Bangkok to Singapore x2

Hey folks,

Again I've neglected my poor blog, but I think that will just be a fact of life with how my time is managed here in Asia, aka I hardly have any strict downtime when I choose to lounge around on the internet. I'll have pics at the end of this post though.

So I left off last time with the JW Classic. That next week I was in Bangkok for a few days working and partying hard Monday through Wednesday before going to Singapore for a short business trip. I came back to BK for the weekend and repeated the process the next week. Everytime I would buy a bottle of liquor at duty free since the prices are ridiculously cheap. No I do not get boatloads of free liquor to take home from the office unfortunately. We can't waste product on me or the company would be out of business before long!

As I said before, Diageo's regional HQ is in Singapore and I also work closely on a project that is in the Singapore market. Singaporean Chinese in general are friendlier than the Cantonese I am accustomed to in Hong Kong. They also have a few phrases distinct phrases that they say more than other Chinese, like "lahhh".

I'm starting to really be able to tell the difference between certain accents. I've nailed the Thai accent, the Singaporean english accent, the Filipino accent (well, I've known that one for a while), and the Indonesian accent sort of.

I'm starting to get quite comfortable with the work I am doing for Diageo. That said, there is always new work that I am unfamiliar with so I'm still learning a lot every week. I haven't started those Thai lessons though since I'm always traveling. Will do soon. Many people think I am half Thai and start speaking to me in Thai right away. It's always a bit awkward when I then open my mouth in American English. In Singapore on the other hand people just think of me as a foreign white guy, maybe he is a bit Asian. Everyone and their mother speaks English there.

I'm seriously considering joining a competitive rugby team here called the Southerners. They only train once a week at a time that I could make. I met one of the lads a couple days ago and had a few drinks. I'll come out next week and see how it goes. At the very least I'll see how much in bad shape I'm in.

I saw the movie 300 last week with a Singaporean lawyer. It was so testosterone driven but for what it was, the movie was awesome.

Yesterday I went to a crocadile farm on the outskirts of Bangkok with my friend Kwan. There were also some monkeys and elephants. These croc tamers were amazing. They just walked around in shallow water in a pit with like a dozen big crocs and pulled tricks like putting their hands and heads in the crocs jaws. Pretty scary stuff. And the arena wasn't exactly Barnum and Bailey's. It was pretty decrepit and ghetto. But that is a lot of buildings in Bangkok. And a lot are very much the opposite. There are more skyscrapers here by far than in San Francisco and LA combined.

I'll put up a few pictures of the croc farm and of my partying the past couple weeks. I'll post again sometime this week when more comes to me.




Me and an elephant that I later fed with bannanas. Slobbery little thing.




Cheeky monkey tried to steal my cell phone later.





100% real, and these crocs were not drugged.



That is just too perfect. By the way this croc farm/zoo was so unregulated it was almost scary.



These guys must have been no older than 20. Balls of steel though.




My friend Kwan and I at Q Bar, Bangkok.







Kayaking in Phuket with a couple coworkers and a few Vietnamese government officials.





We went through this underwater cave for 5 mins and the ceiling was inches from our faces.




Entrance to one of our dinner events at the JW Classic in Phuket.





Some of our JW Black Label models in Phuket.





Our kayaking tour guide and I in front of James Bond rock (used in Dr. No) in Phuket.




Ernie Els, Sam Torrance, and other pro golfers serving drinks at the Johnnie Walker Bar.




The hotel for Diageo folks and golfers in Phuket (Sheraton Grand Laguna).





Some of my bosses and coworkers at a dinner in Phuket.





The guests from Vietnam (Finance Ministry).

It's been a while... Bangkok to Phuket for the JW Classic

I've been busy and lazy to update this in the last couple weeks but now on a Sunday night I've got some time. Get ready for a monster post. Thanks for having the patience to actually read the whole beast if you do. It isn't like I post often.

Where I last left off, Pat Noonan had visited me in Bangkok and I just moved into my apartment. By the way, that address is:

The Grand Regent Condominium 2-2/399
Unit No. 2/259
Soi Mahadlekluang 2
Rachadamri Road
Lumpini
Pathumwan
Bangkok 10330

You really do have to write that many pain in the ass lines.

