Pictures!

Since I haven't really put any pictures up, I thought I would rectify that situation. Today was a horrendously long (but really awesome) day that included something like ten miles of walking and very little nourishment. It's 11:26 PM and we just had McDonald's delivered since everything else is closed. That's right... McDonald's delivery. Anyway! Pictures below in collages because I'm a little too lazy to upload all of these pictures individually. :)

People!

From the top left and going clockwise: Billy rolled his pants up at the Shenzhen Celebrity Club during lunch because it was Louisiana hot and he was sweating, Lindsey trying a boiled yeast ball covered in honey and peanuts, Mary tasting a fruit in Sam's Club that required gloves, Richard giving us some egg-based custard from KFC, Dr. Watson on the Westlake tour boat (and all of the cameras!), Riley and Erica on the same tour boat, Will in front of the Confucious statue in Westlake, Jose at the Sam's Club, and Chad trying the same gloves-required fruit at the Sam's Club.

Things We've Done:

From the top left: Strolling through a mall during our free time (and while being tailed for SIX FLOORS) we spotted this advertisement in a KFC: a shrimp-filled chicken patty sandwich, the 'Times Square' of Shenzhen, all the beer we consumed at a little bar/restaraunt in Shenzhen for RMD $20.00!!, Mary and Riley at the Modern Toilet restaraunt (delicious pineapple fried rice), Mary's chocolate ice cream dessert at the Modern Toiley, and Erica on the bus to Suzhou from Hongzhou.

Suzhou:

Starting at the left and going top to bottom: Group shot in front of the Confucious statue (Asian people were taking our picture, too, and crashing it), a farmer's house along the freeway between the airport and the hotel, a dragon boat we thought was awesome, Dr. Watson, girls' group shot on a bridge in Westlake, Chinese man taking a picture of us (we get a LOT of stares, photo requests, and comments), a bridge on an island (I didn't understand why there's a bridge on an unihabitated island), koi pond, and another shot of the koi pond (but the branch got in the way).

SPICY! Dinner in Suzhou:

Joyce, Linda, and Richard (our resident Chinese guides and student) trying to order dinner for fourteen people, Will and Chad about to consume some Chinese liquor best described as gasoline, Jose and Mary about to take a shot of the same stuff, Katie with some chopsticks.... or maybe those were Jose's?, Lindsey and Katie before we got our eating on, Mary on the phone with Sprint for the FOURTH time trying to figure out why we can't text anyone, and finally: Erica with one of her first ever beers!! (She's a wine drinker)

Two Cities, Two Companies, Free Beer!

It's about 11:40 PM here in Suzhou, China so I'm going to make this REALLY quick! My roommate is asleep and I should probably follow her lead... we have to be downstairs and checked out in about eight hours.

Today we went to a Chinese animation studio. It was really cool, especially the server farm right by the entry. We got to see some interesting renderings they're working on/worked on, including little sculptures of characters that look like the Tar Baby. There was even one of the pseudo Tar Baby crucified and molded into a pencil holder. Several people in my group were astounded. Pictures coming soon. The animation studio had some Korean workers. Interestingly enough, the Korean employees don't speak Chinese but they do speak English. One of the guys said that they learn Korean then English or Russian or Chinese. The US needs to pick up on this second language thing stat.

After a three hour drive from Hangzhou (which included a really ridiculously amusing trip to a Chinese KFC), we arrived in Suzhou. In Suzhou, we headed immediately to the Capsugel China headquarters. I'm pretty sure it was the GM that spoke to us, but I'm a bit hazy on that as several different titles were thrown out. He was personable and funny and imparted some really interesting information. For example, in countries like China, the high tech equipment has to be balanced out with a low tech workforce because of costs. After the lecture, we went on a factory tour.

They didn't let us take pictures in the changing room, but I wish they would have. We all looked so silly in our booties, hair nets, face masks, and lab coat things. The tour itself was awesome. They make a lot in a very little space.

After the tour, we got stuck in traffic but Richard and Oscar kept us going with show tunes.

Dinner was the best: LEGITIMATE Chinese buffet. Legitimate how? Because it's in China. it was like a cross between Great Wall and Texas de Brazil. Buffet meets wandering meat. HEAVEN. Best part? The FREE beer. Oh yes. Free beer + Chinese Buffet = Happy American Students. The fact that it was only $10 USD made us even happier students. Then came the foot massage, which I'm leaving to a post all its own.

WalMart!

Yesterday was our first business visit -- to WalMart's headquarters here in Shenzhen. It was kind of crazy; the Chinese have a different sense of 'business casual' than we do. It's crazy casual! The meeting room we were in was very bare bones; the ex-pat VP we met with told us that it was a WalMart thing: focus the money elsewhere.

After listening to the VP (and learning some interesting things... did you know that the average basket of goods at WalMart in China is US $9?), we visited the Sam's Club. Now here's an interesting conundrum: the Sam's Club here is targeted at the upper middle class to the upper class folks. For example, they sell 3D TVs and a 103" television and US $50,000 bottles of Cognac. Very odd indeed.

