Back to Beijing

So I have had some friendly reminders that I have not updated my blog or stayed in touch via email very well this week so I am taking my down time on the bullet train (thank you Sprint broadband card) to update my blog. I am not really sure where to begin so I will just dive right in......we probably spent about 70 hours or close to it this week working at the plant. The days were pretty typical but then it was more work back at the hotel at night and the China plant runs 6 days a week so that means everyone from translators to office staff are onsite working. I didn't really think too much about it though. It's kind of funny that when you are surrounded by a culture and a way of life how little you tend to think about how other things are done. These past experiences and being fortunate to travel abroad have really opened my eyes to different cultures an how different societies work (I will explore that more in a later blog entry).

Overall it's been a very interesting experience. We started the trip in Beijing and then left last Sunday for Xinyang which is a 7 hour bullet train ride south of Beijing. I guess there are 5 hotels (2 and 3 stars only) that have western toilets. If you have not heard most all toilets here are holes in the ground and provide your own TP. At the plant there is 1 western toilet per floor, again provide your own TP, and the Sunlight hotel where we stay fortunately has western toilets. Day 1 in Xinyang did not start well as we woke up to no power, then arrived back to the hotel with still no power leaving a 14 floor hike to drop off our bags and then head to dinner. What was nice was on the way down the power came back on but none of us trusted it enough to get in an elevator. Monday went well and we had our kickoff meeting and got introduced to the staff we would be working with during the week. Monday night it was a traditional Chinese dinner with lots of food and lots of drink (made for a long Tuesday). All the meals here with the exception of Beijing and Tuesday nights dinner were all eaten with chopsticks. Talk about a great appetite control and a way to lose some weight. I think I lost a few lbs being over here.

After dinner on Monday it was off to KTV (Karaoke TV) where you rent private rooms for Karaoke and you can pick from all their songs. It was a steady rotation of Chinese songs by the plant guys and western songs, Acheybreaky Heart, Friends in Low Places, etc, by the Americans, but man what a good time.

Last night we had our closing dinner with more of the staff and a few of the translators from the plant but not as eventful as the Monday night dinner to say the least.

We head back home tomorrow afternoon and the nice thing about traveling from China is that you arrive on the same day you leave. I am ready to be home back in my apartment and ready to be able to get back into the gym. Depsite the fact I may have lost a few lbs there were no fitness centers here so I am really excited to get back home to start working out again and depending on the weather get in some bike rides along the lake before the snow comes.

Please pray for safe travels back to Chicago tomorrow for myself and 2 co-workers that will be traveling with me. I think we made some good progress and laid a good foundation for our future work at this location which was a concern of mine heading into this trip. Things went well and being able to eat with chopsticks and sing Karaoke seem to go along way.

Cheers