July 20, 2009 – today I had to get caught up and ready for the end of the month bill paying. I have to do everything online so it takes a bit of time to get prepared and everything set for bill pay through our bank. In today’s newspaper I saw a very unique article, it goes as follows: She says sorry to stranger who called her wife – A woman has sought media help to apologize to a stranger she cursed for calling her his wife on a street in Wachang, Hubei province on Tuesday.
The woman was talking on her cell phone in the city’s Zhongnan Road area when a strange man shouted out to her: “Hey wife, who’re you talking to? You’ll get a thrashing when we get home.”
She got into a fierce argument with the stranger, who quietly walked away from the spot.
Later, the woman was told a thief was trying to steal something from her bag while she was talking on the phone and the man said what he did only to scare away the thief. Chutian Metropolis Daily
Now wouldn’t that make you feel a little small???
July 21, 2009 – Today was the first day of training for Floyd on the software deployment. It is really challenging due to the language difference as well as all of the trainees are first time users. They have never used software like this before. They know just enough to be dangerous as Floyd would say. He said they would not wait for instructions, but start clicking etc. They spent a lot of extra time getting everyone back on track after they would get it fouled up. He said he felt like a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
July 22, 2009 – today was the solar eclipse in Asia. Beijing had about a 60% eclipse, but we weren’t able to see it due to clouds and haze. This was very disappointing to be in an area where one can be seen but not be able to enjoy it! Later in the afternoon, it got dark due to a severe summer monsoon. It rained really hard for about an hour. The streets were running water like rivers. Floyd got soaked just catching a taxi. He said on the way home that every overpass they went under was crowded full of pedestrians, bicyclists and people riding scooters trying to get out of the rain. Soon it passed and started clearing off and we had a nice evening. Floyd finished up the first round of training. He said it was very challenging. When we get back in September, he will help conduct a second round of training. This training will go on for quite a while.
I would like to share some of the superstitions that were written about in the newspapers about the solar eclipse. In India, people were told by their elders that this is the best time to improve our after-life so they went to their temples to pray. Pregnant women are advised to stay indoors to prevent their babies developing birth defects, while prayers, fasting and ritual bathing, particularly in holy rivers, is encouraged. One lady was quoted as saying “I was advised not to leave the house as the eclipse brings bad luck to you and your family.
In China some feel “The sun got bitten” or that “The heavenly dog ate the sun”. Some say “Traditionally, both praying and having vegetarian food can help us avoid misfortune and bring about peace to families after the eclipse”. Also talked about in the China Daily News is the witnessing of a tidal bore. It apparently was 2nd only to the Solar Eclipse in its intrigue. Apparently these tidal bores occur around the world, but the only known place in China is the Qiantang River, where the peculiar bottleneck shape of Hangzhou Bay creates the world’s tallest tidal bore – up to 9 m in height (29.5 feet). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_bore)
July 23, 2009 – Floyd went to Langfang today to visit a large dairy farm. They are hoping to get a good relationship established and to be able to secure them as a client. On the way home in the afternoon, Floyd said it got really dark, just like at night and the monsoons hit again with rain I think you could drown in. He said it was raining so hard that cars were pulled over on the freeway as they could not see to drive. We had very severe storms here in Beijing as well. It looked like midnight about 4 in the afternoon. The street lights turned on, all the outside building lights turned on and all the cars had to turn their headlights on. I have never seen such a thing before. I tried to take pictures but the camera did not do it justice. Floyd had a dinner meeting tonight with the people from the farm. He had a post-it type note with some Chinese writing on it and that is all he had to get to the restaurant. He said it was an adventure, but he made it.
July 24, 2009 – Floyd was in the office today following up on the meetings with the dairy farm and the training. Tonight we met some friends from church for dinner. They actually live not far from us back in Meridian, Idaho. There is a little Tex-Mex place close to our apartment that we both like so we met them there for dinner and an enjoyable evening of sitting and talking for over 2 hours in the restaurant.
