Chicago!
1) Just finished another trip back home. This is what, my 10th or so trip home, I think, since I left? Some things are the same: I still want to go back to Map Room in Chicago every trip. Other things change; I have not been to Hot Doug's or seen a Cubs game for 2 years now. I no longer head to Delilah's, my old favorite bar, either; part of that, I think is the Hop Leaf and Map Room are more suited for someone of my elderly age. And while I always will love the city, things change too. When I go home now, I want to spend more time in Wisconsin, chilling with family. I want to help cook and grill out at home. I realized something in this trip: while I still will visit Chicago when I go back, I am scaling back how much time I spend there. It's natural; relationships change, friends have kids, other friends leave. It's life.
2) What does not change: Me schlepping back beer. 210+ pounds of beer, and two-thirds of that just for my beer customers. I only wish it was all for me.
3) That said, I do love how when I get off the plane, I can avoid the long line for foreigners and just immediately line up and go through the resident line in 2 minutes or less, with the automated turnstile for ID card holders. It makes it even more fun when you see mainland residents lined up, for some reason.
4) I come back to even more gentrification; another French "bistro" has opened in my neighborhood, though my first stop for food was not there, but the new Vietnamese pho (noodle soup) restaurant in my hood. I am adapting, it seems, to Asia, even if I still do not dig Cantonese food.
5) At our beer business, we are adding a full-time salesperson. In a meeting yesterday with 3 partners, 2 of them were Chinese, and one was a gweilo. The two Chinese partners said that if we hired a salesperson, it would be better to hire a westerner. Since we sell American and Japanese beer, it is better to have a Western face, they said; it would give our company more credence. In fact, the Westerner would automatically get more meetings than a Chinese salesperson would, even if the Westerner only spoke English, and not Cantonese or Mandarin. Chew on that thought!
6) In two months, I could be a permanent resident. Eeep!
7) Somehow, the construction zone behind me still looks the same to the naked eye as back in June. I have no idea what is going on.
2) What does not change: Me schlepping back beer. 210+ pounds of beer, and two-thirds of that just for my beer customers. I only wish it was all for me.
3) That said, I do love how when I get off the plane, I can avoid the long line for foreigners and just immediately line up and go through the resident line in 2 minutes or less, with the automated turnstile for ID card holders. It makes it even more fun when you see mainland residents lined up, for some reason.
4) I come back to even more gentrification; another French "bistro" has opened in my neighborhood, though my first stop for food was not there, but the new Vietnamese pho (noodle soup) restaurant in my hood. I am adapting, it seems, to Asia, even if I still do not dig Cantonese food.
5) At our beer business, we are adding a full-time salesperson. In a meeting yesterday with 3 partners, 2 of them were Chinese, and one was a gweilo. The two Chinese partners said that if we hired a salesperson, it would be better to hire a westerner. Since we sell American and Japanese beer, it is better to have a Western face, they said; it would give our company more credence. In fact, the Westerner would automatically get more meetings than a Chinese salesperson would, even if the Westerner only spoke English, and not Cantonese or Mandarin. Chew on that thought!
6) In two months, I could be a permanent resident. Eeep!
7) Somehow, the construction zone behind me still looks the same to the naked eye as back in June. I have no idea what is going on.
posted by throm at 10:43 AM
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