Sunday July 31, 2005 4:30 pm

A lot of walking today.

Got up around 9 today and it was nice to sleep in. I called Tom and talked with him for quite a while which was great and made me feel much better.

I also chatted online with some sisters and niece and that was fun too. It is nice to have conversations with people - even if we are just typing back and forth.

I walked around downtown a bit this morning but it was incredibly hot so I mostly stuck to the main street and didn't stay out too long. The guy with the bike and all those little cages are filled with cicada bugs. It was really loud to walk past him and he didn't seem too happy with me for taking his picture. I found a fabric store right across from the hotel so I got some fabric for my sister Victoria. There is one piece that is pretty big - but they wouldn't let me get any less than that amount. And since they didn't speak English and I didn't speak chinese just getting some fabric in the first place was a challenge!

I came back to the hotel for a bit and relaxed. Watched a little of Lost in Translation which is even more funny when you are in the same kind of situation they characters are. The part where the director is giving him explaination of what to do and it is a really long description - but then the translator just says a few words is so funny! The general sense of the characters walking around and everything being so different really hit home.

After that I figured I really shouldn't be spending time inside watching movies and went out to find the park. There is a park that boarders the city to the west next to the grand canal. I can see it from my room - but the streets here are not square blocks so I haven't quite figured out how to get there. This time I just kept weaving through the streets and found it.

The ticket station was an experience. There were 3 differnt tickets and fortunately there were english descriptions. I kept pointing to package B which included the zoo but the lady just kept saying no and pointing to A. finally some guy said B was for children. (would have been helpful to have that part in english too!) The park was nice. There were lots of big trees so it was shaded and cooler than the streets. I walked around a bit and found the zoo - also found I had to pay extra at that point to get in there. But, I wanted to check it out.

It reminded me in some ways of the zoo in Madison - but this one was pretty sad. All the cages were just concrete floors with no other things in them. They had several tigers which was fun and I took a lot of pictures of them through the cage - I am not sure if they will turn out ok or not but hopefully they look alright.

I saw the place where you can get your picture with the tiger - it was closed when I was there but they had pictures posted of some people who had done it. I just can't believe you can do that here - it just amazes me.

After the park I headed back to the hotel. I'm in desperate need of a shower and then I need some food. I'll have some work to do tonight and will plan to just stick around the hotel.

Tina

Saturday July 30, 2005 4:00 pm

Went out for some shopping with Scott before he had to leave for the airport today. We went to a different part of town that I hadn't been to yet so it was very fun to explore.

It was very warm out again - seems to be the norm just hot and sticky at all times. But, I found a guy selling water and it was partially frozen so it was very cold. I think it is the first cold drink I have had here!!

We found a little Ginsing shop -Hsu's American Ginger - Product of Wisconsin. Wisconsin is (I think) the leading producer of ginsing in the world. Pretty funny to travel all the way here to see a product we grow at home.

The other shops we found were really great. It is a older part of town with "traditional" style buildings. There were all kinds of little streets with shops and vendors. A lot of plant and garden items that were fun to see. I also saw some little turtles and crabs - they were adorable! Some shops had little bamboo cages with cicada bugs in them. It was weird to see how big they were! And they were so noisy! I passed a couple of shops that had what I assume was traditional chinese medicine items for sale. There were a lot of what looked to be dried animal parts and horns. A little scary.

I got a few things as gifts which made me happy. I am glad I didn't get any of them at the main stores - these were much more fun , even if the shop keepers had to use a calculator to show me the price.

I had my first breakdown and went to McDonalds today. It was kind of strange how they do ordering there. People were standing in line and a girl would come up with a notepad and ask what you wanted (she spoke a little english which was good). When you got to the counter you gave them the slip and they would fill the order. This way the food was ready by the time you got to the counter. The food was pretty much the same - although the meat didn't seem quite right so I only ate a little of the burger and stuck to the fries. I felt like quite a spectical while I was eating. everyone was just staring at me. And, it was not my imagination - one lady actually turned around in her chair and was looking at me. I can't wait to be home where I am not such a novelty!!

When I got back to the room I had the best surprize. A package from my sister! Yeah!! She had sent it last week and we kept wondering when it would get here. There were all kinds of great treats inside. chips and nuts, licorice, gum - all kinds of fun things! There were also 3 cards - two from sisters and one from my niece and nephew. They were all so sweet it made me cry I was so happy to be reading their writing. There was also a little basket from my mom and another sister which is filled with little strips of paper with tiny messages. It will be fun to go through and read those.

Then as I was just finished going through the package the door rang and it was one of the hotel staff with a postcard for me from another sister :0) Yeah!! What a fun day for me! The guy who delivered it asked me what the word "about" meant because it was on the postcard. I tried to explain it to him for a couple minutes - it was kind of funny.

So - it was a very good day for me :) I'll be calling more family tonight to say hello at Tom's Grandpa's 90th birthday celebration. I am looking forward to that as well as it is so nice to hear people's voices - it makes you feel a lot closer to home.

Planning to just relax tonight and watch a movie. The heat and all the walking today made me a bit tired. Besides that there is a storm that has rolled in so it is raining out. At least it made things a little cooler for a tiny bit.

Hope all is well with everyone!

