I decided to join a little tour of Amsterdam and am back now. I guess there are enough people that have lengthy layovers in this airport that they’ve made a business of giving “between flight tours” of the city. It was a basic bus tour of the main downtown plus a visit to a CHEESE farm. Nothing terribly exciting (as I’ve been to Amsterdam before)…but it definitely helped me pass time here quickly. Eager to get over to Paris and take a shower. I’m just praying that my luggage is all safe and sound—Northwest/KLM is notorious for losing my luggage…additionally, I was bad and checked in a bit late in…

In the past 3 days, I’ve logged in a total of 25 travel hours and who knows how many thousands of frequent flier miles. By the time I reach Paris from Amsterdam, my total travel time will increase to 32 hours (long layover here). My body has no clue what day it is and is confused how my meals jump from breakfast to dinner. The 1 day I had in Seattle just flew by..though it was nice to sleep in my own bed and unload everything from Hong Kong. I even went out with Felix to see Gangs of New York—a very long movie, incredibly bloody, a good story…though somewhat…

herb ritts has died: what a loss..so young..so talented.

I spoke too soon…I think that if Hero gets nominated for Best Foreign Film this year, it won’t be eligible for any other category in any subsequent year as a result. For shame.

Ben joined us for dinner last night and then took Aaron, his friend Kitty, and I out for a drink afterwards–fun catching up with him. I can’t wait til we actually hit the town tonight…partying with Ben is always fun. I can’t believe how much time has passed! I leave tomorrow…so much to try to do before I leave. First up—I really want to watch the movie, Hero, which was just released here last week (December 19 I think). I first heard about this movie at the beginning of this year and have been dying to check it out. Jet Li, Ziyi Zhang, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung….they’re all in it.…

I’m pooped and oh so tired. It’s about 11:30pm here and I’m definitely ready for bed. While my parents and brother have already completely adjusted to the time since they traveled in Japan for 1.5 weeks before coming here, I just got here and am still feeling the jet lag. It usually hits me really hard just around dinner time, inconveniently. Today, we made our usual visit to the cemetery to pay respect to the relatives—we do this every time we come back. I find the cemeteries here fascinating because they’re huge and densely packed. What I find spooky is how it’s common practice to stick a picture of the…

Absolute madness. That’s the only way that I can describe the streets of Hong Kong at this moment. Nathan Rd. has been closed off in Tsim Sha Tsui and people are spilling onto the streets donning their Santa hats, smiling, singing Christmas songs and enduring the usual holiday cheer. It’s interesting how different it is from home—I would think that at this time, anyone that’s out and about on the streets is completely stressed and only out in order to get a last minute gift. Instead of cozing up to a fireplace, sitting at home quietly watching some football game and sipping eggnog, people here pour out onto the streets…

I’m not sure why I do this to myself every night before a trip..but I just procrastinate to no end with my packing. It’s 4:20am right now and phoebe is picking me up in approximately 3 hours. In a way, this all nighter is intentionally to prepare for the intense jet lag I’m sure I’m going to experience..and to also simply force my body to sleep as much as possible on the very long 17 hour journey to Hong Kong. I actually have my clothes taken care of considering I’m only going to be there for 5-6 days…and it’s likely that I’ll be shopping so there’s no need for me…

man, december is a busy month. i’m absolutely longing for an evening of doing absolutely nothing…just sitting at home by myself, taking a nice bubble bath, reading a good book, not worrying about making sure i take care of this errand or preparing for this party. my christmas card writing went way down the tube this year. typically, i start writing christmas cards way before thanksgiving so that i can get the international ones sent by the beginning of december. this year it’s just not happening. so–if you get a christmas card from me, consider yourself lucky….but don’t be hurt if you don’t get one…it’s more that i’m just plain…

check out froogle. it’s neat. this is just wrong. been insanely busy at work preparing for the holidays. madness i tell you. there’s nothing like working in the retail world during the holidays. can’t wait til this is all over…going on a nice long vacation–first to Hong Kong for Christmas to meet up with the family..and then to Paris for New Year’s. Should be fabulous.