I stayed in central Texas all the way from February 19 through March 5 before heading out to Chicago for a three day weekend full of social media lessons and a meeting with a large distribution company who may distribute my foam machines.

Right now I am sitting at the Chicago O’Hare airport waiting to board a plane home to Austin. Tomorrow, Tuesday, I head out to San Antonio for a three day show with the Snowman. I intend to be home in Austin for the five weeks following my San Antonio trip.

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Tonight I will go to Nanluogu Lane

Nanluogu Lane is close to the Forbidden City, which has about 800 years’ history. Hutongs at the eastern and western side of the lane are opposite to each other, maintaining the planning pattern of “Punnett square” streets, lanes and hutongs in Dadu of Yuan Dynasty. As a kind of uadrate yard architectural complex, it has longest history, the biggest scale and the highest grade and it is best preserved, where the Ancient Dwelling House of Wanrong, Seng-ko-lin-ch’in Royal Mansion, the Ancient Dwelling House of Sichuan Governor-General Kuijun and other cultural relic protection units are located. When in Nanluogu Lane, whether you go to “Passby Bar” and other leisure bars for get-together and watching Peking Opert or you go there to look for ancient relics and appreciate folk customs, the ancient and simple gate and exotic alcohol brands, you not only can experience historical flavor and fashion breath, but also be immersed in the strong Beijing-flavor culture.

The education that I have received on this trip has been wonderful. I can see myself spending lots and lots of time here in the coming months and years. The Chinese people with whom I have had the pleasure to come in contact with are warm and receptive.

In summary- my work objectives were achieved. There were some less than pleasant times. Overall the pluses outnumbered the minuses tremendously. Friday I got to skate on the ice at Houhai.

My dvd collection grew quite a bit this trip. I am stocked for at least two months. The $15 monthly fee to netflix goes so much further when the cost is $1.30 per disc. It’s tough not to come home with 40 or so new movies.

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I spent nearly $4 on some Azithromycin (sp?) and I have one more day of it. I think it is helping. I have a cold now. I’m in day four of illness. I only let it slow me down one evening. Other than that I have been going and going. Yesterday was one of the best because of the hiking excursion. We drove two hours out of the city and arrived at a beautiful mountain park where roses grow in the summer.

The three hour hike included eighteen Chinese folks and one Texan. Everybody spoke English because of their time spent outside of China. Afterwards, we dined at a hot pot restaurant that specializes in DONKEY meat. Don’t knock it til you try it. It’s just like beef except more lean. My part of the meal was $5.50. I love those kinds of meals.

I met Lucy (originally from China) from Canada at the airport on the way to Cambodia. She introduced me to Tracy and Steven. She grew up with Steven in Beijing and she met Tracy, a Chinese native, living in Toronto. Tracy has since moved back to Beijing.  This is all a very interesting education I am getting. One of my new hiking friends, Jay, presently lives near San Francisco with his wife and two sons. He has a company that develops medical devices. He hires engineers in China to develop the devices and then he applies for approval in the United States. Jay first went to America in the early 1990’s and has since moved there. Another new friend, Vanessa, first went to Iowa for graduate school in her early 20’s. She spent 10 years in NYC after getting a degree in Asian studies. She now manages a boutique hotel in Beijing called Hotel Côté Cour .

Tracy works 100 yards from my hotel. She and I had lunch on Tuesday before touring her office. Light in the box is the website. Check it out. They sell Chinese items to the U.S. There is free shipping. Brilliant! Super cheap prices! Her boss, Alan Guo, sat with us for a few minutes. He had something to do with the Google China. Google his name. He’s all of 33 or so. He got a graduate degree at a small private college called Stanford. Tracy invited me hiking yesterday. I went. We had a BLAST. It’s a group of folks; married, single, all kinds, 20’s up to around 50 who go hiking each Saturday who are Chinese who moved away and then came back to China. They all speak English. I was the only white person with them. We left at 11am, drove more than 2 hours, hiked more than 3 hours, drove part of the way back, ate Donkey dinner, and then drove back. I got home at 9pm or so. There was no alcohol and I loved that part the most as I have a cold.

Steven, the other friend of Lucy, is a graphic arts designer guy.  I went bowling with him last Sunday and I’m going again in a few hours. He lived in California for a few years.

Please excuse the errors. I’ll blame it on my cold. Also, they don’t have medicines at the store here. You must go to a pharmacy. It’s different.

I am getting good at the metric system.

I’ll take bowling photos today.

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Sunday I bowled four games with new friends Simon from the U.K. and Steven from Beijing.  Bowling resumes again Sunday at noon. They are in a league that starts back up at the end of February after the Chinese new year.  I held my own. I think my scores were 127, 131, 111, and 122.

The work week produced several productive meetings. I have new fliers, postcards, temporary business cards, and stands for the foam machines in the works. The meeting with the stand people was very positive. The foam cannon attachment for the Bubble Blaster 3000 is in development as well. Friday, (tomorrow) I have a sight seeing tour scheduled for 9am and (hopefully) a fiberglass factory visit in the afternoon.  Today included a tour of the factory where the vinyl for the inflatable bubble pits are manufactured. Finding this factory may seriously reduce my cost of production of the inflatable pits. I find all of the folks I am meeting to be extremely warm and friendly.