July 25, 2009 – today was shopping day. We did literally shop until we dropped. We started out this morning with two Skype video calls to friends in the U.S. Then we went shopping to get some items for friends at home. Our group that goes on a motorcycle ride on our Harley-Davidsons each summer collect Harley shirts from wherever we can. These shirts have a graphic on them that tells where the shirt came from. We thought it would be fun to have one from Beijing so we wanted to go to the Harley dealer and get some shirts. The taxi driver thought he knew where it was but could never find it. Finally, after some backtracking and searching, we got out of the taxi to do some foot exploration in the area but we too did not find it. The maps available like Map Quest do not have as much detail in China as in America or are in Chinese. We gave up and went shopping at Pearl Market again to get the other items we wanted to purchase. On the way back to the apartment, Floyd noticed something on one of the maps for the Harley place that he hadn’t seen before. He thought he may know where it was. We went back to the apartment and Floyd looked on Google Maps and did indeed find a better explanation of where it was. It is between 2 and 3 miles from the apartment. Since we hadn’t walked much this week, we decided to walk there. Sure enough, after a little more than an hour Floyd took us right to the dealer. We were able to get the shirts we were looking for, as the dealership is much smaller than what we are used to in the states. The internet had more to offer, but we were limited for time for delivery since we leave on the ride on the 10th of August. Floyd asked them how many motorcycles they sell in Beijing each year. The lady waiting on us told us about 100. It appears that the Harleys are $5,000 to $8,000 more than the same motorcycle in the states. We then walked back to the apartment. The temperature was in the 90’s and it was plenty warm! We were both soaking from sweat when we got back to our nice cool apartment. We were also very tired!!!
July 26, 2009 – it is Sunday again. It seems like this week went really fast. Today in church we had more talks about the pioneers since July 24 is called Pioneer Day in the church. It was this day in 1848 that the pioneers first reached the Salt Lake Valley. It was interesting that parallels were drawn to us in China. Many of us are like pioneers in what we are doing over here. It is also challenging to give up the comforts of a life we know so well to go to a country where life is much different – the language, the food, the culture and living conditions. With all of that said we are thoroughly enjoying this experience. It is not always easy and is sometimes very challenging. But, it is also very rewarding.
The woman was talking on her cell phone in the city’s Zhongnan Road area when a strange man shouted out to her: “Hey wife, who’re you talking to? You’ll get a thrashing when we get home.”
She got into a fierce argument with the stranger, who quietly walked away from the spot.
Later, the woman was told a thief was trying to steal something from her bag while she was talking on the phone and the man said what he did only to scare away the thief. Chutian Metropolis Daily
Now wouldn’t that make you feel a little small???
July 21, 2009 – Today was the first day of training for Floyd on the software deployment. It is really challenging due to the language difference as well as all of the trainees are first time users. They have never used software like this before. They know just enough to be dangerous as Floyd would say. He said they would not wait for instructions, but start clicking etc. They spent a lot of extra time getting everyone back on track after they would get it fouled up. He said he felt like a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
July 22, 2009 – today was the solar eclipse in Asia. Beijing had about a 60% eclipse, but we weren’t able to see it due to clouds and haze. This was very disappointing to be in an area where one can be seen but not be able to enjoy it! Later in the afternoon, it got dark due to a severe summer monsoon. It rained really hard for about an hour. The streets were running water like rivers. Floyd got soaked just catching a taxi. He said on the way home that every overpass they went under was crowded full of pedestrians, bicyclists and people riding scooters trying to get out of the rain. Soon it passed and started clearing off and we had a nice evening. Floyd finished up the first round of training. He said it was very challenging. When we get back in September, he will help conduct a second round of training. This training will go on for quite a while.
I would like to share some of the superstitions that were written about in the newspapers about the solar eclipse. In India, people were told by their elders that this is the best time to improve our after-life so they went to their temples to pray. Pregnant women are advised to stay indoors to prevent their babies developing birth defects, while prayers, fasting and ritual bathing, particularly in holy rivers, is encouraged. One lady was quoted as saying “I was advised not to leave the house as the eclipse brings bad luck to you and your family.
