My Long Day.

I'm writing this at 5:30 in the morning here because yesterday I came back to the hotel at 9 and crashed immediately. I'm getting ready to go see the Great Wall of China in 2 hours!!! I can't believe that! This is going to be so amazing! [Edit...I am now finishing the blog I started writing at 5:30 this morning because I didn't get it finished (It's now 4:45 in the pm). I have now seen the wall, but I am going to finish this one before supper and post about my day at the wall after supper, so you will just have to wait!!]

Yesterday when we arrived at the customers around 9 we immediately realized that I had, in fact, solved the mystery of the leaking torque hubs. All that had happened was that the customer did not wipe off the oil when they took off the covers to refill them and oil had collected around the outside retaining ring groove and slowly oozed to the bottom. There's not a shop rag one in this place anyway. But because they saw oil, they automatically thought "leak."

However, it wasn't that easy to convince the customer of this, and we finally left around 2 after several hours of showing pressurization tests to them and explaining and reexplaining the solution to the interpreters. Having a language gap makes things ten times harder. Finally, we left it at, "Well, the units are not leaking now, but if they end up leaking we will replace them." But I know that they're not going to leak because they held 3 times the air pressure they're supposed to (I uped the amount to 30 psi instead of 10 because I was being a smart alec trying to drive home a point). And what do we remember from middle school science children? Air will fit through cracks oil will not. But I can not convince the customer of this. Argh.

So after this insanely frustrating day out in the cold, we got back to the hotel around 4 and were leaving at 5:30 for dinner so I needed something to do. I wasn't feeling motivated to type, sleep, or watchin Chinese TV, so I decided to venture down to level B1 of the hotel and see what was going on at the spa. Bingo.

I went down with the idea that I was just going to get a pedicure and have them change my chipped nail polish, but since I couldn't communicate well enough to them, I ended up with an hour and a half long foot rub.

It was AMAZING. If ever you are in China please do this for yourself. The girl rubbed my arms for 20 minutes, then moved on to my feet for about 50. After that she put my socks and shoes on, so I thought I was finished. But she layed the chair I was in down and had me flip over and then proceeded to give me a back and calf massage for the next 20. Absolutely amazing. I was starting to get worried about the bill because of how long I had been there and the extent of things she had done to me, but when I got the bill back that said $33.00 I smiled and went on my very happy way. Wow.

For dinner last night we went to a restaurant that had "Beijing Duck." Ummm, can we say, delicious?!?! They actually give you a certificate to keep with the number duck you ate. I don't know why we don't have duck more often in the US. Although, I will say that because they Chinese are not a wasteful people, we ate every part of the duck...the feet, the heart, and the head. I strayed away from the feet and head, but did have a heart, and it wasn't anything to write home about. Mostly like a chicken liver...kinda spoungy. They also served us jellyfish last night, which I feel that I have been pretty adventurous with my eating habits so far, but I drew the line there. I don't eat anything I'm terrified of (and my dad will attest to my emotional breakdown on a beach in Hawaii while attempting to muster up the courage to snorkle, thus proving exaclty how deep this fear of jellyfish really is). Anyway, I'll leave you with pictures.

Here's the unit I used for my tests. Now my name will be forever infamous in Chinese heavy industrial equiptment history. Or, at least will be until they paint it black.

The thing that I have truly loved about my job at Fairfield is that they guys I work with have allowed me to completely maintain my femininity while working in a male dominated environment. I do get teased on occasion, but in general I have seen nothing but respect from my collegues. And they don't even mention it when I lay my Vera Bradley purse on a tire as big as I am. I think this could be used as a new VB marketing picture, what do you think!?!?!

Also, I am going to write a letter to Vera Bradley when I get home telling them that they are completely missing out on what could be an extremely lucrative Asian market. The Chinese girls have gone absolutely gaga over this bag. I am not even close to joking.

Now I do have a joke for you. How many Chinese does it take to change a lightbulb??

This many. And it still wasn't changed when we got back the next day. (I hope I haven't crossed a line here, but I found the situation hilarious.)

The certificate for our delicious duck! Poor little Quackers.

