Last week we had a meeting with the boss and the VP. It was supposed to be an update on how the team is doing and how we're coping with life here in Beijing.

Then the word "expansion" was dropped - a lot of job openings for the company's HK and GZ offfice. At first we were pretty excited because they were looking for Filipino agents to fill the posts. No, we here at Beijing can't apply.

And then the VP mentioned something about the Vertu team (our team) might expand. That didn't sound well because expanding would mean that there is a chance that the support will be transferred to the Philippines *shock.

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So now I have this burden of sharing this scary news to the team. We all love it here and the thought of moving back to PI and our salaries dramatically slimming down because of the friggin' monster of a TAX is awfully considered a nightmare for us all. After a couple of sleepless nights, I decided on talking to each of my people to tell them this possibility, get their views and tell them my plan.

My plan is for the team to excel in their work. In doing so, I'll have the confidence to ask a big favor from my boss - not to bring us back to the PI. I know it's "asking for much" but I plan to either promote or move my agents to other departments and/or regional offices (HK, Guangzhou); and then help my boss in filling out the empty posts and eventually train new people that will replace my team. It's worth a shot, right? *crosses finger

I've also done some planning for myself and included some worst case scenarios. I can't believe I'm actually doing this much thinking and planning about my future. I guess the thought of moving back home after all these spooks me to death.

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I'm stoked! Cujo will soon be joining me here. He's just waiting to get his English Teaching certification so he can finally book a flight to Beijing.

Can't wait! I know getting him here is only half of the plan but I'm still excited coz I''m finally gonna see him again! Yey!

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We're currently crazy about Tudou.com.

Since there's enough idle time at work, we've been browsing the net for sites that can let us watch movies and series we missed watching. We've transcended from YouTube and Peekvid because it's still slow for us. We've discovered crunchyroll that houses Asian series (Full House, Marmalade Boy, Meteor Garden) and animes (One Piece, Naruto, Initial D). It loads faster compared to Peekvid.

Recently one of us discovered this wonderful link. The site's in Chinese but don't worry because all you have to do is type in whatever series or movies you have in mind in the search field and voila! Movies like Devil Wears Prada, Age of Innocence and Stargate the movie are all there. There's also loads of series uploaded there: Stargate 1 and Stargate Atlantis, Prisonbreak...well, you get the drift. AND it's helluva lot faster to load compared to all the sites I mentioned earlier. If you can't find something you've typed in English, try translating it to simplified Chinese then copy the translated word onto the search field. NEAT!!!

Sorry, we soooo love this link that I had to share it. We already have our own lists of movies and series lined up. I'm such a geek!