And my mobile phone number is:

+66 81 848 4309

For those of you dialing from the US and don't know what the hell + means, just dial 011 then my number (66 81....).

I'd love to hear from anybody. So far I've been a bit dissappointed in my friends attempts to keep in touch. Only my family and Jenny have actually called me. Funny how that works, don't know what that says. I don't want to have to do all the damn work calling 50 people a month.

Anyway, Noonan ended his visit on what I think would be the high note of his 6 week trip to South East Asia. I think he enjoyed it so much he might actually seriously consider trying to find a job out here. I do hope he comes back and that other friends can come over so I can show them a great time. There are just some things that are so much better in Asia, like...

1. Very affordable living, especially for a young single person that could easily blow $50,000 living in San Francisco in a few months
2. Vast options for fun nightlife. And they drink like fish
3. Excellent food and lots of choices
4. Tons and tons of beautiful women that in general are easier to approach than in the States. No 1 in 3 of them is not a ladyboy. You just have to see for yourself
5. Being an expat already gives you bonus points. Being young and good looking at that makes you an absolute baller
6. So many different and interesting cultures
7. Free grocery delivery to your house
8. Maid to clean your place once a week for $30 a month
9. It is NEVER cold
10. Cheap and good quality medical fees

That said, there are a few things that I miss, most of them having to do with my comfort zone being untouched...

1. Not having to worry about someone you are talking to not being able to understand what you are talking about. This is very important when your taxi driver PRETENDS to know what you are talking about
2. Mexican food
3. Plenty of places to play pickup soccer, football, etc
4. Non-humid weather
5. Not having to worry when you go out whether or not some of the extra friendly girls you talk to might actually be working girls
6. Enforced traffic rules
7. Being able to hang out with old friends or family
8. Driving my own car
9. Not having to be disgusted everytime I see an old fat European or American guy with a beautiful Thai woman 20-30 years younger than him

Overall I'm still very glad I moved here and took this awesome job that I think will end up positively influencing and advancing my career for years. It was scary at first but you only live once and if my Dad could do it, so can I. What would my kids say or people I've known that would have loved an opportunity like this if I had turned it down? I don't want to live my life comfy and secure in the middle of a Detroit suburb or something like that. Some people can be perfectly happy and content in that life but it really really isn't for me. I want adventure and experience. I want to be able to either A) look back and my life and say, "shit I did it all" or B) Die tomorrow and say, "I did the best and most that I could and it's alright if I go out now"

I've grown so much as a person, had countless nights out, and met so many interesting people ranging from members of the Vietnamese Finance Ministry to Johnnie Walker Blue Label models to European Expats living in Bangkok in their mid-20s. I really don't see myself wanting to go back to the States at this point after just 1 year, but that is a long way away from now. A lot of the Diageo guys I talk to say that once I stay in this business or in Asia for 6 months and like it, I will never want to leave. I'm beginning to easily see why.

Back to what's been going on recently - Noonan took off last Tuesday and I spend a pretty calm week in Bangkok just settling in and working out of my base office. I went out a few times with some local Thai/Expat friends I made the weekend before. Nothing huge or really memorable to report here. At least nothing I can really say on this blog, haha.

This past week I have been in Phuket (the most famous island and resort destination in Thailand) for the Johnnie Walker Classic, Asia's premier international golf tournament. Tons of Diageo people from around the world came down and we have all stayed at this gorgeous resort hotel next to a lagoon and beach along with all these pro golfers like Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, and Adam Scott. In fact, Scott, the number 4 golfer in the world, was working out with me the other day in the gym. I'm stronger than him but he's a hell of a lot more talented, lucky dude. Then the next night he is sitting at my table during dinner next to my boss.

