下次再见 (see you next time)

The post title says "xia ci zai jian" which is the Chinese equivalent of auf wiedersehen. I'm leaving behind a lot of good friends and happy times in China and I refuse to say "goodbye", so I am saying "see you next time".

This may be my last post from China, the next time you hear from the traveling Osbornes should be from Willow Grove, PA.

The moving company came Wednesday and packed, stacked, and moved everything out. It all fit, except for my nice office chair, but we'll find a good home for it. There is a lot going to GP's family in Nanjing - they come Tuesday with a truck - and the rest will fit in our suitcases. I've taken three big bags of foreigner stuff (mixer, coffee grinder, English books and toiletries/food from US) to my friend at the American bar. Much better than throwing it away and there's no way I'm taking it BACK to the US. I got a free drink for each bag, too ;)

I am getting over my sinus infection, but now it looks like the mouse is getting sick. We'll take her to the Singapore health clinic in a few minutes and hopefully it doesn't get worse.

Flight leaves Pudong Wednesday evening, going to Chicago. Two or three hours there and then on to Philly. Wave as we pass over :)

Need reading material

I'm looking for any tips, friends, on books to order. I'm going to buy a couple of finance and management books from Amazon to improve myself career-wise and would like to get 3 or 4 leisure books to help fill the hours of job searching / baby care. I'm working through Matt Helm books for the 2nd time and the new David Sedaris ("When you are engulfed in flames" - read it) didn't last long enough.

*****

I left the house about my regular time today, 7:30, and my driver wasn't out front. Usually he is 10 or 15 minutes early, only late 2 times, once due to a flat and once when his alarm didn't go off. I sent him a message to pick me up at Starbucks and I walked over for my venti nonfat latte (pretentious enough for ya?) and poppyseed cake.

Still didn't hear from him - uh oh, probably still asleep. He finally sends me a message ("10 分钟!" = 10 minutes). I said "no problem".

He apologized profusely and I said "who cares? both of us only have 8 more days of work". I'll miss that guy.

Mid-Autumn Festival

They celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival in China to commemorate . . something. I think it was breaking free from the Mongol rulers. Anyway, we get a day off work and everyone goes out to dinner or gets together with family or both.

GP and I decided to go to the Renaissance (Marriott chain) which is near our house and where we've enjoyed Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners previously. It was a good choice as the food was great and it wasn't very busy.

During the meal, a family (mom, dad, both sets of grandparents and little girl) sat at the big table near us. I noticed the little girl had the ass-less pants on which are so popular for Chinese children. Yes, ass-less pants at a 5-start hotel for a holiday dinner. Such is China.

I remember thinking that I hope there isn't any sort of, um, scene developing from such clothing choices. I don't have anything against the ass-less pants except, I forgot to mention this, she wasn't wearing a diaper. Or underwear.

So, eh, doesn't bother me to know there's a bare ass around as I eat. I just hope nothing happens.

I know, the suspense is killing you.

As grandma took the little girl to the buffet, situated, luckily, on marble floor and not carpet as in the dining area, the girl squatted on the steps and made a puddle. Yes, in the buffet area of the 5-star, Marriott chain hotel.

Grandma was, somewhat surprisingly, taken aback and pointed out to the wait staff that they had a clean up on aisle one. The parents were slightly embarrassed and rushed the girl of to change her pants and PUT A DIAPER ON HER. If my Chinese were good enough, I would have asked why they waited until the horse had left the barn, so to speak. I was kind enough not to make GP interpret as she was embarrassed enough.

A waiter dabbed with a napkin and then the housekeeper came with a damp cloth to finish the cleanup. Luckily it was a "xu xu" and not "eng eng", so I didn't feel compelled to leave. Perhaps I should drop a note to Marriott's customer service line and compliment them on the rapid clean up.

Yesterday during my morning run (damn it was hot), I observed an older man (older than me), relieving his pressures, so to speak, near a bus stop. It wasn't a busy road and there was no bus on site, but it still amazes me how an adult could put his back to the sidewalk (thank jeebuz) and water the grass in broad daylight. I see this on average one to two times every week, often taxi drivers, sometimes ironically parked half a block from the public restroom.

