ABCDEFG

Never get suckered into the ABCDEFG situation.

Let me explain what I mean by that. I have made this mistake in the past, say I want to plan an event and invite a group of people -- ABCDEFG -- to join. All of a sudden this turned into a GRE analytical problem: A will not go if D will be there, and E will not go if G will be there, but if I invite C, I will have to invite D???

The best solution, in my opinion, is: don't try to sort it out. Invite them all, and let them figure out who doesn't want to join. Never get suckered into the situation when you are the one deciding who to or not to invite.

Perspective

So I just came back from my first European trip. Before the trip I was going to write a blog entry about why I think European trips are overrated, but the husband asked me to not write it till after we came back. So here goes:

1) You can see the exact same thing in the comfort of your own home, on discovery HD channel
2) Much cheaper
3) No traveling anguish/hassle/issues
4) No random beheading in supermarkets

British woman beheaded in Spain resort supermarket

 5) No e. coli scare

After I returned, my feeling towards European travel did not change -- if I have never step foot on that continent my entire life, I am okay with that. 

That said, there was, however, an unintended result from that trip -- I realized that my perspective in life has changed since I returned. I guess traveling aboard really do open your eyes. All of a sudden, albeit not consciously so, it opened your eyes to a whole new world. It let you know that there is a world outside of your everyday life, even though I am always aware of the existence of Europe. Being there just made a real. All of a sudden, all the stupid daily squabble no longer matters. I no longer find myself obsessing about whether a coworker likes me... or if she doesn't, why doesn't she, because in the end, so long as we can maintain an amicable and professional relationship and shit gets done, does it really matter? I certainly was not put on this earth to please every person around me.

In short, the trip did not enrich me in what people always say about sight-seeing, learning the local culture (really? from all the touristy spots?), experiencing the other languages, etc., the experience has, nonetheless, had a profound impact on me.