Wow! Today at the Canada day celebration I polished off twenty-one spicy peppers to finish 4th behind a 2nd and 3rd place tie with 26 peppers and 1st place finisher with 65 peppers. I thoroughly enjoyed the contest. It was a bit painful. I inhaled two fairly large containers of yogurt, and a small container of ice cream immediately following the peppers. I experienced the eye watering, nose running, face sweating, and mouth on fire from those peppers. The event occurred at the Canada international school in Beijing. Appropriately they played Barenaked Ladies (Canadian band) music when the band was not playing. We (Sharon, David, Tracy, Elizabeth, and I) ate a fish dinner after the event. We did briefly visit with Charles and two of his co-workers during the afternoon. They showed up for a short while. Charles works at CCTV as an on-air personality.
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Greg Gordon Uncategorized
July 4 the adventure will take me to Shanghai and Suzhou for fun and work. It’s official. I just completed a week with three different Mandarin lessons, lots of time looking at electric bikes, a 4 hour bike adventure, a massage, a dental cleaning, productive work time, and lots of walking. Today there will be no hike for me. I will attend a Canada day celebration with friends late this afternoon as well as another massage this morning.
The Mandarin lessons challenge and frustrate me. I don’t know if I should take a lesson a day, two lessons a day, or cut it back. Being immersed in the culture helps tremendously. I wish there was a magic pill that I could take to instantly give me the knowledge.
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Greg Gordon Uncategorized
When I start carrying the voice recorder and talking into it every single time something new or exciting occurs I will become a full time writer. Each day brings new adventures- still. I am nearing sixty days in my current China adventure. I see no end to my stay here. My Mandarin lessons get more serious tomorrow as I start three separate one hour lessons in five days. Recently, my obsession with purchasing an electric bicycle has me examining electric bikes all day everyday. Now the journey to the Mandarin lesson lasts 15 minutes. With the electric bike it will decrease. The subway rides across town and the very very occasional taxi ride will cease. My exercise level decreases with the electric bike, but MY Beijing grows tremendously. My longest taxi trip to date lasted 22 km. That will be a peace of cake on the new bicycle. At this point I am still trying to talk myself into the purchase. The money plays a minor role in this decision. The lack of exercise concerns me mostly.
Hiking still trumps other activities. The break from the routine as well as the fresh air, and most importantly- the wonderful hiking folks make Saturdays a sanctuary. My comfort level with the trek to the meeting place finally increased. Instead of arriving 90 minutes early I only get there 20-30 minutes early now. Yesterday’s hike started with a 9:45am departure time from my apartment and ended when I returned home after 1am Sunday morning. We always seem to end up in some beautiful bunch of mountains 60-120 minutes outside of the city. Breathtaking is not even the appropriate word to describe the views.
Work continues to excite me. The adventures and challenges dealing with suppliers and potential suppliers here in China continues. Most of the folks use MSN Messenger to communicate which (some times) raises the efficiency level. Many times the banter (Back and forth) appears (to me) to be an incredible waste of time. I don’t know you. We are not friends. I don’t care if ou had a good weekend or not. Geesch! Maybe I’m a little insensitive. Get to the point. I don’t need to tell you – via instant messaging- how my day has been. Goodness! I do appreciate the messenger when the topic centers around work and also when we have a minor communication issue. If your spoken English is not as good as your written then the messenger works great.
Enough about the msn….. I received a batch of swimming goggles after a three week wait, a 45 minute subway ride, a 35 (more) minute cab ride, and then 30 more minutes back (to my apartment) in that same cab. Now I must figure how to get 288 pairs of swimming goggles back to Texas economically.
I also received two sample chairs and some bamboo disposable plates. Those items arrived quickly and painlessly. China Construction Bank now holds money for me. Instead of carrying around 20 or 30 separate 100 rmb bills I now carry 5 or six and a bank card. Getting my own bank account took very little time with my very helpful Chinese friend. This way I may pulse money when I need it and not carry an obnoxiously fat wallet. I am the king of the skinny wallet…. once more!
Since my food poisoning incident I have returned bread to my diet. My stomach thanks me for that. I am becoming more adventurous in eating. I go to different places regularly and alone.
Making friends takes effort. I am definitely spoiled in the US with friends. I am making positive progress here in China.
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Greg Gordon Uncategorized
I imagine that there are other ways to get by in China. For me it’s “pay as you go.” Saturday, after waking up with no electricity, I walked my empty (of credit) electricity card to a bank, handed the teller the card and some money and headed back home. I inserted the card into the box in the hallway and flipped the breaker switch back on. I have no idea when it will run out again. Maybe I’ll charge it again before it runs empty so the break from electric power is easier next time.
Monday, the cell phone needed to be charged again. Tuesday, I recharged the internet connection in my apartment. That was an unexpected one to me. It makes it simple. For the cell phone and internet I simply purchase recharge cards at any newspaper stand for 100rmb each, scratch off the stuff that covers the super secret code, dial the number, punch 2 for English, follow the instructions and “bam” I’m done.
I believe it was Monday afternoon that I had a “post it” note on my door in Chinese. I walked it down to the management office and learned that I owed water bill money. I promptly paid the nearly two dollars and headed back to the apartment. I also signed up for a fourteen U.S. dollar teeth cleaning.
Last night (not to scare anyone) I felt horrible. I ate some bad fish or meat two days ago. I know better than to do that. I walked 200 yards to the hospital, waited twenty minutes for my temperature of 102.74º F or 39.3º C to be taken and was promptly escorted to the fever clinic where I began paying for whatever it was they did to me. The entire (nearly two hour) experience set me back around U.S. $25 including medicine and lasted way less than eight hours.
Right now the clock reads 6:18pm Thursday. I skipped a Mandarin lesson (doctor’s orders) and a networking event tonight in order to get back to good health.
Saturday’s hike coming up will be exciting again and I better be healthy for it. The excitement about all of the new products I am sending back to Texas grows daily for me. My level of enthusiasm about this China adventure remains strong.
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Greg Gordon Uncategorized
