China Life

Well, going into another week in Dalian China. What a wonderful experience so far. This past week has been interesting as I start to settle into some routines. I am actually really starting to enjoy my driver. He is really helping me to learn Chinese. It takes an hour to drive to work each day and an hour back at night depending on the traffic. What we do during the drive is teach each other our respective languages. On the morning drive, he teaches me Chinese and at night on the way home we work on his English. He is a very quick learner and already I am able to communicate pretty well with him. We started with me counting to 4 the first day. Ling, yu, du, san, chi. Then he said, "tomorrow 5" The next day we went from 5, wu, lui, qi, ba. Again, "tomorrow, 9. So, this morning I learned jio, shi. I also learned a number of words like today, policeman, traffic jam, good morning, work, wife, phone call and good. By the time I leave here I should have a pretty good vocabulary. Problem is that there will be no one to talk to with it at home.

Over the weekend I spent time with Brian and his wife, Barbabra. We went around the city and explored some of the shopping sites. We used their driver because he is very good at English and he helped explain many things about the city, tradition, how to shop and bartered for us. We started the weekend on Friday night where a bunch of us went to a place called the Brooklyn Bar. Yes, it was just like New York. The food was totally American and they have the best burgers, pizza and other American food in town. It appears the word is out to all the Americans here because it was full of many folks from Intel. The next day I decided to do some walking by myself. I walked for many miles. I ended up down by this Russian part of town. There were street vendors selling the normal tourist type stuff, but also different fruit for the locals. Here is a picture of what it looked like.

After this little stroll I decided to walk over and buy myself a local cell phone. This cost me 400RMB or about $50.00. I can now call my driver and all the folks I work with. Now it was time for dinner and I wasn't sure what I was going to do. It was actually raining and I wasn't sure about where to go. I found a place that looked clean and friendly. I was able to go in and order something that wasn't fishy smelling. It was a rice dish with chicken and an orange sauce. The dinner was very good. I ordered a diet coke with no ice and enjoyed a good meal. This meal cost me 20RMB or basically $2.60. If you stay away from the big hotels you can find meals very cheap.

Sunday, Brian and Barb came to my place and gave me an alarm clock. Our apartments do not have any clocks and I told them I was going to pick one up. They did it for me. I used it today, boy, is it annoying. It is one of those old type with the 2 bells on the top and a clanger between them. That woke me up this morning. We then decided to go and do some shopping. Their driver, Jacky, took us where the chinese go to shop for clothes. It is cheaper then most of the places around town and most of the stuff is knock offs, but you can't tell, it looks like the real thing. There is a lot of that around here. Anyway, the store he took us was about 2 blocks square and was 4 floors high. It was packed with individual stores inside. Everybody selling everything you could think of. There was one floor just for shoes, one floor for just clothes, 2 floors for trinkets and "valuable goods" Stuff you just can't live without.

After all this shopping we were getting pretty hungry. So, we asked Jacky where he likes to eat. Guess where we went?

It was very popular and it tasted just like home except they had a seafood pizza and served escargot if you wanted it. Where else but China can you get snails at Pizza Hut.

After this we did a little more shopping for a couple of hours and then we decided to meet some other friends at a very traditional tea house in China. In this tea house I found out that the girls serving the tea go to college for 3 years to learn the history of tea and how to serve it. Once they graduate they are able to go all over the world and serve tea to various people in special settings. The girl who served us was in her third year. They can also get a job at this tea house or one in Shanghai. This was a wonderful, relaxing way to just sit, drink tea and eat fruit, sunflower seeds and watermelon seeds. We had green tea this time but there were hundreds of types to choose from and they all are for something different for you body.

That was it for the weekend. Today was then the start of my second week in Dalian China.

