My Journal

Reflecting back on the past 7 days as I pack up for the trip back to the United States, it was a good learning week.

Baked A Cake…in a crock pot. My apartment does not have an oven, and bread/cake products spoil in less than 8 hours based on the lack of preservatives. However, I stumbled upon a recipe that allowed Duncan Hines, my Korean crock pot and my ingenuity to create a small cake that became breakfast for most of the week.


A small group of teachers and administrators from my high school came to Beijing to recruit students, so I had dinner with a number of parents of potential students and alumni of the school. I was one of the oldest alumni there and quickly realized that I was the same age as most of the parents desiring their children to attend the school. The great part was that we all worked in Beijing and had something to talk about, albeit in broken in English or simple Mandarin phrases. I was able to meet other alumni in Beijing and also communicate in English with people other than the ones I work with.

We actually “spoke” to the waitresses at our favorite Japanese restaurant in Mandarin vs. pointing and motioning. We also discovered (after 15 weeks and eating at the restaurant 2-3 times per week), that there is a tepanyaki grill at the back of restaurant. So we ordered quantities, refills and food with mandarin numbers and phrases…we still lacked sentences, but it was good to no longer guess at how many and what was coming for dinner.

Met a Hall of Fame Lacrosse Player at our second practice on Saturday. John Phillips was elected this year to the Hall of Fame and visited Beijing to see how the development program was progressing. He is the former head of the International Lacrosse Federation and at 71, still had has the ability to scoop a ground ball and fire it effortlessly towards a moving target. His insight on the effort to grow lacrosse in Asia was a great 15 minutes that answered many of my questions.

Taught 30 University Students who were brand new to the game..how to throw, catch, scoop, cradle and use the field for lacrosse…in 45 minutes. 5 of them were natural athletes and went on to assist or score during the following scrimmage.

Shopped for Tea. No explanation required.

Negotiated for Pashmina and Pearls. The going price for Pashmina is now below 10USD. It is amazing to see how my perspective of prices has changed over the past few months. My frame of reference has always been the US market. What is reasonable in the US and what is reasonable in China are 2 vastly different numbers. I am now finding the “floor” price that many vendors will go (it takes a lot of time vs a native Chinese person), and am switching tactics to get a good price plus a few freebies on top. In either case, it is clear that the “value” of products vs that real cost are vastly different (and yes, quality can also be a variable on that continuum).

Went to a tailor for shirts and a blazer. We will see what the outcome is, but the fabric looked/felt very good and the price is fantastic for 6 shirts and navy blue blazer.

Ironed my pants….(I think my wife just fainted) because my washer/spinner has turned them all into a wrinkled mess.

Ended the week by watching the Michigan / Ohio State football game on Tivo/Slingbox delay from the States on Sunday night here…it was great right up until the middle of the fourth quarter when the 3 hour taping time limit ended the broadcast. So we enacted the backup Tivo/Slingbox in case this happened…and found that the backup Tivo owner had taped the Auburn / Alabama game by mistake. We settled for ESPN.com and looked at the play-by-play to see how the game ended. We all voted that the next big game will be watched live (3am/4am, etc) vs trying to time-shift to our schedule.

I am excited to get home “tomorrow” night and sleep in my own bed. I say “tomorrow”, since it is a very long day. I leave Beijing at 5pm, fly for 13 hours and land at 5pm in New York. I get to live Monday twice. Happy Thanksgiving!