Last week we had our leadership meeting for the Asians@ ERG I help lead at Airbnb. There were just a few of us who could attend, but coincidentally Cheng and Eeway, the co-leads for the Seattle chapter of Asians@ were in attendance. Also, Michelle, our lead for the LA chapter, joined as well. She shared that she would be in the Seattle office for the new Eat & Meet events the internal events teams were organizing as an effort to create optional lunch social events at the offices that were open. She was one of the organizers. Besides Eeway, I had not met any of them in person before. Then I shared I had signed up to attend the Seattle lunch. Although I was associated with the Seattle office, I had not seen the office before. Michelle was like I’m there for two days and so let’s all meet up for dinner.
Cheng volunteered to arrange dinner plans. I had initially booked reservations at Paju for Tuesday night but I said I could easily shift it to Wednesday night. Jessica was also coming up with me from Portland. I also included my sister, Amy. Cheng made reservations for the 6 of us at Haidilao, a Chinese hot pot restaurant across from the office. I was super excited because it was a place I loved going to when I lived in Shanghai. I have never been to any of their locations in the US. Haidilao is known for their over the top, above and beyond customer service. It was such a huge hit that it was a Harvard Business Review case study a decade ago. I highly anticipated this mini Asians@ reunion and Seattle hot pot gathering.
I arrived in Seattle Monday night. Jessica kept me alert by chatting with me for the entire 3 hour drive from Portland. Amy made delicious seed bread for us for breakfast. Tuesday morning Jessica and I both had to wake up super early for morning meetings. Tosh provided tips ahead of time on where to park downtown Seattle. It had been years since I’ve been to downtown Seattle. The drive was around 20 minutes from Columbia City. I easily found the parking lot. It felt surreal visiting the Seattle office for the very first time. I had missed the cheerful greeting from the front desk folks. He helped set me up with a temporary badge because I had no idea where my badge was after 2.5 years. Jessica, Tosh, and I booked working tables, but later learned that the office was still mostly empty. I met Cheng in real life and he took us on an informal impromptu office tour. There was a beautiful central installation that replicated the Cascades. The office consisted of two floors adorned with inflatable orcas that was a central cultural piece of the Seattle office. Later Michelle spotted me and came over to give me a hug. Although I was super glad that our office put in place a permanent remote policy, It was such a joy to see folks I’ve only seen in zoom boxes in real life.
Cheng was hosting our quarterly Asians@ global membership meeting and I know he and Mia organized a fun surprise event. I was able to convince Tosh and Jessica to join as well. Michelle and I ran into each other and then proceeded to surprise Cheng and popped into the conference room Cheng occupied. Joe and Z got to share behind the scenes of the production of the internal video essay we made for the May heritage month and Z shared how she sourced and created all the creative assets. Then the secret event Mia led was an impromptu talent show. 10/30 folks immediately logged off. But we commended the remaining 20 who stayed on to come up with a talent within a small group in 10 minutes and showcase it to the group. It was nice to be silly and be outside of our comfort zone for 20 or so minutes. Cheng, Michelle, and I were the only group in person so we did a chaotic 2 minute tour of the 2nd floor of the office to share with the audience. It was cathartic to laugh and be awkward together.
At 5:00 PM, we met up in the dining area and walked together to Haidilou. One more person, Bella joined as well. My sister, Amy was already at the restaurant waiting for us. The staff had already brought her snacks and fruits as she waited. The restaurant was on the 2nd floor of a nice high-end mall but was also relatively quiet. Haidilou was bright and inviting and the design looked pretty nice. We sat in a large C-shaped booth and two spots to hold 2 hot pots. I saw robots with shelves of dishes delivering to different tables. The wait staff provided us with hair ties and an apron. She guided us to the sauce bar and told us to check out the snacks. We ordered through an I-pad. We ordered different fancy cuts of beef, the noodles (that come with a dance), various veggie platters, housemade seafood meatball pastes, mushrooms, lotus roots, pork, chicken,etc. On my end of the table, we went with a spicy mala (numbing spice) and pork bone broth soup. I know I can’t handle mala spice very well so I had to mostly eat from the pork bone broth side. Jessica and Amy focused on the mala whereas Eeway and I ate from the non-spicy broth. The other side of the table did a mushroom and mala broth. I saw piles of platters stack up and we were all eager to start putting in meats and veggies into the boiling broth. When the noodles came, the employee danced with impressive moves while pulling the noodles. It looked impressive and exhaustive and he was a bit of a tease when he tossed the noodles towards your face. It was quite the fun spectacle. He did have to do it twice since we ordered 2 plates of it. We spent hours eating and chatting even the music was a throwback to Chinese pop karaoke songs I sang back in the 2010s. Even though we all know there is still a risk, I was still very grateful to meet folks I chat with on slack on a regular basis, meet new friends, and get to hang out with my sister before she moves to Kauai for a year. I appreciate these rare moments.
Travelogue 