30 March 2010: First day at work in Shenyang

30 March 2010

I survived my first official day at the old plant...I can see why we're building a new one...I'll just leave it at that.

Good, hard working people, but certainly not ideal conditions.

My office will be on the 5th floor...with no elevator! I went to the hotel fitness center in the morning and had a good workout...I didn't realize I was going to get a workout later by going up and down steps! No wonder all these people are skinny!

I also went to my first local restaurant yesterday for lunch...I'll have to get a picture of the window...I'll try to describe it, but it wont do! First of all, if I hadn't been with someone who knew, I wouldn't have known it was a place to eat...in the window were about 6 plastic dishpan looking pans with water and various "things" floating around…shells, etc...and the one I couldn't really get over...was a bunch of something that looked like worms...big worms...about as big around as your middle finger and about 6 inches long...I don't think I ate anything like that...but I can't be sure! The frenchman ordered for me and the food was good...but I can't be sure what I ate.

Then last night, I went out to eat with my boss. He took me to a very nice restaurant…he picked out the live fish that was going to get cooked, head and all...and we ate it (I stayed away from the head!). When we ate all of one side, he called the waiter over to flip the fish, so we could eat the other side. He said it was bad luck to flip a fish...if you were driving, you would have a wreck, or if you were on a boat, you would capsize…so sure enough, the waiter took the bones out, but didn't flip the fish.

I'm slightly overwhelmed, but I'll make it!

28 March 2010, life begins in Shenyang solo for the moment

I mention in the note below that "I'm pretty sure it's pollution"...well after 1+ year here, I confirm...it's pollution!

28 March 2010

Greetings everyone,

> I arrived safe and sound here in Shenyang. It's another big city...not as glitzy as Shanghai, but still huge ~8 Million people!

> My new boss met me at the airport with flowers and a driver, and took me here to the Inter Continental hotel and gave me a welcome packet, which includes a new business phone and some emergency contact info. I'll go to work for the first time tomorrow morning...but for now, I'm settled in.

> Attached is a pic with a view from my hotel window (18th floor). In it, you can see there is a general haze...I'm pretty sure that's pollution.

> Another pic is my room..looks nice. I'm sure I'll be tired of it by the time it comes to move to an apartment, but for now, it's home sweet home! Come on over Rod!

27 March 2010: Gardens and Pearls in Shanghai

 Looks like I have figured out the back-dating thing...so here's the next Installment

27 March 2010

Greetings all,

Thank you so much for your emails and words of encouragement!  They have made my first week "away from home" not feel so "away"!  

As you know, I was sick before I left...well, unfortunately, that continued after I got here...not sure if it was a continuation, or "the water", but I was not at my best...I won't go into the gruesome details, but suffice to say both ends were going.  I think I'm finally over whatever it was is finally through my system.  I've had 2 days of uninterrupted gastro-intestinal bliss!  I hope that's the last of my personal health update!!

My week of meetings here in Shanghai has been very good and informative (when I wasn't on the toilet!).  Lots of good information and knowledge sharing and support to help pull off the project I'll be leading.  

In the evening, we took a taxi to an area of Shanghai called Xin Tian Di.  It's a section of Shanghai that is very European with lots of places to eat and just walk the streets. (To take a taxi, the only way to communicate is to have a card with the Chinese characters of your destination written on it...we've only found 1 taxi driver so far that couldn't read!)  From the hotel to the airport is about a 1 hour drive...it costs about 200 RMB (about $30.00).  It's amazing to me that taxi drivers know where to go in this huge city!  The key is always have a written card with your destination written in Chinese characters!

Night before last, I went to the International Pearl market (one of many, I'm sure)...now this is a sight to see!  It's a huge market..full of stands of cultured pearls...real cultured pearls...millions of them!  Black, pink, gold, white..you name it, it's there!  If you don't see a style you want, then, they will re-strand the pearls while you wait!  All qualities, price ranges etc...all negotiable!  OK, admit it...I bought a simple necklace!  Did I pay too much...maybe...but I did negotiate...my tactic was start with 1/2 price and see where that goes!  We didn't end up too far from there, so I felt I got a good deal!  Since many of the people on this list are females...I'll attach a picture (me taking a picture of myself is an exercise in trial and error..mostly error!) ...it's not quite like showing stuff off in person, but close!

 

My simple necklace...2 golden south sea looking pearls hanging on a gold rope...not to be confused with what some people put on the hitch of their country-boy pickup-trucks...although I have to admit, it does look like it...I assure you it doesn't feel like it!

