Well I got my one wish! If nothing else happened during my six week stint in the United States, I wanted it to snow. Now my trip home is complete. I've had my fill of the stuff and can go another year or so in Hong Kong's warm climate without missing a New Jersey winter.
Even before the snow, it had been a wonderful five plus weeks for me. First I flew down to New Orleans with my college roommates for an absolutely incredible long weekend. We stayed in the French Quarter, and I was amazed by the city. And the weather was beautiful, even though I knew a colder fate awaited me up North a few days later.
With my junior year roommates in New Orleans
Then I celebrated my twenty-fourth birthday and Thanksgiving in the same week, seeing family and friends for the first time in over a year. After that, though, the 'vacation' was over. It was time for work. .
On Sunday, November 27th, I headed to the office at 7pm and worked straight through til 5 the next morning (8am to 6pm Hong Kong-time). You see, the only reason I was able to spend so much time in the States was because I agreed to work nights and cover my Asian accounts while there. So even though I was home, I was effectively working a full-time job the whole time.
Luckily we have an office in Freehold, New Jersey, about twenty minutes' drive from my house. For those next four weeks, I worked grueling hours five days a week, mostly from Freehold but occasionally from our New York City office. Then, on the weekends, I had to adjust from "Asia hours" to what I called "normal hours." This adjustment sometimes made it feel like I was flying from Hong Kong to New York on Fridays and then back again on Sundays.
Although I was alone in Freehold the entire time, I was constantly in communication with Kevin, my coworker, and all of my customers in Asia. In fact, many of them weren’t even aware that I was over 8,000 miles away! It still amazes me that technology is so efficient that I can pretty much do my job from anywhere in the world, as long as I find the local time that corresponds with Hong Kong’s working day.
There were days when Kevin wasn’t in the office, and I was literally running our entire Asian operations from a small town in Central Jersey in the middle of the night! It was a lot of responsibility, but I always took it very seriously.
In all, it was a positive experience, and I am grateful to work for a company with an office so close to home, paving the way for future trips like this one that allow me to come back for long periods of time without taking many days off from work. It’s nice to know I can come home for weddings and other important events, stay for a week or so, and not miss work to do it.
But if my weekdays were spent hard at work, the weekends were full of fun all the way through! For one, I even made it up to Villanova for the Singers/Voices Christmas Concert. It didn't even feel a little bit weird wandering around campus. Villanova still felt like home.
Pretty much every other weekend was spent with family (helping decorate for Christmas) by day and friends (usually in the city) by night.
With my friends Paul and Katie at a Villanova Game Watch in New York City
My last day of work was Christmas Eve—finishing at 5am—so I got to fully take part in my family’s holiday traditions. Christmas Eve dinner was on Staten Island and Christmas Day was spent in Brooklyn. Since I was in Hong Kong last Christmas, it was doubly special to celebrate with my family this year. It was all the more precious because I am not sure when I will get to do it again. I knew I had to enjoy every minute of it. And I did.
The next morning I drove down to Chincoteague, Virginia, with my dad for a relaxing three-day mini-vacation at our family's favorite summer spot. The town has some of the best oysters I've ever tasted. It's a sleepy little fishing village with a national wildlife refuge and great seafood restaurants. But it is probably most famous for its wild ponies who live in the refuge and inspired the popular children's book Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry.
We got some good shots of the famous Chincoteague wild ponies in the snow.
The ponies
We had to drive down there a day earlier than planned so we would beat the impending blizzard. And when the snow came earlier than expected, we were only about halfway there! The second part of our drive was precarious—and even a little scary—but Chincoteague was beautiful in the snow, and I had a great time seeing it in winter for the first time.
Chincoteague, VA
Now I only have a few short days home before my return to Hong Kong. I have plans for New Year's Eve in New York, then will enjoy New Year's Day in the great state of New Jersey with my family, and on January 2nd, in the early afternoon, back I go!! It's been a great time, but I am so excited to go back to Asia.