I'm not much of a golfer at all so I didn't play but most of my coworkers played in the Pro-Am with the famous guys. I've just been working at the business center or by the pool from my laptop. Sucks to work in a place like this but at the same time it is so sweet. All expenses are paid for too, except for personal things I might want to buy. I did get to go on a boat tour around surrounding islands yesterday for 10 hours with some guests from the Vietnamese government. We had a really good time and got to go canoeing and swimming on secluded beaches. At one point we took our canoes through an underwater pitch black cave for 5 minutes straight and we had to lie down since the rock ceiling was 6 inches from our face.

Last night after a gala dinner I drank with some Cambodian guests of Diageo and a Singaporean Indian businessman that graduated from USC about 8 years ago. Holy shit they could drink. The Indian dude must have downed 30 drinks over the course of 6 hours, I kid you not. Me and the Aussie country manager of Vietnam got trashed trying to keep up. I ended up arm wrestling him multiple times. He is left handed and an ex Aussie rules footballer so he destroyed me on that side. But on the right hand I nearly broke his arm so he says! haha good times. Of course I passed out immediately and slept in til 12. It felt so good to get a nice rest because since I started working, and considering all the times I go out during the week, I hardly ever get more than 5-7 hours sleep.

I know I need to get more pictures up on here. I will try. I realize it is quite hard to read through a huge long post without any pictures to keep your interest. At least you only have to do it once every couple weeks!

As you can tell my writing style on here is a bit ad hoc and rushed. Unfortunately I don't have time to plan it out. I spend so much time on the internet doing emails at work that I hardly surf the net anymore after I get home.

I found out a few days ago that my boss would like me to concentrate on the Singapore/Malaysia and Vietnam markets for the next few months. Sounds good to me. I liked all those places. No one in my department has any direct business in Thailand but quite a few of us live there. I think I prefer that because the Thai government is quite difficult to deal with in the alcohol industry. I love living in Bangkok so far though. It's the perfect mix of big developed city, vibrant culture, friendly locals, and cheap living. Singapore is too expensive and Vietnam is a bit too crazy and chaotic for me to live there. Malaysia seemed a bit boring. After all it is a Muslim country. It is the minority Chinese that live there that make up our biggest market.

I really want to learn basic conversational Thai so I think I will try to get a tutor starting next week. I'll let you guys know how THAT goes, heh...miss you all!

Vietnam and back to Bangkok

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I've just been so amazingly busy. I wonder if anyone stills reads this!

I left off with a trip to Vietnam, a country that I had never really planned on visiting before I got this job and a country that I would definitely love to come back to. I stayed in Ho Chi Minh City for 3 days and wow, that city is just insane. It is a huge sprawl with no high rises and as many mopeds on the street as people on a New York City sidewalk. The traffic is just unbelievable and ridiculous. The sound of honking horns never stops, even throughout the late hours. Bangkok is way more developed, but I found the Vietnamese people just as friendly and the whole country upbeat with progress and optimism. I ate a lot of Pho and even got to try snake soup (without my knowledge at the time!) which tasted like mushroom/chicken.

I spent a few days going around HCMC, Da Nang, and Hanoi with some local Vietnamese that work with us visiting small shops and supermarkets and night clubs. It was such a great experience and I got to meet so many local people. In Da Nang and Hanoi I rode around at night on the back of a motorcycle and it really was a rush. I called my Dad from the moped and told him I knew why he came to Asia 30ish years ago. There are some really high class nightclubs in every one of the cities I visited. Some of them are filled with tons of very beautiful women that hang out at your table immediately and flirt/dance/drink with you. It's too bad 90% of the time they are working girls, but there is no pressure to pay for anything or do anything extra! Some of them speak decent English, others have a really limited vocabulary. "Very handsome," "I like youu," and "Where you from?" are pretty common, haha.

I came back to HCMC for a few more days after Hanoi and got to go out with some local Vietnamese that I met in the Q Bar, a very clique club in downtown. They drove me around in their mercedes until 5 am, twice! It was absolutely awesome, except the next morning when I had to work. One of the girls was flat out stunning, but also 29 years old. Actually all girls here look about 5-10 years younger than they are, it's crazy. I should really start lying about my age since to them I can pass for about 26. Side note: Most clubs in SEA play house/trance but about 1 in 5 play hip hop. I haven't been to a kareoke bar for fun yet but they are all over the place too.

