It has been a few days since I have last posted. Since Wednesday my hours have been pretty long. The media is slowly starting to arrive and we are expecting them all here by the end of next week. Right now we have 4 restaurants open and we will open the final 3 I believe next Monday.
My schedule came out and my hours are not bad. A few 3am shifts and the rest are day shifts which balances out nicely. I was trying to plan a trip to The Wall but the trip we wanted to go on is booked until September. I found an ad on craigslist for this tour to the wall in an area were not many people go. It is a 3-5 hour hike and the guy said the only tourists there are the people you go with. We all want to do it however most people leave at the end of August. I might try to go on one of the tourist trips now and then this guys trip in September.
Here is an email I got from one of the people on the project about the local happenings with the Olympics less then 2 weeks away. I thought you guys would enjoy it:
1. Steel giant helps to clear the skies
The Capital Steel Group has reaffirmed its long-standing promise to cut production during the Games in a well-orchestrated publicity move by Beijing authorities to show the world its efforts to provide athletes and visitors with a clear sky and cleaner air.
Group president Zhu Jimin said that its plant in the capital's western suburbs would run at only 27 per cent capacity to help cut emissions.
"Shougang [the Chinese name of the company] is a group with a strong sense of social responsibility," he said. 'I’m happy we can do our part to help present a great Olympics."
He said Shougang could afford to cut production temporarily.。
"Our group had record profits in the first half of the year, and I believe our profit in the second half should still be all right after we resume production after the Olympics."
The group posted net income of 5.26 billion yuan (HK$6.03 billion) in the first half of the year- much higher than last year's total of 4.36 billion yuan.
The company has shut down three big plants this year, allowing only one to run while the Games are on. Full operations will resume after October 1. However, Shougang will move all its steel production to Caofeidian in neighbouring Hebei province (~) by 2010.
Founded in 1919 in Beijing, the group has contributed dramatically to the economic development of the capital, but its emissions are thought to be one of the main causes of the city's pollution problems.
Although it has invested billions in the past decade to upgrade its filtering systems, the group has been at the centre of criticism whenever Beijing's air pollution problems are mentioned. Some academic research suggests the group is responsible for a tenth of all air pollution in Beijing.
2. Non-Games flights banned for opening
Beijing will restrict aircraft landing and taking off during the opening ceremony on August 8 airline officials said yesterday, forcing the rescheduling of dozens of flights due to security concerns
Domestic media reports quoted aviation Sources as saying Beijing Capital International Airport would be closed to all non-Olympic traffic between 8pm and midnight on the evening of the opening ceremony.
Officials at the Beijing airport and the mainland's aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Administration of China，said they were Unaware of the order or unable to comment．
Aircraft are already banned from flying over Beijing，though authorities are taking no chances and have placed anti-aircraft missiles near the National Stadium．known as the Bird's Nest．
From Sunday, passengers in Beijing，Shanghai，cities with airports designated as diversion airfields during the Olympics，and the restive regions of Xinjiang(新疆)and Tibet(西藏)will have to clear security before entering terminals．
Travel agents said some domestic flights were already fully booked on the evening of August
3 Buildings silent as workers exit, cranes stop July.21st
Building sites across the capital fell silent yesterday and the last of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers began leaving the city in Beijing's last-ditch effort to curb pollution and ensure Games security for the Olympics.
As part of a flurry of sweeping measures taking effect during the countdown to the Olympics, thousands of construction sites within the city's Sixth Ring Road came to a standstill and will stay that way for 60 days.
Infrastructure projects, including interior decorating operations at office buildings and residential areas have also been banned since yesterday in Beijing.
But Olympic-related projects have been exempted, with workers being kept busy adding final touches or cleaning up construction sites.Factories were shut down July 21st and for the first few days we could tell the difference. Things were not as smoggy and the air seemed a little better. It has now been a week and it seems to me like it is right back where it began. We had a good run of seeing the sun and moon but now its back to clouds. Since I have been working 12pm - 10pm I have not been able to see how the traffic has been. We have actually been taking the subway in and a cab back.
The Subway is really nice here. Either the whole thing is new or they just got new subway cars but everything is very clean. It takes about 40 minutes to get to work and it is free. We show our Olympic credentials and we ride for free. It might switch to 24 hour service which would be awesome because I would not have to worry about turning in cab receipts anymore. We still do not have a bus to take managers back and forth. We are the furthest venue away and do not have a bus...we don't get it!
I need to head to work but just wanted to give everyone an update as to where I am what is going on. 12 Days until the opening ceremonies!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Phils Win!
Most of you know I am huge Phillies fan. Knowing they were entering a 3 game series at Shea and I would not be able to watch it made me a little sad. All I have to say is THANK YOU SKYPE. I called Jess at around 9:45pm East Coast time and had her face her computer so I could watch the 9th inning of the game. I woke up one of my roommates while watching and cheering. I was at Shea last year when they had a mental break down and blew it and it was amazing....watching them blow a game from 7,000 miles away is just as sweet. My prediction is they take 2 of 3 from them and we don't look back. I hope that when I fly home October 1st I will be watching Phillies playoffs.
Back to life in China. I am still having bed issues. I got the pad and extra blanket and it worked for a little. Now I can't really sleep which is horrible because 12 hour days require some sleep. I just sent out another email to the person in charge and hopefully something will happen. I think I will send an email a day until they get annoyed and just give me a new room.
Media Village goes 24 hours Friday. We planned to open up all 7 service areas for 24 hour dining this Friday but the media is arriving in waves so only 4 areas will be open. I never thought I would be looking forward to 24 hour service areas but it will be nice to finally display what we have been working on for the past 3 weeks. On my side we have a great team. The operations people and the culinary team have a great relationship which makes it very easy and we both help each other out. Everyone seems pretty happy about our food selection.
I am sure all of you have heard in the news how they would be shutting down some factories and limiting the cars on the road in hopes the reduce the smog. It is working. It it not perfectly clear but it is nicer then before. Just this week alone I have seen the sun twice and the moon three times.
Before I left for Beijing Peter Tannenbaum told me I had to get a haircut here. He said they were amazing and if only they did haircuts like this in the states. Peter, you were right! My friend and I went the other day to get a hair cut. We walk into this place that looks like your regular barbershop in the states. They direct us to the back to sit down. They put a towel on us and get all of their supplies ready. They take a water bottle and get or hair wet and they start to shampoo us at the chair. At first we both looked at each other like "wtf" but just rolled with it. They washed our hair the way you would wash a dogs hair...get it a little wet and then rub shampoo in it. After the shampoo they took us to wash our hair and then back to the chair. The next 20 minutes we got a neck and back massage. Once that was over they bring us to the front to get our hair cut. The guy cuts our hair and then washes it. The whole process was about 45 minutes and we walked out of there so relaxed and only spending 3 us dollars.
A last note before I leave. I have found the supply chain for Nintendo Wii's and Wii Fitness as well as a million other video game related things. If anyone wants or needs anything let me know. I am still trying to figure out if they will work in the states. I am pretty sure they will.
I am off to explore some more.
Go Phillies!
Back to life in China. I am still having bed issues. I got the pad and extra blanket and it worked for a little. Now I can't really sleep which is horrible because 12 hour days require some sleep. I just sent out another email to the person in charge and hopefully something will happen. I think I will send an email a day until they get annoyed and just give me a new room.
Media Village goes 24 hours Friday. We planned to open up all 7 service areas for 24 hour dining this Friday but the media is arriving in waves so only 4 areas will be open. I never thought I would be looking forward to 24 hour service areas but it will be nice to finally display what we have been working on for the past 3 weeks. On my side we have a great team. The operations people and the culinary team have a great relationship which makes it very easy and we both help each other out. Everyone seems pretty happy about our food selection.
I am sure all of you have heard in the news how they would be shutting down some factories and limiting the cars on the road in hopes the reduce the smog. It is working. It it not perfectly clear but it is nicer then before. Just this week alone I have seen the sun twice and the moon three times.
Before I left for Beijing Peter Tannenbaum told me I had to get a haircut here. He said they were amazing and if only they did haircuts like this in the states. Peter, you were right! My friend and I went the other day to get a hair cut. We walk into this place that looks like your regular barbershop in the states. They direct us to the back to sit down. They put a towel on us and get all of their supplies ready. They take a water bottle and get or hair wet and they start to shampoo us at the chair. At first we both looked at each other like "wtf" but just rolled with it. They washed our hair the way you would wash a dogs hair...get it a little wet and then rub shampoo in it. After the shampoo they took us to wash our hair and then back to the chair. The next 20 minutes we got a neck and back massage. Once that was over they bring us to the front to get our hair cut. The guy cuts our hair and then washes it. The whole process was about 45 minutes and we walked out of there so relaxed and only spending 3 us dollars.
