my HR department keeps screwing me. first strike, they missbooked my return flight from the ny interview. i paid out of pocket to move my flight up a day. second strike, they missbooked my hotel room for my week in hk. no monetary damage, but it was stressful to fly in and not have a reservation. third strike, they sent me to macau on a wild goose chase after my work visa. the situation is pretty severe, cuz they can't pay me without my visa...so i'm currently unemployed, working 12 hour days for charity. it's not like i'm actually adding any value for them, but i want my money!

right, so the sticker for my visa comes in yesterday, and i needed to leave the 'country' so that they can stick it on my passport upon reentry. i go happily to macau, where i spent the afternoon shopping and gambling (actually, the casino's are WEAK and smokey and just plain lame. there were maybe a handful of people in the two that i went to...and the gamblers are so quiet and serious...not festive at all...the slot machine i played could've learned a thing or two about fun from an atm). for dinner, i had this crepe-ish thing full of curry beef. not bad. my first street vendor experience thus far. i tried to drink a papaya juice, but it was so nasty that i threw it away. the place i got it from uses the same food processor for all their drinks...so there were bits of carrot and who knows what floating in my glass. disgusting.

fast forward a couple of hours...i'm at immigrations trying to convince them to stick this thing on my passport, and the guy says, "are you this person?" and i'm like, "uh, yeah..." and then i look at the stupid sticker. i'm definitely not that person. fucker. yeah, HR gave me the wrong sticker. this morning, i go ask them about it, and they say, "oh shit, i mailed your sticker to china." umm...competency anyone? so what now? i doubt i'll get it before i leave for london...does that mean i don't get paid for the duration of my training? that would suck big time. fuckers!

in other news, i think i'm picking up british slang, but i'm fighting it as hard as i can. for instance, when i said fuckers up above, i really wanted to say buggers. shhh. i'm excited...for lunch, i'm having chinese food! yay! and then apartment hunting this afternoon.

oh, the other day, we had a team dinner at bonheur. it's a pretty upscale french place. appetizer = foie gras with scallops. i didn't realize that foie gras = fattened duck/goose liver. it's very heavy, but rather tasty. apparently, it's illegal in israel, california, and chicago. i feel like such a daring-doer. and then for dinner, i had lamb with a black truffle sauce. black truffles cost at least $750 per kilo in french markets. they're only found in two regions of france, and they grow unpredictably so ppl hafta use highly trained dogs and pigs to find them (dogs are more popular than pigs because it's hard to transport pigs and it's hard to stop them from eating the truffle once they find it). according to www.foodreference.com, "In France, the truffle commerce has always been secretive. Truffle “hunters” try to avoid the taxman as much as drug dealers." such excitement all in one night, no wonder i had trouble sleeping.