Adios, Madrid!

I know, I've been a real slacker these days when it comes to updating my blog.... but keep in mind that tying myself to a computer when there's so much to see and do in any given city is not exactly high on my priority list! Having said that, let's catch up on everything since my last post.

My last night in Madrid was spent hanging out in Puerta del Sol and decided to check out a few bars. I walked into Dubliners, and all I heard was English, (mostly Americans) and I promptly checked myself out of that place. Walked into another bar, and ordered a "cubata." The bartender probably could tell that I was not from around here, and literally emptied out his bottle of Jack Daniels into my glass. The shot of Coke he poured in after really just hit the spot. Stumbled out of that place, and decided to check out Joy, a nightclub that was pretty popular back in 1997 when I was studying here for a semester. While in line, I ran into Cindy from (of all places) Redondo Beach, who was in Madrid celebrating her birthday. To make things even more interesting, she works for IBM and promptly pulled out her Blackberry, pulled up my Dad's profile and sent him an email, no doubt telling my Dad what a jackass I am after a few cubatas!

The next day I trained over to Alcala de Henares for a tapas festival, about 45 minutes away by train from Madrid to meet up with Pili, a friend of mine I met back when I was studying abroad. We met up with her brother, boyfriend and a couple of her friends eating tapas, drinking, talking and lots of laughing about the cultural differences between Americans and Spanish. It was a fun evening, and glad I had the chance to catch up with her again, as well as meeting her friends. After only five days in Madrid, my Spanish is really getting back up to speed (the cerveza and rioja probably didn't hurt either!) Which reminds me... my mom would be happy about my Spanish right now. Everytime we go out somewhere in LA and she discovers that somebody speaks Spanish (which never happens, right?) she insists that I speak back to them as well. I can hear it in my head right now: "Daniel, use your Spanish! We did not send you to Spain for nothing!"

I'll be heading up to the north of Spain, to Pais Vasco (Basque Country), to meet up with Unai, a friend who I met through Nori and will be staying with him for a week or so. I will, of course, write a separate post about my time there since Madrid is a part of Spain, which Pais Vasco, well, really isn't. More on that later!

Hasta luego!

Hong Kong vs. Spain-- Javier wins

When I first decided to take this trip, the big theme behind it was to visit places I had never been to. However, I felt it was only appropriate to first visit the two places that I called home for awhile, Hong Kong and Spain. Besides, living and studying abroad gave me the travel bug in the first place so it only made sense to kick off the trip in their respective order.

Going from Hong Kong to Madrid is like Yin and Yang, Mars to Venus (are they really opposites??) Dr. Jeckyl to Mr. Hyde-- you get my drift. Whereas there may be a mini-Starbucks within another larger one in Hong Kong, you have local cafes on every street corner in Madrid. I have seen only two Starbucks so far in my two days here-- something many of us probably have never experienced in the US!

In Hong Kong, there are brand new Bentleys, Benzos, Beemers, and other material signs of excessive and conspicuous consumption crawling amidst luxury shopping malls on every corner. In Spain, ultra-compact cars about the size of my iPod merry about little mom and pop stores that specialize and sell only only one type of thing ie. fruit, fish, meat, bread, jewelry. (Don´t get me wrong, there are luxury goods in Spain, just not as prevalent or ostentatious as Hong Kong.)

And of course, how can I forget to mention the pace of life? I can´t tell you how many times an old Chinese grandma carrying a grandkid or two on her back, with two bags of groceries on each arm, would push me aside, and rush up a flight of stairs to her next appointment with, presumably, her private banker to discuss the next real estate development-- all the while cursing me under her breath to ¨Pok Gai,¨ or to literally ¨drop dead on the street.¨ In Spain, the land of two-hour lunches, well, the pace of life and friendliness towards strangers are quite the opposite. Just yesterday, when one of the subways was stuck and we had to move to a different train, a friendly middle-aged man named Javier, (I know, what a surprise) probably noticed my confusion since I didn´t hear the overhead announcement with my headphones on. He approached me and kindly guided me to the right area, all the while having a very pleasant conversation (in Spanish of course!)

Coming back to Spain reminded me why I decided to take this vacation in the first place-- to embrace and enjoy life the way it was meant to. The trappings of our careers, goals to obtain the next big thing, and the race to who can work hardest while we´re on ¨vacation¨ can too often lead us to be like that Hong Kong grandma, although we should all strive to be more like Javier.

Last day in Hong Kong...

Well, this isn´t really my last day in Hong Kong as I´m already in Madrid but I was having such a great time catching up with old friends that I rarely had the chance to sit at a computer for more than a few minutes at time!

My first week in Hong Kong was spent at Ravi´s house, and his parents were the most gracious and generous hosts I have ever stayed with. Mrs. Choithramani fed me so much that even Mr. Choithramani said I gained weight after a week! (There may have been other beer-related factors, however.) Her food was so good-- samosas, dhosa, curries left and right, my mouth is watering just thinking of it all!

