprine.... payoff. If you do everything right, it will not always work. A scary thought

Six months have passed since I last visited this place, to scribe down my thoughts, reflect on my life out here, our experiences thus far, and where we look to move while in the pinnacle of youth.

I took an extended break from my public thoughts to grow, to be broken and rebuilt, to continue to discover more about myself, and to begin to realize the truly important things in China, New York, and at home.

Let's get back on this train, spread the word, and gather 'round to hear tales from a country that is recently, more important than ever.