Ran outside yesterday. I asked Mike if he had any interest in joining me at the Health Centre, and he instead suggested we head outside for a run… sweet. I’ve never dreamed of running outside in China. Not only am I afraid of getting lost (how in the heck do you landmark in a Chinese city?) but also getting glared at and potentially mugged. Mike has run a few times in China and said it wasn’t a big deal.
We had to cut through a few city blocks and traffic circles before finding our way to the river. The traffic circles were an interesting challenge. Think of that good ol’ video game Frogger, complete with semi-trucks, bicyclists, tuk-tuks, awesome tractors, and other frightened pedestrians (side note, speaking of vehicles, I’m really keeping my eyes peeled for these.
Anyway, we managed to work our way through the city, definitely drawing a few stares in the process but simply nodding in return, shouting “ZAO!” which means g’morning, and trotting past. Everything changed once we hit the river. We saw other people out there in the name of exercise. There were several groups of people practicing Tai Chi, mostly older folks… when a group of fifteen 70-year-olds is moving in fluidic, uniform grace (exercising, not sleeping in unison at a movie theater) it warrants a moment of observance.
We worked our way down a few miles, crossed a rickety wooden bridge, and found ourselves on an embankment straddling slums and rice paddies. For obvious reasons we flipped around to head back, but it’s worth noting that the Chinese we saw in this area, the ones curled up on salvaged cardboard living in houses made of scrap tin, wire, and foliage, were the most friendly encountered that day. All toothless grins and emphatic “GOO MORNY!”
On the way back Mike led us through a morning market three blocks from the hotel. This was not like the night markets in Hong Kong, all Coach purses and North Farse backpacks and iClone electronics; this market was the real deal. We stuck out like fur coats at a PETA rally: white, tall, decked-out in techie running clothes saturated with sweat, though comparatively much cleaner than the market denizens. It didn’t matter, and I really have to thank Mike for teaching me this lesson. We were there to experience the culture and be damned if we drew some funny glances.
The market seemed divided into three major areas: seafood, plants, animals; each section offering living or dead & butchered versions their product. What an eye opener, this was more raw (no pun intended) than anything I’ve seen in Asia, including our trip to Thailand. We didn’t have much time to browse, unfortunately, so we picked a straight tangent through and returned to the hotel. No time to go back, either, since we packed our bags and checked out that morning and have since relocated back to Shunde.
The schedule sucks. We’ve been working about twelve hours a day still, and most of those twelve hours are pretty boring. The positive is I am getting to blog again, something I friggin’ love but rarely prioritize these days. Anyway, good time to cut this off. Out.
8.22.2009
8.21.2009
China2
China has chosen to block roughly 90% of the sites I really give a crap about, namely Blogger, Facebook, and YouTube. Any sort of proxy-dodging trickery only gets me as far as the login page. If I were an IT genius I could work around this, but for now I’ve hit a wall and am forced to save these words into WORD before sharing them with all my avid fans (heh heh).
Although this is my third trip to China, and it’s arguably similar in 99 out of every 100 details, I realize I left a few items off my “To-Bring” list. As a note to my future self, be sure to pack these next time you spend a half-month in Asia:
1) 300-grams Raw Psyllium Husk: Fibrous foods in China are harder to find than Christians at a James Dio concert. Having copious amounts of dried-down roughage would be beneficial.
2) Gum/Breath Mints: Killer spicy garlic eggplant causes killer spicy garlic eggplant breath.
3) Time-Keeping Device: Also known as a “watch”, these are critical when you normally use your cell phone for time keeping. These also prevent escalating tension between you and your travel mates.
4) Cell phone charger: If item3 is brought, this can be left at home.
5) Toilet paper: Tissues just don’t cut it, literally.
6) Napkins: See item 2. I don’t understand how to eat barbecued ribs of lamb with only tissues for cleanup.
7) Toenail clippers: Without properly groomed toenails, the massage girls are forced to bring in “man muscle”. You don’t want “man-muscle”.
8) Vocabulary: I need a working knowledge of the following words in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Taiwanese:
No thanks, I’m full.
What kind of animal is this?