A last note before I leave. I have found the supply chain for Nintendo Wii's and Wii Fitness as well as a million other video game related things. If anyone wants or needs anything let me know. I am still trying to figure out if they will work in the states. I am pretty sure they will.
I am off to explore some more.
Go Phillies!
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Electronics Electronics and More Electronics
I had the day off Tuesday and the people I usually hang out with were working so I had to fly solo. I wasn't feeling that great so I did not go anywhere far and decided to just stick around my area. People consider the area I live in the Silicon Valley of Beijing. Everywhere you look you see people with boxes of computers, tv's, laptops, etc....
My digital camera is about 3 years old so I was looking into buying a new one. I walked about a block from the hotel to this building that had posters of the different camera companies. As soon as I hit the door, just like Silk Market, people start screaming and yelling trying to sell me laptops, cameras, and iPods. I wandered around for a little until I found a Nikon booth.
The way this place is set up is that its an office building and they just create these spaces for people. Some stores are big some stores are small. On the outsides are the bigger ones and then the inside they are just counters you walk up to and look at things.
At the Nikon store, pronounced "knee-con" here there were these 4 cute sales girls. They spoke maybe 5 or 6 words of English. I asked how much a camera was and they didn't say it they just punched it on the calculator. They punched in 4500 rmb. ( I am looking at the Nikon D60 which is a 700 dollar camera in the states so I want to see if I can get it cheaper here) I told the girl it was a very high number and she then punched in 4200. We get to talking about the features and she had no clue what I was saying. She pulls out a piece of paper and reads, "my master is upstairs. If you buy now you talk to him and he speak good English. You want go now?"
Not really knowing what she was talking about I said sure. They walked me through the whole first floor...out the door...into another building loaded with electronics and we stopped at an elevator. As we are waiting for the elevator a few things popped in my head. I was either going upstairs and going to get robbed 0r I was going upstairs to talk to the "master." I get in the elevator and it's just me and her. She hits the 15th floor but we stopped on almost every floor on the way up. By the 10th floor I was jammed in an elevator with out any air conditioning and the smell was not the best.
We got off on the 15th floor and it was an office setup. Names of companies on the outside of the door. We walked around the corner and her company had the office in the back. It looked normal so the idea of getting robbed was no longer in my mind. When we walked into the office there were sets of couches all over the place with a coffee table in the middle. She sits me down and there is a calculator and booklet of cameras. The "master" came over and we talked about the price. It is a 700 dollar camera in the states and all of his prices were right around there. I told him I wanted it for 2700 and he said there is no way. He kept trying to talk me into and eventually into buying a whole different camera.
I ended up not buying but the experience was pretty crazy. When I rode the elevator back down I walked around to check out the other things. On the first 3 floors it was all cameras and computers. The next few floors was all stuff to build a computer and memory cards. The memory cards here are dirt cheap for some reason. You can buy an 8gb flash drive for 30 bucks.
On the work side of things everything is going well. We have been feeding Aramark and Olympic staff since Friday. Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. The Olympic people seem pretty happy with the food. They complain in the mornings because there are not enough carbs on the menu and every morning we have to tell them how hard it has been getting food it so we are doing our best. This coming Thursday the shifts are changing. There will be a 3am-1pm shift and a 12pm-10pm shift. I am not sure which I would prefer. This is our last week of just feeding the staff. The media arrives the 25th and that is when it will get crazy. I am actually looking forward to that because I want to get into it already.
It is hard to believe I have been here for 21 days already. It seems like a lot longer. Yesterday they started shutting down factories and only certain cars are allowed to drive each day. You could tell right away because there was a blue sky and you could see the sun. At night we were able to see the moon which was a first. Living in an environment where the sun is barley seen is very strange for me.
I have to get going. I got lucky and scored another day off today so we are going to try and see some sites.
My digital camera is about 3 years old so I was looking into buying a new one. I walked about a block from the hotel to this building that had posters of the different camera companies. As soon as I hit the door, just like Silk Market, people start screaming and yelling trying to sell me laptops, cameras, and iPods. I wandered around for a little until I found a Nikon booth.
The way this place is set up is that its an office building and they just create these spaces for people. Some stores are big some stores are small. On the outsides are the bigger ones and then the inside they are just counters you walk up to and look at things.
At the Nikon store, pronounced "knee-con" here there were these 4 cute sales girls. They spoke maybe 5 or 6 words of English. I asked how much a camera was and they didn't say it they just punched it on the calculator. They punched in 4500 rmb. ( I am looking at the Nikon D60 which is a 700 dollar camera in the states so I want to see if I can get it cheaper here) I told the girl it was a very high number and she then punched in 4200. We get to talking about the features and she had no clue what I was saying. She pulls out a piece of paper and reads, "my master is upstairs. If you buy now you talk to him and he speak good English. You want go now?"
Not really knowing what she was talking about I said sure. They walked me through the whole first floor...out the door...into another building loaded with electronics and we stopped at an elevator. As we are waiting for the elevator a few things popped in my head. I was either going upstairs and going to get robbed 0r I was going upstairs to talk to the "master." I get in the elevator and it's just me and her. She hits the 15th floor but we stopped on almost every floor on the way up. By the 10th floor I was jammed in an elevator with out any air conditioning and the smell was not the best.
We got off on the 15th floor and it was an office setup. Names of companies on the outside of the door. We walked around the corner and her company had the office in the back. It looked normal so the idea of getting robbed was no longer in my mind. When we walked into the office there were sets of couches all over the place with a coffee table in the middle. She sits me down and there is a calculator and booklet of cameras. The "master" came over and we talked about the price. It is a 700 dollar camera in the states and all of his prices were right around there. I told him I wanted it for 2700 and he said there is no way. He kept trying to talk me into and eventually into buying a whole different camera.
I ended up not buying but the experience was pretty crazy. When I rode the elevator back down I walked around to check out the other things. On the first 3 floors it was all cameras and computers. The next few floors was all stuff to build a computer and memory cards. The memory cards here are dirt cheap for some reason. You can buy an 8gb flash drive for 30 bucks.
On the work side of things everything is going well. We have been feeding Aramark and Olympic staff since Friday. Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. The Olympic people seem pretty happy with the food. They complain in the mornings because there are not enough carbs on the menu and every morning we have to tell them how hard it has been getting food it so we are doing our best. This coming Thursday the shifts are changing. There will be a 3am-1pm shift and a 12pm-10pm shift. I am not sure which I would prefer. This is our last week of just feeding the staff. The media arrives the 25th and that is when it will get crazy. I am actually looking forward to that because I want to get into it already.
It is hard to believe I have been here for 21 days already. It seems like a lot longer. Yesterday they started shutting down factories and only certain cars are allowed to drive each day. You could tell right away because there was a blue sky and you could see the sun. At night we were able to see the moon which was a first. Living in an environment where the sun is barley seen is very strange for me.
I have to get going. I got lucky and scored another day off today so we are going to try and see some sites.
Friday, July 18, 2008
My 17 dollar meal
It has been a few days so I would like to apologize to those who have created a routine of waking up and reading my blog. Things at work have been a little hectic which has caused me to be very tired at the end of the day and just pass out.
As I have mentioned before Media Village has 7 restaurants. I am on the side that has 4 and work with 3 other operations managers. Starting today we will be serving staff meals everyday from 7am - 8pm. July 25th is when the media arrives and we start our 24 hour service. Today went very well. I worked the 5am-3pm shift which was nice considering I am a morning person. We pretty much worked everyday this week. I was able to have a day off on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning me and a few others decided to go to the Silk Market. For those of you who don't know the Silk Market is where you go to buy things dirt cheap. 90 percent of the stuff is probably not real but it is really cheap. We took a taxi to the Silk Market that took about 30 minutes. I was always under the impression that the Silk Market was outside but was happy to find out that it is indoors and has air conditioning. Right off the bat it just looks like a giant flea market. I took two steps in and realized it is a giant flea market on crack. As you walk the aisles people stand in front of their booth shouting, "mister mister...buy a watch" "sir do you need jeans" "rich American buy from me." After walking down one aisle I kind of wanted to go home.
