Andrew Kao

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Light it Up!

7/24
I, along with a handful of association presidents in the Harrah Hotel College, met with the school’s Director of Career Services to plan out the calendar for the following semester. We have several info events planned throughout the semester and a new internal communication system where the presidents can share and access information of other associations. I’m still not sure on how effective and how much real impact the internal communication system will have for the associations…but I think that there can only be positive outcomes from better internal communications.

Bank of America customer service sucks. I’m applying for residency in Nevada and need bank documentation for activity in Nevada. I called two weeks ago for the papers to be faxed, but nothing came through. I called again the day prior for it to be faxed directly to a local branch. The CS representative said that he wrote the letter while he was on the phone and would fax it first thing in the morning. I checked with the Maryland Pkwy branch at 3:20PM and I left at 4PM empty handed. It took them that long to realize that my previous two requests disappeared. So to fix everything, they wanted $10 for the fax to arrive the next day. I called Friday 4PM and they unsurprisingly did not have it. I’ll check again on Monday

7/25
We trimed our bushes for the first time since we moved in January. There was a huge pile a brush on our curb and we didn’t know when, if at all, it would be picked up. So one of my roommates announced a Friday night bond fire! Enjoy the pictures:

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FAPA YPG National Conference 2008

I attended the Formosan Association for Public Affairs Young Professional Group (FAPA YPG) National Conference 2008 (whew that’s a mouthful) in Washington D.C. from July 18 to the 21st.  The FAPA YPG is the age 18-40 group, the “younger”, of the larger FAPA advocacy group.  We strive to better Taiwan as a country and unassociate those who identify themselves as Taiwanese from the negative image of human-rights-abusing China.

Day 1

Anywhos, I flew red eye Friday morning and got to Washington D.C. around 11am.  I tried calling the Embassy Suites for information on their shuttle service… but I couldn’t understand the PBX operators’ Indian accent :(  I finally found my way to the hotel at around noon.  I spent the entire night flying so I went straight to bed and didn’t wake up until 5ish….just in time for out first meet up at 6pm.

Our itinary showed 6pm dinner, or my breakfast+lunch+dinner since I havn’t eaten all day. Iris Ho, our fearless leader, brought us to the “manager’s reception” but it was really chips and juice :(  We then walked to a Thai restaurant Crystal City Shops for dinner.   Our dinner group was around 25 ~ which is typically hell when it comes time for the check.  However, one of the girls took charge and asked for individual payments.

Dinner ended at around 7:30 and we still wanted to do something.  We wanted to KTV but we only had one car.. so we hit 711 for snacks and watched movies in our suite.

Day 2

We spent the morning learning about the political history of Taiwan, the current political status of Taiwan, and watched the exclusive movie preview of “Formosa Betrayed.”  We went back to Crystal City for dinner at a horrible Japanese restaurant.  I hate to admit it… but at this point Washington D.C. didn’t meet my expectations as the Capital of the most powerful country in the world.  It felt very suburban and less developed than parts of Las Vegas.  We took the subway to Georgetown and went barhopping.  Georgetown was a small section so we quickly ran out of bars and ended up at a Barnes & Noble =p   We took a cab back and enjoyed cheap wine and Cheetos.

Day 3

We started the morning with the foreign policy advisor of Barack Obama and later met the foreign policy adviser for John McCain.  We then polished the talking points for our congressional visits on Monday.  I got more tables and chairs from another suite and converted our living room into meeting room.  Our night ended at 4am with spilled wine and smirnoff.. and I’ll leave it at that.

Day 4

Day four started after two hours of sleep. We took a bus to the FAPA headquarters and then to the congressional halls for breakfast.  Our team met with the aids of Congressman LoBiondo, Pascrell and Andrews and Senator Mendenez.  I think we did a pretty good job at proving that China is evil and that the US shouldn’t bow down to their demands.

I ended my D.C. trip with a visit to the Library of Congress and the National Air and Space museum.  I think the trip was definately worthwhile. I got to meet a lot of likeminded people, people who care about preserving democracy and peace and working together to fight disease and human rights and self-determination.  It was a group of people who cared enough to stand up and voice their princples and put actions to their words.  It was a group that was changing the world.