I’ve spent the last five days in Shanghai and loved it, although I feel like I’ve only just scratched the surface. In a later post, I’ll tell you what I did and what I saw, but in the interim, let me take a moment to self-reflect on both holidays in general and being an American tourist in Asia.
1. Even if you tell yourself you’ll go to the gym everyday during your holiday, you won’t.
2. Even if you think you’ll walk a lot every day of your holiday — more than you do at home — you won’t.
3. The more massages you get, the less relaxed you will become. (“This massage isn’t as relaxing as I thought it would be!”) There’s some sort of inverse relationship between number of massages and one’s ability to relax.
4. Anywhere in Asia, when you tell them you are American, they will say “And you’re a tourist?? You’re not here on business? We don’t get many American tourists!”
5. Every child in Vietnam and China can say “I am fine, thank you.”
6. iPhones are everywhere.
7. KFC is everywhere.
8. 4G is not everywhere.
9. They serve food on planes in Asia! Even when the flight is shorter than two hours!!
10. If you think global warming does not exist, tell me where the smog goes. And if you think pollution is not going to affect our bodies, spend a day walking around Shanghai and tell me what your lungs feel like at the end of the day.
11. Being on holiday makes me funny, like hah hah funny.
12. I’m so glad I went to business school 12 years ago and made friends with so many international people. It’s been great to meet up with old friends in Singapore and Shanghai and get the local scoop and talk about the good old days.
13. I miss international travel. London spoiled me for that. Sigh.
14. Foot massages are awesome. Inverse relationship between massage and ability to relax does not apply here.
15. The internet is everywhere! Even when you are behind the Great Firewall of China.
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