I also crashed a couple of nights at my old friend Francis´ place as well, and things haven´t changed since we used to shoot pigeons off his balcony with our bb guns. (Unfortunately, we didn´t get a chance to that again-- he doesn´t have a balcony anymore!) Despite his busy schedule as a ¨banker wanker¨ we spent some quality man time together. I can´t tell you how many conversations began with, ¨Remember when we used to -insert almost illegal adolescent act here- ¨ or ¨Remember when you used to like -insert girl here-¨ Ahhh...the memories.

It was also good to catch up with Shari, whom my mother nicknamed, ¨Crazy Chicken¨as a term of endearment a long while ago. So, we cooked dinner one night and while I was chopping up some garlic, I realized the knife was not doing its job. At first I thought it was just a really dull knife, but lo and behold when I picked it up, there was a slight crescent moon-like curve to the blade! Shari, I really think it´s time to get rid of that thing....

A bunch of HKISérs got together one night in Lan Kwai Fong and it was truly a blast catching up with everybody that night, including:

Howard Tang-- still as sharp-witted as before, both Cantonese and English I might add.

Danny Lung-- glad I got to play basketball with him again, in the same court right below Estoril Court! Too bad we didn´t win the second game...

David Leventhal-- I remember very clearly my first day of school at HKIS. I hated the world, hated my parents for uprooting me from my beloved Los Angeles, hated the apartment I lived in, pretty much anything you can think of, I hated. So if you can imagine any kid´s first day at school-- I was not in the best of spirits. I recall carrying a tray of fries and a soda and spilling the whole freakin thing in front of the entire cafeteria full of students. I not only heard a needle drop, I think I also pissed my pants. Anyway, it was a pretty embarrassing thing, and I retreated to some back table, hating everything even more so. David came by my table and introduced himself to me, and he officially became my first friend at HKIS. Good thing, because as it turns out, he was THE Dodgeball King, and I never had to play against him!

Michelle Hoeppner, Shari, Francis, Ravi, Pravesh, Rizwan Farooqi, Faith Fischer and few significant others were also there that night, and for the most part, everybody is doing well and I´m really happy about that.

So, going along with the G.I. Joe theme of what I learned... The friends I grew up with during that awkward pubescent/adolescent stage are the friends I have the fondest memories of, and consequently, have the strongest affinity towards. It really was refreshing to see everybody again after all these years. And the recent earthquake tragedy in Sichuan, China, simple reinforces the fact that it´s never too early or too late to reach out to some old friends you haven´t seen. I truly dislike using meaningless cliches like that, but really, if you´re sitting back reading this right now, please call up one old friend you haven´t talked to in years. You won´t be disappointed.

Hong Kong Reunion with Ravi... and his tennis racquet

The farewell committee (above, left to right: Calvin- roommate extraordinaire, Nori and his baby boy Kobe, Moms, Tracy getting his head slapped yet again, me and my girlfriend Colette, Ashley, and my little sister Carrie)


I was really trying to smash their heads together to see what sound it would make.

Hello everybody!


Thankfully, I made it to Hong Kong--- when I checked into the airport at LAX, my name wasn't even on the list!! Apparently, American Airlines never sent over the confirmation to Cathay Pacific in time, and hence, my entire itinerary was wiped out! Everything worked out after about an hour of mayhem, though, and was just a timely reminder that a good attitude about these types of things (which are inevitably going to happen again) is absolutely critical to having a good time on this trip.

I arrived into Hong Kong, where I met up with Ravi Choithramani, an old friend of mine whom I haven't seen since I left Hong Kong at the age of 16. Not much has changed, really. I still swear at him with the few Hindi words he taught me back in the 7th grade, and he still swears back at me with the few Cantonese swear words I taught him (honestly, the credit should really go to my Uncle Ed, who laid a solid foundation for me!)

Funny story about Ravi... Back in the 7th grade, he had a huge crush on Andrea Doak, and we would always tease him about his inability to ask her out. (Then again, at that age, we all had our various issues with asking girls out as I was no Rico Suave either-- but enough about me.) We made a bet, that if he didn't ask her out by the end of 8th grade, he would have to surrender his Prince Graphite 110 tennis racquet to me. Back then, the Prince Graphite was the real deal (Andre Agassi and Michael Chang both used it to whomp some serious ass) and carried some major street cred amongst the tennis cognoscenti so this was a heavy wager that (we hoped) carried a lot of motivational weight for Ravi. Needless to say, Ravi never asked her out by the end of 8th grade and gave up his beloved Prince Graphite to yours truly, which I would later use to stomp some serious US Open ass myself (ok, fine, Schurr High School Varsity was about as far as my tennis career went.) I kept this racquet over the years and right before I left for Hong Kong, I decided to bring this with me to give back to Ravi as I was sure he'd get a kick out of it as well. (Picture below) How does that song go again, "Reunited and it feels so good......"



As we have both since discovered through Facebook, Andrea Doak is now married to somebody not named Ravi. Sorry bud, if only you had asked her out, perhaps things may have turned out differently!