First few days

In the past couple of days I have found the transition very different. It has been difficult at times because of the language. My driver here does not speak any English at all. Talk about difficult trying to express to him where I need to go. He is a really nice guy though. I will get a picture and post it tomorrow. I feel like royalty here in China. Working for Intel everyone bends over backwards to accommodate me. Everything is done for me. I don't even open doors on my own anymore. When I walk out the door in the morning the Bellman stands and greets me and opens the door. I have my driver waiting right at the front door. He runs around the car and takes my computer bag from me, puts it in the back seat for me and opens the door for me to get into the car. He has a bottle of cold water waiting for me each morning. He then takes me where ever I want to go. The second day I was here I had him take me to a shopping mall so I could pick some stuff up and some food. When we got to the store he ran and got me a cart. He followed me into the store pushing the cart. Stayed behind me the whole time as I walked the isles and all I had to do was select things off the selves and place them in the cart. He then unloaded the cart for me at the register and bagged all the items for me. He pushed the cart out to the car, opened the door for me to get in and he then unloaded the cart into the trunk. He drove me home, jumped out to open the door for me and then went to the Bellman to get a cart. He unloaded the items from the trunk into the cart, pushed the cart to the front door and from there the Bellman took the items up to my apartment. By the time I got up to the apartment the Bellman had unloaded most of the stuff into my apartment. All of this for no tip. What a wonderful culture. Actually I must say that Americans could learn from this culture on how to treat people. It is all about relationships and face. The people I have encountered have all been humble and kind and treat people with respect.

I usually visit the hotel bar each day for a quick beer, or as they call it pi juang. The first day I met the manager of the bar and he treated me like an old friend. He has even given me my own mug in the bar with my name on it so I can use that mug anytime I come in there. He greats me by name each time I walk in there and shakes my hand and spends time talking with me. Again, it is all about relationships.

I finished my immigrations paperwork today. I am now a working resident in Dalian China. I have my working visa and permit to work. I guess now I am officially Chinese. This was actually a very painless process.

After the immigrations process I decided to go ahead and head into work since I was in the neighborhood. I know my boss Rami has been asking about me all week so I figured I should make an appearance. I wasn't planning on staying all day but as soon as I showed up I was pulled into 4 different meetings and did not get out of work until about 6pm. I can see that this is going to be a very busy project. I am going in tomorrow morning early as well. Oh well, the easy life is over, now it is time to buckle down, dig in and get things started. I will start writing about both work and free time. We will see how this all mixes. I will let you tell me when I am too much one way or the other.

One last thing for today. I know I am going to regret putting this in writing but here goes. I have a good FRIEND, he has been going through treatment and a recent surgery for cancer. He sent me word today that the results have come back on the biopsy and they did not find the cancer in the lymph nodes. This is wonderful news and I am so happy for him. I know he is on to a wonderful recovery and will make it through all of this. He has a lot to look forward to in his long and enjoyable life. Praise the lord for the results. I will continue to keep him in my thoughts and prayers like so many people are.

Getting settled

Well, now that a few days have gone by I guess I can say I am starting to get settled. After getting my 3 bags on the airplane, 2 for free but that extra third one cost $200.00. I tell you, the airlines are sure making their money on this baggage stuff. One of my bags was over the 50lb limit as well and at least they let me move things around between the bags in order to get them all under the 50lb limit. I never realized that my underwear weighed so much. Anyway, I got it all taken care of and set off for the long flight.

First I had a small puddle jumper from Phoenix to LA. This was a really bad flight. The Cabin Attendant was really cranky and had a really bad attitude. She was the only one on the flight and made it known to everyone. Once the flight was over and we landed in LA we had to sit on the runway for about 15 minutes to wait for our gate to clear. At that time, a passenger got up to use the restroom and the flight attendant got on the intercom immediately and literal yelled at the person to sit back down and not get up again as the plane cannot taxi with someone out of their seat and especially in the bathroom. Boy, did that guy sit down quickly.

I then finally got off the plane and had to go to the international terminal. Is that LA airport ever a mess. It is dirty and run down. I got to the international terminal and to the gate. Standing at the gate, it was at the last possible gate and there were actually 2 different planes leaving at the same time at the same gate. An A and B gate. One going to Mexico City and the other going to Seoul. The gate sitting area had only 2 rows of seating for two jumbo jets. I would say about a total of ~600 people with only 20 seats. That was fun standing for one and half hours. They had good entertainment though. An employee who I think was an ex Disneyland employee took 35 minutes setting up the waiting line ropes. Disney would have been proud. After all that and no intercom, it was a made rush for loading. I made it though.

