Rocky Mountain High

Every year, Deloitte holds an event for its former consultants who are away at business school to reconnect them to the firm. The event is also an opportunity to network with peers at different schools around the country, as well as firm leadership. Obviously the six of us doing this global internship program provided a logistical challenge for the retreat organizers, but we received approval to attend. Fortunately, spouses were also invited, and the company paid for Melinda’s trip as well. Although unexcited about traveling 40 hours roundtrip for a weekend in the States, we weren’t about to miss out on the weekend - Especially since it was being held at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.





Flights from Hong Kong to Colorado Springs don’t happen every hour, so in order to get to COS in time for Friday’s dinner, we actually had to book flights that arrived the day before. This extra time in the Springs allowed us to (1) adjust to the time change and (2) go to the Colorado College campus. Melinda had not been back to campus since her graduation, and it was fun to see what had changed. Aside from Pepperdine’s perch over the Pacific in Malibu, I don’t know if you can find a prettier location for a college. Melinda’s freshman year dorm room looked right out on Pikes Peak and the foothills of the Rockies.



The rest of the weekend was great, and I had a blast seeing friends from UCLA and my time at Deloitte before school. 4 of the 5 members of my team from Week 2 BA training in 2005 were in attendance, and we had fun reminiscing about our group. We also enjoyed talking with the other global interns about their experiences in Brazil and India. Team India in particular had some crazy stories – they were even battling GI issues at the retreat. As Jonathan Felix said, his body was rejecting all of the clean water he was drinking. On Saturday, we went white water rafting, which was an absolute blast.



After the fun weekend and amazing stay at the fantastic Broadmoor, it was time to leave. Melinda actually flew to Wichita to spend a few weeks at home before going to London. I boarded the flight to Chicago and on to Hong Kong with Eric, and we were off to the other side of the world.

Catching Up

It's been a busy month and we're way behind on our blog. This is becoming somewhat of a habit. Whoops. Here are some posts covering our busy August.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

It is amazing how well humans (or at least Kenneth and I) seem to adapt to new environments and cultures that are quite different from our own. Although I was somewhat scared to venture out without my number one navigator and sightseeing partner the first several days we were in Hong Kong, I have grown quite accustomed to getting about town on the MTR and am starting to figure out my way around town. Unfortunately, I still continue to get myself turned around and a bit lost!

Kenneth discovered an article in the Continental Airlines magazine on the flight over about the Hong Kong Tourism Board, a great resource for everything that is going on in Hong Kong. While perusing the HKTB website, I came upon a group of culturally related classes offered every day of the week. Today, I attended the Jewelry Appreciation Class. After Mr. Alex Chan gave a PowerPoint presentation on pearls and diamonds, we looked at several examples of different qualities and varieties of each.

I was having a hankering for something not Asian or Indian for lunch, so I checked out the highly recommended Pizza Express. The restaurant sits on a street corner in Central, and has a very upscale café feel to it. I ordered the pumpkin soup and Torino pizza with fontina and grana padano cheeses, mushrooms, béchamel sauce, chili, and garlic. The pizza was very good and satisfied my appetite for cheese, which is something people do not eat a lot of here!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

It has rained all weekend! The rain definitely complicated things as we were out and about trying to see the city. We went to Tsim Sha Tsui (or as we refer to it, TST) area of town on the Kowloon side to schedule for a few cultural classes for next week. From there, we walked around for awhile and ducked into the Pennisula Hotel to escape the rain. What a lavish hotel! From the live orchestra playing on the balcony over-looking the entrance to the upscale shops and restaurants inside the building, I was very impressed! When we walked in, the band was playing “You Only Live Twice,” the theme song from a James Bond movie of the same name. Kenneth thought that was pretty awesome because the Peninsula is clearly the place that James Bond stays when he is in Hong Kong.





For lunch, we made our way to one of our favorite areas of town to eat, Central. We came across yet another stylish restaurant, called Tivo. It was an Italian inspired cuisine with wonderful fresh squeezed, mixed juices. I had a veggie omelet and Kenneth had eggs benedict.



After lunch, Kenneth wanted me to show him the Travelator. As Kenneth was busy getting multiple pictures of the largest, traveling elevator in the world, a young Taiwanese lady came up to him and asked if she could have her picture with him. I happened to be several feet out of the way of the entrance of the Travelator, so the group from Taiwan had no idea I was giggling to myself about the situation. I get such a kick out of Asian people and pictures with the peace sign!