Today, (Saturday), I went for a little exploring solo in Shanghai.  I went to the Yu Garden.  An old garden in the middle of the old city.  I'm sure I would have learned a lot more if I took a guided tour, but I just wondered around looking and enjoying the simplicity of the garden.  I saw shrubs similar to what we have in SC (camellias, loripedelum, acuba, azaleas etc).    It was a beautiful old walled garden, well maintained and filled full of classic Chinese architecture (or at least what comes to my mind when I think old China...curled up roofs, ornate dragons etc).  Outside the garden area was tourist central... a zillion people, all walking up and down the streets, hawking everything from "Rolex's" to designer bags to chop-sticks and everything in between...I didn't get any souvenirs, but what a caucophonie of sounds..horns, hawkers every language you can think of...in a city of 19 million people.  Not sure this is a place to come if you are claustrophobic, but if you are game for adventure, come on over!

A view of the inside of Yu Garden in Shanghai, a trimmed boxwood.  Note the 2 dragons on the top of the wall around the garden and the  little warriors on the curled-up roof.  I got from one of the guided tours I eaves-dropped on that the dragons are there to protect the garden.  I'm not sure what the warriors are doing...I just thought they were cute!

Tomorrow, I go to Shenyang, where Rod will join me on the 4th of April.  I'll be staying in the Intercontinental Hotel until we move into an apartment (which I've been told, plan on a month while the visas and residence permits are secured).  I'll send another update from Shenyang, with my first impressions. 

Sarah in the Yu Garden (note the Camellias blooming on the left) Taken by someone who spoke English!

 So that about does it for this update. 

Until next time,

Keep us in your prayers!

Sarah

21 March 2010: 1st Impressions and 1st class! The China experience begins!

I'm trying to put all of my "China Update Emails" on this blog, and I'm not sure how to backdate the blog yet...  This is the first email I wrote over here which chronicles the flight here and some 1st impressions.  I find that 1st impressions are so important to capture at the time...otherwise we forget!  

Sarah’s China Update emails

21 March 2010

Hello all,

I wanted to let everyone I know that I arrived safe and sound here in China.  My trip here started out on a shaky note...the night before I left, was sick as a dog...probably a combination of nerves, trying to cram in too much prior to leaving etc...but  I left as planned and flew from Greenville, SC to Detriot.  However, the flight in Greenville was late arriving and we missed our connection to Shanghai.  I couldn't get over the fact that there were 5 people from Greenville, SC going to China!  So, we had a choice of either taking the next direct flight (meaning the same flight but 1 day later, spend the night in Detroit), or getting rerouted through Paris that got us into Shanghai 7 hours later.  I took the latter option.  As it turns out, really glad I did.  I was sitting on the flight ready to land in Paris, CDG Airport (those of you who have flown in there know that this is not a friendly airport to navigate around!), when the flight attendant came up and said I had priority deplaning.  When I got off the plane, but before I entered the jetway, there was an Air France person waiting on me (name on the sign and everything!) and she took me off, down the steps, and into a car and she was taking me to the 1st class lounge.  Now, I had been in the business class lounge before, but never arrived this way!  As it turned out, I had never been to this lounge.  When I got there, I went through a separate security screening, gave this agent my passport and boarding pass and she get me through passport control while I sat down in a very posh lounge!    I imagine this is how VIP's travel every day (although I didn't see anyone in the lounge I recognized)  There was a chef who would have prepared anything I wanted (although still having a queezy stomach I didn't want anything).  I waited there until it was time to board and the agent came to get me.  She took my boarding pass and passport and my carry on luggage and took me back outside to a car (this time it was a brand new Mercedes Benz 350!) and drive me to the base of the jetway, took me up the steps and escorted me on the plane to my seat...1A.  I had been upgraded to 1st class going from Paris to Shanghai!  The treatment in 1st Class was pretty nice..but not as nice as the seat that reclined fully flat and when it came time to sleep, I was able to actually sleep!  It made the very long trip tolerable.    I don't know why any of this happened...I attribute it to being nice to the agent at Detroit when the other 4 people on the flight from Greenville were somewhat irate!  I was very grateful.  

I got through passport control just fine and my company had a driver waiting for me to take me to the hotel here in Shanghai.  I've tried to stay up as much as possible so that I can sleep tonight.  There is 12 hours difference (as I write this, it's 6:30pm on Sunday night...so it's 6:30 am on Sunday morning EST in the US).

I'm in a nice hotel here in Shanghai.  I'm not sure yet, as I type this mail, how I'm going to send it, as logging into the internet will require a payment of some type here at the hotel.  

Heres a photo of the view from my hotel window...a big city...that's about all I can say for the moment.

So, that's the first update...more to come as the adventure continues!