As I continued wandering I found a place that sells Polo. I asked the woman how much the polo is and she says 120 rmb. I tell her no way I will give you 30. For a few minutes we go back and forth until we agree on 45 rmb. Doing the math that is about $ 6.80. 10 Polos later I had only spent 66 usd. When I left her booth other sellers saw my huge bag and started screaming and pulling on me to buy more. It was horrible. I did not enjoy being pulled on and them all coming in front of me trying to stop me to buy something. I needed a bag to hide the shirts.
I went down to the bag section and found a backpack I wanted. The woman tells me its 1500 rmb and I tell her I spent all my savings on shirts. She laughed and goes "you are a funny man, for that I give you bag for 1200." I responded with, " I thought I was funnier then a 300 rmb discount." She didn't get it. We continued debating the price on the calculator. She punched in 1100 and hit the clear and punched in 500. Back and forth we went. She hit 1000 I hit 300. I was kind of cornered which made me uncomfortable so I tried to say forget it I will go else where. The woman then takes my shirts out of the bag and starts putting them in the backpack. She keeps going, "ooo so much room in this bag...it very nice." Once she packs the bag she puts it on my shoulders and tells me I look great it in. After about 10 minutes I pull out 200 rmb and say take it or leave it. Just my luck she accepted it and I walked away with a 30 dollar bag.
All in all the Silk Market was crazy. I plan to go back and possibly get a custom made suit or some winter gear for football season. If anyone wants anything let me know and I will see what I can do.
Now for my 17 dollar meal. My Aunt Lori forwarded to me an article from Vogue Magazine about this guy who toured Beijing restaurants. He listed his favorite places to go. We have all been sick of eating around here so last night we pulled the list out and picked a dumpling house. The front desk wrote the address down and told the cab where to go. There were 4 of us for dinner and were all American. We get to the place and they give us two menus.
As I have mentioned before Media Village has 7 restaurants. I am on the side that has 4 and work with 3 other operations managers. Starting today we will be serving staff meals everyday from 7am - 8pm. July 25th is when the media arrives and we start our 24 hour service. Today went very well. I worked the 5am-3pm shift which was nice considering I am a morning person. We pretty much worked everyday this week. I was able to have a day off on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning me and a few others decided to go to the Silk Market. For those of you who don't know the Silk Market is where you go to buy things dirt cheap. 90 percent of the stuff is probably not real but it is really cheap. We took a taxi to the Silk Market that took about 30 minutes. I was always under the impression that the Silk Market was outside but was happy to find out that it is indoors and has air conditioning. Right off the bat it just looks like a giant flea market. I took two steps in and realized it is a giant flea market on crack. As you walk the aisles people stand in front of their booth shouting, "mister mister...buy a watch" "sir do you need jeans" "rich American buy from me." After walking down one aisle I kind of wanted to go home.
As I continued wandering I found a place that sells Polo. I asked the woman how much the polo is and she says 120 rmb. I tell her no way I will give you 30. For a few minutes we go back and forth until we agree on 45 rmb. Doing the math that is about $ 6.80. 10 Polos later I had only spent 66 usd. When I left her booth other sellers saw my huge bag and started screaming and pulling on me to buy more. It was horrible. I did not enjoy being pulled on and them all coming in front of me trying to stop me to buy something. I needed a bag to hide the shirts.
I went down to the bag section and found a backpack I wanted. The woman tells me its 1500 rmb and I tell her I spent all my savings on shirts. She laughed and goes "you are a funny man, for that I give you bag for 1200." I responded with, " I thought I was funnier then a 300 rmb discount." She didn't get it. We continued debating the price on the calculator. She punched in 1100 and hit the clear and punched in 500. Back and forth we went. She hit 1000 I hit 300. I was kind of cornered which made me uncomfortable so I tried to say forget it I will go else where. The woman then takes my shirts out of the bag and starts putting them in the backpack. She keeps going, "ooo so much room in this bag...it very nice." Once she packs the bag she puts it on my shoulders and tells me I look great it in. After about 10 minutes I pull out 200 rmb and say take it or leave it. Just my luck she accepted it and I walked away with a 30 dollar bag.
All in all the Silk Market was crazy. I plan to go back and possibly get a custom made suit or some winter gear for football season. If anyone wants anything let me know and I will see what I can do.
Now for my 17 dollar meal. My Aunt Lori forwarded to me an article from Vogue Magazine about this guy who toured Beijing restaurants. He listed his favorite places to go. We have all been sick of eating around here so last night we pulled the list out and picked a dumpling house. The front desk wrote the address down and told the cab where to go. There were 4 of us for dinner and were all American. We get to the place and they give us two menus.
A quick side note: every place we go out to eat the never give you a menu per person. If you are 4 people you are lucky to get 2. I have no clue why this happens.
The menu is all in Chinese and no pictures. Pictures usually get us through every meal. Obviously when ordering dumplings pictures wouldn't help but an English menu would have been nice. We called the waiter over and after 5 minutes of playing charades we were able to determine what was pork, beef, and vegetable. My friends do really good animal noises. We ordered 3 different types of dumplings from each category, pancakes, and another dish. We had about 60 dumplings total and 2 rounds of beer. The food was incredible. This guy was dead on.
The bill comes out and it was 114 rmb. The 4 of us were shocked it was that cheap. 114 rmb is 17 usd. In the states a meal like that would have been well over 100 bucks. Since the place was so good we are going to make sure we hit every place on the restaurant list and I will be sure to keep you posted on what we find.
I am heading out for drinks and dinner. Until next time.
The menu is all in Chinese and no pictures. Pictures usually get us through every meal. Obviously when ordering dumplings pictures wouldn't help but an English menu would have been nice. We called the waiter over and after 5 minutes of playing charades we were able to determine what was pork, beef, and vegetable. My friends do really good animal noises. We ordered 3 different types of dumplings from each category, pancakes, and another dish. We had about 60 dumplings total and 2 rounds of beer. The food was incredible. This guy was dead on.
The bill comes out and it was 114 rmb. The 4 of us were shocked it was that cheap. 114 rmb is 17 usd. In the states a meal like that would have been well over 100 bucks. Since the place was so good we are going to make sure we hit every place on the restaurant list and I will be sure to keep you posted on what we find.
I am heading out for drinks and dinner. Until next time.
Monday, July 14, 2008
THE MOMENT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR
It has been talked about for the past two weeks. I have told you how I was dreading stepping into it. This Friday it came out. Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you....The 2008 Beijing Olympics Manager Uniform!!!
Isn't it lovely? This is what I will have to be wearing every time I go to work not. How it works is I show up to work in whatever and I go downstairs to the uniform room. I give them my name and they give me my pants and shirt. I then have to go to the changing room. The changing room is pretty much a hole in the wall....probably the size of the smallest cubicle you have ever seen. There are a few benches and that's it. My first day I walk in there and there are about 5 Chinese chefs and 1 American..me being the one American. They are all smoking and screaming and yelling laughing about something. For those of you who know me, being clean is a top priority. This changing room, NOT CLEAN. The floor creeps me out. I find a little corner to put my things down. I take off my shoes and then stand on them because there is no way in hell I want my feet to touch the ground. I have socks on but still...I am balancing on a pair of shoes while trying to get one leg into my pants, it is a very tough task for those of you who have never had to do this. The Chinese guys are all looking at me like I am nuts. I asked them to put the cigarette out and they just smiled and offered me one. After balancing on my shoes I was able to get both legs into my pants. I put on my fancy blue button down that has the extra extra starch. I put on my fanny pack and hat and I was good to go.
Enough about my couture outfit. I spent yesterday at the Forbidden City. It was amazing. The place was gigantic. We spent about 4 hours there exploring all over. I took some really great pictures. One thing that stood out to me was the condition the buildings were in. When you go around Europe everything looks very well maintained. In the Forbidden City it seemed like they just let it go. Things were very old looking and in pretty bad condition.
After the Forbidden City we headed to Houhai. Houhai is this little area that is surrounded by a lake. It is a pretty big tourist trap. They have all these shops and bars sitting on the lake. You can rent boats but we chose not to considering everyone we saw driving them was crashing into something. It was a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
I just posted pictures that will sum up my past two days. Tomorrow I have a day off and I am heading to the Silk Market. From what I am told I can get a custom made suit for 150 usd. It should be interesting. People who have already gone said be prepared to get pulled and yelled at to buy things. I am ready for it.
Make sure to look at my pictures.
