My Journal

Before NASCAR was an official sport (I denote that by being shown on network television over the weekend), I went to a few races when living in North and South Carolina. Some of my college friends (and their parents) taught me some of the strategy involved in NASCAR and enlightened me to the sport. Enlightened means aware and should not be confused with fanatic reverence. I am always interested in the last 10 laps (much the same as NBA basketball) to see if there is a close finish. Other than that, it really does not draw much effort or emotion from me.

Sunday October 8 was a different enlightening day for me. I started it at 3am based on my body clock not quite adjusting to China, yet. By 10am, I had unpacked, gone to the gym, gone back and forth to the French grocery store and was looking for something to do. The Baseball playoffs were on (Sat Night in the US is Sun morning here), so I decided to find a place where other people might be watching baseball. It turns out there is a 24x7x365 “sports bar” in Beijing – the Goose n Duck – “GnD” for short. So I took the 30-minute cab ride to check out the baseball game (I hope). When I got there, there were a slew of Americans cheering the game. Apparently, I had the most sleep, since most had been there all night and were finishing their revelry.

When the game ended, the next wave of fans appeared for Formula 1 racing. Apparently a big race in Japan was the focus of the attention. Germans, Australians, Britons, French and Canadians all congregated for the race. (Yes, note the lack of Americans, except me).

Simon, my newfound teacher from Australia, was nice enough to walk me through some of the strategy and statistics and favorites for Formula 1 racing. At the end of the day, I think it is a much more interesting and exciting “sport” than NASCAR. The cars have to accelerate and decelerate through hairpin turns, the crews get to tune the cars on their own and experiment with engines and tires, the speeds are faster and the strategy is more intense based on the course layout. Either way, Michael Schumacher was 17 laps from victory when his drive shaft decided to leave his car, eliminating him from the championship. It is a team sport, not a driver sport, unlike NASCAR.

I then realized that Formula 1 is an international sport and NASCAR is US centric. That means less money for the sponsors from consumers for the same time period based on advertising revenues. It is sad to realize that a better product exists, but is marketed poorly vs a poor product with better marketing. Formula 1 is a much more exciting, but doesn’t have the consumer marketing behind it. Someone should tell Fox that.

For the better part of 5 years, my professional life has revolved around planning and anticipating the moment when something does not happen and having a backup plan waiting and ready to go. I had an epiphany a few nights ago trying to get home from work about complacency.

The usual commute for over the past 2 months or so has been hailing a taxi at the two neighboring hotels from my apartment and work. It is very painless since the bellmen at each speak English and tell the Taxi drivers where to go. (The path is corrected along the way, but the destination is clearly articulated and understood by the driver with little effort by me).

After over an hour wait the other night, an empty taxi was neither available nor appearing at the hotel near the office to take me back to my apartment. Our Mandarin literate colleagues were already home, the cars and drivers were off for the night

In the US, I take for granted that I can get home via my own car. If that is not available, I can call my wife, beg a colleague or take a bus home. For the most part, transportation has always been a non-issue and taken for granted.

So now, it is dark, after 7pm and I am well beyond walking distance from my apartment with no available taxis in sight. So I left the hotel bellman and struck out on my own to hail a cab in the financial district. 20 minutes later, my epiphany occurred. I was still standing on the same street corner trying to hail an empty cab.

There is a scene in the movie the Terminator where the robot is trying to select the best insult to hurl at the landlord knocking at the door – each phrase flashes on the screen and is dismissed in honor of the perfect insult. I went through the same selection process:

1) “I can take a bus”…how much is it, where is it going, where do I get off..Bad Idea
2) “ I can take the subway”...where is it, where do I get off, how much is it..Bad Idea
3) “I can walk”…yeah, right!

This is the moment right before panic sets in when you realize that all of the viable options do not make sense, so you try to hail a cab harder and faster (which I did!). I really did not have a backup plan to get home that night and that frustrated me.

At that moment, an empty cab came to a stop in front of me, the driver understood my lousy Mandarin pronunciation of my complex and off we went home.

I now have figured out that a subway stop is a block away from the office and another one is in my building. It is much cheaper and faster to take the subway than a cab. So my contingency plan is now a cab and my main commute method has changed to the subway.

I miss the Mandarin lessons during the commute and am getting used to being the tallest and only Caucasian on the subway car, with the mandatory stares that come with that. However, my commute is more predictable now and I have a contingency plan for basic existence.

My week back in the US was great! Playing with the kids was awesome. My wife needs a pedestal for being the head-of-house, chief-driver, class-mom, primary-care-giver and doctor-extraordinaire. I finally powered through jet lag on Thursday afternoon with a final nap just in time to leave on Friday morning for China, still unclear of what time zone I was actually in. I got to spend Thursday afternoon at my son’s soccer game on a picture-perfect fall day, with little clouds in the sky. It is a great memory as I exited the plane on a smoky, humid Saturday afternoon in Beijing after 25+ hours of traveling. Going back and forth to the US twice in 3 weeks is not something that I would advise anyone to do. It was worth it to see family and friends, but my mind and body are not synchronized. It will be interesting to see how long it takes me to recover from Jet Lag after this trip.

