Posted 7:25 AM by Andy
I'm back from the October holidays so let me retrace my meandering path over the last month.

Milestone. I just passed the 18-month mark at my company. It's amazing I'm still here given the instability of my work environment and the low morale that exists. Our stock hit an all-time low this week. The firm's enterprise value as appraised by Wall Street is almost half of what it was when I joined last April. Nevertheless, it's my vehicle to be in Shanghai so I'll accept my lot and take my lumps.

Jiuzaigou and Chendgu trip. During the third week of September, I had the chance to visit the much ballyhooed tourist site in Sichuan province called Jiuzaigou with my firm. It's a national preserve with mountain trails, waterfalls and lush greenery. I enjoyed hiking in the crisp air surrounded by pristine waters. The only drawbacks were the rain and the unrelenting crowds. I felt entrapped in an amusement park line half the time I was on the trails. This was on a Thursday no less. We watched a show performed by the minority groups residing there of the Cirque du Soleil variety, complete with lazer lighting and opulent special effects and costumes. After two days in Jiuzaigou, we jetted to Chengdu. The parts I enjoyed in Chengdu were visiting the general Liu Bei's memorial and taking a picture with the sage Zhuge Liang. I'm a fan of the historical era of the warring dynasties so it was fascinating to me. I also visited the poet Du Fu's memorial. Chinese poets rock, the modern equivalent would be Jay Z, the master lyricist and now CEO of Def-Jam Records. Get your executive on. I hung out with Julie W in her newly adopted city. We discussed the definition of success, spiritual gifts like prophecy, and future plans. In this world of strife and striving, she is a refreshing counterpoint given her downwardly mobile lifestyle. Another observation is that cities look eerily similar once they are developed. We chilled at this one area that was a cross between Yu-Yuan Gardens and Xintiandi of Shanghai.

October holidays. I had nine consecutive days to relax since I took an extra two days of vacation on top of the three allotted by my firm. My last-minute plans to visit Malaysia with Jimmy were foiled when there were no more flights there. He was flying out of Macau but the circuitous route still was unavailable. Instead, I went to Nanjing for some local flavor with Pui and his friends. We hiked the trails around Sun Yat Sen’s Tomb. Again the crowds were pervasive. We played Mafia at night back at Maggie's pad. One night I met up with Marian for dinner. Then her friends treated us to a karaoke session. I guess the form of entertainment is the same at most places in China too. I was back in Shanghai on Tuesday of the Chinese Independence Week. I checked out Babyface that night, a new club on Huaihai Road. Cover was 120 RMB and the waiters were too aggressive in asking me to refill my drink. The 14th best DJ in the world dropped the beats for us. On Wednesday I hung out with a local friend TL and watched Myth, Jackie Chan's latest action flick. It was a fun movie. Sidebar: Korean actresses are scary as the whole industry is awash in facial reconstructive surgery. I saw some pictures where the before and after were practically of two different people. On Thursday I toured the aquarium and gawked at the sharks. On Friday I had dinner with another local friend M. On Saturday I went to the carnival at Lujiazui. This was the second time a global carnival was held here complete with the usual parlor games and roller-coaster rides. There were no rides on the scale of Free Fall or Colossus popularized by Six Flags, but smaller versions of them and Pirate Ship. On the heels of the Disneyland opening in Hong Kong, this is an irreversible trend in Asia for better or for worse.

Idealism Vs. Realism. I hold on to noble ideals of what should be and harbor hope that good will prevail in most circumstances. However, life is often short, nasty and brutish. I have an ongoing debate with my colleague Nelson about our attitudes towards life. He thinks I'm a naïve simpleton who views life through rose-colored lenses. I think he is a cynical braggart who trusts nobody. He would execute a prenuptial agreement as a matter of course with his fiancée while I think the very notion is ludicrous. He thinks divorce is a distinct possibility and no big deal once people change and views all relationships as transactions. I view marriage as sacred and commitment as sacrosanct in spite of the vagaries of life. He mocks my faith in God because he cannot see Him at work. I concede faith requires an abandonment of logic at some point but God is tangible. He calls God unfair and denigrates Him to a toddler because he sees no rhyme or reason to His will. I agree God is unfair in His distribution of mercies and gifts but righteous in His decisions. He thinks God should talk to him if God wants to prove He is real. I laugh at his suggestion that the Alpha and Omega should deign to kowtow to Nelson's wishes. Suffice it to say we don't see eye to eye and the intensity of our discussions stem from our deep and rooted convictions.

Next time: sharing on Christ's resurrection, 30th birthday, social life.