Mexico City! MX

So I've been in MC-MX since Tuesday this week- a long trip of 11 days, 10 nights! Training our new team this week, merchandising our first store the next. Flight down was quick- 1 hr to Chicago- 4 hrs to Mexico City. The city is much different than I ever imagined. I’m staying in the Polanco district, which is a thriving area of nice residents, outdoor cafes’, boutiques, and great restaurants. The entire neighborhood was built for walking- large tree lined sidewalks, and winding streets- a dog lovers paradise.

As soon as I could- I started walking. Lincoln Park was my first area- gorgeous park with lots of art, fountains, reflecting ponds, and nice seating. The boutiques are nice, very small, and not much in them. The main street just a few blocks from my hotel is called Presidente Maskyerke- where all the big brands are- Louis, Tiffany, Hermes, Hugo Boss, etc. So I’ve stayed away- no need to see those as they are the same in every city. Our first night we went out to a true Mexican restaurant called Dulce Patria- a formal, sit down place with an extensive menu. Shockingly- with 6 drinks, 3 appetizers,3 entrees and 1 dessert the bill was $110! And that has been a common theme- everything is really inexpensive compared to most other large cities I’ve been in. Since cabs have a bad wrap, we’ve been taking “Uber’s” everywhere- the personal car service. To get most places in cities- it’s around $20-$30 one way. Here- 100pesos anywhere in the city! That’s only $6.70! Lunches have been at sit down restaurants, and for 3 people, again, super reasonable- $60 has been the highest lunch. We finished work early on Friday, and I headed to the Business district where the other team members were staying. I was so surprised at how European and modern it was. Large circular round about with sculptures and monuments in the middle. Lots of skyscrapers with the names of the big banks, and café are lining the boulevards. Not as nice as Polanco, but still very resident friendly with many people out at the café’s mid day. When I cam back to Polanco, it was around 5pm- gorgeous weather, so I decided to go out to- MB for a coffee and catch up on the blog. Friday afternoon + Warm weather+lots of people= beggars. The past 4 days there have been a casual 1 or 2 throughout the day, but this afternoon- oye- every corner has someone with a hat out, and as I’ve sat here there have been little kids coming up trying to sell me sandwiches, a man dressed up in Inca headdress dancing around me and then asking for money, and sadly- an guy probably my age playing an accordion with his young boy who looked so ragged and dirty asking me for money. It happens in every big city- happened in Istanbul, and so I took it as “it is what it is”, Especially as this is one of the happening/wealthier places in the city. So my Spanish- I was working on my rosetta stone the past month, but between Christmas, travel, working on the house, and more travel, it’s been underutilized. Wow- if I only had known ☺ 1/10 speak English, and that might be a high estimate. On the positive I’ve been working some Spanish into my day- I just ordered another American in full Spanish- and they understood me! Yay!

Tonight is the last night for the Panama team who has been with me during training, so we’re going out to try the “local” bar game- a fun custom everyone in your party being electrocuted by car battery! Lol. Can’t wait to find out more of this.

Daytime Sightseeing in Macau

Saturday morning, on our last day in Macau, we ventured to an area on the south island called Taipa Village. Again, had a lot of Portuguese influence, and had been around for many many years. The unique part was that all these billion dollar casino resorts are popping up all around this village, and so you have this old buildings, and right behind them are these huge high rises and gaudy exteriors.

I had to have Daniel take this picture of me next to their city park benches- they are a tiny people! lol

There were many temples in this area of the city, and we weren't sure what religion it was- turns out that there are many religions on the island; Taoist, Buddhist, Muslim, Catholic, and the temples and churches are in all areas of the city as they would be in a modern western city. The temples we most noticed were the Taoist temples because they had their doors open, and were burning this big incense coils that created a beautiful cloud of smoke, and created what I would call a "holy" smell. The temples have large holes in the roof to let out the smoke- and one in particular had so much smoke leaving it, the building looked like it was on fire!

I am so glad that Daniel was here this week because I would never have ventured out to find all these cool villages, and sites! He even stumbled upon a Michelen stared restaurant that was even recommended by the Louis Vuitton travel guide! We had lunch there on Saturday and it was aaaaamazing. I had the best steak in a very long time, and wine before 1pm- great time! Saturday night, Daniel and I packed up our things- and found ourselves in the lobby of the hotel before we knew it- saying our goodbyes. He was flying out of Macau back to Columbus, and I was taking the ferry over to Hong Kong to fly to Singapore. What a great week, both professionally for me (the store opened to great reviews, on time, and staff smiling and trained), but also having Daniel there with me. It definitely made this 18 days trip much more bearable having him here for 1/2 of it. :-)

Sightseeing in Macau

As mentioned in the previous post, Daniel was able to come along on this trip with me (the first week anyway). While I was working in the store, he was able to go out and explore the city. Friday night, after we opened the store, we were finally able to sightsee together, and so he took me up the northern island to the nice old town square, with a lot of the Portuguese influenced architecture.

The sidewalks all over the old neighborhoods have this amazing black and white stone inlays that are so attractive! And add a lot of fun movement to the city blocks. Anywhere that there are the black and white tiles, they are not allowed to drive cars, so created a few nice pedestrian corridors. The big attraction is the Ruins of St.Paul's cathedral. It was built in 1600's- the facade was stone, and the church was built of timber, so when the fire happened, all that was left of the cathedral is the front, and it looks so unique!