Green Eggs and Ham

I am tired! We spent the entire day in the cold, cold weather trying to figure out what was causing the gearboxes to leak. I finally came up with a solution around 3:30 this afternoon, but we will have to wait until tomorrow morning to know for sure if I'm right. I really hope I am. Working out in the shop I assumed that I might be cold since the weather here in Beijing is around 40 degrees. But I also assumed there would be some sort of repreive in going into the offices or conference room. But all of the windows were open inside of their offices. This is not a common sense oriented culture...

Although I do not have a picture of my goose egg because I actually hit the crown of my head which is covered in hair, I do have a picture of this...

A random worker at the company we visited yesterday came up and layed a duck egg on my plate. (I know you can barely tell, but it's a greenish blue color.) I asked Anne why they chose me to give it to instead of John or Pinakin and she assured me it was because they were trying to take good care of me. I'm going to have to search out other resources to confirm this. :)

Traffic is insane here. Notice in the picture below I have a car circles. That's becuase he was driving along the road....and the sidewalk. There are no rules of the road here. Just the road.

When our driver started down this street John, Pinakin, and I were saying, "No! It's one way!!" But it turns out it wasn't and we pushed our way down it fighting incoming traffic the entire way.

That's really all I have for today. I'm waiting anxiously to go back to the customers today and see if I really did solve the mystery of the leaking torque hubs...

Oh, and my things are still in customs. Please pray that they get released soon, because my trip to Qingdoa to visit Sonya is dependent on having them in my possession before Monday.

~Cbuss

Jethro Goes to Beijing

When I was about 7 my parents took me to Disney World. You know those singing bird things that hang from the ceiling? And remember the loooong line you have to wait in to get in? Well, I don't remember much from that trip, but I do remember two young Asian people trying to cut to the front of the line and my mother stopping them and saying, "Hey! The back of the lines back there!! You have to wait in line just like the rest of us."

What mother didn't know is that in China, you really don't.

Now that I've experienced two different Chinese airports one thing is for sure...just like traffic lights, lines are only a suggestion. There is no personal space in China...there is no staying together in line China. You will get pushed, you will get shoved, and if you're standing in the middle of the road you may get honked at right before you get run over. John, Pinakin, and I do not speak a lick of Chinese. I'm not sure if any of us even know how to say thank you. So, we were highly dependent tonight on Anne, one of the ladies from our office in Suzhou. Anne is very small. Smaller than I am by a long shot. She knows how to push her way through a crowd, yelling in Chinese, and is more than capable of hailing a cab and haggling with a cabbie for a good price. But John, Pinakin, and I are not so capable. I just can't bring myself to push someone around! And I know that it's technically not "rude" here, because it's the norm, it's accepted. Just like not tipping and eating with your mouth wide open (my favorite part of China!!) Everyone is in a rush here, whether it's to get to the front of the line, get the assembly built the fastest, or eat your food as quickly as possible. Efficiency translates to speed here. And this is a huge obstacle for us as we are setting up the assembly line. They think the bigger the tool the better; the harder you hit it the better; the faster it goes the better. But my collegues and I have quality and efficiency in mind. The fewer the mistakes, the happier the customers. Now don't get me wrong...I would love to see the guys in our shop in Lafayette get motivated to move a little faster; but not this fast. When working on fixing the 11000 today it took two of us...John to do the labor involved and me to run interference because the workers kept trying to push us out to the way because they "could do it faster." And please don't take this as complaining or frustration, but rather as something that is very blatant in this culture that I have observed.

Oh, and a day here is of course not complete without something happening to injure or embarrass me in some way. As I was getting out of our taxibus tonight I didn't duck low enough and slammed my head on the ledge. I fell out of the van and had about three Chinese bellhops freaking out trying to help me up and rubbing my head to make sure I was ok. I definitely have a gooseegg from that one. I can't wait to see what my body will come up with tomorrow to reject me as a person! :)

Here are some pics of the new hotel. We're slumming a little in this one...

This is atually a cigarette thing like we have in the US which is typically filled with gravel or something. Here, they fill it with sparkly crystals and stamp the hotels sign in it. Smoking is very popular here...they evidently didn't get the memo about lung cancer.

Oh, and Katie Kline if you're reading this, I saw split pants today. They were unfortunately not in use at the time, and I was a little too slow to the draw in getting my camera, but rest assured, I am on the hunt.

