Deep Thoughts

Thursday was good. I would definitely recommend it. Friday is off to a good start. Feel free to try it out.

Thursday lunch was back to the Northern Chinese Restaurant. There are a number of places to eat near the office, but the team here goes to this restaurant everyday because (1) it is reasonably fast and (2) they can bring with them a typed up sheet with the menu in English with the Chinese characters on the side so that it is easy to order. (No one speaks English in these restaurants). We had a good soup again -- which turned out to be chicken foot soup. Lesson Learned: The first half of users served get good broth, the second half get good broth with interesting floaty things. Your choice. Food was excellent again.

It was an incredibly clear day and my training was finished, so Andy Ward and I left early to go hike to an observatory near the hotel that overlooks Shenzhen with views of the harbors and Hong Kong New Territories. The hike is paved and stepped the whole way. What started as a gradual path quickly became an exclamation point to my fitness level. I made it to the top of the first mountain (approximately 1500 ft elevation gain in about 3/4 mile) -- where Andy went on to go down and then up the second mountain to the higher point. We were 2 of 3 Americans on the trail out of approximately 400 or so people. This trail seemed to be a fitness event as well as leisure activity. The fitness folks were all travelling quickly in their NBA gear. The other folks
were walking in running shoes, high heels or barefoot. The latter two were not boosts for my self-esteem.

After the hike, I had to run through the red light district to make it back to the hotel in time to shower/get ready for dinner. Oddly, I had no problems with being propositioned in my sweaty state. Interesting.

We ate a Tapas restaurant where the name was the most Spanish thing about the place. Eight of us met for dinner, and two of us split 6 very small dishes: Smoked Salmon (on cooked potato), Seared Tuna Sashimi in Black Pepper, African Chicken, Bruscetta, Fried Goose Liver Pate with Cranberries (ech! my choice), and fried pork. For dinner, as the cheesecake fan, I had to try the Citrus Cheesecake which was unfortunately labeled as something special for "Sweet & Sour" fans. I think this was the first thing I have had here that I make better... ;-) I also forgot to ask for "no ice" in my soda (Coke Light = Diet Coke) and my stomach is delightfully reminding me of my omission.

Breakfast was uneventful barring the noticeable absence of fresh papaya. On a downward trend though -- 4 hours of sleep.

A few other lessons learned or items of daily life here to help you picture how things work and let you in on a few of my other obsessive compulsive behaviors.

1) The floors here are numbered starting with "G" for ground and then the 2nd floor is 1 and so on. In the office, the 2/3 elevators on the left and 1/3 on the right go to even numbered floors. The other only go to odd. The label reads (11-27) and somehow you are supposed to assume this means odd only. In the hotel, all elevators go to all floors, but there is not a 4th floor. It goes G - 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 6. I have checked and there really is not a fourth floor. Also, and I like this, the numbering below G is -1, -2, -3, etc...
2) We are allocated two 330ML bottles of water a day from the hotel to drink/brush teeth. Additional bottles of water cost 39RMB = $5 US. I need approximately 1 2/3 bottles of water and they will leave the unfinished bottle when the replinish it each day. Therefore every third day I have an unopened bottle that I don't want to lose. I don't know what I plan on doing with my hoarded aqua -- but rather than risk losing my allotment I am keeping the remainder in my safe.
3) I have a safe where I keep ridiculous things. I have my DVDs in there even though 3 blocks away I can buy pirated copies of any DVD imaginable for 5 RMB = $0.65 US. I keep my unusable phone and laptop in there as well. I also have a spare credit card for that just in case moment.
4) Laundry is expensive, but they are really really good at it. That is probably all I should say without making the stereotypical Chinese Laundry jokes. I receive my underwear and socks neatly packaged in plastic like I just bought it.
5) The light switches are set up to conserve power. I must have my key placed into a holder for the lights to come on -- as I left them (which is cool). If I take the key out, the lights switch off in 5 seconds and will not come on without the key. The neat thing is that I always know where my key is sitting when I leave the room.
6) For the hotel "Turn down" service, I thought that it was just a piece of chocolate next to the pillow, and they shut the blinds. However, one day they found that I had a closed travel alarm clock sitting out and they set it up for me. Not sure what that is about. They also seem to rearrange the furniture back to the original state which plays nice little head games with me.
7) I may not be the only American here, but I am 1 of 2 people now in all of China with facial hair. I can only imagine being the trend-setter that I am that everyone will be doing it next year.
8) Americans do look different to the locals. The Chinese woman at dinner thought I looked just like Matt Damon which made me feel really good about myself until I found out the other Americans at the table were Tom Cruise, George Clooney and Brad Pitt. No offense to Matt, but this was a statement as to "Something in this picture doesn't belong..."

I think that should be all for now... We are leaving the office an hour or so early today to travel around Shenzhen with some of the folks here.