I kept meaning to post some of these. So, well, here you go:
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China: En Route
Somehow I figured I would last a bit longer before fully cracking. Not so. It's about midnight, Boise time, though I can not tell you the exact “World Time” since we're somewhere off the coast of Japan and the International Date Line gets pretty screwy. I do know that we're scheduled to touch down in Hong Kong around 6:30PM Sunday evening; that should be about four hours from now, though who knows.
The trip has gone pretty well so far. We are just beginning. I woke up crazy early this morning to finish packing and to sneak out for a snappy little mountain bike ride. It was a phenomenal way to start the day! I had forgotten just how beautiful the Boise foothills are on early summer mornings. That faint whiff of dew and sage, ~60-degrees F, and the crisp pinched-yellow morning light. I took a quick lap around the Corrals loop, really going for it ascending and descending. Anyway, got back from the ride, gathered up my belongings, and rode with Holly to the airport. Since then has been pretty standard; standardized boredom: board plane, taxi, sit on runway, head back to gate to adjust cargo weight and distribution (wha?), fly, fly fly. The leg from Boise to San Francisco was delayed an hour plus we had to go into a “holding pattern” for another twenty minutes above SFO before landing. Good news is that the layover was shorter than it could have been.
And yes, I'm aboard a wicked-huge aero-plane now, flying non-stop to Hong Kong. Seven thousand five hundred miles in one big 14-hour chunk. I actually thought we were scheduled to arrive Monday morning and subsequently head straight to meetings. Thank goodness I was mistaken and we will have a full night's rest in the hotel to prepare for Monday's chicanery. All I have to do is survive the next four hours. I am praying for a more entertaining movie this next round. So far we've watched The Golden Compass (might have been cool but the sound was screwed up), 27-dresses (yank), The Water Horse (AKA Free Willy Redux), and finally Jumper. I thought I had more movies on this work laptop but I'm down to a couple favorites. I guess I'll have to watch Idiocracy again... not too shabby.
Fun fact about Calvin's first trip to China: I'm wearing compression socks and leggings. Yessir, you know those god-awful flesh-toned knee-high socks that big ol' ladies wear to fend off varicose veins or diabetic distress? Yeah, I got a pair. Pooling blood in the feet and legs equals trouble for athletes. Another fun fact or two: I've eaten three apples in the last two hours, mostly due to boredom! Exit row seating is not all it's cracked up to be (passengers are stretching and loitering two feet from my face this very instant). Liquor drinks are free on this flight (not sure if that's a standard United Airlines international thing or what) though I'm flying sober tonight.
Lots to share over the next week and I plan on writing a ton.
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China #2
Yeah! Brief little breather between meetings, good time to update. I'm currently sitting in “Meeting Room Number2” in one of the hundreds of buildings at FoxConn's Gongguan campus, killing some time until we head out to gorge ourselves over another seven course meal. This campus is the very same that manufactures the iPod, iPhone, and iWhateverElse though there's no way in hell any of us will see that production floor. FoxConn is a gargantuan manufacturer for a reason: they are very serious indeed about product confidentiality; no exceptions.
I am having a very good time. Overall I feel that my visit to Thailand in September inadvertently prepared me for Asian exposure; that's a good thing and a bad thing. Nothing seems shocking or out of the ordinary here as compared to Thailand. Tons of people all over the streets, constant construction on all roads buildings and storefronts, zany drivers (no traffic rules), and some goofy foods for breakfast lunch and dinner. So yes, it's good that I feel plenty comfortable and settled in, but bad that I'm not experiencing that “oh my gosh everything is so crazy” newness.
I have not gotten to see much since we arrived. We flew in around six thirty on Sunday night, had to go through customs three times (leave airport, leave Hong Kong, enter China), then drive another 40 minutes to our hotel. By the time we got to the Goodview Hotel it was 9:30PM and I hadn't slept for 30 hours! I could seriously rant about the customs program in Hong Kong, but I'll save that for another day. The point is, by that hour on Sunday evening I was not in the mood to wander around the hotel to suck in some culture. I just laid in bed, watched Chinese MTV for a few minutes (priceless), ate a granola bar and some fruit, and konked out.
I think I slept maybe 5 hours that first night. Jetlag is a brutal phenomena. At 2:30 AM I actually got up, brushed my teeth, and popped my contacts back in before waking up enough to realize I was out of my freaking mind and needed to continue sleeping for a few hours. Same thing nearly happened two hours later. At 5 AM I finally just got up and surfed the net until the gym opened. I was worried that I'd have no means by which to exercise, as I've been on business trips before that resulted in all food and no caloric expenditure, but this weight room is just fine. Each morning I've had the StarTrac lifecycle all to myself. Two things would improve it, however, namely 1) if I'd remembered to bring my iPod and 2) just a teeny bit (anything give me a morsel) of airflow. Oh yeah and maybe if I could read Mandarin and run the control for the TV.
The Goodview Breakfast buffet is pretty gourmet, reminding me much of a hotel Lauren and I experienced in Krabi. I really dig having Dim Sum for breakfast along with a bowl of rice krispies and some lychees. OK, I don't necessarily love those things every morning; I'm saying that I love the variety. Pancakes, egg roles, pickled eggs, green salad, fruit compote, fried noodles, twinkies, bacon. All for breakfast? Yes please.
Later: FC took us all out to dinner tonight. Crazy thing I ate was a chicken foot. Not too bad, but not worth the act. Lots of effort to pull the meat off the bone, not really worth the trauma encountered when putting a cadaver-esque wiggling appendage in your mouth. Spitting phalanges out is a little weird. Else dinner was awesome and of course excessive. Here was the flow: sit down, drink beer, eat peanuts and pickled green mango, Jasmine tea, beef dish Sezhuan style, bok-choy soup, marinated muscles, sweet and sour cod, glazed duck, ginger chicken, marinated tofu....
....eggy soup, garlic rice noodles with scallops, curried seafood with potatoes, buttered broccoli... sheesh.
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China #3
Thursday now, still hanging out at FoxConn. Big breakthrough at the gym last night when I finally deciphered the remote control, not only managing to turn it on but also locating the Discovery Channel amongst the 80+ Chinese channels. Yeah! An hour on the elliptical trainer goes WAY faster when you're not just staring at a paneled wall in front of you. Unfortunately the Disco channel was broadcasting this tribal documentary that really bummed me out.
Great progress on our project, too. All of the gears and gear boxes arrived last night; Kim-yung made some poor peon stay here all night assembling the pieces so we could evaluate today. I asked who it was that stayed, wanting to offer my appreciation and pity, but they actually let him take the morning off to recover. They are not as monstrous as I'd heard many Chinese manufacturers can be. It's quite the trip to see the difference between their first-generation prototypes and our own; funny the difference it makes when you have 5x the number of product development employees and 10x the amount of resources. I'd share more details but don't want to let much out of the bag. Not yet at least.
Speaking of secrecy, it is killing me to be SO close to Apple's iPhone production line but not have the opportunity to check it out. In fact, I doubt I'll get to see a single manufacturing assembly operation while I'm here. Wha? Not the purpose of our trip, but I can't believe I am here and won't see anything. We did have the chance to tour FC's testing facilities yesterday which was entertaining/educating, but I'd heard so much about these rooms with 10,000 19-year-old kids standing shoulder to shoulder assembling parts almost too small to see.
I've just learned that our dinner tonight will take place in a bustling city some 20 miles from here. I can't remember the name but I'll let you know later; point is that we'll hopefully be eating light then hitting the streets to do some light shopping. Yeah, finally!
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