Enough about my couture outfit. I spent yesterday at the Forbidden City. It was amazing. The place was gigantic. We spent about 4 hours there exploring all over. I took some really great pictures. One thing that stood out to me was the condition the buildings were in. When you go around Europe everything looks very well maintained. In the Forbidden City it seemed like they just let it go. Things were very old looking and in pretty bad condition.
After the Forbidden City we headed to Houhai. Houhai is this little area that is surrounded by a lake. It is a pretty big tourist trap. They have all these shops and bars sitting on the lake. You can rent boats but we chose not to considering everyone we saw driving them was crashing into something. It was a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
I just posted pictures that will sum up my past two days. Tomorrow I have a day off and I am heading to the Silk Market. From what I am told I can get a custom made suit for 150 usd. It should be interesting. People who have already gone said be prepared to get pulled and yelled at to buy things. I am ready for it.
Make sure to look at my pictures.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Soft Opening
I am not even sure where to begin. Our soft opening was Friday and Saturday. I worked Friday from 9am-3am and then Saturday 7am-4pm. It has been a long 48 hours.
The soft opening went really well and the client was very happy. We served dinner Friday night to VIP media. Pretty much the media gets these passes to give to family and friends for them to come stay at the village for 2 nights and experience the Media Village. We had 3 restaurants open and they all opened at 6pm. There were roughly 2,200 people all dieing to get in. People were pushing and shoving to get in. All the food was free. It was a chance for us to test everything and a chance to get feedback from the client.
There was a situation with all these people trying to come in at one time. We set it up that 25 guests at a time would come in. People starting pushing and shoving and I couldn't take it anymore. I kind of gave this one guy a forearm and had the translator say "if you act like this none of you are eating." Once that was said they formed a line and it was smooth sailing.
As for what they ate. We had all sorts of food but these people were piling their plates so high. It was ridiculous. They were stealing drinks in their bags, putting tea bags in their pockets, and taking fruit like it was going out of style. I could not believe it. It is kind of hard to explain how it went and how everyone acted. I guess to sum it up they did not act like VIPs.
BOCOG is Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games. They are our client. They all walk around in these Adidas jumpsuits. They eat and drink at all the places to make sure everything is ok. One of the BOCOG members stopped me to say hello and we started talking. He was telling me how happy he was with the way everything was going and how excited he was to be working with Aramark. We continued talking and he started saying how proud he is of me and how he is impressed with how hard I was working. It caught me off guard that he was saying these things because he was a complete stranger. He then asked if I had eaten anything all day and I told him no. He said I must eat but I explained to him that I do not like to eat in front of customers while working. Well he talked me into eating with him and he tried to get me to have a beer with him as well. It was really nice to sit down with Chinese business men and hear their story. When this guy is not doing BOCOG he is a miner.
MY UNIFORM. The much anticipated uniform came out Friday. I got to work and the seamstress gave me the pants she fixed. I put on my horrible khaki pants and my blue button down short sleeve dress shirt. The collar of the shirt had so much starch it killed. I looked in the mirror and could not stop laughing. The outfit was not complete until I put on my fanny pack and hat. Let me tell you, I looked like a real winner. I found out that the pants can withstand anything. Someone told me you could pour a bottle of water on them and nothing would happen. I felt like I was in an infomercial but I took a glass of water and poured it on my pants. Sure enough dry as a bone. The outfit is so uncomfortable. As soon as I post pictures I will be sure to post them.
It has been a long 2 days considering I am working on 3 hours of sleep. We are heading to the Forbidden City tomorrow and this time we are really going. One of the hourly employees is going to take us and be our translator. I am looking forward to it. It is my second day off since being here.
One last thing. I was informed that Sandy Baron has been calling my dad nonstop asking about my blog. Sandy, I will try to post as often as possible so my dad can get a break!
The soft opening went really well and the client was very happy. We served dinner Friday night to VIP media. Pretty much the media gets these passes to give to family and friends for them to come stay at the village for 2 nights and experience the Media Village. We had 3 restaurants open and they all opened at 6pm. There were roughly 2,200 people all dieing to get in. People were pushing and shoving to get in. All the food was free. It was a chance for us to test everything and a chance to get feedback from the client.
There was a situation with all these people trying to come in at one time. We set it up that 25 guests at a time would come in. People starting pushing and shoving and I couldn't take it anymore. I kind of gave this one guy a forearm and had the translator say "if you act like this none of you are eating." Once that was said they formed a line and it was smooth sailing.
As for what they ate. We had all sorts of food but these people were piling their plates so high. It was ridiculous. They were stealing drinks in their bags, putting tea bags in their pockets, and taking fruit like it was going out of style. I could not believe it. It is kind of hard to explain how it went and how everyone acted. I guess to sum it up they did not act like VIPs.
BOCOG is Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games. They are our client. They all walk around in these Adidas jumpsuits. They eat and drink at all the places to make sure everything is ok. One of the BOCOG members stopped me to say hello and we started talking. He was telling me how happy he was with the way everything was going and how excited he was to be working with Aramark. We continued talking and he started saying how proud he is of me and how he is impressed with how hard I was working. It caught me off guard that he was saying these things because he was a complete stranger. He then asked if I had eaten anything all day and I told him no. He said I must eat but I explained to him that I do not like to eat in front of customers while working. Well he talked me into eating with him and he tried to get me to have a beer with him as well. It was really nice to sit down with Chinese business men and hear their story. When this guy is not doing BOCOG he is a miner.
MY UNIFORM. The much anticipated uniform came out Friday. I got to work and the seamstress gave me the pants she fixed. I put on my horrible khaki pants and my blue button down short sleeve dress shirt. The collar of the shirt had so much starch it killed. I looked in the mirror and could not stop laughing. The outfit was not complete until I put on my fanny pack and hat. Let me tell you, I looked like a real winner. I found out that the pants can withstand anything. Someone told me you could pour a bottle of water on them and nothing would happen. I felt like I was in an infomercial but I took a glass of water and poured it on my pants. Sure enough dry as a bone. The outfit is so uncomfortable. As soon as I post pictures I will be sure to post them.
It has been a long 2 days considering I am working on 3 hours of sleep. We are heading to the Forbidden City tomorrow and this time we are really going. One of the hourly employees is going to take us and be our translator. I am looking forward to it. It is my second day off since being here.
One last thing. I was informed that Sandy Baron has been calling my dad nonstop asking about my blog. Sandy, I will try to post as often as possible so my dad can get a break!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
It Works
Sorry for the confusion. If you scroll down the page past the "About Me" part there is a link that says "Pictures" in a blue box. That link will allow you to view all pictures. It should work!
Pictures
I have posted a link for pictures. It is on the right side of the blog. It should work. If you have any questions or it doesn't work let me know.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Crunch Time
We have 3 days until our soft opening. We have been working with our employees for a little while and they are doing alright. The language barrier is near impossible and at times we have so many kids and not enough work. Hopefully once the games start everything will iron out.
I found out the reason behind the squatters. PKL is the company that is in charge of all the equipment and they need people to watch it while the building is open and before it is turned over to Aramark. They hire people to sit and sleep in the building the whole time. I thought they were people who did not belong but it turns out they were people on the job. Either way we got rid of them because sleeping in the middle of a dinning room or in the middle of a kitchen doesn't help when you are trying to run an operation.
Tomorrow we are getting issued a uniform. I have tried to postpone this as long as possible but tomorrow is the day. Whoever picked out the uniform should be smacked. We will be sporting khaki polyester pants, a blue button down short sleeve shirt, a black baseball hat and a frickin fanny pack. I am going to look like my great grandfather in a short sleeve button down shirt. I can't even imagine how hot I will be. I will make sure to take a picture because I will probably look like a tourist.
I was talking to my sister and she was just asking about everyday things. The topic of dogs came up. I have been here for about 10 days now and in those 10 days I have seen about 5 dogs total. One of the dogs had its tail and ears died. The other dogs looked disgusting. When you walk around the states for 10 days you see a million dogs probably...not here. I'm not sure why there is a lack of dog, I will let you decide that one.
I recently discovered the hotel does a breakfast for 5 usd. It is a continental breakfast with both American and Chinese food. This morning they had buffalo wings which was a bit different. Lately my breakfast has consisted of a glass of juice, a piece of bread, and 3 flavored Tums. Tums has become my Trident of the trip. I carry tums and purell wherever I go.
We have finally been assigned a bus to take us to and from the village. Before the bus we took cabs to work. Everyday we would go a different route. I have never been on the same route since being here, we always seem to go a different way each time. The best part about it is we will have the door man tell the taxi where we want to go. He understands him very well but when we want the cab to stop we have issues. Someone told us the word "ting" means stop. We all tell the driver "ting" and he doesn't stop. Then we scream "ting ting ting" and he still doesn't stop. Finally the guy in the front just opens up his door and the cab goes " ooo ting?" It is amazing!!