During my travels in Vietnam I also met a lot of the Diageo guys working there from Ireland, France, Canada, England, NZ, and Australia. All a bunch of good fellas and we spend quite a few nights having beers over dinner. It was a really cool atmosphere.

Finally my work in Vietnam ended after a week and I got to go back to Bangkok, my suppossed home, after being gone for 3 weeks. I met up with a buddy from college, Pat Noonan, and so far after 3 days we have had a #$%^ing blast. The first night I took him to the sleezy area of Bangkok just to have a beer and take a look at the streets. He was horrified by all the ladyboys and scantily clad women catcalling us. I was actually horrified my first time too walking through there, but now I just find it kind of funny and actually non-threatening. It only gets annoying if a girl trys to grab your crotch, which happenned and we left shorty thereafter! Friday was a public holiday so we have been out everynight and meeting so many different people. People here are so much easier to approach and have a conversation with. In the US I felt that at bars people were a little more likely to stick to their friends or not be as open to random people coming up to talk to them. I guess there are too many creepos that just try to hit on girls in the States, but maybe there are a lot of reasons. Anyway, in SEA I have met a lot of locals, travelers, and expats that were never pretentious, judgemental, or uninterested. I'm really starting to love this place.

Finally moved into my apartment too and I love the location. We threw a little party the first night with about 5 people we met earlier. We just drank Johnnie Walker, watched some tv, laughed and talked - us two foreigners and these 5 locals, just like any small party I had been to in the States.

Noonan and I went to this huge weekend only market yesterday and they sold everything from fried frogs to ripoff abercrombie to TINY puppies of every breed, right in these little side shops. We saw this street performer there that could juggle a soccer ball with his head, chest, both feet, knees, for 20+ minutes while doing insane spinning, jumping, lunging tricks standing up, lying down, sitting down, and he never dropped the ball once. I could not believe it and I actually gave him some cash because that really took skill that I wish I had. He should be playing for a club team somewhere if his speed, fitness and accuracy are anywhere near as good as his ball control. At 6pm on the dot these loudspeakers started playing the Thai National Anthem and everybody in the whole market just stopped talking and froze in their tracks, looking towards the sky. It was like something out of the matrix. Then when the music stopped everyone unfroze, the noises turned on, and it was business as usual.

Still one more night before it is back to work on Monday. We are going to make it a big one. Miss you all!

Next Stop, Vietnam

I had a great week at work and an even better weekend. I've met lots of people and I seem to be kind of a popular novelty as the new young American guy. We'll see how long that lasts! Oh and you know what I found really funny - at a group dinner (non-Diageo) the other night I made fun of this girl who dropped some of her food with her chopsticks and asked her if she needed a fork, and another dude was like, "Ohhh the white guy just told you to use a fork!" In America if it was me and all white people I would likely be the "Asian guy" if race was ever mentioned in passing like that. Just thought that was weird - part of being mixed for sure.

The Singaporeans I've hung out with are all very friendly and don't hesitate to offer to show me around to the best places around the city. I'm definitely going to enjoy myself every time I come here, and I should be coming a lot.

I saw Babel today - really good movie but don't expect to come out of the theater feeling happy.

This weekend I tried some deer meat, cereal coated prawns, and another Chinese dish that had no description (probably better that way). Someone I know said "We Chinese will eat anything with its back facing the sun." I believe it. I was offered bird's nest for desert but hey, even I am not that adventurous.

I'll be heading to Vietnam on Tuesday for 8 days to do some totally different work from the project I am on here in Singapore. It should be a lot of fun as I'll be in Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, and Hanoi surveying the white spirits market on the ground. No more sitting at a desk or board room all day for a while! I kind of miss Bangkok since it will have been over 3 weeks since I last left it by the time I get back, but hey I'm not complaining. Loving the lifestyle so far, just wish some of you guys could be here. A good buddy Pat Noonan will be visiting me for almost a week after I get back to Bangkok - ohhh shit we are going to have some fun!