On the flight, it was uneventful. Other then the bad fish smell when they began to serve the dinner. The flight was full of people who loved fish and rice. I just had a hard time with it and decided not to eat the dinner. The guy next to me did though. Now, just to let you know, the dinner was a Korean dish and it had some fish soup broth. He didn't get much in his mouth because he dropped it and spilled it all over me. That made for a pleasant 13 hour flight. I only had 11 more hours to go. The rest of the flight was quiet and nothing more happened. I slept well on the flight. We then finally landed after 13 hours. I then had a 4 hour layover in Seoul. I grabbed a Duncan Doughnut and relaxed for a while. Made the next flight and was off to my final destination of Dalian China.

Once I arrived in China I had my driver waiting to pick me up. I walked out and there he was standing there with my name on a sign. He rushed up to get all my bags. He does not speak a lick of English. I just followed him to the car. Got in and somehow got him to understand that I needed to get to the Shangri-la resident apartments. He took me to the hotel instead. Not too bad since the apartments were just around the corner. Made it to my apartment.

It is a nice apartment. A 2 bedroom with nice kitchen, dining area and living room. I am on the 10th floor. It overlooks a nice beer garden.

Finally Arrived.

Well, here I am. In Dalian. It is August 31st and just finished a long flight. I will get into my experiences getting here in a moment. First I want to mention a couple things that went on the past week prior to my leaving.

The week was filled with needing to get a lot of stuff done and prepared or fixed. It was busy but a lot was accomplished. The movers came to get my stuff I had packed to ship. This would include items like winter clothes, some kitchen utensils, some books and shoes. Of course, a George Foreman too so I can actually try and cook something. Well the trick with all that was that it had to weigh a total of at least 220lbs in order for the movers to ship it for me. I was trying everything to get the weight up there. I thought I had gotten pretty close. All of it to me seemed to be pretty heavy. Well, after they came and got it and packed it all up for me, I was sent a letter later in the week telling me that my shipment was 197lbs. Missed it by that much! Luckily, they let it go and they will be shipping it. I was worried they wouldn't.

Next came the last two games of racquetball with my LA fitness RB buddies. They were good games that week but they didn't let up on me. I actually only won one game out of the eight we played on Thursday. I thought they were going to let me win just to be nice. Well, they didn't do that but what they did do after the games was take me out to breakfast. I thought I was only going to have breakfast with John but 4 other guys showed up to send me off. These guys are wonderful. I want to thank John, Dave, Mike, Frank and Jim. These guys have really become fantastic friends and worthy opponents over the past few years. I am going to miss these guys, not only for the games, but the friendships. I am truly blessed with friends like them. They also gave me a new ping pong paddle with its own case and a paddle ball set for beach play. I guess I have to take up Ping Pong or Badminton while here in China.

There were many lunches, dinners and breakfasts I attended this past week. Don't really know why wanted to spend time with me? I guess I am lucky to have a wife who has so many friends. I get to tag along and be her date. That seemed to take up a lot of time in between the running around I had to do.

Now, 3 days before I was to leave, our desktop computer decided to stop working and not boot up. The hard drive crashed on it. Well, what was I to do? I tried everything I could to revive it but it was really DOA. I decided to buy a new tower. I then had to spend the next few days setting it up with programs and stuff so Kevin could use it for school. Many hours in front of that things. I then got a call from the renters of my Mother in laws house on Thursday and he informed me there was a reverse osmosis leak which cased damage to the counter top in the kitchen. I drove over there and sure enough, it was bad enough that it was going to have to get replaced. Well, I decided to go ahead and do the work myself so I actually spent the whole day on Friday (the day before I was to leave) replacing the kitchen counter top. Luckily I had my Dad to help me out. He is always there to help and come to the rescue. I have learned many things from him in my lifetime and I am always grateful to have him by helping when I need it.