My time here has been unreal. Some of the things I see are so hard to describe in words.. I am having a blast here despite the filth. I am meeting some pretty important people and have tried to take on as much responsibility as possible. We open up in 3 days and I can't wait to get into action.
I found out the reason behind the squatters. PKL is the company that is in charge of all the equipment and they need people to watch it while the building is open and before it is turned over to Aramark. They hire people to sit and sleep in the building the whole time. I thought they were people who did not belong but it turns out they were people on the job. Either way we got rid of them because sleeping in the middle of a dinning room or in the middle of a kitchen doesn't help when you are trying to run an operation.
Tomorrow we are getting issued a uniform. I have tried to postpone this as long as possible but tomorrow is the day. Whoever picked out the uniform should be smacked. We will be sporting khaki polyester pants, a blue button down short sleeve shirt, a black baseball hat and a frickin fanny pack. I am going to look like my great grandfather in a short sleeve button down shirt. I can't even imagine how hot I will be. I will make sure to take a picture because I will probably look like a tourist.
I was talking to my sister and she was just asking about everyday things. The topic of dogs came up. I have been here for about 10 days now and in those 10 days I have seen about 5 dogs total. One of the dogs had its tail and ears died. The other dogs looked disgusting. When you walk around the states for 10 days you see a million dogs probably...not here. I'm not sure why there is a lack of dog, I will let you decide that one.
I recently discovered the hotel does a breakfast for 5 usd. It is a continental breakfast with both American and Chinese food. This morning they had buffalo wings which was a bit different. Lately my breakfast has consisted of a glass of juice, a piece of bread, and 3 flavored Tums. Tums has become my Trident of the trip. I carry tums and purell wherever I go.
We have finally been assigned a bus to take us to and from the village. Before the bus we took cabs to work. Everyday we would go a different route. I have never been on the same route since being here, we always seem to go a different way each time. The best part about it is we will have the door man tell the taxi where we want to go. He understands him very well but when we want the cab to stop we have issues. Someone told us the word "ting" means stop. We all tell the driver "ting" and he doesn't stop. Then we scream "ting ting ting" and he still doesn't stop. Finally the guy in the front just opens up his door and the cab goes " ooo ting?" It is amazing!!
My time here has been unreal. Some of the things I see are so hard to describe in words.. I am having a blast here despite the filth. I am meeting some pretty important people and have tried to take on as much responsibility as possible. We open up in 3 days and I can't wait to get into action.
Monday, July 7, 2008
The past few days...
It has been a few days since I have posted. I haven't posted for two reasons: one I got really sick from eating something gross and the other was lack of sleep.
Things have been really coming along at Media Village. My side has stepped up and everything is rocking. There are a few issues that we are trying to take care of but we should be good for our soft opening Friday/Saturday. I am working with some great people who make work fun and the experience great. I am of course the youngest guy here and find myself hanging out with people who are almost old enough to be my parents. All great guys and we have been having a blast at work and in the city.
Saturday night we had a July 4th party at a bar. There was American food, good beer, and it was in a really cool part of town. It reminded me a little of Olde City. Bars all over the place and you could just tell it was a fun area.
We decided Saturday night that we would head to the Forbidden City in the morning. We got off to a late start and I was talking to someone in the lobby who said you really need a whole day there. Since we didn't go there we decided to explore the area around the condo. My bed is still terrible so we found a Wal Mart. We asked the front desk where a Wal Mart is. They had no idea what we were talking about and then the little lady goes "ooooh War Mart." The 4 of us could not stop laughing as she wrote down directions. We arrived at the War Mart and were in shock. The place was huge. 4 stories of everything you could think of. We check out the food market and were shocked. I was more shocked then the other guys because they are all chefs. They had a fish area where this lady would catch a fish in the fish tank and then give it to the butcher. The butcher would take the fish int he net and just whacked it on the ground. The place was so unsanitary. They had a bucket of rice and people were just playing with it.
The experience here is amazing. I think Beijing if filthy but looking past that it is incredible. Every morning when we drive to work I just can't believe I am in China working. The employees are pretty difficult to work with. For most of them this is their first job. You really have to stay on them to do their work or they will just sit and do nothing. After the eat lunch they all fall asleep. I asked one person who speaks English why this happens and she told me that from first grade to twelfth grade they would always take a nap after lunch. It is pretty crazy so we really push them.
This week is going to be crazy for me. We were told that we will be working 10 hour plus days up to the soft opening. The games are getting closer can you can feel the buzz in the city. I am really looking forward to the media arriving and the games to start.
I will try to post pictures as soon as I can. I am having trouble posting them. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.
Things have been really coming along at Media Village. My side has stepped up and everything is rocking. There are a few issues that we are trying to take care of but we should be good for our soft opening Friday/Saturday. I am working with some great people who make work fun and the experience great. I am of course the youngest guy here and find myself hanging out with people who are almost old enough to be my parents. All great guys and we have been having a blast at work and in the city.
Saturday night we had a July 4th party at a bar. There was American food, good beer, and it was in a really cool part of town. It reminded me a little of Olde City. Bars all over the place and you could just tell it was a fun area.
We decided Saturday night that we would head to the Forbidden City in the morning. We got off to a late start and I was talking to someone in the lobby who said you really need a whole day there. Since we didn't go there we decided to explore the area around the condo. My bed is still terrible so we found a Wal Mart. We asked the front desk where a Wal Mart is. They had no idea what we were talking about and then the little lady goes "ooooh War Mart." The 4 of us could not stop laughing as she wrote down directions. We arrived at the War Mart and were in shock. The place was huge. 4 stories of everything you could think of. We check out the food market and were shocked. I was more shocked then the other guys because they are all chefs. They had a fish area where this lady would catch a fish in the fish tank and then give it to the butcher. The butcher would take the fish int he net and just whacked it on the ground. The place was so unsanitary. They had a bucket of rice and people were just playing with it.
The experience here is amazing. I think Beijing if filthy but looking past that it is incredible. Every morning when we drive to work I just can't believe I am in China working. The employees are pretty difficult to work with. For most of them this is their first job. You really have to stay on them to do their work or they will just sit and do nothing. After the eat lunch they all fall asleep. I asked one person who speaks English why this happens and she told me that from first grade to twelfth grade they would always take a nap after lunch. It is pretty crazy so we really push them.
This week is going to be crazy for me. We were told that we will be working 10 hour plus days up to the soft opening. The games are getting closer can you can feel the buzz in the city. I am really looking forward to the media arriving and the games to start.
I will try to post pictures as soon as I can. I am having trouble posting them. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.
Friday, July 4, 2008
200 Chinese Employees....
What a day. We got to work around 8:30. It is horrible how long it takes to get around here. There is so much traffic that wherever we go it takes forever. Today 200 employees showed up. 115 were for culinary and the rest were for facilities and operations. We broke them up into groups and got on our way. It was pretty chaotic but we were given a translator which was awesome. It turns out that the 10 employees I have actually speak a little bit of English which was a huge bonus. As I said before we have our soft opening July 11th so we were having them clean and get everything organized. The way these people clean is amazing. They work really hard and never miss a spot. I might see if one can fit on my carry on because we are in the market for a new cleaning lady.
While cleaning I was moving stuff around and had to push trash cans into those big trash holder type things. I don't know the name for them but its like the trash bins you see in a food court. I opened up one of the doors and there was all this cardboard and bubble wrap. I started pulling it out so the trash can would fit and this guy stops me. He starts speaking Chinese and I just say " I don't understand." He does a hand motion for sleeping and I just tell him to move it. Bottom line is, it was the guys bed and he thought I was throwing it out. I told the translator to just tell him to put it else where.
The whole bed thing is something I have seen multiple times since here. I am not sure who hired them but there are people who sit in each building and don't do anything but just look out for the stuff. I am not sure if they are Aramark employees or what but all they do is sit and watch. They also sleep there. It is very common to see people sleeping behind a cooler or under a staircase. It is a bit disturbing and I am not sure what will happen when the games start.
When I was given my assignment I was told that I would be dealing with Coca Cola. Today the guys came to make sure everything was up and running. They spoke maybe a word or two of English. The guy was trying to explain that we need converters for some of the coolers. It took forever but once I realized what he was talking about he was very happy and gave me a hug. I thought a hand shake would work but it is what it is.
