It's Friday...and I'm a whipped puppy...

Man, am I glad it's Friday evening! I'm beat. Didn't make it to bed until 1:00am again last night.

I missed a few points about Thursday on my latest update, so I'll catch up on them here first.

Jenny, Shelen and I had dinner Thursday at a much more casual place than the restaurant on Wednesday, where we even had a private dining room. The restaurant on Thursday was in a much poorer part of Xi'an, a few blocks away from a park with some very interesting (and large!) carved stone statues of camels and traders that marks the site of the beginning of the ancient Silk Road from China to the Mediterranean. Jenny gave me a great history lesson (the Silk Road at that starting point was at one time 100 meters wide!) while we walked around it, and we were so engrossed in the history that we forgot to look at the statues! So, we walked around it again...

Dinner was nice, but definitely more down-scale than Wednesday's dinner. There wasn't a single piece of china on the table that wasn't chipped and the place was definitely more "working class". The food was quite good, though, and I discovered that I liked the, well, I guess I'd call them a pumpkin fritter. Deep-fried, battered, pumpkin. They were a little sweet. Don't know that I'd ever cared for pumpkin back in Ohio...

Now, on to today's update.

The smog was every bit as bad today.

A little more about the cars here. A lot of the cars and trucks here are not of recognizable names and/or models. However, there are Honda Accords and Odyssesys, although the Odysseys are the slightly smaller version that Honda makes for the Asian market. There are Buick Regals, LaCrosses, and a van with a different name that is like the Terraza in the U.S. I've seen a Lincoln Navigator and at least one stretched limo, another Lincoln, I think. I saw some tiny Chevy car, too. Ford is barely in China although I did see a few Mondeos today. Audi is an up-scale car here, and I rode into work the other day in one that had mirrors that automatically folded in when the car was shut off! There are Lexus, and Toyota cars everywhere, and a few Mazdas and Nissans as well. Not a Chrysler product to be found, though, except Jeep Cherokees. The newest Camry is a very recent introduction, however. And I even saw an Infiniti FX35 today also. The Taxis are about 90% Citroen, Peugeot, or VW Jettas. They all look nearly identical to the Jetta and have green and grey paint schemes. There are VWs here with several different model names, like Santanna. And there are a number of Chinese-only cars, some with nameplates in Chinese that I can't read, although I've heard of Chery and I did see a few. They're tiny. I've seen a Volvo SUV, also. There are large tour busses at the hotel each morning, and they all have these rear-view mirrors coming off of the top of them at their front corners that stick out in such a way that I'm constantly reminded of grasshoppers with antennae. Look at the pictures below, that I shot from my hotel room, and see if you agree.















This blog has apparently begun to take on a life of its own, if I may be permitted to be a little, I think the term is, "self-referential" for a moment. I have no idea how many folks are reading it now, but the link is constantly being forwarded to new people. Just yesterday Phani sent it to what looks to be his entire staff! OK, I'm beginning to feel intimidated now...:-) Seriously, I'm gratified that it's being read and accepted as widely as it is and I appreciate the very positive remarks I've received. It seems to be making a direct hit on my intended purpose, that being to inform and entertain those who will be following me here or just those who are interested in what's going on here. I only hope I can continue to live up to the expectations I've been setting with it, in terms of content, photos, and frequency.

Today we tripped over a few more words. "Analysis paralysis" was one, although I knew that was going to be trouble as soon as I said it. The "paralysis" part was not clear and it was a little tricky to explain. I also had to explain "consensus" to them, but once they understood the word they did like the "thumbs up / thumbs across / thumbs down" method of indicating consensus! They also didn't know what Pareto meant but when I mentioned the old "80% of the effect is often caused by just 20% of the factors" rule (the old "80/20" rule), they knew what I was talking about.

Random t-shirt sighting: "I'll stop whining when you stop losing!"

