I Ate Eeyore . . . and I Liked Him! ---Mike

It’s Monday morning, at 7:30 China Standard Time, which makes it 3:30 on Sunday back home. I’m sitting in the airport getting ready to fly back to Shanghai for another business meeting. On the first Sunday in February. At 3:30 in the afternoon. <sigh> I’m sure I’ll hear how the game went somehow.

Before I start, Tracy tells me I can no longer blog unless I have pictures to go with it. I would have loved to have taken pictures this past week, but all of the good opportunities were during business meetings, so it didn’t seem appropriate. I’ll try to do better whenever I can, but no pictures for now. You’ll just have to rely on the theater of the mind!

So, I had an(other) interesting week last week. My boss (okay, technically my boss’s boss) was in town, so we were all over Beijing all week visiting suppliers, customers, and partners. It was good to see more of the city—I went to parts we haven’t been to yet. (Remember, this is a town of 20 million people, so it takes a while to see all of them! J)  We visited a factory and saw how folks work—the conditions are improving, but not yet to Western standards. We visited an old government office building, where they don’t provide heat for the building, so the hallways are freezing cold, and the rooms are heated only if someone is in them (think about what the toilet seat feels like). Since these are now companies inside the building, and not government offices any more, it was perfectly okay to smoke, and you could tell they weren’t shy about it. But, as always, the people were warm and friendly!

But the most interesting part was the food. The more time I spend here, the more food I encounter. Wednesday’s interesting dish was goose liver. It was made into a spread to put on some toasted bread (which you almost never see over here—I think it’s a special treat). Thursday’s special dish was dragon meat. That’s a Chinese joke—they serve donkey meat and tell everyone that it tastes like dragon meat, and obviously the joke is that you can’t prove them wrong, because no one has ever had dragon meat! But the donkey was surprisingly good, though they made it with peppers that were hot enough to leave my mouth numb! They were slow acting peppers, so you could taste the meat before the pepper effect kicked in. Then Friday, at lunch, the Chinese participants were served a bowl of clear green soup, with some stuff at the bottom. We westerners were told that westerners don’t like sea cucumber soup, so they weren’t going to force us to endure it. Well, you can imagine our response—we had to man up! The soup itself was good, but I only ate one of the four cucumbers—they were just a bit too squishy for my palate.

This week, I travel to Yantai on Friday—I’ll try to get some pictures from the trip for next weekend’s entry.

Latern Festival Celebrations---Tracy

Falling on February 6th in 2012, the Lantern Festival marks the last day of the Chinese New Year season and thankfully, all the very loud fireworks.  My mandarin teacher asked me what I thought of the New Year’s celebrations.  I explained that we too have fireworks for New Years and 4^th of July, but that they do not last as long, or as loud, as here.  She laughed and said, “It is because we have 1.38 billion people lighting them off!” 

 It is also a kind of Valentine’s Day. In the past, it was the one day of the year when a woman could come out - chaperoned, of course!  And be seen by eligible single men. In the days when women's feet were bound, it was often the one time when she could appear in public with unbound feet. Of course, these restrictions no longer exist, but there is still a lot of advertising about “falling in love” and such, during the Lantern Festival celebrations.

I was able to catch a “Good Luck” ceremony for business, out front of our Hotel this morning.   It was very nice and very cold. I really hope you can’t tell that my hands were shaking while I was videotaping it.   

 

Now I am off to see if I can find 3x5 cards for my lessons.  Wish me luck!

Jonesing for a PB&J---Tracy

 Monday

Today’s goal was to find the fixins for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, with chips!  With all the working out I have been doing I have really been craving a PB&J!   So today is the day and I will not return until I get it!

One hour and a half later….Success!   It normally would not take me that long, but it is really hard to tell the difference between a jar of jam and a jar of salsa. So, there is a bit of flying by the seat of our pants when shopping.  Thank goodness peanut butter looks the same in any country. The bread tasted a bit off (not sure why they have to put spices in everything) but the rest was great!  I was able to find a market that I did not need to take a taxi or the subway to and get what I needed.   And of course I grabbed a box of Tricks for Mike.