Perhaps this is a sign of the low quality of the public restrooms that people do not want to use them. Perhaps the breeze feels really good. I'm not sure.

Delayed embarrassment

We had dinner with our good friends tonight. He is from Switzerland, she is from Taiwan and we ate at the Tex-Mex restaurant. Seemed fitting :) We were very happy to see their son who is now 4 months old and he's a big, strong guy. Quite cute, too.

During dinner I mentioned all the bats we'd seen flying around outside. I went right to the Chinese word as I enjoy saying it, responded to Swiss quizzical look with English, and then remembered fledermaus, which he caught right away. I was quite proud that I know bat in three languages.

Well, turns out I learned a little different than I thought. When I first learned Chinese "bat", I looked in my PDA and it said "bian fu". Pronounce it about like it looks. I surprised GP with it one time and she immediately said, good job, and then "bian fu xia". Oh, ok I learned only part of it, turns out the real word (and my PDA dictionary is sometimes incorrect) has "xia" on the end.

So, for 6 months I've been saying "bian fu xia" and the locals smile at the fact that I know the words. I thought that's why they smile.

Tonight, after all these months, Gao Ping tells me "bian fu xia" is not bat. It is the Chinese name for Batman. Thus, the grinning locals are explained. And I remain humble.

Good news and shopping (also good news)

First, let me act as tourist advisor and say this: there's no reason to go to Guangzhou. Just stay away, especially when the weather is 95/95 (Actually it was closer to 100F and I don't know what the humidity was.) Also, they talk funny there (lots of Cantonese - this area was originally called "Canton" if that gives you a hint).

On the good side, the China Hotel by Marriott was very nice and not too expensive. We should have stayed closer to the Tian He area as we went there at least once everyday. Only $5 by taxi, but still would have been more convenient and enjoyable. We had some good food (middle Eastern was great and the Westin buffet was excellent. China Hotel buffet was AWFUL!) and some good shopping. Many baby things we hadn't seen in Suzhou or Shanghai, though we still didn't find the diapers I had read about. Also still didn't find deodorant >:^\

On the very good side, GP was granted an immigrant visa which we must use by January 23 or so. We still need lots of details about after we get to the US, but I'm confident they will appear when we need them. Thanks to everyone for your good wishes!

Some photos from the 3 days of hot:
GP in the China Hotel lobby

Garden of the 5 Rams (some history of Guangzhou thing)


There were a few signs that said "don't stride" instead of "don't walk". It's not something personal against Aragorn :)









These group of oldsters (probably grandparents in China) were playing a hacky-sack game. And they were *good*






Across from our hotel was a Lamborghini dealer. wow.

We ate at 1001 Nights, an Arabian restaurant. So tasty! The bellydancing was mediocre, though.






At one of the big shopping malls.

And, of course, we bought baby things. But this is the last batch. We couldn't resist the wrist-and-socks rattles.

Sunday Evening update

I'm probably missing some birthdays and such, but I'm too lazy to put them here :) Been too lazy to post, also, so it's been quiet. Sorry 'bout that for the 5 of you who check in now and then.

Things are good in Suzhou. GP and the baby are doing very well. We watched the baby moving (yes, externally visible) for awhile after lunch. It's been hot (around 100F today), so we mostly stay inside, though I did go out for a few hours to shop by myself. I went to the shopping street I usually avoid, but it was fun as I was in a good mood anyway and I can move quickly by myself. I was able to buy a couple of little presents for GP's birthday (July 17, btw).

I also put some recent photos together to post. We have Gao Ping and friends Sun Wei and Guo Qing Qing (remember her?) and I going out for teppenyaki and mahjong. Lot's o' fun. Also three of GP's classmates came over a few weeks ago to cook. When four pretty ladies are cooking delicious food for me, it's understandably tempting to stay in China :)

















After the last baby visit, GP eating crawdads in the car.

