Peekaboo

Out of boredom, I checked whether anyone was still reading this blog which I abandoned yet again for months. 

And holy crap..... I think there are people reading it. So maybe this useless crap is interesting to at least one person out there. 

Anyway, I used to be much more interesting when I was blogging during my naive 20's. Now I'm just like a hermit crab facing bipolar issues.... Peekaboo, now you see me, now you don't.

From my last blog post months ago, I was traveling to Austin. Come back and had a layover in London. It was the 3rd shift in time zone in that short trip and I was disastrously jet lagged. But visiting Westminster Abbey was worth it. It was the 3rd place I visited that gave me goosebumps. Beautiful!

By the time I reached home, I slept 16 hours straight. Business trips like these can shorten your life. But I absolutely enjoyed. And it was all paid for :) 

Fast forward a few months to today, and I'm now back to the gray company. Yup, it was like running back to an ex boyfriend whom you love and hate.

Main reason I left was there were too many night calls and I hated bringing work back home. The home and "me time" is sacred to us introverts  and I decided that it wasn't worth sacrificing it. 

Though I do miss working with the Hungarians and Austin. They are just such nice human beings. 

So one step forward and one step backwards... Anyhow I'm more interested in other plans now. 

Boys and their toys

The hubby and I have always been side by side since 14 years ago. And now and then, I have to go off for a business trip and leave him home alone.

And what does he do when I'm away? It's the perfect opportunity for him to buy new toys for himself. Last round it was a fish pond which I would not have agreed to because he doesn't look after his fishes.

This time is a fishing rod. A very excited hubby was showing it to me over the webcam.

Other random thoughts of my trip so far

1. Hungarians are so friendly. I said in my previous post and I'll say it again
2. Hungarians have 3 years paid maternity leave!! Can you imagine? And if they get twins, they get 6 years. And if they have another kid, they will continue to get another 3 years. So basically, they may never come back to work.
3. Hungarians shake hands with everyone and will say hello to anyone that passes. If not, it's considered rude. So when one of my Hungarian colleague came to Penang, he kept shaking hands with everybody in the meeting. 
4. Hungarians are structured people. So I can imagine the challenges when working with the very unstructured free form Americans.
5. It's seriously so hard to pronounce and remember Hungarian names. Like how would your pronounce Szabolcs? And all of them have the same names, making it even more confusing. @.@
6. When I went to the warehouse, I saw a package from Altera. Suddenly made me miss Altera...

I have to say, I love working with different countries and learning about their culture. 

Next stop: Back to Budapest, then to Austin

Hello Europe

So I'm in Europe now. First time in Europe since I was a kid. And I've finally overcome my fear of travelling alone for leisure (something I can check out from my bucket list). I've done it for business trips before, but never for a holiday.

I have to admit I was in a state of panic when I reached Amsterdam to find that I couldn't use my credit card for the lockers and didn't have any phone service and didn't have much local currency. But after panicking for about one hour wondering around the airport, I manage to get myself out of the airport, onto the train and into Amsterdam.

And all I can say is, Amsterdam is BEAUTIFUL. And after exploring the city extremely jet lagged, and not dressed well enough for the cold weather (in my state panic, I smartly left my gloves and scarf in the locker), I arrived in Budapest after 33 hours of travelling.

And here are some random thoughts for the day

1. I love how everybody cycles in Amsterdam. 
2. Gathered all my courage to walk over to the Red Light District. Got shocked at what I saw, chickened out and ran off
3. Towards the end of the day, my body was shutting down from the exhaustion and was too tired to think what to eat... so, I ate at the universal and reliable restaurant: McDonald's.
4. Budapest is like a fairy tale. So fairy tales did exists a long time ago
5. For some reason, I didn't go through any immigration when entering Hungary. I was feeling so paranoid about it until I checked and found others had the same experience
6. Hungarians are so nice, friendly, and gentle. They open doors for me. No one open doors for me at home 
7. In Hungary, the button to flush the toilet is humongous
8. My nose is bleeding here since is so dry here. And Americans who are in Hungary are complaining that it's humid in Hungary. How dry is Austin then? I'm so going to dry out like a salted fish when I'm there.
9. I still find it magical when cars stop for me when I'm on the zebra crossing
10. The food in Hungary is so salty. I will not be eating bacon for a long time.
11. I'm jet lag but I'm not even going to bother adjust because I'll be flying to a different time zone in a few days time so it's a hopeless cause
12. The hotel room does not have a kettle. They provide everything else that you wouldn't even think of, from allergic free rooms to personal trainers. But no kettle! So much for all the milo and instant noodles I brought with me
13. When you travel alone, you're suddenly very aware of the travellers around you
14. The toilets in Europe are so clean. And people queue up here. So different compared to the Forbidden City in Beijing where you literally have to push your way to get a glimpse of the royal throne.
15. European tourist seem friendlier than Asian tourist. I was taking a selfie (because travelling alone means you have to pathetically take your own photos), and somebody saw and offered to take a photo for me. So now when I see other people take selfies, I offer to take a photo for them
16. I'm sleeppy. I woke up at 4am 
17.