I just want to give you guys some background on what I have observed about Beijing. I have been here for 5 days and seen the sun once. It is so humid you could die. Traffic is horrendous no matter what time you travel. You walk in the street and smell something horrible and go "that is the worst thing I have ever smelled" but one block later you smell something even worse. Employees love to sleep. At any given point you will see someone passed out on chair or even standing up. When we went for dinner last night our waitress was sleeping while we were eating.
Eating here has been a huge culture shock. Most of you probably know I am a very picky eater. The first day we ate amazing food and since then it hasn't been so amazing. Last night all I wanted was noodles with some chicken. The menus here are designed for people like me, all pictures. I paged through the menu until I saw noodles with chicken. I ordered that with a small bowl of what I thought was rice but came out as something that I can't even describe. The noodles come out and they are this brown color and don't look like noodles. I dug my chopsticks right in and they turned out to be really good. The chicken however was not so good. I took one bite and almost broke my tooth on a bone. I don't understand why they can't just get rid of the bones. I had to pick out all the bones and was left with a piece or two left. The food is starting to frustrate me a little. I am willing to try some random things but when you go to take a bite of chicken and its a bone it really kills your appetite. I might Google "kosher deli" and see what I come up with.
This weekend we are heading to the Forbidden City. I am looking forward to seeing some of the history this city has to offer and I will be sure to take pictures.
I still don't think I am over the jet lag. Today was a very long day. It could be my allergies though. It is so stuffy outside you feel kind of hungover when you are walking around.
Until next time.
While cleaning I was moving stuff around and had to push trash cans into those big trash holder type things. I don't know the name for them but its like the trash bins you see in a food court. I opened up one of the doors and there was all this cardboard and bubble wrap. I started pulling it out so the trash can would fit and this guy stops me. He starts speaking Chinese and I just say " I don't understand." He does a hand motion for sleeping and I just tell him to move it. Bottom line is, it was the guys bed and he thought I was throwing it out. I told the translator to just tell him to put it else where.
The whole bed thing is something I have seen multiple times since here. I am not sure who hired them but there are people who sit in each building and don't do anything but just look out for the stuff. I am not sure if they are Aramark employees or what but all they do is sit and watch. They also sleep there. It is very common to see people sleeping behind a cooler or under a staircase. It is a bit disturbing and I am not sure what will happen when the games start.
When I was given my assignment I was told that I would be dealing with Coca Cola. Today the guys came to make sure everything was up and running. They spoke maybe a word or two of English. The guy was trying to explain that we need converters for some of the coolers. It took forever but once I realized what he was talking about he was very happy and gave me a hug. I thought a hand shake would work but it is what it is.
I just want to give you guys some background on what I have observed about Beijing. I have been here for 5 days and seen the sun once. It is so humid you could die. Traffic is horrendous no matter what time you travel. You walk in the street and smell something horrible and go "that is the worst thing I have ever smelled" but one block later you smell something even worse. Employees love to sleep. At any given point you will see someone passed out on chair or even standing up. When we went for dinner last night our waitress was sleeping while we were eating.
Eating here has been a huge culture shock. Most of you probably know I am a very picky eater. The first day we ate amazing food and since then it hasn't been so amazing. Last night all I wanted was noodles with some chicken. The menus here are designed for people like me, all pictures. I paged through the menu until I saw noodles with chicken. I ordered that with a small bowl of what I thought was rice but came out as something that I can't even describe. The noodles come out and they are this brown color and don't look like noodles. I dug my chopsticks right in and they turned out to be really good. The chicken however was not so good. I took one bite and almost broke my tooth on a bone. I don't understand why they can't just get rid of the bones. I had to pick out all the bones and was left with a piece or two left. The food is starting to frustrate me a little. I am willing to try some random things but when you go to take a bite of chicken and its a bone it really kills your appetite. I might Google "kosher deli" and see what I come up with.
This weekend we are heading to the Forbidden City. I am looking forward to seeing some of the history this city has to offer and I will be sure to take pictures.
I still don't think I am over the jet lag. Today was a very long day. It could be my allergies though. It is so stuffy outside you feel kind of hungover when you are walking around.
Until next time.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Another day another smile and nod
Woke up bright and early to head to work. My stomach wasn't feeling so hot from last nights dinner. I think the spices from the food are starting to get to me or the intestines I sampled...not sure.
Today was a productive day. I got assigned a specific area. I will be in charge of 4 restaurants in the media village. 2 of them have a bar that is open until 2 am. It is me and one other person in charge of the 4 areas. They are 24 hours and we were told there will be a day and night shift. I am not sure which I would prefer. The night shift might be preferable because I could go around during the day to see all the sites.
My "smile and nod" moment of the day. We were in the middle of cleaning up some areas getting them prepared for the soft opening. This one little Chinese woman, and when I say little, I am talking under 5 feet was just sitting there. For the past two days all she has done is sit on this little piece of wood and read the paper. We always walk by and can never figure out what she is doing. Today I decided I would try to communicate with her because I figured if she is there she should work. We had a large box that needed to be emptied so I spoke really loud and used hand motions to say "box needs to be emptied and put on shelf." She looks at me confused...I expected that. I repeat "box needs to be emptied and put on shelf." This little woman goes "shi shi" which means yes and then I get the classic "smile and nod." I thought everything was good so I walked away. 5 minutes later I come back and she is sitting on the box reading her paper!!! I wanted to kill her but instead I just laughed.
A little insight on some of the issues we are faced with due to being in China. All of our produce needs to come from the local farmers. A few months back people met with the farmers and told them what we need and they actually planted everything we asked for. They have all the produce but the process of getting it to the media village is crazy. Before the produce leaves the farm it needs to be inspected. If it passes it goes on to the wholesaler and if it doesn't we don't get it. Once at the wholesaler it is then inspected for the second time with the same rules. With that said it has been very difficult getting what we need because of the multiple inspections the produce needs to go through.
I am jumping around a bit but today for lunch we were told it would be provided for us from IBC. IBC stands for International Broadcast Center. It is right down the road and since their kitchens are up they made it and sent it over. We were starving and could not wait for the food to arrive. They bring the food out and it looks like something a dog would eat, not my dog because she is fancy, but another dog. Its 10 managers from America and maybe 15 Chinese employees sitting in the kitchen watching them bring the food. All of us look at each other and said "no way, lets get lunch." The lady who doesn't do any work and sits on her box...jumped right in not thinking twice. There were no plates but she managed to find one.
We decided to walk around the area to find something to eat. There was nothing but we saw a KFC. I never eat KFC but I was starving. We go in and try to order. We try the sign language thing and for about 5 minutes we all tried to order and could only come up with drinks. The worker then goes "oooooo amewica" and pulls out an English menu. It took her 5 minutes to realized we weren't Chinese??? Anyways, once the English menu is out it takes us two minutes to order and we ate. After I ate I needed to use the bathroom. The urinal was occupied so I go into the stall. Stalls in China are not the same thing as the states. More like a narrow little hole. I kid you not. Probably the grosses thing ever. The 300 bucks I spent on the shots, so worth it!
This whole jet lag thing is kind of killing me. At times I think I am over it but then I just get really tired and want to die. The heat has been crazy here and the humidity is worse then Florida. The smog is just like you read in the news. Woke up this morning and all you see is clouds. Its not like in San Diego where the clouds burn off by 11. The clouds are there all the time and sometimes you get lucky and the sun pops out. I am not sure how I will make it come August.
Tomorrow 200 employees arrive to the Media Village. Not one employee speaks English so I am guaranteed to have fantastic stories after tomorrows day of work.
Today was a productive day. I got assigned a specific area. I will be in charge of 4 restaurants in the media village. 2 of them have a bar that is open until 2 am. It is me and one other person in charge of the 4 areas. They are 24 hours and we were told there will be a day and night shift. I am not sure which I would prefer. The night shift might be preferable because I could go around during the day to see all the sites.
My "smile and nod" moment of the day. We were in the middle of cleaning up some areas getting them prepared for the soft opening. This one little Chinese woman, and when I say little, I am talking under 5 feet was just sitting there. For the past two days all she has done is sit on this little piece of wood and read the paper. We always walk by and can never figure out what she is doing. Today I decided I would try to communicate with her because I figured if she is there she should work. We had a large box that needed to be emptied so I spoke really loud and used hand motions to say "box needs to be emptied and put on shelf." She looks at me confused...I expected that. I repeat "box needs to be emptied and put on shelf." This little woman goes "shi shi" which means yes and then I get the classic "smile and nod." I thought everything was good so I walked away. 5 minutes later I come back and she is sitting on the box reading her paper!!! I wanted to kill her but instead I just laughed.