New Korean dress and fake pearls

Told ya so

I told you June is a busy month.
Happy anniversary to Kelli & Chad! Fourteen, I say, fourteen years.
Happy birthday to Mike D, my only China visitor from the US :p I hope your new car is as comfortable, and durable, as the last two.

There are a couple more, important birthdays coming later in the month, but I'll wait to congragulate them later. In case there's nothing else to post about :)
*****

It's Friday morning here in Suzhou and I am at work as usual. Yesterday was a long day; I woke at 5am and couldn't go back to sleep. I went to work, stayed in for lunch, but then went out for dinner (mmm, tasty beef and sauerkraut sandwich; too bad it had mustard on it :P). Back to work for some writing and a 9pm conference call. Today seems like a good day to coast, so we'll see how that goes.

I'm becoming a little more enthusiastic at work as I have a new project. It'll probably let me extend my contract by one more month, through September, so that'll be handy. Then it'll be 3 months of baby, baby, and more baby until returning to the US. Well, that and job hunting.

I admit, it's tempting to stay in Suzhou if I can find a good, well paying expat job again. When I think of all the things here and the improvements going on (Coldstone Creamery, Subway!, and I hear there is a Blue Frog coming), it feels like a possibility. Though we won't trust the local stuff *too* much. GP bought a baby magazine and found "US Baby" brand bottles and other baby stuff. She said "see, it's good, from US". I said "No, it's called US Baby so Chinese will buy it, but it's a Chinese company and the stuff is made in Shanghai". Sneaky, aren't they? We'll probably make a trip to Hong Kong in July to get a bunch of baby stuff.

*****

To answer John's astute (i.e., drunken) questions:

1) GP has a large, green condom on to keep the rain off. For $0.50, she wasn't concerned about how it looked. Besides, she looks good in almost anything. At least as good as you in Frogg Toggs ;)

2) To say "Denise has my money": wo de lao po you wo de qian. Lao is pronounced with "ow" like you hurt something. Qian is pronounced like chen. The sentence actually says "my wife has my money", but I assumed you meant your wife when you said Denise :) If Denise has *my* money, we'd say "wo de peng you de lao po you wo de qian". and then I'd have to explain quickly why your wife has my money.

See ya

Fun, fun and more fun

Friday was a good, though tiring day at work. A US supplier visited and we had a great meeting to share ideas and trade information. It was good for the local engineers, etc., to get first-hand info.

Friday night we went to the Howard Johnson All-Suites for buffet dinner. It was pretty good and we'll probably go again.

Saturday we slept in and it felt so good! Then we went shopping and I became a one-day sensation in Suzhou. I had bought a shirt in Guilin, black with Chinese characters in white. It says "mei you qian" pronounced "may yo chen". It means "I have no money". I wore it Saturday as we went shopping and everybody got a kick out of it. The workers at the mall, the other shoppers, people on the street. Everywhere we went, we heard "mei you qian!" And people would laugh. At the American bar last night, the other foreigners wanted to know where to buy one. It was surprising how much entertainment I provided. Imagine the lack of response a foreigner in the US would get just by wearing a shirt that says "no money".

And you can tell my jaw muscles are still misaligned. I now have a crooked smile :^/


Today we did a little more shopping and found a pretty dress for GP. Our best bet for pregnancy clothes has been the Korean clothing stores. The dresses are typically loose and/or high-waisted, so they fit her well, and the fashions are 200% better than the Chinese, maternity clothes.

Afterwards we stopped at Big & Whistle for an orange juice and some popcorn. On our stroll following drinks, we made a big discovery. And it was delicious.

Misc fun in China

Guilin photos are posted (uploading slowly to Picasaweb as we speak), so check them out. You can see that GP and I are both noticeably round. We are diverging, however, as she becomes larger and I am (slowly) becoming smaller. Most of the photos came out pretty good and I hope to give some trip details later. Overall it was a great time, but the only reason to go is the scenery.

I signed an absence form today for one of my employees. Eight hours for "lactation leave". Nursing mothers in China get 1 hour per day of paid leave to nurse their babies. Some (many?) save it up and take a day off every two weeks instead. I call it "milking the system". Ha!