We then went to dinner and some friends house Friday night and enjoyed a relaxing time. I then had to get up in the morning and Kathy and I met my parents for breakfast. I figured I needed to eat as much this past week as possible because eating in china is not the most fulfilling or filling thing around.

Then came the moment of truth. Leaving for the airport. This actually went smoothly. Got all of the luggage together and loaded it into the truck. Brian called me and wanted to know if he should drive up from Tucson to say goodbye. Nice and appreciated thought but I said he didn't have to. Kevin said goodbye and Kathy and I were off.

My next entry to the blog will be what I went through to get the luggage on the flight and the flight over. Stay tuned.

Just about 1 week to departure date

I am winding down. I leave a week from Saturday. That leaves a lot to do over this next week. We are going to have a little get together for some neighbors and friends this Friday night. Just a small crowd. We are just having some small sandwiches, fruit and veggies. No set party type atmophere but relaxing.

This past week has been busy since last weekend. Kathy and I had to do some heavy duty work at her mothers house. We have been renting that out for the past year and 2 weeks ago we were informed that the renters were moving out. Well you know what that means. Cleaning, painting, repairing and elbow grease. We spent 3 straight days doing all of this. Lucky for us, Brian, his girlfriend Jenny and Kevin helped us paint and clean. Then the concern was trying to find another renter. Timing is everything. We really did not need this at this time with me leaving the country. So, in the Lords good timing we found someone to rent the house and they will be moving in on Sept 1st. The place is clean and ready to go and we basically will not lose any rent payments due to lack of renters. The lord is always good all the time. There is a few more things to do over the next weekend but it is ready to go.

Work has been hectic as well. My schedule continues to be filled with meetings every night until around 9pm. That is not so bad, but this week we started the next round of tool install design package reviews. These all seem to be scheduled for the mornings. That still makes for a very long day. I was able to stay home in the mornings a couple times this week which was good.

I am trying to get all my stuff ready for shipping. I have to come up with at least 220 lbs in order to be allowed to ship stuff. I am struggling to come up with enough weight. I don't want to have to put it in suitcases and carry it with me. If I have to, I will put free weights in the shipment. That way I can work out while I am sitting in my apartment at night doing nothing. The movers are coming on Monday to take my stuff so I will be busy gathering and packing stuff all weekend to see how much I have.

Next week will be busy. Will try to get things wrapped up and head out on Saturday. I will see if reality sinks in by mid week that I am leaving the country to live in a different culture on the opposite side of the world for close to a year without my family.

19 days to go

The clock is ticking. What has happened to all the time I had before I was going to leave? Will I get everything done here that I need to get done before the clock runs out? Oh what the heck, just take it a day at a time. Things will fall into place I guess.

I had a wonderful weekend this week. Enjoyed a good movie with my wife. If you get a chance to see Julie and Julia do so. It is a great movie and really shows the importance of a good blog. I think I am non the right path. Maybe a book deal or movie in the future huh? Anyway, Kathy and I have been trying to do as much together as we can. Being apart is going to be difficult. Kevin, Kathy and I then went out to dinner to Olive Garden on Friday night. That is always a great place to get good Italian food. We enjoyed a good dinner and good conversation. Saturday was then filled with normal work around the house. Little things you know. Fixing sprinkler heads, repairing some outdoor lights, repairing the in ground cleaning system in the pool. All of these little things that need fixing before I leave. After that, it was time for a nap. Got a good one in and was able to sleep for a good hour on the couch in the cool house when the temperature was over 105 degrees outside. We then decided to go to church in the evening and that way we could sleep in on Sunday morning and not be rushed the next day for the nice party my parents gave me. More about that in a bit. After we got home from church we just took it easy for the rest of the evening. Kathy made a nice dinner, Kevin went out with friends. Kathy and I sat outback enjoying the nice night. A beer in hand and a little Baileys for Kathy, we just sat and relaxed. A slight summer night breeze, stars in the sky, a very bright moon and birds chirping as they rest for the night. What more could you ask for and get. And no charge!