Tina

Saturday July 30, 2005 11:00am

I have had a really great 24 hours and I wasn't even expecting it :)

Yesterday at work I found out that the group of people that have been here for training (including my co-worker from Lunar) were going out on a little afternoon trip to see the giant Buddha and they asked me if I wanted to join them. Hmmmm - work for the afternoon or go explore? Not a hard decision!! I am glad I am carrying my little camera with me everywhere I go. But, I didn't have my good camera with me, so that was a bit disappointing. But - at least I have some pictures!

The giant Buddha was build here about 10 years ago. It is at the site of an old buddhist temple. The Buddha is 88 meeters tall! Just huge. You can see him sticking up over some of the hills as you get near to the site.

There were 5 of us in the group. Yuan is our savior and tour guide. She is a GE employee but enjoys going on tours and telling people about the different sites. We got to see some fun things at the site. Some very pretty gardens and a lot of stone structures with chinese characters on them. It was interesting.

There was one area where there were a lot of bird and you could buy some seeds and the birds would all land on you and eat out of your hand. I didn't think about that whole Asian bird flu thing until we returned home last night - but that is a different part of china and besides they didn't bite or poop on us :)

Another of the sites was a flowering lotus - with a Buddha that comes out of the top. There is a water fountain at the base and they have a show with different music and patterns of the spray from the fountain. It was interesting to see.

Of course - it was very hot again yesterday - must have been around 97 with 95 humidity. We were saying it would be nice to just in the fountain. But, then we saw that there were people gathered around some of the small fountains that surround the lotus. There were little water fountains and people were using the water to wet their faces and cool off. Some people were filling their water bottles which amazes me. It looked as though the water was just recirculated and I wouldn't ever consider drinking from it.

The giant Buddha was very impressive although when I saw the huge set of stairs needed to get to him I was not happy! The base of the Buddha's feet is a large observation deck. It is said if you touch each of his toes with both hands it brings you good luck and fortune. Well, not going to pass that opportunity up!

There was a nice view from the deck looking over the rest of the park and the large Tai Hu lake in the background (of course - it is so hazy you can't actually see to the lake you just take their word that it is there.

The observation deck had a couple of funny signs. It is funny to see some of the translations to English. It love seeing little things like that. This one was No Chisel & Draw. No Clambing. We could never figure out what the chisel and draw part meant - unless that is just another way to say no graffiti?

After the trip to the Buddha we went back to the office (it was about 5:30 pm) and picked up a lot more co-workers to go to dinner. We went to the same place we had gone Saturday night when Scott first got here. It seems to be a place they like to take guests. There were 12 of us and as always they got tons of food. We had some more of the little corn pizza that we had the other night. This time there was some powdered sugar and sprinkles on top. I think I figured out that the batter part of it would be like a funnel cake.

We had some traditional Chinese wine, some more of the Great Wall red wine we had the other night, some beer - basically a lot to drink! They were asking me about the inspection and I tried to tell them some things to calm them. They seemed pretty happy with what I was telling them and I think I helped them understand more about it.

After dinner we went to "play Bowling" and that was fun. They are not very good at it! Most of them had about a 50 for a score. :) I bowled ok by US standards - 146 & 130 but they though I was really good.

A few of the GE guys that were her this week told us about a bar called True Blue - it is owned by a guy who teaches English for GE employees. He is originally from Canada and the bar is English speaking. So, we found that place and hung out there for a while. It was fun - just me and Scott and Yuan sitting around talking for a while.

And that was the day. Very fun and it was good to relax for a while before the hectic week will begin on Monday.

Tina

Thursday July 28, 2005 9:00pm

A long day today.

I took a taxi to the plant today. I had the business card of a co-worker there so I could show the driver the address in Chinese. It was only like $3.50 for the ride - very inexpensive since it is around 10 miles away.

Lots of work done today which is good. But still a lot of things to wrap up this weekend. I'll probably go into the office Saturday and work for a while and take off Sunday.

Our GM came today. It was good to see another Lunar face. Shaofeng and I went to lunch with her along with 3 Marketing/Sales people that were with her on the trip. It was good to have here there to say thank you to the Wuxi team and hopefully to help give them confidence. I think that is the thing that they lack most of all and it will be important to be confident in what they are talking about.

I ordered room service again. I don't feel like going anywhere since it was a 12 hour day today and I still have a few more things to get finished tonight. I have food from the Japanese restaurant at the hotel tonight. Miso soup, ginger salad and a beef with rice dish.

Tomorrow I told the Lunar team that we would go out for dinner and do something fun after work. They call it "Go for Relax" which makes me laugh. I told them to think of something fun to do so I am interested in what they come up with.

missing everyone at home a lot today. When the work is stressful like it was today I just wish that I was able to be home and in my environment for some comfort.

Tina

Wednesday , July 27, 2005 9:30 PM

A long day today but I am glad to be back in my regular hotel.

We went to the supplier this morning. It was pretty good although I guess from the way that some of the people at work were talking I was not as impressed as I thought I would be. It is definately a machine shop kind of place. We got some good work done though so I was glad about that.

For lunch we went to a coffee shop restaurant. It was very fun looking - lots of little cosy sitting areas with couches and good chairs. There was one room that had swings in it! The chairs were suspended from the ceiling and the room had a lot of ivy growing in it. Very fun looking.

