Stress

Only one week before my first trip for work to Asia. It's been a crazy week, and it was a short one (only 3 days!). I've learned already that trying to communicate with people who have English as their second language is not easy! I don't think anyone realizes how many slang words or colloquialisms we use in every day conversations. I find myself struggling to explain new concepts and ideas without using them and its very overwhelming. Not too mention I got the joy of explaining a project to everyone in the countries that they don't understand but need to validate in the next few weeks. Sigh... It feels like a rough start. Seriously this is the first time in years where I felt really out of my element at work. I'm having a mini culture shock and I haven't even left the country yet. I'm sure it will only continue when I travel next week. The one thing I'm really looking forward to is meeting some of my coworkers in person and hopefully crossing some of the language and time barriers.

Good news though... I have two or three people in my new team who are Christians. I was really excited to find this out this week. One is a very sweet lady from Korea who has moved to the US to help her kids to have less pressure on school work and to give them the ability to grow their spiritual life and just have the opportunity to be involved at church. How cool is that? I look forward to chatting with her more.

Help please!

Okay my blogger friends who are more technical and web savvy than I am... I am going to try and do a travel blog for my fun new job, and hopefully document some of my crazy and embarrassing moments traveling to Asia. What's the best site to do this? I can do another blogger site, I have a Facebook already but I don't want to add a million friends just to view this info. Maybe I'll let you know what I think I need and you wise one's give your advice?

Needs:

• Accessible to anyone (not just members), this way my dear parents will still view it easily.
• Hosts pictures and slide shows easily
• Not too hard to navigate (I am pretty good at figuring computer stuff out, but if it involves writing fancy java script I'm not there yet.)
• Easily integrates diary like blogging and pictures and media together

Thanks!!!

First Port of Call...

Singapore in January!

I freaked out a little today when I first found out. But after about an hour of surfing the web on Singapore detail I am doing better. Apparently English is the main language, HOORAY, and they are big on business and tourism. And I already found the main shopping areas, ha, ha, ha! So I think I'll be able to have a nice first foray into my new region. I'll keep you posted and hopefully I can post pic's for you all to see. Which reminds me I need a good camera.

Also I was very excited to pick out my fancy new laptop which has a cool tablet feature. You can write on it with a stylus and it will convert to text. Where was that when I was in college?! Though now it will convert meeting notes. Oh and a new blackberry. That's right I'll be one of those people. In my nerdiness I get really excited about these details.