We took the elevator quite a ways up the steep incline and then explored all of the side streets on the way down. We found a greenish colored Mosque, which looked so picturesque with the steps leading up to it and surrounding trees. We also checked out multiple restaurants that had potential before going home to dry out.





Later on in the evening we came back to Central with Eric to eat at Nha Trang, a very popular Vietnamese restaurant in town. The restaurant was packed so full; we ate at a long table with three girls on one side of us and a couple on the other side!

Friday and Saturday, June 25 and 26, 2010

Kenneth went to Macau for two days with his co-workers for a company retreat. I really wanted to go, but did not want to impose! Guess we will just have to go again another time!

For dinner on Saturday night, we ventured to the hip, Lang Kwai Fong area in Central. We decided on a Creperie, called Simplicity. The crepes were pretty good for the price, but Kenneth’s wine was spectacular as far as cheap wines are concerned. It is called Casella Mallee 2008 from Australia (cabernet/merlot blend), and it is one of our new favorites! It is very smooth and fruity with a subtle hint of brown sugar. Can you tell I am trying to use some of the descriptive words I learned in Wine Club this year? We have searched high and low for this wine, and sadly, we have been unable to find it! So, what is one to do when you can’t find something…you Google it! Come to find out, this wine is produced by the same company that makes Yellow Tail and the website states it is only available in Australia. I also found the professional description of the taste of this wine… “The palate shows hints of strawberry and raspberry flavours with a touch of spice. Oak tannins lengthen and soften the palate, making this a balanced and food-friendly wine.”


Not quite like eating crepes at the Hilton Moorea, but we'll take it.

Monday, June 21st: My first day out on the town (by myself)

After giving our apartment the “full-treatment” and figuring out what I am planning on doing with all of my time in Hong Kong this summer, I ventured out tonight for some dinner at the same food court-like area at a nearby mall. Usually, I stay at least 10 feet away from any “fast food” in America, but the “fast food” in Hong Kong is actually more high quality. Tonight I decided to go with the pad thai since Eric gave it the approval last night. I was so hungry that I didn’t notice until I was about halfway done with my meal that within my pad thai were multiple (20-30) bright red, ~1-2cm long crustaceans mixed in with my noodles- exoskeleton, legs, big black bulging eyes and all. Wow, did I feel less than observant at this point! When I was eating my meal I assumed they were red chilies because I was not familiar with this new sea creature. Not only were there full bodied critters in my pad thai, but there were scattered mangled fellas too! After finishing, I realized it was probably a good thing I didn’t know what I was eating. I think this is something that I will probably be experiencing quite a bit here!


Creepy crawlers in the Pad Thai!!!

As I sat there chowing down on my pad thai, I watched the ~4 elderly, food court attendants walking around with their surgical masks covering their noses and mouths waiting to jump on the next table that opened up. As soon as people were finished eating, I bet someone was their within 30 seconds to pick up their tray and dispose of the mess at the proper receptacles. I was able to test this observation when I realized I needed to take the rest of my pad thai to go but needed a to-go box. I waited for the line to go down at Yummy before I jumped up and walked quickly to the counter nervously looking back at my table to make sure no one was taking my precious leftovers. Of course the 3 employees at the counter were not just standing around even though they had no customers, so it took a few seconds for me to get their attention. The language barrier took a few more seconds, and just as the worker at Yummy was reaching down to get the container on the bottom shelf I see a food court attendant walking up to my food and going in for the kill probably not more than 15 seconds after leaving my seat! I got my to-go container and fled back to my seat, just as the Cantonese family next to me was explaining to the attendant that they didn’t think I was done. As I walked up to my seat I made eye contact with the mom and I gave her a big smile in thanks that she had saved Kenneth’s dinner for the night.

Live Info-Mercials

At various street corners throughout town, you might here a loud voice above the hum of the people, taxis, and buses whizzing by you. As you come closer you witness a group captivated citizens listening to an animated sales person wearing a microphone headset and rattling off why their product is the best thing since the rice cooker. As our friend Vinny described one of his colleagues, these live infomercial people are “endlessly fascinating.”