The menu was a bit odd- they had some "american" type food there which is why they took me there. And after seeing fried bullfrog and pigeon on the menu I decided to go with
"piza" I ordered the black pepper and sausage kind. Mistake one. I am not sure what kind of cheese it was but it was kind of different and not very tasty. But the sausage - wow, not sure what it was but it kind of tasted like cut up hot dogs on the pizza. Then I started thinking about what is in US hotdogs and got very nervous about what I was eating. I was glad it was only about a 6 inch size but I only ate half of that.

The adventure of the day was the bathroom at the plant. I knew I should have gone at the restaurant. I wrongly assumed that the plant would have "normal" toilets - by that I mean normal to the US - but nope - they had the good old Chinese squaters!

Now I remember why I pack a little thing of kleenex in my purse as well! It is just a very different thing and one I can't get used to - and frankly just don't want to!

The trip home was long and we had a brief spell of some very heavy rain. That was a little scary since it didn't seem like people actually slowed down.

The country side here is very interesting. There are a lot of little clusters of houses and some of them are really quite beautiful. Most are 3 or 4 stories and from what my coworker said these are primarily farmers who live here. He was saying that they usually have 3 generations living in them - one to each floor. I'd love to be able to have stopped in some of the neighborhoods and looked closer. In many of them we passed there was a little pond or canal alongside. A one of the groups we passed there were about 20 kids that were swimming and jumping off into the water. Looked like they were having a ball. I snapped a shot out the window just to illustrate - so excuse the blur as the driver was going about 140km at the time!

Tomorrow the GM from Lunar comes here. She is travelling in Asia and wanted to stop by. So - that will be interesting. Hopefully all goes well and it is a good day. She has been very intense over the audit and I am hoping she is just positive and not too crazy as that will just make everyone more insane!

well, I'll be back tomorrow

Tina

Wednesday July 27, 2005 7:30 am

Well, I couldn't figure out that shower except how to get the main nozzle to work. Oh well, it was nice anyways as the water pressure was good and the temperature didn't keep changing on me like in my other room!

The only bad thing was that the seal at the bottom of the door didn't seem to be there so when I got out of the shower the whole floor was flooded! It was pretty funny, but then I saw they had another drain on the outside so I didn't feel as bad. I mopped most of it up.

Morning here and I finally opened up the windows. There are some nice hills out in one direction - although it is hard to see much detail because of the haze. The hills are less than a mile away and I can barely make them out. It would be so nice to get a clear sky here once in a while! This drab view of everything is a bit depressing.

Tina

Tuesday July 26, 2005 - 9:30 pm

A long day today. After not much sleep and being woken up early I was pretty sleepy all day.

We left Wuxi at about 3:30 and had a long drive to Huaxin where our main supplier is located. There was a lot of traffic along the way and I never get used to the way they drive here - going 140KM at one minute and then down to 40km the next. Weaving in and out of the cars - honking the horn everytime you pass someone so they don't move into your lane. It is just so different from our American highways and it make me very nervous to watch them. I think I was white knuckled the whole trip.

We arrived at 6:30 and checked into the room - Wow - it is very nice! The bathroom is huge and the shower is cool - it has I think 6 different nozzles on it :) Yes, I am impressed by the little things.

We met a large group for dinner - there were several people from our Supplier there - even the president of the company. This is very common here - if there are guests they love to take them out for a big chinese dinner and serve many dishes. The restaurant we went to tonight is located in the hotel. There are private dining rooms for each group which is nice. And you usually have a group of serves that hover in the room to pour wine or clear a plate and bring new food out.

A guy from the supplier and the head guy with my group invited me to help them choose dinner. I wasn't really sure what this meant - but we left the room and were led to a large area where there were different displays and examples of food you could get. There were a lot of things that I was just plain scared of (like the big pig ear, or the whole baby chicken, a lot of feet of differnet animals, tongue, heads of things - just not your average burger joint!) But, we picked a good variety of things from sushi to dumplings to soup and veggies. There was a lot to eat - but everything I had was very good. They had ordered some crab and it is just interesting to see how different our cultures are. They just bit right into the shell and then spit out the pieces of shell - where we would normally crack the shell open and only eat the meat. They were kind to me and gave me a little cracker and fork :) so that was nice!

As part of the main courses they served a hot papaya - it was served with something in the inside - we couldn't quite figure it out - they told me it was swallows nest - but I think it was a tapioca. With the papaya you got 3 little cups of liquid to add to the inside - honey, coconut milk and regular milk. I have never had hot fruit in this way before but it was soooo good! It was very different from anything I had had before but I really liked it! And - yes they did think it was very funny that I was taking a picture of it.

Along with the dinner we had Great Wall wine. Boy did we have wine! They would fill the wine glass with just about a shot worth of wine and then someone would say a toast and you would drink "Kung Pai' (not sure of the spelling) which is "bottoms up" and you would drink all the wine in your glass. Then the little server girl would come over right away and refill your glass and someone else would toast. It was a bit crazy! Good think it was good wine and that I was eating a lot of food with it!

While I had the camera out we did a group photo - toasting of course! The man I am toasting with is the president of the supplier we use - He kept apologizing for not speaking English so that he could talk directly with me (we had to have one of the people translate for us) but I kept telling him I didn't speak Chinese so it was ok.

overall it was a very good dinner and it was good to meet the people that we will be working with tomorrow in a more relaxed situation.

