Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Sat - Aug 19
3:00am – I wake up and cannot get back to sleep. The TV has Terminator 3, followed by Caddyshack in English with mandarin subtitles. By 5:30am, I am ready to do something else. In the past 24 hours, I have watched 5 movies, read a complete book and numerous magazines. I put on my exercise gear and head outside. The hotel is a couple of blocks from Tian’anmen Square, so I decide to jog over to see the presumed empty square. First, a block in Beijing is deceiving. It is very long, almost akin to 2 long blocks in New York City. When I got to Tian’anmen Square, it was packed with people. It was around 70 degrees and there were tons of kids flying kites, some shaped as eagles, others with multiple kites tied together. There were other groups of people exercising and others picnicking for breakfast. I was truly amazed at the number of people up and out before 6am.
I spent the morning on the phone with Cingular trying to get my cellphone to work and exploring the shops and area around the hotel to find a grocery store and see the different restaurants. A good example of the language barrier came with the hunt for a grocery store. I stopped at the front desk and asked for a “grocery store”. The hotel has a Chinese staff, but everyone is multilingual based on the clientele, if you get a French or German literate staff person, they quickly switch and get an English speaking person. However, the term “grocery” is foreign to them. So I got an interesting stare. I then asked for the nearest market and they pointed down a block to an open air area where people sell goods (not food). So I then asked where I could buy food and drinks and they told me about all of the different restaurants in the hotel. So I asked where I could buy food that I could prepare in my kitchen and they finally understood and gave me directions to a gourmet market in the mall attached to the hotel.
Food prices were interesting – 16 slices of Kraft American cheese $8US, a jar pf peanut butter is $11, a small box of Rice Krispies is $6US, Tsing Tao Beer is $0.40, Budweiser is $3.
I got some candy and sweets as a house warming presents for some colleague's children, who I am going to see in the afternoon. I spent the afternoon at the pool of their housing complex outside of Beijing. Getting there was another interesting challenge. I went to the Hotel bellman and asked if he knew where the community was and to get a cab there. He did not. So I went back to the room, fired up the computer, and looked up the address and wrote it down (in English). I took it back to the bell captain and we translated my address to see if he knew where it was. Abbreviations like “Rd” messed him up. After talking to 2 cab drivers, one volunteered to take me there. The cab driver did not know English. I made sure that I had my mandarin card that can get me back to the hotel and off we went. The cab was very good and got me to the community.
We spent the hot afternoon in the pool, literally, and then had dinner at the onsite Chinese restaurant. For the kids, it was their first Chinese restaurant experience and they were all good sports about it.
I got a cab home after dinner and then again tried to stay up until 10pm to power through the jet lag.
I spent the morning on the phone with Cingular trying to get my cellphone to work and exploring the shops and area around the hotel to find a grocery store and see the different restaurants. A good example of the language barrier came with the hunt for a grocery store. I stopped at the front desk and asked for a “grocery store”. The hotel has a Chinese staff, but everyone is multilingual based on the clientele, if you get a French or German literate staff person, they quickly switch and get an English speaking person. However, the term “grocery” is foreign to them. So I got an interesting stare. I then asked for the nearest market and they pointed down a block to an open air area where people sell goods (not food). So I then asked where I could buy food and drinks and they told me about all of the different restaurants in the hotel. So I asked where I could buy food that I could prepare in my kitchen and they finally understood and gave me directions to a gourmet market in the mall attached to the hotel.
Food prices were interesting – 16 slices of Kraft American cheese $8US, a jar pf peanut butter is $11, a small box of Rice Krispies is $6US, Tsing Tao Beer is $0.40, Budweiser is $3.
I got some candy and sweets as a house warming presents for some colleague's children, who I am going to see in the afternoon. I spent the afternoon at the pool of their housing complex outside of Beijing. Getting there was another interesting challenge. I went to the Hotel bellman and asked if he knew where the community was and to get a cab there. He did not. So I went back to the room, fired up the computer, and looked up the address and wrote it down (in English). I took it back to the bell captain and we translated my address to see if he knew where it was. Abbreviations like “Rd” messed him up. After talking to 2 cab drivers, one volunteered to take me there. The cab driver did not know English. I made sure that I had my mandarin card that can get me back to the hotel and off we went. The cab was very good and got me to the community.
We spent the hot afternoon in the pool, literally, and then had dinner at the onsite Chinese restaurant. For the kids, it was their first Chinese restaurant experience and they were all good sports about it.
I got a cab home after dinner and then again tried to stay up until 10pm to power through the jet lag.