And hilariousness shall follow you all the days of your life...

So, on the flight over from LA they served three meals; I was awake for the first one but slept through the second and third. The first was served early on in the flight; as I recall about an hour into it. So by the time we arrived at the hotel Monday night it was around 9 and I was ready for bed, not for dinner. I didn’t think a lot about it, but somewhere in the time zone change I lost track of eating and when I woke up Tuesday morning I realized I hadn’t eaten for over 24 hours. I wasn’t feeling too great, so I went downstairs and tried to eat light, slow, and things that I thought I would be able to digest on a completely empty stomach (because I don’t know about you, but I have to ease into eating if I haven’t done it in awhile. So, of course I chose bacon. Also a muffin of some sort, and some watermelon and an orange. Now, I know what you’re thinking….those aren’t exactly things that are easy on one’s stomach. But remember, I’m in China. So my other options were eggs cooked in a way I have never seen, broccoli, or yogurt.

At 8:20 our driver came and picked us up at the hotel and off we went to work for the day. I was feeling a little sick, but I was doing my best to keep things under control. And then the driver answered his phone. I was sitting directly behind him, but the smell of his chronic halitosis still managed to work its way back to me. And then it happened. I pulled a classic George H. W. Bush.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnOnDatqENo

It was all over my pants, shirt, and the inside of the van. Luckily, being OCD and all, I had Wet Ones wipes, Lysol spray, tissues, and hand sanitizer. So I was able to mostly clean everything up and I was even able to get the watermelon colored vomit out of my khaki pants. (I will now be learning to use the laundry service in the hotel.) Luckily though, I was able to keep my cool and brushed the whole thing off with a joke about how, “I now know how George Bush felt in Japan.” You just can’t make this kind of story up.

But after I puked I felt 100 times better and I’ve had a great first day in China. Lunch was awesome! (I’m not being sarcastic.) We had rice, cooked seaweed, steamed radishes, sweet chicken cooked with pears, a chocolate pastry of some sort, and some kind of soup…I’m not really sure what it was. It was clear, had green stuff in it, and tasted like fish. But really, it was very good and I think I’m going to be just fine eating over here. (I really liked the steamed seaweed; it tasted a lot like turnip greens.) And it’s awesome being at work here. Everyone is SO NICE and every so often they bring out coffee and green tea to us. (Hahaha…I was expecting some kind of fancy tea, but they drink Lipton here too!) I will say this…I get stared at a lot in the different shops I’ve traveled to over the past year. It’s just not common to see a female in the manufacturing world. But here, it’s almost like I’m a freak show or something. Today I took apart one of our 11000 series boxes and as I was analyzing the gearing patterns I looked up and noticed that all the guys across the aisle had stopped working and were staring intently at me, whispering to one another. Creepers.

Tonight we went to dinner at a HotPot place. It was pretty good. I think the hardest thing for me is that they don’t really cut anything up, and since there are only chopsticks here you’re kinda forced to shove things in your mouth at sizes that aren’t always comfortable. So, when trying something new it can be a bit overwhelming. But, an old friend of mine, Kelly Khouri used to tell me, “Always try something new twice…the first time your tastebuds may be shocked, but the second time they can truly discern if you like something or not.” And I’ve pretty much always lived by this rule and as result I’ve found that I like the majority of foods. So far Chinese food hasn’t been bad at all, but I haven’t had chicken head soup yet either…

I’ll leave you with some pictures I took of our facility.

The 11000 series I took apart this morning...always fun.

These are some gearboxes for a transmission. They're from our Italian company, so I don't really know a lot about them.I love this tool! The workers can just strap the gearbox to this table and it turns easily instead of making the workers man handle heavy units. I really want to petition to get these at Fairfield because they could be a potentially great way to save money and time in labor!

Our new assembly line!!! I know it doesn't look like much, but this will increase the number of gearboxes made in this facility by the thousands. The presses are so new and awesome! They even have a pressure gage!

So now you know...the secrets out...I'm a nerd that REALLY loves my job!!!

~CBuss

And we're here...