I am not sure how long we will stay here tomorrow. It will be another long trip back to Wuxi - which I won't look forward to - but it will also be good to be back in my own room.

Tina

Tuesday July 26, 2005 7:00 am

Please Make it Stop!

For the past hour there has been some kind of band or something outside the hotel playing the same little tune over and over and over again. It is like a bad high school marching band practicing below my window and it is driving me crazy.

I figured I would sleep in a bit today because I was up late last night. There was also a big storm here last night - really loud thunder that kept me up for another hour or so. But this band - or whatever it is - started just after 6 and they are still going. Ahhh!!!!

I need to pack an overnight bag and take it to work today because we will leave at 3:00. We also (as far as we know) have a driver that will pick us up so I am going to attempt to get a taxi and then pick up Scott and Thomas and then we will go to the factory. Should be interesting.

Tina

Monday July 25, 2005 9:30 pm

Man - it is Damn Hot here!

I went to dinner with Scott and Thomas again. A co-worker Yuan (a girl) took us to a Japanese restaurant. She ordered sooooo much food - but it was all very good. We had some sushi and sashimi, some grilled lamb chops (those were great!) Shrimp tempura, eel, beef with mushroom and onion - and probably 5 of 6 other things that I can't remember.

We had watermelon juice to drink - which was pretty good but I needed some water. I had them bring a glass of ice water - and took a little sip before I remembered that I probably shouldn't drink it because it wasn't from a bottle and I don't know how good the quality is. So - hopefully I won't get sick from it.

After dinner Yuan took us to some shopping. It was down a street I hadn't been on yet so it was good to know. She also gave us some advice for shopping at other shops which was good to know. We found a bookstore (Yeah!) so I will have to go back and see if there is an english section.

We have our plans for tomorrow's travels. We will leave Wuxi at 3:00 and travel to the supplier . They are located to the south about 4-5 hours. So - I will be going through different parts of the country after all. We will stay at the supplier for about 1/2 day or more and then return to Wuxi Wednesday night. I think it will be a good trip and I am looking forward to it.

Not sure if I will have net access to be able to update this tomorrow or not - if not I will do so Wednesday night when we return.

Tina

Monday July 25, 2005 12:45 pm

A few minutes after lunch and time for a quick update.

Dinner last night went fine - we all chickened out of going to a real place to eat so after I walked over to the Ramada to meet Scott and Thomas (co-worker from our Austria facility) we ended up just walking back to the restaurant at my hotel.

When I was walking over there were two guys sitting at one of the corners selling puppies. They had two little cages (too little for the number of puppies because they were piled on top of each other) but they were sooo cute! They were very young - looked like they barely had their eyes open. I am sure in the US we would not have been selling them yet. I just keep telling myself they were for sale as pets and not for some other purpose.

In the car on the way to work this morning a few of my co-workers were telling me about another park next to the city. It has a big zoo in it. One of them said that he got his picture taken with a Tiger - he actually went into the cage with the tiger and they took his picture!! He said they have a noose around the tiger's neck - but he could easily just swipe at you with his paw and you'd be gone. It is just amazing to think about!!

One of the things Scott and I were talking about on the tour yesterday was that they are clearly not any lawers in China - there are so many things that people do and conditions that people live/work in that are what would be considered hazardous and just plain crazy in the US. Like the tiger thing -- there would be so much liabiltiy needed that you would never find a situation where you would be able to do that. In many cases I think it is probably a good thing - but on the other hand if you are stupid enough to go in the cage with a tiger to pose for a picture I suppose you get what is coming to you.

We have our trip to the supplier planned for Wednesday. This means we will leave Tuesday night - stay over and then go to the supplier during the day Wednesday and return Wednesday night. It will be about a 4-5 hour drive to the supplier which is on the other side of Shanghai - so it will be intersting to see a new area of the country.

Tina

Sunday July 24, 2004 6:00 pm

Wow - what a long day!

I met Scott in the lobby of his hotel at 7:30 this morning. The hotel staff pointed out the tour director to us and we all got on the bus. There were about 20 people there with us.

Our first stop was Li Yuan Park. We walked through some gardens and out to Tai Hu Lake. It was very pretty - but the polution here really ruins a view! There is just such a strong haze in the air it is sad.

At this spot we met our friends of the day Darrell and Emily. Thank God for them!!!! They spoke very good english and really helped to direct us and tell us important things - like meet back at the bus in 20 minutes or Don't go that way, and the best thing they said - would you like to have lunch with us! :) I have no idea how we would have managed without them on that part!!

At our first stop we took the funniest boat ride I have ever been on. They herded us down to little speed boats about 7 of us to a boat. The boat speed out of the dock and basically did a 12/ mile loop and came back in. I don't think it was more than 2 minutes. We were thinking they were going to go out and then go slowly so we could get some pictures - but nope - just took off like crazy and then we were done just as quickly. It was hilarious. I could not stop laughing when we got back.

I guess the boat ride really set the day for the speed of this tour. In all the places we stopped we really didn't get a chance to stop and look at anything - just kept walking through the grounds or where ever we were and then headed back to the bus.

