Der Ansturm/Stampede!

Made in China

"Made in China" ist zum Schimpfwort geworden. Als ich letztes Jahr einen Tagesausflug nach Budapest gemacht habe, hat eine Frau in einem Touri-laden mehrmals stolz angekuendigt, "Die Waren sind nicht in China hergestellt." Ja, zugegeben, die Chinesen fertigen nicht immer die Hochwertigsten Sachen an, aber dafuer sie sind billig. ;-) LOL Ich wuerde allerdings keine chinesische Milchprodukte kaufen wollen.

Habt ihr von der Tragoedie am Black Friday gehoert? Ein Walmart Mitarbeiter wurde vzu Tode getrampelt, denn die Kunden wollten ihre Schnaeppchen jagen. Wie traurig!
=================================
"Made in China" has become a bad word. Last year when I was in Budapest, Hungary for a day trip, one of the shopkeepers in a tourist shop proudly proclaimed multiple times, "These goods were not made in China. All hand made here in Hungary."
Yes, I admit that Chinese factories don't always produce the most high quality products, but they're cheap. ;-) However, I wouldn't trust their milk products though or their food really.

Shoppers on Black Friday can be animals. Have you heard about the poor Walmart employee who got trampled to death by customers hunting for bargains? Sad state of humanity

The munchies

Jam packed

Imagine you had the munchies one Friday afternoon and wanted something indulgent, something unhealthy, something bad for you and artery clogging. So you get up from your little cubby hole of a cubicle and head towards the vending machines. Staring through the thick plated glass at the colorful snacks in there, you ask yourself what you're craving. Do you want something savory or something sweet? You decide for something sweet, which leaves you with M&Ms with or without peanuts, Skittles, Snickers, Three Musketeers, Wrigley's gum, Lifesavers, granola bars, or something else. If you were me, you would have chosen the M&Ms with peanuts, although I was considering a Snickers for a long time.

So you try to insert a 5 dollar bill 10 times because you're pretty dense this afternoon until you see the little sign on the vending machine that says, accepts $1 bills. Okay, you have no dollar bills so you drop in a couple of your precious quarters and dimes into the machine. Clink, clink, clink go the coins as they drop into the darkness of the vending machine. 1 5 3 you punch into the key pad because that's the code for the M&M's with peanuts. With bated breath you wait for the coil to turn and drop your bag of goodies onto the floor of the machine. However, the bag never drops! It is snagged on the end of the coil to your horror!

Thankfully you're experienced in this because it's happened before. You let your cube neighbor to the left know that the vending machine is misbehaving and he goes to straighten it out. Specifically, he rocks the vending machine till it drops your craved little colorful hardshelled candies.

Thank goodness for helpful male coworkers. ;-) I owe him a lunch at Bistro Burger!

Today after work I had an hour to go around town to snap some pics because my sister had to work overtime, which meant I had to wait around too. Because it would've seemed weird to be staying so late in the office when it was a slow work day and a Friday, I was walking around and found myself on Grant Avenue in Chinatown. The picture above is of a souvenir store crammed with anything a tourist's heart could desire.

Boston - Pounding the Pavement

Massachusetts State House

This gold domed building is the Massachusetts State House, one of the attractions on the Freedom Trail.

I shall digress a bit as my brain is tired and does not want to think logically anymore, let alone think. The weather in Boston was quite warm and balmy while we were there. It's not really the ideal conditions to undertake a walk across a city. Luckily Boston is relatively compact and walkable, so it wasn't too strenuous. The thing that bothered me the most was having to walk towards the sun. As I don't own a pair of sunglasses, it was torture on the eyes.

To be continued ...

Fried eyeballs

Provence

My eyeballs were pretty fried after spending hours upon hours researching the worthiness of hotels in different cities in the Provence region. I have a pretty standard routine to do due diligence on these places before I will select them.

1. Check out the hotel recommendations from Rick Steves' guide books, which are packed with practical information and many spot on hotel recommendations.
2. Read reviews on Tripadvisor.com, an independent website where hotels are reviewed by everyday normal people like you & me. Thanks to all the great people who take the time to review hotels, I know which ones to avoid and also what to be aware of. I would like to contribute my reviews and pictures after my trip. That would be my way of helping make the world a better place. ;-)
3. Finally, visit the hotel's website to see how it presents itself.

This process can be very time consuming, especially if you want to be thorough. I know some folks can be very spontaneous and just book any hotel they happen to come across in their travels, but I prefer to be well prepared.