This is my natural hair color.
No, just a foot massage, thank you.
Real gym towel, please. Tissues don’t work.
Traffic-jam (related to item1, above)
This reminds me of Mad Max… Can I drive?
What percent/proof is this?
Free Tibet! (or…Tell me about Tiananmen!)
Although this is my third trip to China, and it’s arguably similar in 99 out of every 100 details, I realize I left a few items off my “To-Bring” list. As a note to my future self, be sure to pack these next time you spend a half-month in Asia:
1) 300-grams Raw Psyllium Husk: Fibrous foods in China are harder to find than Christians at a James Dio concert. Having copious amounts of dried-down roughage would be beneficial.
2) Gum/Breath Mints: Killer spicy garlic eggplant causes killer spicy garlic eggplant breath.
3) Time-Keeping Device: Also known as a “watch”, these are critical when you normally use your cell phone for time keeping. These also prevent escalating tension between you and your travel mates.
4) Cell phone charger: If item3 is brought, this can be left at home.
5) Toilet paper: Tissues just don’t cut it, literally.
6) Napkins: See item 2. I don’t understand how to eat barbecued ribs of lamb with only tissues for cleanup.
7) Toenail clippers: Without properly groomed toenails, the massage girls are forced to bring in “man muscle”. You don’t want “man-muscle”.
8) Vocabulary: I need a working knowledge of the following words in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Taiwanese:
No thanks, I’m full.
What kind of animal is this?
This is my natural hair color.
No, just a foot massage, thank you.
Real gym towel, please. Tissues don’t work.
Traffic-jam (related to item1, above)
This reminds me of Mad Max… Can I drive?
What percent/proof is this?
Free Tibet! (or…Tell me about Tiananmen!)
8.18.2009
Pond Skipper
I was in a Marvel mood, of sorts. Presented with some 30+ movies on the 13-hour flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong, I opted for back-to-back showings of high-action low-brow super hero-style entertainment. The Watchmen got me from California to British Columbia; Wolverine from BC to Sitka; Keanu and his Matrix Evolution from the Aleutians to Korea, then IronMan from Taiwan to HK. Sprinkled between these testosterone-saturated films I chuckled to bits and pieces of The Flight of the Conchords (precioso) and a Paul Rudd film (letdown).
I am feeling more caught up now, in regards to recent blockbusters. I am also beginning to feel more caught up with sleep despite the jet lag that always works me over for a few days when crossing the pond. I was in desperate need of rest, and ironically a trip to China is just what I need. Confused? Well, the last couple of days/weeks/months have been torching the candle at both ends, as they say; to the extent that I have had a lingering sinus infection and a seemingly stress-induced case of gingivitis. If you knew me, which perhaps you DO know me if you’re reading this, you know my begrudging motto is “thank you sir may I have another!?” when I get buried with to-dos… well this time has almost cracked me.
So in a very strange way I was stoked to learn I was headed to China with my boss for a two-week factory visit. I left the 12th of August and am now three days in. The miracle of freeze-dried coffee has carried me through these early days, each hour becoming more bearable as my brain and soul adapt to the time zone (fourteen hours later than Boise). Our purpose here is to oversee production of the 2010 line of products, solving some fabric design challenges in the process and introducing me to the international team. I knew going in this was a learning experience for me, yet I do wish I could contribute more to the issues we are battling. For the most part I’m a quiet observer, snapping pictures and updating the daily log to help the hours tick by.
China is China, just as I remembered it from last September (surprise!). Ironically our factory is perhaps a 45-minute drive from Ugobe’s old manufacturer. The weather is hot, sitting around 40-degrees C and who knows what percentage humidity, but we are caved-up in a relatively cool conference room meeting with team after team of fabric wizards. Yes, fabric wizards, imagine that if you dare.
