Hello from Boise, Idaho. I have now been back in Boise for almost two weeks. It has gone really fast. When I first arrived, it was quite strange to be driving down the streets of this thriving Idaho metropolis occupied by few cars and almost nobody walking on the sidewalk. Coming from Shanghai it was quite a change.
After arriving on a Tuesday around 2pm, I came to my parents house and unpacked my three stuffed pieces of luggage into my temporary basement bedroom. Later that evening, my family met for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in town, the 8th Street Wine Company. Over dinner, we enjoyed each other’s company, wonderful food, wine and I also was able to give my sister some of the jewelry selections I had made for her at the inexpensive jewelry markets in Shanghai.
To be honest, Wednesday through Friday of that first week back were pretty much a blur. I had planned to leave early on Wednesday and take some “jet lag hours” but I ended up working until after 6 pm. It makes so much more sense to do my job from Boise and I have really enjoyed meeting with my new team in person and talking through issues at “normal” hours of the day rather than between 11 PM and 6 AM. I am really enjoying my new job but it has been a series of absolute gulps from the fire hose.
I am now leading a team of eight very talented engineers, a program to deliver very cool software for our products and trying to quickly learn what it means to be a project manager including preparing my first budget, desk review, and more. And in typical HP fashion, I already have a new manager from when I was hired in March. In short, I am sprinting to keep up, but loving it at the same time.
Besides catching up with all of my family and friends, the things I was most looking forward to coming back to Boise for were the fresh air, outdoors and exercise. I have already spent ample time in the foothills chasing my running friends up Kestrel, Hulls Gulch and Buck’s Trail and through “the Orchards.” I started doing 800s in order to try and improve my speed so I can hang with them and also just get back into better shape. Saturday I had both my mountain and road bikes tuned up and then took my road bike out for a 40-mile bike ride with Ray (father in-law) and Anna (sister) yesterday. It was SO wonderful to be out on the open roads again, I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed it. I hope to get the mountain bike out soon as well.
My mom joined me at George’s (bike shop) when I picked up my bike and purchased a commuter-type bike that she is excited to ride. Bikes seem to be more popular than ever right now. I can definitely see that while many in the US are still inactive and overweight, the trend I feel in the air is that people are interested in getting in shape and even looking for alternative means of transportation with gas prices so high.
Last weekend, I joined Anna and Derik and some friends Denise and Nate up to Sun Valley for the annual Rotary District Conference. We did not participate in many of the events as they are really tailored for a more “silver” audience, but we enjoyed watching the Group Study Exchange team from Sri Lanka present their country to us as well as talking to many other Rotarians. Needless to say, Sri Lanka is now on our list of places to visit as it seems like an incredible place.
The weather in Sun Valley was beautiful and made for a wonderful afternoon exploring the town, drinking wine at the Sun Valley Wine Company and more. On our way back through Stanley, we stopped at a fellow Rotarians cabin that has the most spectacular view of the Sawtooth Mountains. At that time we said good bye to our new, very impressive, Sri Lankan friends and then headed down the highway while gawking at the overflowing river alongside the road.
Sunday evening I felt incredibly behind at work and tried to work a bit to get caught up. By Monday evening, it had turned to a panic that combined with the lack of sleep and stress of so much change all at once culminated in a much needed cry. Amazingly I awoke Tuesday feeling a hundred times better and ready to take on the world again. The highlight of the remainder of my work week was a birthday dinner for my friend Lindsay along with her husband and some mutual friends Becca and Ryan Campbell at the new chic Boise restaurant, Chandlers.
We also had a very informative presentation at our “Ladies of Research and Profit” investment club on Tuesday. Friday evening I treated myself to a two-hour massage that cost about ten times of what it would have cost in China. I have to say that it was much better than any I had had in China though. Saturday I went for a run with Becca and then worked a bit and finally picked up my bikes at Georges and helped my mom buy a bike.
Saturday evening we met Ray and Eileen (Andy’s parents) for dinner at Tony’s Pizza near the Egyptian Theatre and then my mom and I went to an interesting movie at the Flicks chronicling one boy’s life in Sao Paolo, Brazil in 1970 at a time of political unrest. Sunday (yesterday) I went on the previously mentioned bike ride and then stormed to George’s pissed that my chain started slipping 30 miles into the ride after I had just paid $75+ on a full tune up. The George’s on State Street (different shop than where I had the tune up) quickly figured out the problem and fixed it. The China-molded assertive Alecia is much better at dealing with these sorts of issues. 
While I waited for them to fix the bike, I enjoyed a cappuccino and California Scramble (scrambled eggs with avocado and cheese and a side of fruit) at Big City Coffee next door and basked in the sun.
Last night, my mom and I (Dad is in San Antonio for a conference) rode up to Denise and Nate’s home in the wilderness for a nice dinner party. We tried a new wine that is both cheap and refreshing and also made shish kebobs with every kind of meat from elk to chicken to pork. My mom and I brought this fabulous Ghirardelli chocolate cake made by the Co-op which we had tried when Allison brought it to our investment club meeting earlier in the week. It was a hit as was another Dutch oven cherry chocolate cake that another guest brought. It was a decadent evening which made me glad I had burnt 1000 extra calories riding that morning.
Today is Memorial Day. The day started by sleeping in (yea! finally!) and then learning that JR Simplot, the most famous Idaho business man had died yesterday. My mom and I walked down to Starbucks for coffee and then pretty much just hung out around the house and enjoyed the beautiful day. My mom enjoyed it outside planting flowers and doing things around the house. I worked for much of it but am feeling good about getting caught up. I also had the delight of talking with my best friend Sage and making plans to get together soon. Last week, my mom, dad, aunt Mary and I went down to the Japanese sushi restaurant Fujiyama for dinner. As we were sitting there trying to decide what to order, I overhead a group of waitresses talking and quickly recognized they were speaking in Mandarin. When the waitress came back to my table, I spoke to her in Mandarin and she was surprised. We ended up talking for probably 20 minutes and in that time, it was easy to come to the conclusion that I knew a lot more about China than she did.
A little background on her, she was born in southern China but has been in the US for the majority of her life. Her assumptions and impressions of China are based off of TV and what friends have told her. It was so strange to hear her (in my opinion) biased and inaccurate impressions of her native country while I stood there and defended China to her.
The earthquake in China is simply devastating. Words cannot describe what a horrible tragedy it is. I am so thankful that the government has opened its arms and mind to aid. We may quite possibly look back to this time in China when a fundamental shift occurred in the country. It is unfortunate that Myanmar (Burma) has not been open to aid in the same way while their inhabitants continue to suffer from the devastation from the cyclone in that area.
I am really missing Andy and wish he was here with me! Life just isn’t the same AND definitely not as fun without having him here with me. It is easy to take for granted the companionship and support you provide one another when you are together all of the time, but it becomes quickly apparent when you are apart. He now knows which job he will have when he comes back to Boise but his start date is still to be negotiated. We are hoping for July or at the latest August. He is really excited about his new job and I think it will provide a great, new challenge for him. It definitely hasn’t hit me that I now live in Boise. It is great to be here but I am sure I will be missing many things about Shanghai soon (most notably my husband.)
I have taken a short break from studying Mandarin but plan to pick it up again June 1st along with dusting off the Spanish books. Surprisingly, half of my work team speaks Spanish fluently so I have people to practice with.
A couple of observations before I close. I am generalizing but I think it might be accurate. People in Boise (and the US) get a lot done on any given day. They do not have to deal with long commutes and life is more simple while at the same time free time is very valued. It is interesting to me that people spend SO much time improving their homes. This is not something that I saw a lot in China but things are set up so much differently.
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