We walked around the Sam's club and saw the monster TV and the expensive liquor, but we also got to see live shrimp in a tank ready to be picked, a cut up alligator on display in the seafood section, and we got to try some monster fruit from Thailand.

At the moment, I can't find my camera's cable, so all these pictures will be up later.

The Work Arounds

Been in China less than six or seven hours and I've already found a work around to the fact that blogger is, in fact, blocked in China.

WHOOPS.

How did I miss that? WordPress, however, appears not to be. So if this work around fails me later on in the trip, you guys can find me at http://my2010chinatrip.wordpress.com.

So here's a list of things that have been interesting (in the last six hours):

The bathroom! -- Mary and I can't see each other in the shower, just shadows, but still... creepy.

The McDonald's -- At 2 AM we went to get McDonald's since it was open and we were hungry. Did you know people here don't throw away their own trash?

My amazing showerhead -- Can I bring it home with me?

Day 2 or 3? FINALLY in Asia!

So cultural differences are already pretty glaring -- the airports in both Tokyo and Hong Kong were silent. While waiting in line to go through immigration, the whole line was silent. Someone, Chad I think, pointed out the complete and utter silence; that wouldn't exist in the United States. Also, on the flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong, very few people reclined their chairs. Erica met some resistance when she wanted to recline hers (and ultimately couldn't). Fortunately, I was under the influence of my concussion drugs (naproxen and cyclobenzaprine) taken several hours earlier and I was able to sleep nearly the entire flight between Tokyo and Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, I had a small luggage snafu. My suitcase had been sent ahead of me but they couldn't easily find it. I got it, thankfully, and we went through customs. No declarations custom was pretty awesome - we just walked through. Actually, security at the Narita airport was pretty cool too - you don't have to remove your shoes! This could be because we were doing an international connection, but still. I was glad to keep my shoes on.

Also -- why do the Chinese seem to run everywhere?

Day 2 - More Traveling Misadventures

After turning the plane around (we were apparently over Canada, near Alaska when that happened), battling through Delta's red tape and somewhat inept gate/ticket agents, getting to the hotel, and back to the airport -- I thought I was done with traveling misadventures. We were back at the airport, got through security without an issue, and secured a flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong. No problem!



...until about 9:30 AM, one and a half hours before departure, when Delta began to check passengers onto the new flight. Imagine it. There are approximately 400 disgruntled passengers that, at that point, should either be in Tokyo or en route to their next destination (i.e., Hong Kong). There are four gate agents. One gate agent per 100 people.

Clearly, this is an instance of mass chaos and nobody is happy.



Then there's the announcement: everyone must check in and receive a new boarding pass with a new seat assignment -- BUT SIT IN THE OLD SEAT ASSIGNMENT! Unfortunately, this turned out to NOT be the case, but I wound up sitting between Erica and Jose (and across an aisle from Mary), so it worked out.

The plane was not fully boarded until approximately twelve forty-five and we probably didn't leave until about 1:15. Of course, while waiting we got treated to an extra special affair: the overhead bin not closing. Mary, Erica, and I being the enterprising young ladies we are took pictures of this event:

Traveling Misadventures

After leaving ATL, my group embarked on an eight-and-a-half hour adventure. Things were going pretty well until about hour number six. During hour number six, the pilot came over the speaker and announced, "We are safe, but,..." and then proceeded to say that we were going to backtrack an hour and a half to Minneapolis, MN.

So that is where I am right now: Minneapolis, MN at the Mall of America Ramada.

The flight was delayed until tomorrow (or today!) morning until 11:00 AM due to curfews in effect in Tokyo.

After spending two hours trying to find someone that could give us hotel and meal vouchers (without waiting in line with 400+ people), the group made it to the hotel wherein we had food and drinks.

In about seven more hours, we'll try this whole get-to-Tokyo thing again.

In ATL!

China trip begins today!

After waking up late, showering in under fifteen minutes, and hurriedly packing my electronics for the trip, my ride picked me up. At the BR airport, I managed to contact all my banks/credit card companies to tell them I'll be in China... maybe I should have done this a week ago.

We met Lindsey and Katie at the BR airport (and a few others) but it's important to note that Lindsey's never been on a plane before today. So we photographed this momentous event!

Getting Ready

We're leaving in four days for China and between closing the complex, packing things to take home, and packing things to leave in my apartment it's been a very hectic time!

The weather forecast in Beijing for the time we'll be there is highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s. I'm ridiculously excited because it was about 90F today between torrential downpours! Lots of light weight sweaters are making their way into my suitcase, along with some long pants. I bet those clothes thought they were packed up until November!

Tomorrow I'm going on an adventure to get an adaptor for my laptop. I checked my MacBook's power supply and my cell phone's cable and they can handle up to 240V in wattage, so I'm good! No converter needed so far. Tomorrow I'll check the digital camera's charger and the nook's plug and then I'll be good electronics-wise.

I'm kind of ridiculously excited.