After the scary boat ride we walked through some more gardens and then boarded the bus again. Next stop was a recreation of the Ting Dynasty buildings that were used as part of a TV show. It was pretty amazing how much detail they had gone into to create these sets - the place was very big and it was interesting to see it all.

We were treated to 2 shows here. One was more of a mini play/opera. No spoken words from the actors - just music and dancers on the stage. It was only about 10 minutes but it was fun to see even if we didn't know what they were saying in the music. The second show was on the Old Time street. A group of bullies were picking on a father and daughter - and they had to fend them off. There was this strange part where the bullies all started doing a little dance - almost like West Side Story. It was pretty funny.

Third stop of our trip was the Pearl Farm and lunch. They grow a lot of pearls in Wuxi so we (well, assuming we understood what the guides were saying) learned about pearls and growing them - then we got to visit the pearl gift shop and see all the jewelery for sale.

Then Emily and Darrell saved us and asked if we wanted to eat lunch together - Yeah for them!! We went upstairs to a restaurant and sat with a few other people from the tour. Darrell and Emily looked at the menu and kept asking us what kind of things we liked. We pretty much left it up to them what to order. They suggested 2 local specialties - egg with sliver fish and Bones (which turned out to be just like barbeque pork ribs) and then a veggie. It was all very good. The pork had good flavor to it. The eggs were basically like scrambled eggs with a little onion and little fish in it. The fish are famous here - sliver fish is what they are called. They are very little - about an inch or two long and white. You eat the whole fish and they really don't have much of a taste to them. We got rice and some pepsi to go with our lunch. It ended up that all that food cost us $3 - amazing.

Let's see - after lunch went to another park. Turtle Head Penninsula at Tai Hu Lake. There were some nice gardens and beautiful views of the lake. We got to walk around a bit and then got on another boat. This time it was a tour boat that went out on the lake and took us to an island that had some very pretty temples and a lot of religous figures. It was very pretty. There was a beautiful waterfall and a series of caves with different statues. It was nice to be inside there as it was quite hot again today! I kept buying water at each place I saw it!

Our last stop was at a Clay Tea Pot factory. This area makes famous little clay tea pots and we got to watch a demonstration of different features of the pots and hear about how well made they are (again we only assume this is what they were saying).

And that was the end. It was a long day - very warm and a lot of walking. I think I will sleep well tonight!

I'll be meeting Scott and another co-worker for dinner tonight. We are on our own so I don't know where we will be going - but I hope it is good!

Tina

Saturday July 23, 2005 10:30 pm

Just got back from dinner. It was me, Scott from Madison and 3 of our Chinese Co-Workers - Carol, Yuan and Ian. They took us to a restaurant that I went to my first visit here. And interesting mix of food.

We had some fish and duck to start. They they just started bringing out all kinds of things. Different things that I hadn't had here before - there was a corn dish that was very interesting It looked like a corn pizza - kernels of corn held together by something (I never figured that part out) but it had a bit of a sweet taste to it and was slightly crispy. It was pretty good.

We also had turtle - I tried a little piece and it was ok - but it seemed like there was a lot of shell in the dish so it was hard to tell what to eat and what not to. Otherwise there was some soup with whitefish in it that was pretty good - a little spicy with lots of dried red peppers on top. A sweet squash or potato soup - they couldn't think of the word for it - but it had the consistency of a cream of wheat. There wasn't anything that really stood out as being very good - but nothing that was too strange to eat either.

Tomorrow they have arranged for Scott and I to go on a bus tour around Wuxi. It is a long trip - something like 9 hours and it is free but you just have to pay different entrance fees to the places you stop at. I am excited to go - will take the good camera with me and hope to get some good pictures out of it. I know we will go to Tai Hu Lake and to some gardens. There is also a stop at a place that they described where they shoot a lot of Chinese movies. So - it will be interesting. It will also be interesting since the tour is in chinese and once you get past Hello/How are you and Thank you I am lost.

After dinner they took us to a CD/DVD store. There is a song that Carol keeps singing at work that is very pretty and I wanted to pick it up. They have a lot of CD's & DVD's of American movies that are pirated and really cheap. They were selling Mr & Mrs Smith (which just came out in the theater a couple weeks ago) for about $2. pretty amazing. Scott picked up a 6 CD set of the Alias TV show for his daughter for $5. He figured he would try it out and see if it plays and if it does consider getting some more things.

Well, it sounds like we will have a long day ahead of us tomorrow so I am going to get some sleep.

looking forward to posting lots of pics when I get back tomorrow night.

Tina

Saturday July 23, 2005 - 4:00 pm

I found the Chinese equivalent to Target :) It is very near my hotel so I am very happy :)

I went out to read at the Starbucks for a while. I didn't end up reading at the time - just people watching. I realize that it is just a big city and people are just people - but everything is new to me and it is facinating to just sit and watch. The picture is of three women who walked by carrying these long pieces of wood. That is just not something you see very often. Out in front of a shopping center there was a group of young girls (probably about 6 or 7 years old) that were begging money from people. There were 4 of them that I saw and they would go up to people with their little cup and grab a hold of their shirt trying to get money. They were pretty insistant to people and would chase after them. It was sad to watch because they were so young - but then I saw one of them take something over to a man who was sitting off to the side. So - I don't know if they were working for him or what but after that I didn't feel so bad for them anymore. (well, that is not really true - I still felt bad for them having to do this).