Timeout

Ya know, I've been so busy these past couple weeks that I've barely had the chance to take it all in. So far my life here has been so interesting, new, and exciting that I can't help but be optimistic about the future and happy that I came. This job is proving to be challenging but truly badass. A business partner from one of our exclusive distributors told me the other day, "Charles, if you stay in this industry for 2 years, you will never ever want to leave." I can see why he might be right.

At the same time I have not forgotten that, while I am meeting lots of people and the friendships I develop here will only get stronger, I am essentially on my own. I wish my family, my friends, and Jenny could experience some of this with me, but it is not to be. I think about it every couple days, and I can't help but feel sad that a huge chunk of my life that I really enjoyed and probably did not appreciate enough is done and gone. It sucks that I'll miss some birthdays, a potential two year anniversary, and the birth of my first nephew. When will I ever make it back? Time will tell, but my life never be the same really. I guess that's an essential part of life. All I can do is hope anyone from back home that I care about can come visit me sometime.

For now, I've got to look forward and just glance back every so often with a smile. Keep in touch.

On lighter notes - last Sunday I was taken out on trade again to do some research about the local market and meet club owners. Guess what, Sunday night is gay night. Well, they sure know how to have a good time, and I never felt TOO uncomfortable. Maybe I will pass on navigating through a packed club with dudes in spandex pants next time though.

Oh yeah, yesterday a business partner treated me to dinner and ordered a Chinese delicacy for me to eat: grilled goose liver. I took one bite, tried to hold my expression in neutral mode, but when he quirped "Like Fear Factor for you, no?" I had to throw some water down my throat to keep it down. The texture got me really bad; it was soo extremely soft and almost creamy, but it was bloated liver. Could have been worse I guess...at least they didn't serve pig intestines, turtle soup, or monkey brains. He paid me back today with some Cajun chicken for lunch - yum! One thing that IS really cheap in Singapore is food, and it's damn good.

Here are some old pictures from my trip to Thailand in December:

My water taxi filling up some gas on the Chao Praya River.




Some traditional Muay Thai kickboxing.



Look closely at the center of the photo - a tree snake.



Till and I played some soccer on a beach in Koh Samui.



This is what THAI red bull looks like. Yeah, it's nasty.



A golden statue of Buddha in Bangkok, worshipped by almost all Thais.



Samui was breathtaking.



The great lying Buddha of Wat Pho in Bangkok (Mom and sis too).



Wish I was still here.




Hopefully I'll have a few pictures up from my last two weeks in a short time. Miss ya'll!

Singapore Nights

I'll start from the beginning of the week...

My first big business trip started with an EARLY morning flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur on monday morning. And I finally got to use my UK passport for a change! On arrival I met up with my boss for Malaysia/Singapore, Karl, a no-enemies whatsoever type of friendly guy from Kent, England, and spent the night in a 5 star hotel (Le Meridien). I didn't get a chance to see the city since I had to have a meeting with my boss for hella long. A muslim lady did run me over with her cart at the airport and didn't say sorry. By the way Malaysia is a predominantly a nation of Islam. There are many Chinese and foreigners that drink profusely, however. Hopefully it's better next time.

Karl and I traveled to Singapore the next day and it was straight to the office from the airport. Wish I hadn't brought a huge suitcase. Learned my lesson there, instantly. I'm staying at a nice hotel about 10 minutes away but the traffic makes it a 20-30 minute journey after work.

The Diageo hub office for Southeast Asia is here in downtown Singapore and it is SICK. A hundred people, an office bar (free and open after 5:30 every Thurs/Fri), a training bar for bar staff around the country to learn about our brands and how to pour them, alcoholic advertising materials galore and a gym in the same building. That said, business is business, and the hub office is super busy. I learned quickly that even the company's operation in SEA are huge and my division (Commercial for Asia South Spirits) is just one of 20. But only 5 years ago there were half a dozen people here, so business is growing fast in the wake of economic recovery after the late 90s bust.