In China some feel “The sun got bitten” or that “The heavenly dog ate the sun”. Some say “Traditionally, both praying and having vegetarian food can help us avoid misfortune and bring about peace to families after the eclipse”. Also talked about in the China Daily News is the witnessing of a tidal bore. It apparently was 2nd only to the Solar Eclipse in its intrigue. Apparently these tidal bores occur around the world, but the only known place in China is the Qiantang River, where the peculiar bottleneck shape of Hangzhou Bay creates the world’s tallest tidal bore – up to 9 m in height (29.5 feet). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_bore)
July 23, 2009 – Floyd went to Langfang today to visit a large dairy farm. They are hoping to get a good relationship established and to be able to secure them as a client. On the way home in the afternoon, Floyd said it got really dark, just like at night and the monsoons hit again with rain I think you could drown in. He said it was raining so hard that cars were pulled over on the freeway as they could not see to drive. We had very severe storms here in Beijing as well. It looked like midnight about 4 in the afternoon. The street lights turned on, all the outside building lights turned on and all the cars had to turn their headlights on. I have never seen such a thing before. I tried to take pictures but the camera did not do it justice. Floyd had a dinner meeting tonight with the people from the farm. He had a post-it type note with some Chinese writing on it and that is all he had to get to the restaurant. He said it was an adventure, but he made it.
July 24, 2009 – Floyd was in the office today following up on the meetings with the dairy farm and the training. Tonight we met some friends from church for dinner. They actually live not far from us back in Meridian, Idaho. There is a little Tex-Mex place close to our apartment that we both like so we met them there for dinner and an enjoyable evening of sitting and talking for over 2 hours in the restaurant.
July 25, 2009 – today was shopping day. We did literally shop until we dropped. We started out this morning with two Skype video calls to friends in the U.S. Then we went shopping to get some items for friends at home. Our group that goes on a motorcycle ride on our Harley-Davidsons each summer collect Harley shirts from wherever we can. These shirts have a graphic on them that tells where the shirt came from. We thought it would be fun to have one from Beijing so we wanted to go to the Harley dealer and get some shirts. The taxi driver thought he knew where it was but could never find it. Finally, after some backtracking and searching, we got out of the taxi to do some foot exploration in the area but we too did not find it. The maps available like Map Quest do not have as much detail in China as in America or are in Chinese. We gave up and went shopping at Pearl Market again to get the other items we wanted to purchase. On the way back to the apartment, Floyd noticed something on one of the maps for the Harley place that he hadn’t seen before. He thought he may know where it was. We went back to the apartment and Floyd looked on Google Maps and did indeed find a better explanation of where it was. It is between 2 and 3 miles from the apartment. Since we hadn’t walked much this week, we decided to walk there. Sure enough, after a little more than an hour Floyd took us right to the dealer. We were able to get the shirts we were looking for, as the dealership is much smaller than what we are used to in the states. The internet had more to offer, but we were limited for time for delivery since we leave on the ride on the 10th of August. Floyd asked them how many motorcycles they sell in Beijing each year. The lady waiting on us told us about 100. It appears that the Harleys are $5,000 to $8,000 more than the same motorcycle in the states. We then walked back to the apartment. The temperature was in the 90’s and it was plenty warm! We were both soaking from sweat when we got back to our nice cool apartment. We were also very tired!!!
July 26, 2009 – it is Sunday again. It seems like this week went really fast. Today in church we had more talks about the pioneers since July 24 is called Pioneer Day in the church. It was this day in 1848 that the pioneers first reached the Salt Lake Valley. It was interesting that parallels were drawn to us in China. Many of us are like pioneers in what we are doing over here. It is also challenging to give up the comforts of a life we know so well to go to a country where life is much different – the language, the food, the culture and living conditions. With all of that said we are thoroughly enjoying this experience. It is not always easy and is sometimes very challenging. But, it is also very rewarding.
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