I am back on a plane heading north to the US as China starts their weeklong holiday. Apparently, everyone in Beijing leaves and goes someplace else while other people flock to Beijing for the week. It is the time of year with the best weather in the city and the past week was spent planting flowers in Red, Yellow and Green displays all over the city. Trying to get to the airport today took an extra 30 minutes based on everyone exiting the city. It is still amazing to me how the drivers just make up lanes and weave through traffic with no regard to lines or speed. There is a toll booth on the Airport Expressway which was causing a backup. There are roughly 15 lanes to go through and pay the toll. There were at least 35 “lines” trying to get through 15 lanes and if any gap emerged, a 36th line was created by some driver trying to edge his way through. And the horns were blaring. It was the definition of chaos.

Now, amid this chaos was a very smart operation by the toll both collectors to speed up the process. There were people wearing orange vests wandering through the traffic morass ahead of the toll booth collecting exact toll money and handing out a receipt. The cars then just flashed the receipt as they sped through the gate. Imagine if the NJ Turnpike decided to have this flair of customer service during the holiday periods. It would make life much easier for everyone. I am not sure what type of insurance the orange vested people carried as they were in harm’s way, but it would be much safer in the US.

So my experiment last week to cure jet lag really did not work. I spoke too soon in my entry on Sunday. On Monday and Tuesday, my body rebelled. I fell asleep at lunch on Monday and could only sleep for a couple of hours on Monday night. Tuesday was another tough day trying to power through the time difference. As of Thursday, I felt fine and was almost adjusted, just in time to do it again. So I have now accepted that I will have to go through Jet Lag. It will take me at least 3 days or more and there is nothing I can do about it. I have renewed respect for those people who do rotating shift work on a weekly basis moving from first to third and back again. It saps a lot of strength from the body.

The weather today was the most beautiful day that I have experienced in Beijing. It was crystal clear, mid 70 degrees, just a little wind with zero clouds in the sky. As a result, we ventured outside the building for lunch with one of our Mandarin literate couples. The goal was to try a new Chinese restaurant for lunch. We wandered up the street to this little corner restaurant where you order at the counter, grab a seat at one of the tables and the food is delivered to you. As we entered, one of our Mandarin guides asked what I wanted for lunch…as I looked up at the menu on the wall and saw only Mandarin characters...I just laughed…I had no idea what to get or what the choices were. So the usual routine is to do a quick scan of what other people are eating and point to that. The variety was too large, so I went the other usual reply of “You pick!”. Now there is a certain amount of trust (actually, quite a lot) that goes with that phrase and our Mandarin literate colleagues are getting very good at knowing the different limits that each of us will go. For instance, some of people have the “No small bones” rule, while others have the “No beady eyes staring back at us” rule. Anyway, so we sat at the table and waited. This used to be my most anxious time, literally worrying whether or not I will like whatever comes as I sit with hunger pangs growing. Now, I treat it like Christmas. It is a real surprise. Today, the largest bowl of noodles with lamb came out. Which led to the next task of the day: eating a bowl of long, stringy noodles with chopsticks and not wearing the broth as you literally slurp them into your mouth. Again, watching other’s techniques lead you quickly to the conclusion that there is not one correct way to do it – you need your own style. I am not quite sure if anyone could finish the bowl of noodles, but I did manage to not wear any of my lunch. It also led to our conversation about Italian food and pasta. We had a chicken and the egg debate about where pasta started. Was it brought to China by explorers or was it brought back to Italy from a visit to China. We opted for the origination in China and brought to Italy.

As we strolled down the street back to the office, a number of small stores were selling nuts, popcorn and other treats in preparation for the upcoming holiday. We also walked into a bakery and saw some fresh moon cakes being prepared. As others got cookies and treats to bring back, I stood near the entrance using all of my self-control to not get something. The case in front of me had fresh cream puffs (I am a sucker for cream puffs). So I asked for just one; the clerk articulated that I couldn’t get just one, the minimum order was 5 (nice sales work!!). So I got 5 for 3 kuai (about 40 cents). Now like the moon cakes, when you bite into something, it is sometimes a surprise. I have stopped eating the sweets in China since I have found them too sweet for me. Close to eating sugar cane, actually. So I bit into the cream puff expecting a very sweet center and was pleasantly surprised to find a very light fluffy and perfectly balanced center. I quickly handed out the rest of the bag to the others and it was unanimous that they were good. So both the restaurant and the bakery will get more business from us.

This is the week that leads up to National Day and the Mid-Autumn Festival. It becomes a weeklong holiday for most people and a vacation week. It is interesting to see that other cultures also celebrate the harvest and bounty from the agriculture of the Earth. This week was spent obtaining and giving out gift boxes of Moon Cakes, which celebrate the harvest moon. At first, I thought this to be more like the fruitcakes that people give and receive politely during the winter holiday period. The moon cake is a small, dense (more muffin or pound cake like) with a filling in the center. They come in elaborate boxes and are shared. The most common filling is an egg yolk, which was interesting but this brought up the fruitcake analogy to me. However, we also got some wonderful surprises: nuts, pork and ice cream! And unlike fruitcake, these do have a shelf life.