I've been charged with helping coordinate a new distributor for us here. I've had 100 things to learn in just a few days and 1000 more things to do. None of them really take more than 10-30 minutes but WOW my brain is fried at the end of the day just trying to keep from forgetting any one little thing. Time management, multi-tasking, flexibility, and organization are KEY in this job. I can learn finance, marketing, and commercialization as I go along but without my anal retentiveness about keeping my work efficient and neat I would be dead in the water here.

The new distributor I am working with is just a start up but there is a ton of work to do because they haven't been established. The guys in charge are really cool though and have taken me out a couple times to learn about the Singapore market (aka visiting a dozen bars in a night and building business relationships while getting tipsy). A couple bars we visited to meet the owners were really famous lady bars - it was all tourists, military, and older dudes and tons of working girls! I was hawked by a lot of them trying to be nice and see if they could hook a fish, but I (and Karl) made sure nothing sneaky happenned. At first being surrounded by prostitutes was really uncomfortable, but soon I was having fun with it (but not too much fun) and it didn't matter. A few of them were obviously ladyBOYS and I was making bets with the guys as to who was a chick and who had a #$%^. Excuse my language, hah.

Karl told me that more business in Asia is done between 9 PM and 2 AM than in the previous 12 hours combined. The downside: I was a little hungover on Thursday morning and I know that this won't be the first time. It's a bit like the entertainment industry in that much of the alcohol business centers around night activities and I'll have to entertain accordingly. Actually I'm pretty keen on this, but I'm sure it'll get tough down the road when I just want to relax after work. Already I have been exhausted trying to get up to speed this first REAL week on the job and have had to stay until 7, 7:30 most nights. I just go straight to my hotel room, hit the gym, eat, and PASS OUT. That's also why I haven't posted on this in a while - the last thing I want to do when I get home is look at a computer after I've spend all day working on excel, reading reports and marketing plans, and sending 40 emails (no joke).

Enough about work, I can worry about that on Monday. I really misjudged Singapore when I came here for 3 days by myself in August. I thought there was nothing to do but shop, and drinking wasn't so fun because it was too expensive and there weren't that many places. Yeah, I didn't know enough about this city to make that claim. Yeah there is enough shopping to give any sane man a heart attack, but there are LOTS of places to go out and hey, it isn't that expensive when you aren't paying at all! I'm having a great time overall but still getting used to the grueling hours of work in a fast paced multinational. I still feel very young and green, and many people at the office are very surprised when they find out how old I am, but I'm doing my job and no one has questioned me so far. This distributor project is a lot of work but I'm actually really glad Karl has entrusted me with handling it for the next few months. Looks like I'll be traveling here a lot too.

I finally decided on an apartment in Bangkok after looking around for 3 days before I left for KL. I'll describe it more when I come back to Bangkok next weekend. It's pretty sweet, and in an ideal location. I should be in Bangkok by the night of Feb. 4th but there's a chance I could go straight to Vietnam for a week first. Doesn't matter to me, really. I'm racking up the miles and not paying rent!

I still can't post pics since I can't put stuff like that on my work laptop. I'm looking into buying a personal laptop but it might be a few weeks! Hope I'm not putting you to sleep without any visuals. They will come in time, I promise, but don't expect a ton because you won't find me taking pictures of my office...

Until next time my friends.

My First Few Days

This is a picture of the Grand Palace in Bangkok, home to the King of Thailand.



So I've survived the week and there is so much I want to share here, but I'll try not to put you to sleep. I'll keep it down to a minimum, and in chrono order...

My connecting flight from Tokyo to Bangkok a week ago:

I met a nice American dude from Kansas in his mid-20s on his way to Thailand sitting next to me. He told me about how he works for a major oil company down in the south of Thailand and that he's loved living there for the past year. He's also saved a shitload of money because cost of living is so low. I felt a lot better and less tense about moving to Bangkok immediately.

The first few days:

First things first, and most importantly - who the @$*% packed a fat rubber dildo in one of my suitcases!? You bastards. Thanks though, I spent 5 minutes straight laughing and wondering who might have done it. Still haven't found the planter yet...but one day, they will find that dildo under their pillow.