I walked around a bit more going into some of the shopping centers - mostly because they were airconditioned and it was nice to get out of the heat!

I went down a few little alleys that had stores alongside. They were all a little seedy looking and I probably should stick to the main drags. I certainly got a few strange looks when I was in there!

I finally got too hot to be outside when I found a store called Home Mart. I saw a bathing suit in the window and could only think about how amazing it would be to jump in the pool at the hotel - so I went inside and searched for the womens clothing. The stores here are all multi-level so I had to go up to the 4th floor to find it. They didn't have very many - but what they had was cheap so I didn't really care. I figure I wasn't really looking for anything spectacular - just something I could use for my trip. I found a couple one-piece suits that were ok so I grabbed a M size since that is what I would normally take and suddenly I was surrounded by these 3 Chinese worker ladies who were telling me - You No Medium! it was very funny. One of them kept pointing to the tag at the M and then at herself (she was pretty skinny) and then pointing at the M and me and shaking her head. They walked me back over by the suits and pointed me to the XL size! They were very insistant on it and basically would not let me take a M size.

I picked up some bath gel because the stuff at the hotel isn't very good and a poof for the shower. There was a grocery in the store too - which is good to know! There were a lot of flavored potato chips in interesting flavors - Lays brand chips but Seaweed, Mexican Tomato Chicken and Italian Meat Flavor. very curious - but I wasn't feeling very adventurous, so I just got a little can of pringles :)

Thankfully those ladies were right about the swimsuit - I hadn't thought that Chinese M means something completely different for us overweight Americans! The suit ended up fitting pretty good and I was very happy to get a little swim in to cool down. I brought a book (Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto) down by the pool and read there for a little bit it was nice to cool off and relax after a lot of walking this morning.

After the swim I got real clothes on again and went to the little lounge in the lobby. They serve drinks and little appetizers there all day long. I got some fruit tea and a few spring rolls. Funny enough the spring rolls are the first I have actually seen in China! They were quite good - crisp wrap on the outside and some veggies inside. I wish I would have gotten the order of 5 instead of just 3! I sat there and read for about an hour and watched people passing by on the street for a while. It was a really nice time although I started feeling a little lonley at the end - It will be good to have the group dinner tonight and be around people I know.

More after I get back tonight.
Tina

Saturday July 23, 2005 10:30 am

Already very warm out. Hot and Sticky. I just got back from walking around Wuxi for 2 hours. Quite interesting - although since the streets are not exactly at right angles I did get a bit nervous that I was lost a few times!

I walked down by the canal. There are walkways along the sides of the canal and what look like housing of some sort. I considered going down along it - but it didn't look very welcoming so I stuck to the streets.

I am intrigued by the little shops. They sell just about anything - shoes, clothing, bags, phones, food - everything you could want. They are small places - most only about 7x7 feet or so - small, little things.

There are also food vendors at almost every cross road. There was one cart that I watched for a little while. The man would pour a batter on the hot plate and spread it out to make a thin crepe. Then he took that off the plate and cracked an egg on it - scrambled it up - put what looked like some onion on it and sauce of some kind. He put the crepe back on top and flipped them both over so the egg was on top - added more sauce and what looked like a piece of fried bread of some kind then rolled it all up like a burrito.

While I was out walking there were several people who would pass by and say "hello" to me and then laugh and smile when I said hello back to them. I don't know if it was their only english word or if they were just being friendly. There are also many times I feel a bit *on display* here for lack of a better word. Wuxi is not a big tourist area so other than in the hotel I do not see very many non-asian people. It is funny to have people looking at you all the time and frankly I am just not that interesting!

On the way back to the hotel I found a grocery store and stopped to pick up some water. Luckily I still had a little bit of cash from my last visit. I need to locate a bank where I can get a cash advance from my corporate card. It would be nice to have some money for food and other things I need for the places that don't take a credit card.

I will probably go find a coffee shop and read for a while today. I want to get out of the hotel room - but I am not sure how much more walking around I want to do.

more later,
Tina

Friday July 22, 2005 8:20 pm

My room was just invaded by 3 Chinese women! They came in to turn down my bed, fluff the pillows and shut the window curtains. Not that I needed this - but I have no idea what they were saying at the door so I just let them in :) It is very funny to be in a place where you just have no idea what people are saying.

They also took away my dessert dish. You have to make travel a bit fun right? I ordered a dessert from room service - mango ice cream on top of vanilla chocolate chip ice cream with mango sauce :) Check it out - doesn't it look cool!! It actually looked better than it tasted - but that is ok.

Friday July 22, 2005 7:10 pm

Finally had a meeting with the whole Lunar team. We covered a lot of good topics and I helped to explain some things about how the audit will work that seemed to calm them. So that is very good.

Shaofeng drove me back to the hotel - nice of him since it is out of his way - but I think he wanted to get out of the office too!

Ate at Someplace Else again tonight. Just ordered a salad and some calamari. The calamari were the size of onion rings!

I have a conference call tonight at 9:00 so I am waiting for that.

My room faces out to the river and also to the setting sun. Got a glimpse of a rather nice sunset tonight before the sun went behind one of the tall buildings.