Sunday was a good day. Relaxed in the morning and helped Kevin a little with some yard work. Needed to get that done before it was too hot. Kevin does a great job with the yard and also the neighbors yard. This is good because he is going to get paid to keep our yard and pool in shape while I am in China. When we finished up the work we both sat around watched TV and cooled down. Then, at noon it was time to go to my Mom and Dads house for a little family get together. This is always a fun thing to do and it will most likely be the last time I will see my family for a few months. Well, arriving at my parents house I walked in the door and everyone was bowing to me. They tried to speak Mandarin but they didn't have a clue. But, nice attempt. My Mom was great, she decorated the whole house with a Chinese motif. She and my Dad actually went down to the Chinese Cultural Center here in Phoenix and looked for things that would give us a sense of China.

• She had Chinese good luck lanterns,
• She had Chinese Napkins,


• And of course Chinese Fortune cookies.

Then to top off the meal, we had Pizza for dinner. Where else can you have a multi cultural dinner other than in America. Thanks to my Mom and Dad (Bob and Carol) for making this day special, fun and enjoyable. I appreciate the love they show and the concern about me heading off to China.

Well, after that fun lunch, Kathy and I headed off to some other friends for dinner. These are friends we have known since our kids played T-ball together. Dave and Camille had us over for a wonderful pork roast dinner they cooked on the spit of the grill. Camille is a fantastic cook and we ate until we were full. We then sat and talked for some time and then went for a boat ride. You see, they live on a lake and we were able to just walk out the back door to the dock and onto their boat. We took a nice quiet ride around the lake and enjoyed another absolutely beautiful Arizona summer night.

Well, that is it for the weekend. A busy one but what better way to spend my last few weeks. Time with friends and family. Just wonderful.

3 weeks to go

Well, here I am sitting and trying to collect my senses knowing that I am only 3 weeks away from leaving for China. Again I am excited and apprehensive. I am trying to get all my stuff ready to ship and identify different things I am going to need. This is a hard task since I have no idea what it is going to be like there in China. I have received so many different emails and warnings about what is and what is not allowed in China. I do know that I am not allowed to ship any food, drugs, certain types and amounts of books and I can definitely not ship anything that has political overtones, propaganda about China or Tibet. I will have to get used to the restrictive control the Chinese goverment has on everything over there.

I have done some shopping to get ready. I am pulling together the essentials. I have purchased things like underclothes, new shoes, different clothes that will get me ready for the sub zero weather there starting in November. I was told that it is very difficult to find clothes my size there. Obviously being 6'3" and 195#, I am much taller and larger than the average chinese citizen. The challenge right now is trying to find winter clothes in the stores here in Arizona when it is 113 degrees and in the middle of the summer. Just try and find long underwear. Impossible. I guess i will just have to wait for a month and maybe Kathy can bring me some when she comes to visit me later this year. If not, I am going to be one frozen Arizona cactus boy.

My last week at work was a busy one. I continue to have very long days. Usually around 12 to 13 hours. That is because many of my planning meetings are now being held starting at 5:00pm Az time which is 8:00am the next day in China. I usually end up working to about 10:00pm. The good thing is I can do that from home. I guess the good thing is that will all be over in about 3 weeks, but I am sure that will be replaced with actual hands on work in the field inside the factory once I get there. I honestly don't mind that though. I like to do the actual work instead of planning for it.

Well, this week we will be beginning our redundant tool design for Fab68. This means it will be the second round of tools will be put into design packages for review of installation needs. We look at where the tools will be installed in the factory and all the mechanical, electrical and structural needs to install the tool. This will keep me busy at work. At the same time I will be working with the other project managers trying to figure out how we will keep the design reviews going on here while our team begins to transition to China over the next couple of months. Besides myself, there will be 15 other engineers, technicians and project managers transitioning to China between now and October. Challenges ahead, no doubt.