I doubt we will have the opportunity to play tourist. For the most part trip is pure business: we arrive at the factory before nine AM and don’t leave before eight PM. We even eat dinner here! I managed to wake up a smidge early this morning to check out the “Gymnasium Health Centre” (note British spelling?) in the hotel. I lasted a mere 25-minutes on the treadmill as I’d forgotten to bring a towel and water was leaving my body in mass exodus and coating the belt and risking severe injury should I continue. There was no airflow. A hotel worker passed through, saw me, scurried out quickly and returned with a cup of water. I asked him “towel?” He pointed me to a box of Kleenex. I picked up a Kleenex, stuck it to my forehead, paused for a few seconds to let the situation really hit him, and asked him “bigger towel?” Response: “No bigger towel”. OK then, I’ll remember my room towel next time. Nevertheless it felt good to get the heart rate up in the name of caloric conflagration.
I will now relate some wisdom in the form of a parable. A few weeks back we ran out of dog food for McKinley and I ended up serving her three meals of rice and eggs before we went to the store and bought another bag of her normal diet. She loved the variety, loved it. Those three little meals spelled disaster for her digestive system for a solid week, and walking her around the neighborhood took on a whole new level of disgusting. Without going in to detail I’ll just say that I can relate to McKinley. Did McKinley love the new food and tasty spices I put in to the rice? Absolutely. Was it worth it? Not so much.
And so concludes my China update for now. It feels good to write, I’m sure I’ll do so again over these next few days.
I am feeling more caught up now, in regards to recent blockbusters. I am also beginning to feel more caught up with sleep despite the jet lag that always works me over for a few days when crossing the pond. I was in desperate need of rest, and ironically a trip to China is just what I need. Confused? Well, the last couple of days/weeks/months have been torching the candle at both ends, as they say; to the extent that I have had a lingering sinus infection and a seemingly stress-induced case of gingivitis. If you knew me, which perhaps you DO know me if you’re reading this, you know my begrudging motto is “thank you sir may I have another!?” when I get buried with to-dos… well this time has almost cracked me.
So in a very strange way I was stoked to learn I was headed to China with my boss for a two-week factory visit. I left the 12th of August and am now three days in. The miracle of freeze-dried coffee has carried me through these early days, each hour becoming more bearable as my brain and soul adapt to the time zone (fourteen hours later than Boise). Our purpose here is to oversee production of the 2010 line of products, solving some fabric design challenges in the process and introducing me to the international team. I knew going in this was a learning experience for me, yet I do wish I could contribute more to the issues we are battling. For the most part I’m a quiet observer, snapping pictures and updating the daily log to help the hours tick by.
China is China, just as I remembered it from last September (surprise!). Ironically our factory is perhaps a 45-minute drive from Ugobe’s old manufacturer. The weather is hot, sitting around 40-degrees C and who knows what percentage humidity, but we are caved-up in a relatively cool conference room meeting with team after team of fabric wizards. Yes, fabric wizards, imagine that if you dare.
I doubt we will have the opportunity to play tourist. For the most part trip is pure business: we arrive at the factory before nine AM and don’t leave before eight PM. We even eat dinner here! I managed to wake up a smidge early this morning to check out the “Gymnasium Health Centre” (note British spelling?) in the hotel. I lasted a mere 25-minutes on the treadmill as I’d forgotten to bring a towel and water was leaving my body in mass exodus and coating the belt and risking severe injury should I continue. There was no airflow. A hotel worker passed through, saw me, scurried out quickly and returned with a cup of water. I asked him “towel?” He pointed me to a box of Kleenex. I picked up a Kleenex, stuck it to my forehead, paused for a few seconds to let the situation really hit him, and asked him “bigger towel?” Response: “No bigger towel”. OK then, I’ll remember my room towel next time. Nevertheless it felt good to get the heart rate up in the name of caloric conflagration.
I will now relate some wisdom in the form of a parable. A few weeks back we ran out of dog food for McKinley and I ended up serving her three meals of rice and eggs before we went to the store and bought another bag of her normal diet. She loved the variety, loved it. Those three little meals spelled disaster for her digestive system for a solid week, and walking her around the neighborhood took on a whole new level of disgusting. Without going in to detail I’ll just say that I can relate to McKinley. Did McKinley love the new food and tasty spices I put in to the rice? Absolutely. Was it worth it? Not so much.
And so concludes my China update for now. It feels good to write, I’m sure I’ll do so again over these next few days.
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