I also face an interesting group of buildings and street crossroads. In the picture you can see little stands on the corners of the street - these are people selling different foods or other items. I see people gathered there all during the day - but in the evening there are people sitting in chairs on the street. There is also a building that is missing the roof and walls - from what I can see it looks like people are living there because there is clothing hanging inside. Behind that building is a empty lot and at night there are people gathered around little fires there too. It is just a very different environment.

I hope to get out tomorrow morning to get more pictures with the good camera. Hopefully it won't be too warm.

Tina

Friday July 21, 2005 1:00 PM

Just finished lunch. Some beef dish, rice, green beans, dumplings. Tried not to eat very much as it is very hot out and all the food is warm. Would just about kill for a cold drink of any sort!!

Last night I tried to go to the sauna in the hotel – but it wasn’t on when I got there and didn’t seem to be heating up in the 30 minutes I waited. Oh well. I think I will try again this weekend seems like a good way to relax. Otherwise I will just work out a bit again tonight before my t-con.

I ordered room service last night – Shrimp tempura which was ok. Good Salad and miso soup with it. Will probably order in again tonight as I won’t really have time to go anywhere. And that is ok with me. It is nice to just get to do my own thing.

Scott from Lunar comes tomorrow and I was invited to a group dinner with him and the Logic book team so I said I would do that. Should be a bit social and actually eat some Chinese food too! The guys from Ohmeda said they had dog last night so I am extra glad I turned down their invitation!

Work wise things are pretty good. Feeling good about most things – but need some further review of the Wuxi docs next week.

Missing everyone from home a lot. It is hard to see things and want to just call Tom and tell him – not that easy. Maybe I will give a few calls home tonight. Would be good to talk with V and see how she is doing. I need to send out some postcards tomorrow too!

Tina

Thursday July 21, 2005 12:45 pm

Just finished lunch. I am not sure how to convey that they serve too much food! I would have liked to only have the noodle bowl – broth with noodles but instead got a big serving of rice, some greens with garlic and a beef dish that I can only compare to a pepper steak at home. Everything was good – but I really just don’t want that much!

Today is going ok. I am trying to get them to understand the differences in risks and perceptions. There are many things that they don’t understand and I am not sure how to convey. That is frustrating.

Also, Mark told me in confidence that Pauls doctors do not want him to travel until after August so I doubt he will be here for the audit. I guess that is both good and bad. Although – perhaps they will send Ken and that would be nice. He has more direct experience with us anyways. Waiting for word on that.

Carol asked me today if I have plans for the weekend – so at least that means that they are not planning to work. Thank God!!

We have two t-Con’s tomorrow. One at 9 tomorrow night. I’ll do that from the hotel. Will work on getting out an update prior to it while at the office.

Need to confirm with Carol that we are going to Huaxin. At least for a little while I think it is important. Maybe Monday or Tuesday at the latest.

Looking forward to a light dinner tonight and exercise. I think it will be good to get some of the stress worked out! And sit in the sauna for a little bit. I’ll go home skinny J lol

Tina

Thursday July 21, 2005 9:00 am

Day two at the office.
Read a tiny bit last night and went to be about 9 or so. Slept until 4:30 and got up around 5. I imagine I will be tired by the end of the day again – but hopefully after tonight I will be ok.

Gave Tom a call this morning. Damage on the car is costing a lot. Uggh! Not good. Good to hear his voice though. I plan to call him more this time so we keep in touch better. He didn’t get my mail which is weird – but maybe he connected afterwards or the delay in sending it or something.

Actually worked out this morning! 10 min bike, some sit-ups and arm curls then ran for a little bit and walked to cool down. Not a super long time, but it felt good. I figure I will go back tonight and do a bit more then hit the sauna.

This morning I met some more GE folks at the hotel. Was good to see some American faces. One of them I mistook for the guy I met yesterday – Keith. This guy was Clive and he said he wasn’t in my party – that he was going to some boring factory and I said, GE? He said he thought I was a tourist because I looked relaxed – told him it was only jet lag.

Tina

Wednesday July 20, 2005 8:15 pm.

Just was treated to a short fireworks show out my window. Not very long, but was fun to see. Getting pretty sleepy – will read and write a bit then get to bed.

Tina

Wednesday July 20, 2005 7:15 pm.

Ok – I figured out the chair earlier today and got it raised to a decent level but my shoulders are still sore. I don’t know how they work like that – table at chest height. It would drive me crazy.

I left the office at 6 and headed back to the hotel. Decided to try Someplace Else Fun for dinner. It is a bar/restaurant here in the hotel – kind of a sports bar. ESPN on and a pool table (just one). I had the special – Pork Vindaloo which was pretty good. I took a picture thinking maybe I will be like the person on the last trip who took a photo of everything they ate. I also took a picture of my Free Bread basket. The waitress was very impressed to tell me it was free bread. I took a matchbook because inside it was a My Name is ____ What is Your’s?______ Phone Number_______ like a little kids note! Very funny.

Now I am in the room again. Sleepy but I know I need to stay up for a while. Looking for a movie or something to watch that I understand. I suppose I could read too – maybe Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto?

Shaofeng and I made a plan to review the action list tomorrow morning with the team and then I will start to dig into their files. Lots of little ends to tie up – but I think it will all be ok.