Longqing Gorge Ice and Snow Festival---Tracy

Saturday

Today we went on an outing with our church to the Longqing Gorge Ice and Snow Festival. The event is sometimes called the "Little Three Gorges” in reference to the three gorges of the Three Gorges Dam project.

--- Warning history lesson---

Longqing Gorge, located about 80 km (50 mi) northwest of Beijing, and is named after Emperor Longqing of the Ming (1368-1644) Dynasty, during whose reign (1567-1572), the Great Wall had been penetrated by a Mongol force under the command of the Altan Khan, reaching Beijing itself, though the emperor managed to repulse the khan's army. Later, the emperor, seeking to neutralize the Mongol threat by peaceful means, signed what one might today call a trade and security pact with Altan Khan whereby the khan purchased silk from China in exchange for horses. Peace ensued.

---Lesson over---

The Ice & Snow Festival, which, at night, is illuminated by a flood of colorful lights, is held each year from the 15th of January through the 29th of February. During the rest of the winter season, the area is closed to tourists, but opens for the summer-autumn season (April 10th to November 15th), where the gorge is known for, among other things, its bungee jumps. Yee Haw!!

It was very beautiful and very cold!  The only thing that kept me from hightailing it back to the bus was the numerous fires that they had scattered about the place, and Mike not letting go of me. He was mumbling something about me being a party pooper.  

This is part of the frozen damn.

Happy Chinese New Year---Tracy

Week of January 23-27

Happy Chinese New Year!

The Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. In China, it is known as "Spring Festival," the literal translation of the Chinese name 春節. And without boring you with a long history lesson, it is essentially a week off of work (Mike too), spending time with family eating and shopping, much like our Christmas season. I have also provided a link for more explanation if you like.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

We spent the week getting some much needed R & R in Korea, more site seeing in Beijing and just learning to get round to get some of the necessities of life.  It seems that everything is a struggle here; where to find food, how to read what we are buying, even trying to get something for a headache is exhausting.  Taxis are even difficult to get.  There seems to be a competition between people standing on the sidewalks, in the street and even walking in the road, to get a taxi.  It wouldn’t be all the bad to wait for a taxi, but when it is 19 degrees out, you REALLY don’t want to stand around waiting!

I have a “taxi book”.  It is a small book that I keep in my purse that has about 100 of the most popular places to go in Beijing.   It is broken up in Grocery/Household stores, Apartments, (so we can find our friends), Embassy’s, Hospitals and just things like that for new comers.  Each page is in both English and Chinese, that way I can find where I want to go and then just show the taxi driver, and we’re off! 

I found that all my senses are being constantly bombarded and overloaded.   I am not yet able to filter out what is relevant and what to ignore.  I see, smell, and hear everything!   Being a person with ADD in a city of 20 million people is physically and mentally exhausting. 

The reason that we decided to head to Koreas was because our Chinese visas are still only the tourist type, so we have to leave the country every 30 days until our work visas are ready.  The duration of our stay doesn’t matter just as long as leave, we could even land have our passports stamped and turn right around and get on the next flight back to China.  But where is the fun in that?

So, we had to come up with where to go.  We had thought about Hong Kong.  But then I had an idea about Tokyo. It is not really that far and we could go to Disneyland, and get an American fix. Looking at the map I saw that Korea was even closer, only a two hour flight and we could stay at one of the American military bases and get a real American fix!    And that’s just what we ended up doing.   Once we settled on that, the ideas just started to flow of what we could do and get.  First and for most, I really needed a good Mexican meal!  Mike needed a good haircut and while we were at it why not get a pedicure, (for me).  Of course, we made a list of items to pick up at the PX, (Post Exchange, like a JC Penny’s) and a stopover at the base clinic for my persistent cough. 