The company shacked me up in a first class serviced apartment called the Pantip Court that more resembles a 5 star hotel. It's 10 minutes cab away from my office and the cab costs $1! They'll subsidize me here for a month thank god while I look for a more permanent place in the meantime. Everyone is so welcoming and smiley. Of course it is their job but I feel that Thai people really are more genuine when they do it than hospitality staff in most other developing countries.

My first day at work was overwhelming to say the least, but not as bad as I might have expected. I'm on the 16th floor of a huge skyscraper office complex called Empire Tower. There are about 6 other expats in the same office and a few local staff. There is another huge Diageo office in the building next door with 95% locals. Everyone was very friendly, but extremely busy. I would soon find out why as I poured over tons of documents and emails to bring myself up to speed on important projects that I'll be working on in Vietnam, Maylaysia, and Singapore very soon. The information absorbing hasn't stopped, and I actually don't expect it to for a while, if ever. That said, I am thrown into the full of things here straight away, and I will have more responsibility than I thought I might before I got here. This is both exciting and making me a little stressed at the same time.

If you had to name my division, it is commercial strategy. Diageo is a gigantic organization with offices in almost 200 countries, and the Asia Pacific region is the fastest growing. Basically we have a lot of opportunities and many big time deals to get done as fast as possible. It really is very fast paced and I'm of course extremely interested in the business of alcohol, so that helps a lot. I want to do a great job for Diageo because I want to prove that I was worth giving this opportunity. Hopefully I'll learn fast!

Did I mention my laptop is a 5+ year old IBM think pad and I can't install random stuf like games/movies/Versetel/Skype? Looks like I'll be buying my own personal PC in the next month or so.

My expat coworkers are all from the UK, Australia, or New Zealand. I'm really adapting my vocabulary of course, and trying to remember what I've learned from living in England and from listening to my Dad. I don't want to hide the fact that I'm an American but I don't want to stick out in the worst ways that many Americans do abroad.

After work everyday I have been mentally and physically exhausted. I've tried to force myself into the gym for an hour but it has only worked half the time. I'm not yet used to the timezone nor sitting at a desk 9-6. In time, I hope. For those of you still in college - my first impressions of the real world are: "Wow, I used to have so much more time" and "This is awesome, I'm actually making a difference." So cherish your extensive freedom for now, but don't worry so much about feeling like college was the peak of your life. At least that what I say now, in the first week. Haha...

Ramdom - I'm amazed how cheap groceries are here. My first big run at supplies cost about $20. I spend that much on groceries in the states every 3 days. In fact, almost everything is half price of the states or even much lower. After finding out that I have to pay ZERO taxes, I'm going to have to save a lot of money for when I come back (to blow on a nice car or business school tuition maybe).

On Friday after work we had some drinks at the Diageo open bar in the big office next door. I had frozen Johnny Walker Gold Label and some Ciroc (high end) vodka on the rocks. Oh and I found out Diageo makes Kilkenny's too - a beer very similar to Boddington's and John Smith's, sweet! Damn, I could get used to this. We ate at a Tex-Mex place afterwords and while it was good food, it ain't no California Mexican by far. I'll miss that for sure, as I already miss all of my friends back home.

I'm still apartment searching from time to time and it really is hit or miss. There is an abundance of supply but price does not equate value here. Two downtown apartments for $600 could mean one dimly lit dump and another uber modern bachelor pad. I'll probably figure out where I'm going to live next week, but I won't move in until mid-Feb. when my company allowance runs out.

I've had the chance to call some of you, but others I'm getting around to. My company only allows so much time for personal international calls through the phone they gave me. I'm also burning through phone cards alarmingly quickly. If you have some time, drop me an email. I really like hearing from you guys.

I'm heading off to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore for 2 weeks starting Monday the 22nd, but I can still be reached at +66 81 848 4309 (my cell). Overall I'm doing great and I feel like my adventure has just begun! I am going to be working my ass off but just being here makes it fresh and exciting.

I think I've said enough for now even though I could go on for ages. Don't worry, I'm out!