I will ride over with another Milwaukee guy – Keith? Paul? I am so bad with names! Maybe next week take a taxi or ride with Scott. Will have to see how things go as far as how long they all work. Audit or not I can’t deal with really long hours there!

Still need to find some water – need that tomorrow. I am waiting for a power adapter so I can charge my batteries for the camera. The ones in the little camera are already gone. I suppose I can pick up some too.

Maid just came to the door – it is interesting how people who don’t understand each other communicate. She did not speak English but just kept speaking Chinese when I clearly didn’t understand. But, I realize we do the same thing – speak slower, change the words as though that would help the situation.

As I type I am getting more and more sleepy – considering just reading tonight and getting to bed but also worried I will wake up too early. I suppose I could do that working out thing I had planned on and brought all that clothes for!

Tina

Wednesday July 20, 2005 3:00 pm

At the Wuxi office. Only took about 10 min to get here which was nice. I remembered or at least figured out what bugs me about this part of China – it is very drab. I don’t know if it is the constant haze or pollution or just the fact that I never see the sun while I am here – but it is depressing. Things are just grey and in disrepair.

The office is good. People are going crazy here – they have several conference rooms set up with people working and on task. Xi Shui came by to say hello which was nice. The only bad thing is that the chairs are all so low! I am hunched over and uncomfortable. After only 2 hours my shoulders hurt. I will need a higher chair!

Tina

Wednesday July 20 12:00 pm

Went out for a little walk. Found a Starbucks J and what looks like a movie theater. There is a little shopping center connected to the hotel. When I walked in a girl came up to me with a little card and kept saying something – but I have no idea what she was saying. She didn’t speak English and I don’t speak Chinese so what ever she was saying was lost on me. I hate that helpless feeling of not understanding. While she was probably just trying to sell me something I still felt bad.

I need to find a little store to buy some water. There were a few street stands, but I need more than that & I am pretty sure they don’t take a cc so that won’t work. I want to save all the cash I have – especially since things at home with the car are costing a lot of money. That is a big bummer.

The street scene here is so strange. I really feel foreign (lol – like I am not?) but it is very hard to tell what things are. In Japan and Korea I saw much more with dual language and here it is not that way. Perhaps in Shanghai it would be different?

Chatted with all the sisters this morning. Was good to hear from them and let them know I am safe.

I have the Do not Disturb sign on the door. For some reason having the maid service just bothers me a bit. I like feeling that this room is more “mine” and I wouldn’t have them change the sheets or towels yet anyways.

I would like to see how I can pull out some of the stuff from the fridge so I can put in my own stuff. Perhaps I can check on that later.

I wasn’t able to get Outlook to keep online this morning. That sucks as it is or will be important for me to be able to get on at night or in the morning. Although, I suppose I will be at the office shortly.

I will ask Carol for a map and taxi instructions so I can get there on my own going forward. Would be much easier. Although, first I need to get some cash! I tried at one bank and it wouldn’t allow it. Hopefully I can find another one where I can get cash to use for taxi and small food stuffs.

All for now – need to pack for the office.
Tina

Wednesday July 20 10:00 am

After a very long trip I am finally here. Sheraton Hotel in Wuxi China. We had a delay in Tokyo so I didn't get in until almost 1:00 am last night. :(

The hotel is pretty good - nice bed. Crappy shower :( The water temp just does not stay the same so that will be interesting.

Breakfast is pretty good - eggs, potatoes, sausage, bacon - pastries. Mostly pretty good - but always just a bit different than back home. The sausage tasted more like beef jerky to me.

I can never seem to get used to the fact that you have to put your room key in a little slot by the door in order for power to work in the room. Smart idea - but hard to break the habit of just walking in and putting my key on the table. I also know that I will forget it in the slot and close the door behind me soon!

I got unpacked last night - books next to the bed, clothes hanging up, camera in the safe :) Tonight I may look for a grocery to stock up on some water. There is only one bottle in the bathroom and that won't last long. I am not sure if I need to use it for brushing teeth, but I'd rather not take the chance that the tap water is safe. I don't want to get sick and make a long trip even longer!

The view from my room is ok. I can see the river a few blocks away (will post a pic) and many apartment buildings. I'll have to take a walk tonight and get out front of the building. I just don't feel much like doing that this morning - but I do have a bit of time still before I have to go to the office.

last night driving here from Shanghai I slept a lot, which was probably good. The few times I did wake up and look at the driver - or rather the speedometer, we were going 140km! There is a lot of construction (well there is construction everywhere, but the highways too) and you have to switch sides of the road pretty often. We did make pretty good time though and I was happy with that.

Coming into Wuxi we passed what must have been a large apartment community. There were many busses leaving filled with people (this is at 12 midnight!) most likely going in to work somewhere. I know that the Wuxi GE team has shuttle busses that take people to and from work. It is strange to see so many people out at that time. There were many people riding bikes and I saw a lot of people gathered at little tables around corners. It looked that there were food stands there that people were eating and talking. It is unusual to see at that time.

I am already missing home. It seems like the length of time I was going away for didn't really kick in until the plane ride to Tokyo. It seems just unreal that I won't be home until August 12. I am already counting down the days.

more tonight after a day at the office...
Tina