Dragon Boat Festival is Sunday, so Monday is a public holiday. Woo hoo! Three-day weekend!

gas in China

I'm unsure about gas prices in China (last I checked, they were similar to US), but there is a shortage of available gas. At least since the earthquake in Sichuan; in fact, I've been told by my driver that it is because so much fuel is being diverted to Sichuan for disaster recovery.

There are lines at all the gas stations *which have gas*. A number of stations are closed and I see the lines every time I go past a station. To fill our Buick, my driver waited 3 hours the other night. Price is one thing, availability is more scary, at least to me.

On the positive side, I don't have to wait in line and I don't pay :)

Tomorrow we are off to Guilin. Photos and story next week.

Teasing GP and real, American food

Thursday was pretty typical here; I came home from work, made myself some food and sat in front of the computer. GP was at school and sent me a message that she would have dinner with GQQ after class. Nothing out of the ordinary.

At 9:25, she's going to head home and we start this message exchange:

GP: Your girlfriend left?
MO: Leaving now, I am giving her money.
GP: Why give her money?
MO: She needs operation to fix her bad leg.
MO: One leg too short. Always walk in circle la
GP: Always walk in circle? How to leave our house?
MO: I tell her to keep turning right. Then she walks straight.

GP reports that she was laughing so hard, the taxi driver was looking at her strangely. It reminds a running gag (no pun intended) all Friday, too. Like when I walked with one leg on the sidewalk and one in the gutter and said: This is like how my gf walks.

*****

While grocery shopping, we glanced through the meat aisle and I spotted chicken livers. Mmm, fried chicken livers. I promised GP that I'd make some real, American food for her. Fried livers with spaghetti. Then I reminded her what spaghetti is :)
I had also decided to make banana bread, so it was a day of true, "just like home" cooking.

I fried the livers in oil after a little flour coating, then fried some bell peppers with onion and tossed them with the livers. The spaghetti was typical (Barilla) with some Prego sauce (I jazzed it up a little with more pepper and onion). It was very good and GP enjoyed it a lot. We had made the bread batter before dinner and the loaves came out just as we sat to eat.

The banana bread is good, though a little underbaked. I blame new recipe and convection oven, but it is tasty, so I don't mind. I'll try again sometime and give bread as real American gifts.

Tragedy in Sichuan

Everyone has heard by now and seen the news footage from Sichaun, Chongqing, and related areas. It was a big earthquake followed by some heavy rains, in a mountainous region. Over 14,000 people killed as of my last check, probably still thousands more trapped and many people aid can't reach because of bridges out, landslides, and other limitations.

The government response was fast (the prime minister flew there within an hour) and heavy. The TV shows almost continuous coverage of rescue teams and supplies flying into the areas. Helicopters are dropping supplies into areas which can't be approached by road. Fleets of ambulance with crews drove from Nanjing, Shanghai, and other places to help. Everyone, including foreigners, are sending money, blankets, food, and medicine to help.

I have been impressed with the China government's rescue efforts and I will say it looks more organized and efficient than what we saw after Katrina.

I'm trying, but it isn't working

I tried to do a minor revision on my blog yesterday . . and today . . but something is bad either on my server, or with Blogger, or with China (most likely) which keeps the changes from being published. One of these days, you should see a different layout, but who knows when.

I've been thinking about leaving China and have realized I will miss many things about China, Suzhou, and many friends I have here. On the other hand, if someone put everything on a plane for me today, I'd go right after lunch. Too many sacrifices to my lifestyle, my health, and my sanity. I'll be very glad to get back to whatever the West has for me and I'll be very, very happy to take a pretty, smart souvenir back with me :) (psst! that's *you*, GP)

Happy New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

GP and I took the fast train to Nanjing on Wednesday - only 1.5 hours at a top speed of about 130mph - to visit her family. We had family dinner that night, plates of cold meat (duck, chicken, beef, chicken, fish, etc), mostly salted in traditional style. Then we played mahjongg for about 4 hours and I won 7 kwai! That's about $1US, so it almost paid for the trip ;)

We stayed at the Jinling resort about 5 minutes from her brother's house. Nice place, though it probably looks better in the spring and summertime. It was clean and comfy and cheap - the most important 3c's. It was also warm (cozy?) which was nice as her brother's house doesn't actually have heat. We could see our breath as we played mahjongg.

