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I feel like I have to write everything down, otherwise I will forget all the wonderfulness that has happened.
- Miami was awesome. Beaches – swam in the sea, seafood – stone crab + paella, Everglades – airboat + alligators, good company (Sze Yen, Chih Hung, Roy, Xinyi, Keith, Jinyi, Nichola, Tracie, Yushuang), diving at Key Largo – giant garoupa, beaches, beaches and more beaches. The best part was being able to thaw out in the warm weather after freezing in the Michigan cold. Finally seeing green and grass and trees was indescribeable.
- Chicago was super awesome because the entire holiday was chill and relaxed and I was around fun and awesome people the whole time. On Friday we arrived in Chicago and just chilled in our Hyatt hotel room, because we were all so tired. Then on Saturday, we woke up kind of late and went to eat brunch and a really nice place that you can only find in cities and not college towns. I forget the name, but it was sort of affiliated to cheesecake factory. Me and Vivian shared an omelette, Eugene ate eggs benedict, Yingyi ate chicken fillets and Jeff ate salmon rice. We then walked around the city and up and down Michigan Avenue. Went to the arcade just on a whim and Vivian saw the soft toy (bears) claw machine and said ‘Get one for me’ and these obedient boys just decided to get a soft toy bear for her using teamwork and skill. What nice boys, and what a cute Vivian’s bear! Then we challenged each other to Daytona and I came in first, even though I actually really suck at it and I have no idea how I won. Then we challenged each other to basketball! I didn’t win at it though :( Then, to indulge in Eugene’s feminine side, we all watched Confessions of a Shopaholic, which was such a touching and sweet show (Vivian was crying for most of it hahaha). After that, we ate at cheesecake factory with Kaijian, Edwin and their friend. The cheesecake was super delicious! Then we went back to our hotel room to play Saboteur, which was very fun! On Sunday, we ate super super yummy dim sum at Phoenix. I miss the dim sum there. The cheong fun was so nice and so was the dou hua. Ahhh.
On Obama’s first day in office, he
ordered that the salaries of senior staff earning more than $100,000 a year be frozen. … “During this period of economic emergency, families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington,” he told about 30 members of his senior staff. “However long we are keepers of the public trust, we should never forget that we are here as public servants.”
- The Wall Street Journal, January 22, 2009
Singapore reports ’similar’ pay cuts:
Cabinet ministers in recession-hit Singapore will earn a salary of about US$1 million each this year – even after a 20 percent pay cut, a cabinet minister told parliament yesterday.Ministers can expect to take home about 1.54 million Singapore dollars (US$1.04 million) after the cuts, said Teo Chee Hean, the minister in charge of the civil service.
There was no discussion in yesterday’s parliamentary session of Lee’s salary but The Straits Times reported in November that he will earn 3.04 million Singapore dollars after a 19 percent cut due to salary components linked to economic growth.
Singapore officials have said high salaries are necessary to recruit and retain talented individuals, and to prevent corruption.
- AFP, January 20 2009
Hm…
I didn’t think celebrating New Year in a strange foreign place like Budapest was going to be any fun, but I was so wrong.
We were planning to finish sightseeing in the evening, then return to the city square to join in the festivities at 11.30pm. But as we were walking back to Sofitel at 6pm from St Stephen’s cathedral, we heard some loud sounds and saw fireworks in the sky! So we headed down to the square and saw a crowd forming a circle around a small clearing, and realized that the fireworks were being launched by civilians! In Hungary you can buy your own fireworks and launch them, how cool! And it was only 6 but the celebrations had already started! But we didn’t want to hang around for 6 hours til midnight, so we returned to our hotel.
Fell asleep after showering because we had spent the whole day on the Buda side at Castle District on Gellert Hill. Haha did I mention that the area on one side of the Danube is called Buda and the other Pest? That’s how Budapest got its name. I thought Aloy was kidding when he first told me that, but there you are, it’s true. Anyway, it was so cold even in the day that I was awfully reluctant to get up at 11pm to go to the square for the festivities, but you simply CANNOT spend New Year alone in a hotel room in Budapest. So I went.
When we arrived at the square, we found it was even more crowded than before. People were setting off fireworks nonstop and I was so enraptured I just started snapping photos indiscriminately.
So we watched the fireworks as we heralded the arrival of 2009. People were blowing some horn-like thing nonstop and making a lot of noise, drinking and partying. I thought standing around was rather boring, so Aloy, Gerphy and I decided to go join in the dancing in front of the live band. It was so fun! People were making merry and the atmosphere was great. Suddenly a strange man reached his arm out towards my head and I was like erp what’s going on? I leaned away so he wouldn’t get me but oh..I realized he wanted to just tap my cap for a bit all in good fun. Then I realized he was kinda cute. (PS. Hungarian boys? Super cute!) After dancing for a bit more, people started to get really into it and a conga line formed! We were so amused and decided to join the conga line! It got longer and longer and longer, until it finally broke up when the song ended.
All in all, it was such a great celebration. Fireworks and people and fun, what more can you ask for?
- Fed slashed interest rates to 0%, record low
- Bank of Japan cuts short-term interest rates to 0.1%
- European Central Bank cuts interest rates
- People’s Bank of China cut interest rates by 1.08% points (26 Nov)
