The art of packing a year’s worth of stuff

There really is no art to this at all…I’m just trying to figure out what I want/need to bring and stuffing it in a suitcase or large plastic bin. Not knowing when or if I’ll be back to Raleigh over the next year, I have to try to bring a little bit of everything, for each season.

Clothes. Books. DVDs. Pictures (so I don’t forget home). Wireless router/Vonage. Personal items. Shoes/sneakers. What else do I need?

I thought about bringing some food…”American food,” but I have to imagine that I can find “Western” types of food in China. I have heard that they have western type stores there, stupid me never went to check that stuff out last time I was there. I’ll be living off of rice & noodles.

Well, I guess if I forget anything, I’ll either have it shipped to me or I’ll try to find it in China or elsewhere as I travel around.

What’s on the agenda for tomorrow:

Close deal on Jeep

Bank

Stop into work for a meeting & say goodbye

Mail out some last minute stuff

More packing

Dinner w/ Aunt/Uncle & cousins in Raleigh

Maybe a couple last minute beers with some friends

More packing

Stay up all night so I sleep most of the way to Beijing

Heading to my last hockey game in the States tonight…playoff time & I can’t play (since I only played one game this season). So, I’ll be there giving the guys a hard time, then a few beers in the parking lot.

The nervousness is kicking in, kind of a weird feeling. But, I can’t wait for this adventure to begin, it’s going to be one hell of a ride.

Who I met in the air

I’m not one to converse a lot when flying, I guess it all depends on the person sitting next to me, and whether or not I’m awake. There are also those times, coming back from vacation, when I could be a little hung over too, but that rarely happens :).

Anyway, on my flight back from Beijing this past weekend, I met Steve Blount, of Blount Seafood. When Steve sat down, we immediately started talking, first, looking at everyone walk past us and saying to each other, “I hope no one sits in between us.” We’re both pretty tall guys, and needed all the room we could get in coach.

Steve makes a couple trips of to China each year, working on some projects. As he was telling me about Blount Seafood, I started thinking about how much my aunt in NC likes this clam chowder she buys from Harris Teeter … turns out, Blount makes it!

I think I’ll try to talk to people some more on planes in the future…especially these international flights. You never know who you’re going to meet, this time it was Steve, hopefully we’ll get to meet up next time he’s around Beijing. Great guy.

I LOVE the heat

I knew this four city trip was going to be a nightmare, travel-wise. I was to depart RDU @ 10:10 this morning…finally departed @ 2:30 this afternoon, due to weather in Chicago. It was tons-o-fun. The good news was, I actually caught my original 11:55am connection in Chicago to St. Louis (departed @ 5pm).

St. Louis had a horrible storm last night & it’s hot as hell here. Time to drink some beers and hang out with the boys from Buffalo.

btw…I still don’t have a resolution to my Priority Club issue, bet I won’t until after my trip to Beijing next week.

Priority Club is STILL pissing me off

A couple days ago I wrote about my recent Priority Club experience. Well, still not much progress.

I did go to their website yesterday, with the goal of finding a feedback form or survey of some sort. All I could find was a website survey, so I used it to complain about their customer support.

What did I get back? This…

“Thank you for contacting us. In order to better assist you with your inquiry, I have forwarded your e-mail to our Priority Club service center. Please allow additional time for a response. They can be reached directly at:

PriorityClub@ichotelsgroup.com

For immediate assistance, please contact the Priority Club Service Center at:
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/6c/1/en/c/2/content/dec/6c/1/en/cs/center.html

If you need further assistance, please feel free to contact us.

Best regards,

Anne “
The Priority Club service center is who I initially contacted, it’s now been seven days since my first contact. I have not heard back from them in two days.

So…it will now be one email a day to them until I get a satisfactory resolution.

Budweiser, Tsingtao, Labbat Blue, Carolina Pale Ale

Tomorrow morning, I start my two week journey around the world, kind of.

First, I’m heading to St. Louis (Budweiser). A couple friends of mine live there & some other friends from Buffalo are meeting there too. We’re going to party it up this weekend, one last weekend all together before I head off to China for a year.

Should be a great time. I’m sure I’ll have some pictures to share. I’ve also warned all of them not to even attempt waking me up via a horn, banging pots & pans or any other loud objects or devices. They have done this to me a few times, once with a beer in hand (was sleeping). I wake up looking like I’m having a heart attack. Funny yes, but it’s scary! I think there is some video of this somewhere…

Next, on to Beijing (Tsingtao). Only a week there this trip. Hope to get five very productive days in the office, then back on a plane Saturday. I’m sure I’ll have a few Tsingtaos while there.

From there, it’s on to Buffalo (Labbat Blue – OK, Blue is actually from Canada, but it’s very popular in Buffalo & I like it. I could have said Genny Cream Ale (which is actually brewed in PA.)).

Spending a few days with my family and playing in the KPL Golf Tournament. It’s going to be a great time. I need to write up the story of the KPL tournament…it’s a memorial tournament, for a great guy from Buffalo who died at age 32.

Finally, back to Raleigh (Carolina Pale Ale) … though, only for about ten days, then it’s off to Beijing for a year!

Will I be sick of flying and airports and delays and lost luggage by the end of this ~15,500 mile trip? I bet YES

Priority Club is pissing me off

Priority Club is the rewards program for Crowne Plaze (Holiday Inn). I joined the program just into my trip to Beijing, because I forgot to join prior to leaving. I also failed to give them my membership # while there, so didn’t get any points for my three week stay.

Well, I figured the solution would be easy enough, have done it before with airlines…I’d just go online & submit a form to collect points for a previous stay. HA

After four emails so far, no dice. The first two consisted of me validating various pieces of information such as address & phone number. Now they are telling me I have two accounts…hmm, do I?

Well, I thought maybe I could have opened one up a while ago. Or maybe, they were confusing me with my father (also named Michael Mann, but has a different middle name). So, tried explaining that one via email – of course they didn’t understand that one, why would they?

They have come back and told me that I have an account with a Beijing address and phone number. I know for a fact I never opened an account with Beijing info, couldn’t have…unless I used my work address OR, maybe I used the Crowne Plaza address? jack asses.

The issue still remains in the email pipes. I guess I could call them, but I don’t want to deal with that frustration too. Why? Because I guarantee the call center doesn’t have access to the email. They also likely don’t keep a central log for a customer. On top of that, since I supposedly have two accounts, they probably wouldn’t even know who I am!

This is where it would be nice for them to do one of three things…

1) Just trust me with all of the information I have already provided & validated and give me my points!

2) CALL ME – the person (or someone who has access to the email chain) should pick up the phone and call me … phone # is a mandatory field when registering, use it!

3) On-line chat – do you have it? For issues like this, they should send you a url that will trigger an on-line chat session (again, with someone who has access to the email chain).

I just want my 36,000 points!

Where I’ve been

I’m trying to find some online map’ware that will allow me to plot city/state/countries that I’ve visted. So far, I’ve only found something that allows me to plot countries.

7132 miles

From Raleigh, NC to Beijing, China…it's going to be a long haul for sure. Will be my first time to China…my first international travel in a few years. In 2003 I went to Greenock, Scotland…Sydney, Australia & Tokyo, Japan. Was a great experience as I'm sure this one will be. 

I have a lot of reading left to do before I arrive, but I think most important for me will be "Chinese Business Etiquette" by Scott D. Seligman.  

I will be sure to continue blogging while there for ~3 weeks, but I don't think it will compare to Churbuck's posting while in Beijing this past April/May.