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Hey
Everyone,
New Blog, I’ve
graduated myself from this old one. Find me at:
http://www.xanga.com/fly2yyz
Cheers!
Johan
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| Morning Everyone,
Hope all is well! I just thought I'd throw in an entry this morning
even though I'm already late for work! I mean if it were going to be 30
minutes, why not make it an hour huh? Heh....
Unfortunately no new pictures this week for my entry which sucks -- but
meh! But I do have good news. My job has me organizing vacation
packages to Asia and such --- well one of my packages and the format
was done by... guess who?! And guess what else -- its now part of an
advertising campaign for the underground walkways or PATH here in
Downtown Toronto for the Hong Kong Tourism Board and the Tourism
Authority of Thailand! Boo Yah! And not only that its going to be in
the Toronto papers! Man...this job rocks! Sorry guys no free trips!
Though I got a pretty decent deal for a friend's honeymoon! But really
if you want to check out the packages please head off to http://www.taleof2cities.net/to2/ which is this campaign and check out City Sights, Beach Delights!
Other than this whole stuff, I'm fairly busy with work and moving
along. Gotta do my laundry thats for sure and me thinks me be needing
another vacation... where to go... where to go! Oh but in the meantime
I'm heading to Montreal for the weekend. Being sent there on a little
work trip next week so for all you Montrealers... I think there's one..
I'll be in your neck of the woods soon!
Turrah!
Johan
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| Oh yeah and another thing, why the heck is that song "Fix You" by
Coldplay such an infectious invigorating song!? Damnit! JOHAN STOP
LISTENING TO IT.
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| Well first of all
thank you all for your comments especially the ones in regards to
dealing with stress. Now to put those means of coping with stress into
action. Will try and keep you updated about that.
Now to deal with the second issue at
hand: Religious Zealots. I've been finding it common amongst my
colleagues and friends' blogs of a comment from Leviticus of
Christianity's holy book the Bible. The passage, directly from the
bible looks like the following:
Leviticus 20:13 And a man who lies
with a male as one lies with a woman, both of them have done a
detestable thing, dying they shall die; their blood shall be on them.
Pretty brutal huh? Well this is an
actual comment that someone is posting on bloggers sites. I'm not sure
how exactly to put it, but I do deeply respect the bible for its many
enlightening psalms and references. I'm not sure that this passage
holds any weight with me because everyone seems to understand the bible
in their own light. For instance within the Bible there is a section
that covers the Towers of Babylon -- and touching on racism. But the
bible is an ancient book, passed down, translated, reiterated,
rewritten several times but this book has been around because of
people's faith in it. I think its a shame that people would use it to
state that people should die -- or that Adam and Eve were the first two
human beings on earth -- leading to incest. Kinda shocking no?
But continuing on the topics of
religious zealots. More and more I see that religious extremists are
not just a phenomenon affecting non western societies but of North
American society. It seems as though you must be quite outrageous in
your ideology and actions to be heard. The Bali Bombings is an example
of this, which I have been dealing with over the past few days. I've
had a number of bookings down to this lush island, but since the
attacks several cancellations. Fear is now ensuing the island -- in a
means to dissuade tourists from visiting and punishing those
governments, who may or may have not supported "war" in some region of
the world. Why do innocent people have to die for the actions of the
few?
Blah too serious of a conversation...
anyway I wanted to post up more photos of my trip so that you have a
nice glance of whats new in my life. A few of these pictures are me in
China, a few of me in Saguenay, Quebec, and a few of me around Pride
at, yes, a circuit party! Once I year I let go and let loose. So enjoy!
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Yay China!
  
 
Ta da! lol as you can see I love my bluets :P
 
Whoa... letting lose!
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| So I'm home today,
called in sick. I've been stressed because of the job lately. Anyone
know of any real ways of relieving stress and I do mean work related
stress factors rather than sexual ones which too often people think of.
My Beijing trip was quite fantastic.
Was upgraded to Executive Class on the way there with Air Canada --
goodness for being an ACE Holdings Employee. The flight was most
certainly a long one but with the extra amenities it made for a nice
touch. Arriving in Beijing I expected it to be a bit chilly, but alas
it was quite warm. Going through all the bureaucratic hurdles of
quarantine and form filling, which I feel could be improved upon
markedly, we met our guide after the baggage claim.
Beijing is ultra polluted. The three
mornings we were there were very smoggy, so much so that you could not
even see more than 100 meters infront of you! No lies... But by the
afternoon all the smog burned off so you got some sort of blue sky.
Beijing drivers are crazy, but alas the most skilled at not hitting
people or getting into many accidents, despite the statistic that 250
people doe each year from traffic accidents.
 My
job there was actually to inspect hotels that we offered or that we
should offer in the future. Many of the hotels were beautiful and some
were sub par. Took many pictures of the hotels which was my main goal
so please forgive me for having only a small number of photos of myself
or the journey. PLUS! The digi camera that I brought over kept on
eating my batteries.
 Putting
aside the hotels, we had the opportunity of meeting our work
counterparts in Beijing which was an interesting experience. We also
had some time reserved to visit the Great Wall, Tian'anmen Square, and
the Forbidden City (All of which were beautiful sites to see and
the grandeur and the realization of being near the Great Wall is indeed
emotional -- or maybe that was the exhaustion from climbing to the 4th
tower). Time was also set aside to visit the Silk Market and do some
hardcore bargaining. Try getting four Burberry long sleeve polo shirts
for CAD$4 each! lol.. ok so they are knock offs but they look really
good! The one thing that I'm upset with is that I did not make my own
time to go round Beijing to see the socialist art, or have look around
the embassy district. Hmm kinda down, but I'll go back to Beijing soon
enough.
The city though is filled with such mystic and tradition yet is
modernizing at a rapid pace. Construction is ongoing to get prepared
for the Olympics in 2008 -- though the city is going at it at a
phenomenal rate. The city is always alive, as I noticed one night I got
lost looking for an internet cafe! I started walking in the direction
the conceirge told me and just kept going -- of course not being able
to read Chinese other than the basics does not help. I ended up walking
around the city for 2 hours! But people are always out and I felt very
safe. But then again I'm Asian and look Chinese ? *shrugs* People are
always around, stalls are still open, you can light up a cigarette
without dirty sneers and such. So I guess in a way you can call it a
smokers paradise. Another thing that shocked me was the amount of Koreans
in Beijing -- whether they were tourists from Korea or were just
Koreans studying or living there, but geeze! Korean culture definitely
has some role playing on there.
After the whirlwind tour around of
Beijing hotels, the Great Wall, and intense shopping it was time to go
home. Waking up to a very smoggy morning I packed up all my carry on's
and checked out. Had a buffet breakfast in the hotel restaurant like I
did every morning -- though this time I pigged out. Where else can you
get dim sum, an omlette, fish heads and tails, delicious baked goods,
and congee all at one sitting?! Besides I knew that the flight back we
would not have the opportunity of being upgraded -- so no yummy rack of
lamb or such. Picked up by
our guide we headed to the airport. Upon arriving and passing through
to the check-in lines we said good bye to our professional guide and
headed to the familiar Air Canada signs. Though once again in style
Beijing has first the passport control desk, to which I received quite
a bit more questioning. My passport had been in the wash and had a
feeling he thought that I was a defector just trying to get away. After
confirming my signature and two destinations that I had been to with
the stamps in the passport I presume he felt safe in letting me through
to the bag check, then in the gate area. Phew.
I've included some photos in this entry -- hope you enjoy and consider flying to Beijing!
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