Today, we finished the problem-solving module. We were supposed to start another module but I elected not to do so since Jenny and Cathy and Andy had all asked me to help interview again today. We had some review time built in on Monday and we'll just pick it up there instead. But, the team did come into the training room this afternoon for about 30 minutes and we all just talked. I mentioned that I'd had a 30 minute conference call to discuss with the folks back in Dayton some of the cultural things I had encountered, and that everyone in Dayton was so interested that they kept me on the phone for 90 minutes instead. They, of course, wanted some details. I shared a few things, mostly the things (and I told them this) that wouldn't make them self-conscious. Like for instance, the group-shared meals. And the business card thing. They didn't get that business card thing either. (That's the one where we have been told that it's customary to accept an offered business card with both hands as a sign of respect.)

Oh, by the way, I did confirm this week another thing we have been told about the Chinese culture. Apparently it is true that if someone wears a green hat it is an indication that their spouse is cheating on them!

Also, someone on the phone on Thursday asked if there were washers and dryers on the floors of the Sheraton ("Shee-lie-don" if you have to tell the taxi driver). There are not. I've walked the 9th floor and there are none.

I noticed something really amusing for the first time yesterday on the taxi ride home. Near the Software Park (and I've since noticed it in a few other places, although not universally) there are newer crosswalk signs. These newer ones (particularly around the Software Park) have the classic "walk/don't walk" signs. They have some pretty high-tech LED (bright!) displays on them, with the familiar outlines of the man in red for "Don't Walk" and the man in green for "Walk". The cool thing is that when the little green man (side profile) is shown for "Walk", he's animated! He looks like he's walking into a wind, or maybe up steps in a wind, and his arms and legs are both moving. (And it looks like he's really WORKING on that walking thing!) The coolest thing is that when the time to cross the street starts to get close to done, he speeds up! By the time the countdown hits 1, he's actually sprinting! It vaguely reminds me of the AOL Guy from those lame commercials back in America.

That reminds me of another thing. I have never seen these before except in India: countdown timers at intersections. Many of the intersections here in Xi'an have these big square displays between the traffic signals that hang over the roadway at the intersection. They show the time to "Go" in red, and the time to "Red" in green. That's pretty slick.

Tonight for the first time since I arrived (other than at the hotel), I didn't have Chinese food for dinner. Instead, we went down to the city center to have a nice meal of...wait for it...Japanese food! It was pretty good but I am not sure it's much different than the other Chinese food (except that it isn't as spicy in general). Tonight I ate more eel (not bad, really) and fish neck. That's right, I said "fish neck". And it was the best thing in the meal! Actually, fish neck is really just (and only) the part of the fish behind the gills for a couple of inches, so I guess that constitutes a "neck".

After dinner, we went into a department store in a big mall and Cathy and I did a little shopping. We got there at about 8:40 and at 8:50 all sorts of bells started going off (not ear-shattering but pretty obnoxious all the same) out inside the mall from the department store and that was the signal that the mall was closing at 9:00. This repeated a couple of times before we left.

Last thing we did before heading back to the hotel was stop in at McDonald's for an ice cream cone. The McDonald's (and mall) we stopped at are shown in the pictures I posted from July 23, specifically the one showing South Street, at the corner of South Street and East Street. I enjoyed checking out the menu. Not a lot different, but the Chinese McDonald's offer cups of steamed sweet corn kernels instead of fries in most of their combo meals. Fries are also available. And apparently one of the popular soft drinks there is Aloe flavored. They also offered pineapple, apple and grape pies. (That's three choices, not a combination of all three...) The American McDonald's offer more sandwiches and more combos, but this one certainly had the main choices of Big Mac, cheesburger, chicken nuggets, and so on. And guess what? You can still Super-Size your Extra Value Meal in China too!

That's more than enough for tonight. It looks like Andy is taking Cathy and me to the Terra Cotta Warriers on Saturday. It's about a 60-minute drive from the hotel, he tells us. Hopefully there will be a lot of pictures tomorrow from that. And on Sunday, in the morning, I was asked to attend a job fair at the Software Park with Andy, Cathy, and Jenny. Not sure what is on the agenda after it finishes at noon on Sunday.

Until next time...