I could see myself spending several months a year here.

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I also ran on the treadmill yesterday morning. That was necessary. I may do that again this afternoon. My energy level increases after a 32 minute run.

I visited with my Austin friend, Chris this week as well. I find that I really crave interaction with westerners. Yes, it’s quite lonely here. Yes, I get so much work done during the days without distraction. Yes, it’s well worth my time to be here.

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My friends, Ronit, Craig, and Shai who are working for the US government in Cambodia, picked us up when our plane landed a little after 8pm Wednesday. We dropped Lucy at her hotel and the four us us went back to the temporary residence that the US government is putting Ronit, Craig, and young Shai up in.

Thursday morning I rood a tuk tuk to Lucy’s hotel where we went to the school together on motor bikes.

We didn’t know any better and we made it safely. It was $1 each for the 15 minute ride. Thursday morning was spent visiting with Ty, the school administrator and speaking English with the kids. It appears that they are all very eager to learn English. The kids were all so gracious. At 12:30 we got out and about. The afternoon consisted of a few tuk tuk rides, a stroll along the river, a very un-exciting meal at a touristy restaurant, a lovely visit with a gentleman from New Zealand, and stroll to Lucy’s new hotel, and dinner with the Gerards.

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Each time I go to a different hot pot restaurant it is different. I love it. Yesterday afternoon, the young lady waiting on us did everything. She poured the drinks, iced the drinks, dipped the food into the boiling water, and even scooped it onto our plates. This was my first experience with so much attention. I could get used to it.

This was the Sunday afternoon meal.

We purchased a few movies. It’s so challenging (for me) to go into the dvd store and not spend $5 or $10 each visit. When it’s $1.10 per movie I figure..WHY NOT? Heck, I’ll buy dvds at home for $10 or $20 for one so it is easy to justify the $7 purchase a few different times.

Saturday night was f-u-n. We danced til 4am Sunday morning after a most lovely dinner of Chinese food with several very beautiful ladies. Amy called out the “A-team” to accompany me to dinner and an evening of dancing. John was along for the adventure too. We went to Shui bar which they (Amy & John) tell me is the “best” bar in Beijing. In a city of 20 million, can there be a “best” bar in the city? It was fun. The band sang western music and during their breaks the dj played western club music.  Our entourage included (in photo left to right) Lisa, Amy, me, Mae, & Lilly.

John took the photo.

First photo is Mae & Lisa                                                 Second photo is Lilly & Amy

Saturday night’s dinner

On Saturday when I got out by myself, I walked to the subway, traveled out to the Llama temple and enjoyed some street food along the way. I find it so different to be in a foreign (to me) country traveling alone without a cell phone. I do keep a card with the address of my temporary residence on it, a pocket full of Chinese money, a pen, John’s cell phone number, and my Texas drivers license. It’s not like I am out in the wilderness. There is food and water every few feet in the humongous city of Beijing. The subway system is wonderfully simple to get around on. Yes, sometimes I do get packed in shoulder to shoulder with other folks because so many people use the subway. I love seeing the efficiency. I stopped into a shoe store and had a short chat (in English) with a young lady who spoke perfect English. We were both there trying on shoes. The store did not stock my size so it was a bust for me.

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I turned to Cameron and said hello and then began catching up with Chris. This was the most wonderful football experience I have ever had. I am not a football fan. This may make me get out more often to see football games. Maybe it won’t. I have randomly run into familiar people since the fifth grade when my grandparents took my brothers and me to California. We saw Bobby Lett from my class at the Farmers Market out there. I have also run into someone in the subway in D.C., Yellowstone National Park, and Las Vegas. Now I get to add Beijing, China to that list.

After the game we bought a few things. I got new phone covers and some very needed jeans. I only came here with one pair so I am glad to be able to now wear a different pair.

The fifteen minute walk from my temporary residence to the subway was cold yesterday morning. Amy, John, and I spent a little time at the hair salon after working awhile and enjoying lunch at the factory.

I went to sleep before ten last night without dinner and then slept in all the way to 4:10am today. I get so much computer work done between 4:10am and 7am that it’s okay to get up so early.

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I woke up this morning at 3:30am and was inspired to work. I got a bit antsy and decided to see if I could exercise. I made it thirty and a half minutes on the treadmill. That’s a personal record as I never run on one of those things. My only other option is running in the 4 degree weather (before windchill) and I decided on the treadmill. I am noticing that I can be so productive when I am alone in a foreign country with a 14 hour time difference separating me from all of my normal distractions.

After eating the lunch shown above I got out in the city for a very lovely walk. I have been mainly stuck inside in front of a computer so I notice that I want to cause trouble for myself. The walks help. Any exercise is good. I am definitely an outside person. The cold weather makes it a bit challenging as I am not conditioned for it quite yet. I bet that by the time I leave here I’ll be up to speed.

I believe that today we will be visiting vendors. That’s always an adventure. I am now going to shower and head down to breakfast.

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