Wednesday, May 16, 2001

American Chamber of Commerce Internship Journal Entry
What I did not tell you yesterday was that I have my own line and extension in the office. Is that not cool. Today went smoother mainly because they gave me more to do and it kept me busy until 5:30 PM.
I went to work and Ioanna Martin (Director of Membership) game me a whole pile of business cards. The story is that there is this guy who is a member of the c/c and his name is Joel Laykin. Apparently he is a P/R guy here in Hong Kong and comes across a lot of people here in town. Well he gets their business cards and makes copies of all of them and sends them to the c/c. He is therefore the biggest producer of new members for the c/c. So the member newsletter is therefore named the Laykin Letter. Not only that, but the c/c has a stamp with his name on it in order to stamp his name under the referred by: place on the enrollment brochures. That is pretty interesting.
Ioanna told me that I would probably meet the guy while I am here. So I spend most of the day sending emails and letters to almost every president, ceo, director, and manager here in Hong Kong. It is amazing. I was emailing heads of companies like Oracle, CompuServe, Compaq, Times, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and all kinds of financial and consulting firms. It really made me think for a bit exactly what I was doing and whom I was corresponding with. Wow.
Then President Frank Martin approached me and told me that he needed the official number for the total exports of merchandise from the U.S. for 1999 and 2000. So I did and I also got him the services exports and the totals for both of them. I gave them to him and he used them in a position paper that he was writing and sending on to Washington D.C. I felt somewhat important. He gave me a copy of the position paper.
Furthermore, he has been staying in contact with the Operation Door Tap that is in D.C. right now. The Chairman of the Board for the c/c (Paula DeLisle) is there and I heard some interviews that had been taped in D.C. that she had given. This really intrigued me. In the down times I worked on my paper about the changes in Hong Kong since the hand over. The sources that are available at the chamber are unbelievable. They are great. When I was leaving today I took a look out the windows (we are on the 19th floor) and about 100 yards away is the Bank of China building and also the Lippo Centre. It was an amazing sight. The view from the office is unbelievable.
Standing on the MTR (Mass Transit Railway) sometimes is like being in a dream because you just cannot believe it. Here I am, an American, in an atmosphere nothing like you are used to. Nobody looks like you or talks like you or acts like you and sometimes I really feel out of place. It was something I was really giving some thought to today. I am still experiencing jet lag. I am having a hard time staying up late at night and so I am getting up way too early in the morning. That is about all that is going on.