A little insight on some of the issues we are faced with due to being in China. All of our produce needs to come from the local farmers. A few months back people met with the farmers and told them what we need and they actually planted everything we asked for. They have all the produce but the process of getting it to the media village is crazy. Before the produce leaves the farm it needs to be inspected. If it passes it goes on to the wholesaler and if it doesn't we don't get it. Once at the wholesaler it is then inspected for the second time with the same rules. With that said it has been very difficult getting what we need because of the multiple inspections the produce needs to go through.
I am jumping around a bit but today for lunch we were told it would be provided for us from IBC. IBC stands for International Broadcast Center. It is right down the road and since their kitchens are up they made it and sent it over. We were starving and could not wait for the food to arrive. They bring the food out and it looks like something a dog would eat, not my dog because she is fancy, but another dog. Its 10 managers from America and maybe 15 Chinese employees sitting in the kitchen watching them bring the food. All of us look at each other and said "no way, lets get lunch." The lady who doesn't do any work and sits on her box...jumped right in not thinking twice. There were no plates but she managed to find one.
We decided to walk around the area to find something to eat. There was nothing but we saw a KFC. I never eat KFC but I was starving. We go in and try to order. We try the sign language thing and for about 5 minutes we all tried to order and could only come up with drinks. The worker then goes "oooooo amewica" and pulls out an English menu. It took her 5 minutes to realized we weren't Chinese??? Anyways, once the English menu is out it takes us two minutes to order and we ate. After I ate I needed to use the bathroom. The urinal was occupied so I go into the stall. Stalls in China are not the same thing as the states. More like a narrow little hole. I kid you not. Probably the grosses thing ever. The 300 bucks I spent on the shots, so worth it!
This whole jet lag thing is kind of killing me. At times I think I am over it but then I just get really tired and want to die. The heat has been crazy here and the humidity is worse then Florida. The smog is just like you read in the news. Woke up this morning and all you see is clouds. Its not like in San Diego where the clouds burn off by 11. The clouds are there all the time and sometimes you get lucky and the sun pops out. I am not sure how I will make it come August.
Tomorrow 200 employees arrive to the Media Village. Not one employee speaks English so I am guaranteed to have fantastic stories after tomorrows day of work.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
A dinner experience
Tonight I caught up with one of my supervisors from the states. He is born and raised in China and said he would take me out for dinner.
We went to this place a few blocks from the condo. Good thing I had him because I tried to walk into the restaurant and the hostess starting yelling and Chin, my supervisor, calmed her down and told her I'm just an American not knowing what to do.
There was a few minute wait so we had a beer at the place next door. I just asked for any beer and they gave me a 22 ounce beer for roughly 1.50 in us dollars. The beer was warm but I was told that happens here because when it gets hot out the equipment can't stand up to the heat.
After my gross warm beer that I drank just to be polite we were seated for dinner. This place once again had no air conditioning at all. It was a buffet style place but each table had a mini grill. The grill was for any raw food we may want to cook.
I got in line and grabbed a plate. In China they do not have a serving spoon for every dish. It is pretty nasty because one person could use a spoon to serve cow and then broccoli. I just pretended I didn't care and went to town. Once again with my luck I put a huge portion of what looked like noodles on my plate...took a bite to see if I liked it...and Chin goes "Dave, thats pig intestine." I wanted to throw up all over the place but just threw my plate away instead.
I finally got a plate with things I enjoyed and we sat down. I asked for some rice to go with the meal. They brought me out a bowl with rice at the bottom and carrots, avocado, and a sunny side up egg on the top. Rather interesting way to serve rice but I just mixed it all up and it actually tasted o.k.
I had my first course and then Chin went to grab some meat. It was all raw so we threw it on this grill. We cooked our own duck, pork, and chicken. Pretty good considering I cooked it myself.
A side note...I am eating my dinner schvitzing like I have been running for an hour. Everyone else is sitting and enjoying their meal while I am using napkins to stop the sweat from getting in my eyes.
After our meat we had a variety of dumplings. These things were awesome. It was like a states dumpling on steroids. More meat! After the dumpling I felt like I was going to pass out. The combination of 3 courses and 95 degree temperatures can really take a toll on someone.
Looking past the lack of air conditioning dinner was really good. I would like to find a place where I can enjoy my meal and not have to change t-shirts as soon as I get home.
I am going to try to get some sleep for the first full day of work tomorrow.
We went to this place a few blocks from the condo. Good thing I had him because I tried to walk into the restaurant and the hostess starting yelling and Chin, my supervisor, calmed her down and told her I'm just an American not knowing what to do.
There was a few minute wait so we had a beer at the place next door. I just asked for any beer and they gave me a 22 ounce beer for roughly 1.50 in us dollars. The beer was warm but I was told that happens here because when it gets hot out the equipment can't stand up to the heat.
After my gross warm beer that I drank just to be polite we were seated for dinner. This place once again had no air conditioning at all. It was a buffet style place but each table had a mini grill. The grill was for any raw food we may want to cook.
I got in line and grabbed a plate. In China they do not have a serving spoon for every dish. It is pretty nasty because one person could use a spoon to serve cow and then broccoli. I just pretended I didn't care and went to town. Once again with my luck I put a huge portion of what looked like noodles on my plate...took a bite to see if I liked it...and Chin goes "Dave, thats pig intestine." I wanted to throw up all over the place but just threw my plate away instead.
I finally got a plate with things I enjoyed and we sat down. I asked for some rice to go with the meal. They brought me out a bowl with rice at the bottom and carrots, avocado, and a sunny side up egg on the top. Rather interesting way to serve rice but I just mixed it all up and it actually tasted o.k.
I had my first course and then Chin went to grab some meat. It was all raw so we threw it on this grill. We cooked our own duck, pork, and chicken. Pretty good considering I cooked it myself.
A side note...I am eating my dinner schvitzing like I have been running for an hour. Everyone else is sitting and enjoying their meal while I am using napkins to stop the sweat from getting in my eyes.
After our meat we had a variety of dumplings. These things were awesome. It was like a states dumpling on steroids. More meat! After the dumpling I felt like I was going to pass out. The combination of 3 courses and 95 degree temperatures can really take a toll on someone.
Looking past the lack of air conditioning dinner was really good. I would like to find a place where I can enjoy my meal and not have to change t-shirts as soon as I get home.
I am going to try to get some sleep for the first full day of work tomorrow.
My first night and day
Well it took me a while to fall asleep because my mattress is like a rock. It isn't just mine, everyone said their beds were horrible.
We woke up at 7am and met downstairs to head to the health center for our exams. There were 40 of us who piled into a bus. We walked into the health center and it felt like Grand Central Station with a funky smell. It was chaotic and everyone was just pushing each other. We went into the first room where they took a picture of us. Then we waited in a long line for them to draw blood. Once the blood was drawn we waited in another long line for a chest xray. After the chest xray was what they called the "male inspection." Pretty much this old lady nurse checked our heart beat and poked at our stomach. The final stage was the stool sample. You had to give your sample and they tested it and you were done.
Being at this health center made me appreciate the states so much more. I would rather wait in a waiting room for 20 minutes then have to do what I did today. It was not very sanitary and just didn't seem right. The old lady nurse told me to go around the curtain to hand in my stool sample. I walked around the curtain to find a small Chinese boy with his pants down and the doctor taking a sample. I couldn't stop laughing because I was so shocked. The person behind me told me that's what happens if you don't provide a sample...it was horrible. The place was really gross.
After the nasty health center I got dropped off at the Media Village. The village is huge. They built everything from scratch. There are 4 towers where all the media will live along with all the places for them to eat. Everything is brand new which is always nice. They are having a few issues with the gas lines at the moment. In the states you can tell the client you have an issue and they fix it. In Beijing the land owner is in charge so things take much longer. The Media Village has its soft opening July 11th and then the grand opening is July 18th.
Today was just a day to get acclimated to the village. We took a tour and did minimal work. While taking the tour everyone noticed there were cardboard cut outs with pillows behind equipment and were somewhat confused. We were told that some of the workers sleep there. In one closet I opened there was a mattress and clothing hanging on a clothes line. It was really strange to see. The village is open 24 hours a day but I still do not know my hours. There are roughly 5-6 operation managers on site.
