Travel

Jeans nation

As I walk around Shanghai, I am struck by the number of people wearing blue jeans.  In Seoul, I don’t see many Koreans wearing blue jeans.  Korean men tend to wear slacks or suits, while women tend to wear dresses or slacks.  I wonder–is jeans-wearing a natural progression from Mao suits to dresses and suits, or are Mainland Chinese developing their own fashion standards?  Will Chinese men shed the pants for suits, and will the women eventually move from jeans to dresses?  It remains to be seen.

Thinking of somewhere else

I crashed tonight after a long day at work.  I was sitting on the couch, watching my son and wife playing.  The next thing I knew, my wife woke me up.  I dragged myself to bed, but I couldn’t sleep.  For some strange, inexpicable reason, I thought about visiting Golden Spike National Historical Site in Promontory, Utah in the fall of 2003.  I was on a business trip to Salt Lake City at the time and had some extra time to explore the Beehive State.  That day, I also visited Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake.  My wife and son were far away, back home in Seattle.  I remember the wide open spaces and subtle desolation of the area.  I saw nary a tree in sight.  Brittle rock formations around Promotory interrupted the landscape, and dried grassy plains blanketed the ground.  Railroad tracks, a meandering, two-lane asphalt highway bordered by electrical poles, and a small memorial center cut a wide swath through the area.  No one was around the day I visited except for briefly an retired couple from Minnesota tooling around in their RV.  We wondered together why no one was manning the visitor’s center.  I vividly recalled the shrill wind hitting my face, thundering in my ears.  The day was bright, the kind that would leave you sunburned without shade or sun screen.
 
After lying awake for half an hour, I decided to wake up and do some work.  It’s frustrating tossing and turning at night, thinking about all the things you have to do.  Here I am, writing about something that happened almost two-and-a-half years ago, a fleeting memory that I had long since filed away in the recesses in my mind.  Why this memory came to mind tonight, I have no idea.  Perhaps I yearn for a simpler time.  Dear Reader, has this happened to you?

The agony and antipathy

I submitted our final assignment bid list today.  If you recall, Dear Reader, on January 19 and February 11 I discussed bidding on our next assignment.  Our bid list is (in order of preference):
  1. La Paz, Bolivia
  2. Damascus, Syria
  3. San Salvador, El Salvador
  4. Asuncion, Paraguay
  5. Shenyang, China
  6. Athens, Greece
  7. Montevideo, Uruguay
  8. Quito, Ecuador
  9. Caracas, Venezuela
  10. Kuwait City, Kuwait
  11. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
  12. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
  13. Panama City, Panama
  14. Managua, Nicaragua
  15. Windhoek, Namibia
  16. San Jose, Costa Rica
  17. Belize City, Belize
  18. Sydney, Australia
  19. Hamilton, Bermuda
  20. Bogota, Colombia

This list is quite different from our initial draft bid list, because some of the most attractive assignments in places such as Beijing, Hong Kong, and London were already assigned to other individuals.  Frankly speaking, we were only left with about 35 possible assignments to bid on based on the jobs available and our own preferences.  I monitored the assignments list today and noted which places are most popular with bidders.  Among the 20 bids I submitted today, 17 are competitive, and 14 are highly competitive.  As expected, Sydney, Damascus, Athens, and Montevideo are wildly popular.  (Note to Tortmaster:  Dude, I am not going to Windhoek.  I would be very lucky to be assigned there.)  While I left them on my list, I deliberately ranked them lower, acknowledging the fact that I have virtually no chance of being assigned to these places.  These assignments will be long gone before my bids are considered.

 

Only three of the 20 assignments are realistic options for me:  Shenyang, Kuwait, and Managua.  La Paz, San Salvador, and Asuncion are also possible but not likely, because they are much more attractive to bidders.  I don’t mean to spoil the fun, but barring any unforeseen anomalies, we are likely headed to Shenyang, China in 2007.  While not our first choice, we will make the most of the opportunity we are given.  Shenyang is a place with a negative reputation and a reality that is apparently far better than perception.  But we will need to buy some thick parkas for wintertime.  We will know our final assignment in the next couple of weeks.  In the meantime, the agony of trying to put together our bid list is over, and the antipathy of second-guessing the outcome lies ahead.