We decided on Yougson Garrison Army Station in Seoul.  It was the closest military outpost to the Incheon Airport, and the biggest one with all the amenities that we were looking for.  It even had a Baskin Robbins, a must for all traveling destinations!

                                  The housing on the base reminded us of Kadena in Japan.

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I am really hoping you can read the fine print at the Elementary school parking lot.  You should be able to just click it to enlarge it.

 

View of the base from our hotel.

Once we landed in Seoul, with only 30 minutes to spare to catch our shuttle, we made a beeline to the USO. With us just about running through the airport, I looked back to see Mike slowing down as we neared a dough nut and ice cream shop.  From then on I had to keep a close eye on him.  WE WERE NOT GOING TO MISS THIS BUS FOR ICE CREAM!    Five minutes after we boarded the bus the driver shut the doors and off we went.  Yes, Mike got a stern look from me! 

It was about a 35 min ride through a very nice countryside.  There was way more water than I had expected, it was very must like the Northwest with the Puget Sound snaking its way here and there.  I knew Korea was on a peninsula but I did not know about all the little islands, it seemed like there was hundreds of them, they were everywhere!  There were a lot of bridges connecting the larger islands and there really was not that much traffic.  It was a nice reprieve from the traffic in Beijing.    

In the middle of this major city is a square piece of land that is Yougson Garrison.  It was kind of odd to see it right there in their city. A US military base taking up prime real-estate.  Hmmmm…?  We checked in at the Dragon Hill Lodge, dropped our bags off in the room and went to check things out.  It was really nice to see all the military men and women.  Most were Army, but there was a smattering of Marines and a dash of Air Force.   I felt like a kid in a candy store and did not know what to do first!  We found the barber shop and got Mike’s hair back in regulations, (it had been driving me NUTS!) and then off to the local Mexican restaurant for dinner.   We then stopped off at the front desk to get directions to the PX for some shopping.  It was then our best laid plans started to come unraveled.

 As it turns out, you need a ration card—sorry, old term.  It is really called a USFK (United States Forces Korea) Temporary Ration Control Plate.  It is to control the black market in Korea—they have a major problem with people buying things at the PX and then leaving the base and selling the stuff for a profit.  So, even if we have our Military ID cards and are authorized to shop at the PX or BX in the states, you still cannot shop at the PX or Commissary in any of the military bases in Korea without a rations card.  A rations card is only given to people living there, or that have official orders or if a sponsor is there with you. Well, to say that we were very disappointed would be an understatement.

Ok, no problem, plan B.   We asked her if we could rent a car and just head off base to do some shopping.  She said “yes, and if I could just see your international driver’s license we could get you going”. We said, “our what now?”   So much for plan B. 

At this point I am thinking, “I could be at Disneyland right now!” but keeping my cool, at least until I got back to my room was my priority. Once I was in the safe confines of our room did finally let out a  “IIIEEE AMMM SOO PISSSED OFF RIGHT NOW!”

Mike knew it was time to get out the lotion for a foot rub.  After that, and with me feeling better, we decided to head over to the hospital to have someone look at my throat.  I have always found it best to stop in the Emergency room about 7pm because most people are still having dinner and doing family stuff. We were the only ones there and it went very fast, once we got entered into the system (that part is important for later).  I got an x-ray and was given a clean bill of health, notwithstanding the three month old cough!   The Doctor, I will call him Doogie Howser, because of his very young age, gave me a nasty steroid drink, allergy medication, and some sort of antibiotics.  Dr. Howser did find us living in Beijing very interesting and shared his stories of living in Shanghai with us. 

Once back in our room, we decided that the next morning as soon as the office opens for the “Rations Card”, we would head over there and see if there was any way they could help us out.  

Thursday morning we had a nice breakfast at the hotel, along with about 20 other army guys and then we headed over to take care of business.  We explained to the army Sergeant at the front counter that we were here about the ration control plates.  He asked to see our ID cards and after seeing that we were already in the system he said, “Ok, just look in this camera and we can set you up with a temporary one”.   We both looked at each other with the biggest grin ever!  We could not believe it!  Because we visited the hospital last might we now were part of the base and could get a rations card.  Woohoo!  Time to go shopping!