Thursday we ate breakfast and got ready for the big lunch. We treated her extended family (about 30 people) to a nice lunch, even I liked most of the food. I could have done without the rice wine, though, and luckily only had a little. It is about 90 proof and tastes like lacquer. Hours later you can still taste it :p

Thursday night was left overs in hotpot dinner and more mahjongg. Then I got a splitting headache and we headed to the hotel early. A Nyquil and a bath later, I was asleep for about 12 hours. Friday on the fast train again back to Suzhou. A nice little trip and I was glad to meet more of her family and revisit the ones I already knew. Her 3 year old nephew is a typical little boy and I assured her they make them the same in the US. Even his recent injury was typical little boy: he was eating watermelon seeds while sitting on the toilet, dropped one, reached for it and swung right around to fall on his head.

Saturday morning I go to Shanghai to pick up Mike and we'll show him all the best places to buy me drinks ;^)

A little Christmas in Suzhou

I surprised Gaoping with a wreath and a couple of stockings. She marked them so Santa knows which gets the English goodies and which the Chinese :)



The snowman came from a vendor and I thought he looked good in the wreath.

We also had fun Sunday night making chocolate chip cookies again. I used the Tollhouse recipe on the back of the bag, but they are more cakelike than I remember when I made them in the US. Maybe it's the foreign margarine and imported flour. Perhaps the eggs. I dunno. They still tasted good, though, even if we did bake them on a pizza pan.



I wanted to make the chocolate chip + oatmeal recipe, but we had no baking powder. I think it's fairly easy to find, so maybe I'll do those next time.

The cold, the waiting, the cold, friends?

Winter has hit Suzhou. It's not terribly cold - 40-50s F - and it probably won't snow at all, but the air is very dry and heating businesses is low priority. At work, they've cut back heating to save energy. I suppose it's the same for the grocery store I went to the other night. The checkout girl had her winter coat on and was obviously wishing for her gloves. Too bad they didn't close the door, it may have helped keep some heat in.

Relative humidity is about 20% which makes skin, sinuses, eyes, everything painfully dry. Time to buy two more humidifiers :p

It's been 5 weeks since we sent GP's paperwork to Beijing for immigration. I checked with the lawyer and neither of us have gotten a case number receipt. The lawyer called and found that there was a huge influx of applications just before the filing fee increased, so the normal 4 week wait is about 15 weeks. We'll check again in 2 months. Blech. Good thing we started early.

On the health front, I'm getting a sore throat. It probably matches the other sick people in the office. The ones who cough on me >:^( I'm going to hand out copies of "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten". Rememeber what you learned? Wash your hands after using the toilet, cover your mouth when you cough, don't spit in the hallway at work on the carpet, don't push in line. There should be a TV channel just with this.

There is a new engineer at work, a young, Swiss guy with a Taiwanese wife. Sounds like instant friends. We will show them around Suzhou on Sunday and teach them all the good places to go and not go. I hope we finally met someone for dinner and mahjongg. Last night I met another possible friend at the foreign food store. She was buying a case of beer, dozens of cherry tomatoes, and a case of milk. Turns out she and her husband moved to Suzhou about a year ago from the Toronto area. And, she made it official: she agreed I sound like a Canadian.

pirates of Beijing

First time blogging from the BB. I think it isn't worth it, but I'm bored.

In Beijing they speak Mandarin (putong hua), but with an accent. Basically, the last word gets an 'er' (pronouced like 'are') on the end. Once I started to listen for it, everyone began sounding like pirates. Arrgh!

More from Suzhou. Now at Beijing airport; slightly more exciting than Kaohsiung airport. Less exciting than the DSM Greyhound station.