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.