Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Morning

I again went to work, and had more briefings on office issues. Tracy, on the other hand, went shopping with our “CEO.” This is a bit weird for me, since in the states, I would never ask one of the people that report to me to take my wife out shopping, or house hunting, for the day. But it appears that it’s perfectly normal and perfectly acceptable here, so I’ll just need to get used to it. They went to the Pearl Mall, with lots of jewelry available. You can have a necklace custom made however you want it. They also have jade and clothing, etc. The sales people are really aggressive—one of them said to Tracy, “Lady, lady, you want Coach purse?” To which Tracy replied, with a smile, “No, thank you. I’ve got one, and it’s real.” Fakes are very, very common here. They went to lunch at Annies, which is supposed to be American food, but it’s the Chinese idea of American, so they miss the mark on most things.

Afternoon

I had a business meeting across town with a prospective partner, so we stopped at the Grand Hyatt hotel to have lunch. The lunch buffet was again superb, as the Chinese want to make sure that they show they have more than you can eat, a leftover mentality from their days of famine in the early part of the cultural revolution. We went to our meeting, which was pretty formal, with everyone seated according to rank, them on one side of the room, and us on the other. We talked about a few more details for the partnership, but nothing substantial. Then, we drove back to the Grand Hyatt hotel for another meeting, and then to dinner at “Made in China,” another duck place. Great food once again, and plenty. I’m so stuffed! Meanwhile, Tracy went with Angela, our CEO (Chief Entertainment Officer), to look at a place that the people we’re replacing had lived, but it turned out to be no good. However, the apartment manager was a WSU graduate, FWIW. Small world. Then, Tracy came back to our hotel to meet up with our agents, who had two more places to look at. One was no good, but the other is a strong possibility. It’s larger than most, cheaper than most because it’s a bit farther out, but not on the metro, so no subway riding for me.  But it’s the first place we’ve seen that has a Baskin Robbins in the complex, so we may have a winner!