Once you get up to the cathedral, we were only a short walk up to the Fort, so we walked up to get a good view of the city at night. From the fort, we could walk a 360degree path to see the city. The tall lotus flower looking thing is the Grand Lisboa Hotel and casino- which was the first casino in Macau in the 70's. We could also see the lighthouse which Daniel walked all the way up the hillside to see the day prior. Overall is was a great night, and was so nice to get to see the historic parts of the city.

Macau, China

After my day of fun in HongKong, I took the ferry over to Macau. Ferry is the main way to get to the island since there are very few direct flights. (although we were able to get Daniel's flight directly into Macau through Tapai, Tawain, and it worked out great!) The ferry is about an hour, and if it's daytime you can see the Hong Kong Islands, and the city of Macau as you are floating into the bay. As soon as you land, it's just like Vegas. Huge billboards showing the latest entertainment, hoards of tourists being hustled onto the Casino/Hotel Shuttles, and that included me! I stayed at the Sheraton Cotai, right on the strip. It opened last year and was fabulous! Gorgeous mall on the first two floors, huge gambling halls (which by the way I won twice and am even bringing some home!), and was a 15 minute walk through the other casino's to get to our new store. Before I begin, I have to say that the city has SO many different faces. It has the up and coming Casino district on the "Cotai Strip", but it was originally a Portuguese colony, so has a lot of cool old sites that you never hear about. Then there is the old financial district (where we did training), and then a re-vitalized old village which now has 5 star restaurants and cute boutiques. The other thing to mention is the language which was a problem here and there. English is on the singage, and around, but not with much of the population or local areas of the city. I have definitely been spoiled by having most of my markets fluent in English and their native language.

These photos are from the old financial district where we held out training for the associates. Obviously the older part of town. Streets were small and crowded, and the buildings were pretty out dated. This was on the northern island; Macau Island. The souther island is where all the new building is happening. Our hotel, and the interiors of the hotel arcade's as their called.

HongKong!

It's been a while since I posted, mostly because I've only been visiting the same old same old locations. But now; now I've got some fun stuff to share ;-)

My flight was CMH to Newark, and then Newark direct to HongKong, which was nice because I had no connections overseas. It was 16hrs direct, which for me was no problem because I'm one of the lucky ones who takes this as a blessing to sleep- and I got 10 full hours of sleep! The flight went straight up out of newark, into Canada, and right over the top of the world- A first for me! I have never flown direct over the north pole, normally when I've been to Singapore or Dubai it just skirts the arctic circle, so that was cool to see on the maps. I arrived Friday evening, and went right to the hotel, and to bed so that I'd be ready to Sight-see myself around the city on my free day Saturday. I always fly in a few days early to get myself on the time zone so I can be fresh and excited for my trainings. It's a good thing I did because it has been a killer this time. HK is 13 hrs ahead of Eastern Standard time, and my body has no idea what is going on. I wake up at 5am and my stomach is like "FEED ME" lol. And by 4pm I'm dizzy and need to lay down. Hoping that today will be better.

Since I was up before the sun, I got dressed and down to the harbor early- it was rainy and cloudy, but was so nice and quiet! Got some good pictures, and walked along what they call the avenue of the stars- kind of like a hollywood walk of stars for HK movie stars. Then I took the subway over to the financial center. That is where the super tall skyscraper is- which is, for all you batman fans like me, the tower where Batman (Dark Knight Rises) sky jumped onto the building and then "hooked" Lau out of the upper story building with the airplane to bring him back to Gotham city. So cool that I got to see the real building! The financial district is where "THE" mall is- IFC. So of course I had to go check it out, and do a little shopping. Then subway was crazy huge, and extremely busy for a Saturday morning. With this being one of the most populated places on the earth- they need efficient mass transit, and this was very impressive.

New starbucks mug is a must! and the shoe store was a design by a favorite- Zaha Hadid who did that big "tree" garden in Singapore. The picture of the market was just a random place that I was walking down the street and at first I was like "eww" but then I realized that this is what is TRUE Hong Kong so I went in and look around. It was soooo packed with people, shops selling everything from cheap plastic sunglasses, to snakes, to dim sum, it was wild. Now today I head off to Macau! I'll be in Macau for the next 7 days, training, merchandising the new store, and then opening our first store in CHINA!!!!!!!!! SO super excited to experience this!

My biggest adventure yet!

As I've traveled the world the past three years, I've seen amazing things, and met people that helped me along my way, and that I can't wait seeing again when I go back. Over those three years, I always had someone waiting for me back in Columbus, or in Amsterdam, or Venice, and even once- in Dubai (These were all one person by the way LOL). That was my boyfriend Daniel. After three years together- him putting up with all my work assignments, I asked him to marry me on July 4, 2013 on a hotel rooftop in NYC, under the fireworks on the Hudson. This month, on June 7th, we went back to NYC with our family and friends, and were married in Central Park, Conservatory Garden. It was Beautiful. Our families all flew in, the hotel was great, and the weather was perfect. I can't really type out all the emotions of the day, but it was truly the happiest day of my life. To be there with the love of my life, and my family who always supported my moving around the US and then the world for work; who also supported me as a person, and loved me irregardless of how many birthdays I forgot, or how many holidays I wasn't at the table because I was overseas. And to have our friends there to share that moment with us, made the day complete. For all my family that came in for the weekend, it was the best trip I've ever taken! I wish we could all be together like that in Istanbul, Vienna, or Signapore. But I'm so glad we were all able to come together for the weekend and sightsee, and eat in Hells' Kitchen, and see the city that Daniel and I love so much. Because this blog is of my travels, and life experiences, this seems like a good place to post again, and share pictures of the biggest adventure I've just started, and am so lucky to get to take. (And for those wanting real photos- we'll be sending an email this week on the photoshare site)