A 14 hour flight, 2 hour drive to the hotel later, I'm finally writing and a will soon crash and go to bed. I slept most of the trip over, if you want to call it sleep. Mostly I sat there freezing to death hoping my knee would stop hurting someday soon. But those things aside, is was a good and uneventful trip. I watched "Finding Neverland" which is an excellent film if you haven't seen it. I also would like to say, if you can fly business class, please do it. It was so nice to be able to actually lay down in the plane and have someone willing to get you anything you want/need. Why I didn't ask for an extra blanket I'm still unsure....

The hotel is very nice and I'm looking forward to the bed. Here are some pictures, just because looking at pictures is a lot more fun than reading my description of things...

The living room

The view from the balcony. (I'll take a better one in the daylight tomorrow.)

The kitchen.

The bathroom.

Alrighty, I need to get some sleep. The last thing I heard was that my tools and gearboxes are still stuck in customs. I have a service school scheduled tomorrow, but it's not looking like that will happen. I'll keep you updated. And I hope you're all having a nice Monday in Indiana.

~CBuss

Not quite China yet, but LA will have to do.

I'm coming to you live from the Los Angeles airport buisiness class lounge. There's a whole lot of pretention going on here. No doubt. That's ok though, because they've provided me with free CoCoa Krispies, and I need them after the long flight fom Chicago to LA. I can't believe the number of grown adults that enjoy being insubordinate on airplanes! We experienced a good deal of turbulence on the flight over (it wasn't really bad turbulence, just persistant) and so the captain had the fasten seatbelt light on most of the trip. But the passengers just continued to ignore it and get up and walk around and get things out of the overhead compartment and such. The flight attendants kept reprimanding them the entire flight but to no avail. Alas...I do like rule following.

Another story that does merit telling...

While I was standing in line at the security x-ray machines here in LA, a woman standing in the line next to the one I was in noticed a big trash can full of plastic water bottles. They have these at most security check points so that in case you've forgotten to dispose of your bottle you can throw it away there (since you can no longer take bottles that size through security). Well, this particular lady I don't think realized that and I assume she thought they were complimentary. So I see her look to her left, right, and then pick up a water bottle and quickly shove it into her purse. (I don't think she noticed the bottle was only half full.) When she reaches the x-ray machine and puts her purse inside, the security guard takes it out of her bag and tells her she must throw it away. The last glimpse I got of the woman was a look of sheer confusion as to why the airport would give out complimentary water if they were only going to take it away two minutes later. People watching at airports is quickly becoming one of my new favorite hobbies.

I'll see you guys in 14 hours.

Live From Chicago, It's Saturday Night!

We made it to Chicago! John and I left Fairfield’s parking lot at 6:15 Saturday night, drove to the Doubletree we’re staying at, had dinner, and now I’m sitting in my room watching a rerun of House and writing this blog (even though Doubletree’s internet costs $11.95 a day and so I probably won’t be able to post it online until O’Hare, LA, or even China).

Let me take this moment to give free advertisement for Doubletree. They are my favorite hotel to stay in while I’m traveling for work. (Although I’m not a fan of the not-free internet at this one.) But the beds and pillows are oh-so-comfortable and upon check-in the give you the most A-MAZING walnut chocolate chip cookies you’ve ever had. They even keep them warm in an oven at the front desk for you. Plus, provided for your convenience in the bathrooms are Neutrogena products; shampoo, conditioner, lotion, soap, foaming face wash, and cold crème. Excellent additions for my guest basket in the bathroom at home.

So, some of you are probably a little curious about what exactly I’ll be up to for two weeks (or in Craig’s words a fortnight) in China. I work for a company called Fairfield Manufacturing and we make gearboxes. (http://www.fairfieldmfg.com/ to check out some of our product line.) I’ve been training in a position title “Product Support Engineer” for the past 8 months so that I can move into sales eventually for the company, and as it turns out they needed someone from service to go to China and teach employees and some of our customers about our products and how they are assembled, disassembled, and some common troubleshooting techniques. Well, since my boss does not care for the country of China in the least, they sent me instead. So, I’ll be helping set up a new assembly line while I’m there, teaching service schools, and helping to organize a new service center for our facility in Suzhou. It will be a busy two weeks!!!

Please be sure to check back and correspond with me via this blog or email. I wish I could call all of you everyday to share stories directly, but unfortunately international calling is a wee bit expensive. So a blog will have to do. I hope you’re all doing well, but for now it’s bedtime!

~CBuss