hi guys!! i finally had some time to get this post together! last week, i went to chicago to go visit my client's office and meet with other people who are on our team. and it was a pretty awesome trip! it was great getting away, and exploring a little bit of downtown chi-town with several of my coworkers! ~Lin-chan ^.~
sunday: i got to the airport way too early, but luckily ran into someone from our office who helped me out a bit. then we got onto our flight which was super small. considering that it was a direct flight, it accommodated maybe 50-60 people. anyway, because the winter snowstorm thingy brewing along the east coast, i was able to change flights to this one from one that had a layover in charlotte. to make things even better, the booking agent was able to get me probably what was the last remaining seat on the plane, in first class. not only that, but this flight was cheaper than my original route, so my client is saving some money somehow. anyway, the flight was pretty interesting, considering it was my first time in first class. thankfully i was sitting by myself (my seat, the aisle, two seats) but it was also kind of lonely, considering that my coworkers had to sit elsewhere in the plane. [generally speaking, if there weren't crazy weather conditions, we are supposed to be in economy seats.] anyway, they took my coat and hung it up, gave me snacks and drinks in ceramic dishes and a glass, and they gave me dinner (see below). wut. we didn't get to our hotel until about 945, checked in and threw our bags into the room, and ran to join two others at a nearby pizza place. i was full from the flight, but i got to try a tiny bit. then it wasn't until about midnight that i finally got to settle down and go to sleep.
monday: got up barely early enough to get ready and head down for breakfast. but it worked out, since most people didn't make it into the client's office until 9, so we had plenty of time. it was really interesting walking to the building. we finally got a taste for the foot and vehicular traffic in the area...aka a lot and a lot of taxis with presumably precision driving skills because it felt like so many accidents could have happened all around us..but didn't. working in the morning was pretty slow, a lot of learning how to use our credentials to log into the various systems (after finally getting them), and spent the whole day setting up our computers with the various necessary software files. for lunch, we went to the french market and it was really neat. it's like a food booth area plus grocery. it was insane, i don'think we have anything comparable to it....maybe the market place thingy near our office, but on a much wider scale. i was pretty overwhelmed in there, so i went ahead and got a reuben from one of the sandwich shops. after work, we took taxis out to a local restaurant since it was raining. it had a really long wait, so we went to a japanese bbq place instead. and omg it was an awesome experience. granted, you cook your own food--if you go that route--but it was a lot of fun. i ordered shiitake, lamb sirloin, and garlic shrimp. it was freaking awesome and super yums. for dessert, i wanted to try dorayaki but they said they were out, so i settled for just green tea ice cream. afterward, we walked the 30 minutes back to our hotel, since it got nicer out and stopped at a target along the way. i'm actually really surprised how things are in this city, like places are deceivingly large inside, while appearing small from outside. there was a cvs near the french market that seemed more like a convenience store, but if you went further into it, it was a full-sized store. not only that, but i'm so used to there being malls, and not a gazillion [mall] stores within several blocks of each other, on the first floors of a lot of office buildings.
tuesday: we spent more time working on getting our computers set up. unfortunately, there were some complications and we didn't completely finish. lunch was pretty good. we went to the french market again and i got beef and meatball pho. it was pretty good, but not as good as what we can get back home. for dinner, we went out to a local bar and grill type restaurant. i got a really freaking good hard cider, as well as their whitefish, which came with an arugula and bell pepper salad, crispy fries, and asparagus on some sort of butter sauce. it was super great until i got the bill. i tend to forget how much drinks cost at restaurants. ouch!
wednesday: still haven't finished getting my computer up to speed. we took photos to get badges for their office, which hopefully came out ok. haha! otherwise, we went to the french market again and i got a lobster roll...YUM! and we went to a german restaurant for dinner, which was freaking amazing. it kind of sucked because i'm not a beer person, which i think it might have been better-----but it was my first time having german food. i got sauerbraten and it was awesome. it was a sweet and sour sauce (not what you'd typically think, unlike asian sweet and sour sauce) on beef with asparagus, green beans, carrots, and mashed potatoes.
thursday: more computer/environment setup. we went to the french market for lunch and i got a ham and cheese on a baguette. it was funny because i choose that food stall because their pastrami smelled really good.....but idk what happened.... >.> after work, we went to a bar and i got a lamb burger and another hard cider that was teh yums!
friday: was a pretty short day. we went to work, finished getting our systems set up (finally!) and played around with it to see if we found any issues. we finally got badges for the office too! so when whenever we go visit again, we can get into the office without any issues! for lunch, we went to the french market one last time, and i got a beef bento box. around 3, we left the office and headed back to the airport. and i finally got back home by about 2, and slept til noon. ^_^
updates at work this week... we had more training...yay~! o_o then, we were able to get our own room in the office for our project/client! so that's kind of cool. however, i don't like how it's on a different floor from my desk.. oh well. not sure what's going on next week, since our project hasn't fully taken off yet. also part two of this week's training is next week in our office, but it's kind of unclear whether i'm taking it or not, or if the people who took this training months ago are the only ones who can attend. it's kind of dumb but they're saying it's a budget issue..it's only february guys... just saying. but whatever, i know they've got a plan for us and i'll leave it to their judgment!
BONUS!
here's a few items that didn't make it into my pre-scheduled empties post! i brought these along since chicago has like zero moisture in the air...(no louisiana humidity!) so i needed to bring along a few moisturizing things. so i finished off a mini of soap & glory's the righteous butter--which i love! and i used two sheet masks from tony moly: avocado & aloe. i enjoyed both of them and my skin definitely felt better after using them. also, i appreciated how they weren't heavily scented and were pleasant to use.
here's a few things i picked up in chi-town: ritter sport! i've never had these before. i got two of the white chocolate with hazelnuts, and one with cornflakes...? it's in german, so give me a break! haha!