Mike did have to do a quick work conference call at 11AM, and I still needed to have my pedicure, have lunch, check out of our hotel, shop, and then catch the bus back to the airport by 3PM.  

I will not bore you with all that we got at the PX, but it mainly involved chocolate!   Chinese chocolate just is not the same. 

All in all it was nice to have a quick American fix and to recharge my batteries from the noise and chaos that is now my day to day life.

Back to China!

Worst. Boss. Ever.---Mike

Friday, January 20, 2012

Morning

I went to work a bit early for a morning conference call with some folks back at Corporate. The snow has really messed everyone up—I wish we were there to enjoy it! No snow here yet, except for that first Saturday, and it came and went pretty quickly. My boss called to let us know he wants the Beijing team back in Shanghai on February 6^th for the day, so we’ll be heading down for a day of meetings, but not staying the night. I faxed the paperwork to Sprint to begin canceling our phone service, but that turned out to be an adventure all in itself. I did everything okay, but the machine, after telling me that the fax had transmitted okay, kept trying to dial again, and when it did, it kept getting an error message from the Chinese phone line (in Chinese, of course, so I have no idea what curses it was slinging at me). Crazy. At one point, I managed to have all four of us huddled around the fax machine trying to solve it. We unplugged it, but it still kept going when we plugged it back in. We disconnected the phone line, and it STILL kept going. We finally pushed the right combination of buttons (all labeled in Chinese, of course—the big green button is the only one that makes any sense to me!) to get it to stop, but it was pretty comical for a bit. Worst. Boss. Ever.

I also have a really long story I can email anyone interested, but the moral of the story is that you cannot use a ball point pen to sign checks in China. You must use an ink pen. Get the difference? I’m not sure I do, but it was a hard lesson learned!

Afternoon

 They took me to lunch at The Little Great Wall Restaurant. It’s just around the corner from the office, and they described it as “home food,” or like the stuff their Mom’s used to make. I took a picture of a couple of menu items, so you can appreciate what choices we have—everything from “bird nest” to “bullfrog!” But fortunately for me, they stayed a bit more traditional—we had green beans with minced pork, meatball stew with winter melon (a very mild melon), some very finely julienned potatoes and green peppers, and some Kung Pao chicken (with, of course, the bowl of steamed rice that accompanies every meal). The four of us left some food behind for ¥95, or about $15, and it was really tasty!

Quiet afternoon after that.

Thank you Netflix!---Mike

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Morning

Flew back to Beijing—no delays. Got back to the office just after lunch, and then our driver took Tracy on to the hotel. My staff was hungry, so we ran down to the Japanese restaurant for a quick bite—again, nothing but good. I had the beef dish, but Angela had some teriyaki, so I’m going to have to try that next time.

Afternoon

I commandeered Angela to take me to the phone place. I asked her as we were leaving if it was the same place, and she said yes, so I got my camera ready . . . only to find out that it wasn’t the same place. Sorry! It was a completely normal office, and fortunately not as crowded, so it only took us an hour to get the paperwork done for two sim cards. Now, we just have to buy the phones, and we’re in business. When we were done, and since we had the driver, he took me home at the end of the day (at the normal time—the team was still working hard, so I now SUCK as a boss!). The traffic is a bit lighter than normal since we’re so close to the New Year holiday, and it still took me 45 minutes to get home, just like taking the subway. The subway is the way to go!

Tracy was watching a Jeff Dunham  special on Netflix when I got home. We had Cocoa Puffs for dinner, and watched an hour of White Collar on Hulu, and then another hour of Psych on Netflix. The internet signal in the hotel is strong enough to stream effectively, and the VPN we signed up for lets us take advantage of all of the online content we couldn’t get if they didn’t think we were in the states (LA, in this case). Still need to check out Amazon Prime one of these days.