My lunch was amazing. Of course I didn't know what something was and ended up eating a duck foot....barf! I thought it was chicken and that is what they told me. Besides the duck foot I had amazing noodles and this awesome beef dish
We left work around 4 and jumped in a cab to get back to the condo. The cab driver had no idea where he was going and we had no idea how to tell him where to go. We had the address of the condo but that did not help at all. 45 minutes later we made it back. By the way, they don't use the AC in the cabs...miserable!
Due to my bed being like a rock I needed to get a mattress pad. Some other people who were stuck in the 3rd bedroom needed one as well so we headed out to a store that is similar to a Wal Mart. Imagine me and a million Chinese people in a giant store. All I wanted was a egg crate and it took me forever to even find the bedding area. I tried asked people and they just smiled and nodded...I told you that would happen often. I didn't find an egg crate but something similar..it was 8 American dollars. They had an electronic section where plasmas were about 500 US dollars.
On our way back we got really lost and ended up in an area what seemed to be their electronic district. People were walking around with Dell laptops all over the place. People were exchanging money right on the street for laptops. It was crazy.
Another thing I noticed while being lost is that the construction workers doing everything manually. Unlike the states where we use a machine to break up cement, they just take a pick and hammer and smash it up. They use no machinery which is surprising.
Today was a good first day. It was pretty overwhelming and I wish I knew what type of hours I would be working but I guess I have to be patient. This city is gigantic and getting around is impossible due to everyone driving a car. There are a million cars and a million bikes and nobody yields for anything.
Time to test my taste buds. Until next time.
We woke up at 7am and met downstairs to head to the health center for our exams. There were 40 of us who piled into a bus. We walked into the health center and it felt like Grand Central Station with a funky smell. It was chaotic and everyone was just pushing each other. We went into the first room where they took a picture of us. Then we waited in a long line for them to draw blood. Once the blood was drawn we waited in another long line for a chest xray. After the chest xray was what they called the "male inspection." Pretty much this old lady nurse checked our heart beat and poked at our stomach. The final stage was the stool sample. You had to give your sample and they tested it and you were done.
Being at this health center made me appreciate the states so much more. I would rather wait in a waiting room for 20 minutes then have to do what I did today. It was not very sanitary and just didn't seem right. The old lady nurse told me to go around the curtain to hand in my stool sample. I walked around the curtain to find a small Chinese boy with his pants down and the doctor taking a sample. I couldn't stop laughing because I was so shocked. The person behind me told me that's what happens if you don't provide a sample...it was horrible. The place was really gross.
After the nasty health center I got dropped off at the Media Village. The village is huge. They built everything from scratch. There are 4 towers where all the media will live along with all the places for them to eat. Everything is brand new which is always nice. They are having a few issues with the gas lines at the moment. In the states you can tell the client you have an issue and they fix it. In Beijing the land owner is in charge so things take much longer. The Media Village has its soft opening July 11th and then the grand opening is July 18th.
Today was just a day to get acclimated to the village. We took a tour and did minimal work. While taking the tour everyone noticed there were cardboard cut outs with pillows behind equipment and were somewhat confused. We were told that some of the workers sleep there. In one closet I opened there was a mattress and clothing hanging on a clothes line. It was really strange to see. The village is open 24 hours a day but I still do not know my hours. There are roughly 5-6 operation managers on site.
My lunch was amazing. Of course I didn't know what something was and ended up eating a duck foot....barf! I thought it was chicken and that is what they told me. Besides the duck foot I had amazing noodles and this awesome beef dish
We left work around 4 and jumped in a cab to get back to the condo. The cab driver had no idea where he was going and we had no idea how to tell him where to go. We had the address of the condo but that did not help at all. 45 minutes later we made it back. By the way, they don't use the AC in the cabs...miserable!
Due to my bed being like a rock I needed to get a mattress pad. Some other people who were stuck in the 3rd bedroom needed one as well so we headed out to a store that is similar to a Wal Mart. Imagine me and a million Chinese people in a giant store. All I wanted was a egg crate and it took me forever to even find the bedding area. I tried asked people and they just smiled and nodded...I told you that would happen often. I didn't find an egg crate but something similar..it was 8 American dollars. They had an electronic section where plasmas were about 500 US dollars.
On our way back we got really lost and ended up in an area what seemed to be their electronic district. People were walking around with Dell laptops all over the place. People were exchanging money right on the street for laptops. It was crazy.
Another thing I noticed while being lost is that the construction workers doing everything manually. Unlike the states where we use a machine to break up cement, they just take a pick and hammer and smash it up. They use no machinery which is surprising.
Today was a good first day. It was pretty overwhelming and I wish I knew what type of hours I would be working but I guess I have to be patient. This city is gigantic and getting around is impossible due to everyone driving a car. There are a million cars and a million bikes and nobody yields for anything.
Time to test my taste buds. Until next time.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Condo in Beijing
Here are some pictures of the condo. I am going to try to figure out a better way to post them.
Condo in Beijing
Condo in BeijingHow do you say Oy Vey in Mandarin?
I made it! I can't believe I am actually in China for the Olympics. On the car ride to the airport my mom and I were talking about how I have been wanting to do this for 2 years since I was an intern and now the time has finally come. I can't wait to jump into the operation and work hard.
So I have been up for about 20 hours and just checked into my place in Beijing. It is amazing, just like the pictures showed.
When I left I was pretty nervous. I have never studied abroad or gone overseas for more then a few weeks so the jitters were off the wall. Saying bye to friends and family wasn't fun. Once I actually got on the plane and in my seat the jitters settled thanks to a stiff drink.
My flight was awesome since I upgraded. I ate like a king and slept like a baby. I arrived in Beijing at 3:30 local time. When I walked off the plane it was so hot but figured once I got in the terminal the AC would be blasting. I was wrong...I guess they don't do AC or they don't do it to the degree we do it.
I got first hand experience with the bumping and pushing of the locals. I was waiting for my bag to come off and this older man just shoved me aside so he could get to his bag. I gave him a dirty look and he just smiled and nodded. I have a feeling this will happen often while here.
Our condo is about 45 minutes away from the airport. We jumped on a bus and I witnessed the most bizarre driving. They cut each other off, merge when they feel like, and even reverse down a highway. We were in the heart of rush hour so it took us about an hour and a half to get to the condo.
I checked in right away and they said "welcome Mr. Dave." All the Aramark people who arrived today got a quick intro and briefing of what to expect. They handed us this folder with all the information we will need. Inside the folder there was this little plastic dish....probably smaller then those blue chap stick jars. Someone asked what it was for and Thomas Tang, our contact here, replied, "that is for your stool sample." Everyone laughed but he didn't seem to find it funny. If you saw the size of this thing you would laugh. I think in the states they give you a bucket or at least something bigger .
Anyways, the apartment is really nice. I am living with someone I lived with in Clearwater and a college kid who speaks Chinese which will be huge. They have not given us much information on what to expect. I think tomorrow will just be one big day or orientation and getting to see the Olympic Village.
I am going to head out to try to find something to eat. Hopefully its cooked!
So I have been up for about 20 hours and just checked into my place in Beijing. It is amazing, just like the pictures showed.
When I left I was pretty nervous. I have never studied abroad or gone overseas for more then a few weeks so the jitters were off the wall. Saying bye to friends and family wasn't fun. Once I actually got on the plane and in my seat the jitters settled thanks to a stiff drink.
My flight was awesome since I upgraded. I ate like a king and slept like a baby. I arrived in Beijing at 3:30 local time. When I walked off the plane it was so hot but figured once I got in the terminal the AC would be blasting. I was wrong...I guess they don't do AC or they don't do it to the degree we do it.
I got first hand experience with the bumping and pushing of the locals. I was waiting for my bag to come off and this older man just shoved me aside so he could get to his bag. I gave him a dirty look and he just smiled and nodded. I have a feeling this will happen often while here.
Our condo is about 45 minutes away from the airport. We jumped on a bus and I witnessed the most bizarre driving. They cut each other off, merge when they feel like, and even reverse down a highway. We were in the heart of rush hour so it took us about an hour and a half to get to the condo.
I checked in right away and they said "welcome Mr. Dave." All the Aramark people who arrived today got a quick intro and briefing of what to expect. They handed us this folder with all the information we will need. Inside the folder there was this little plastic dish....probably smaller then those blue chap stick jars. Someone asked what it was for and Thomas Tang, our contact here, replied, "that is for your stool sample." Everyone laughed but he didn't seem to find it funny. If you saw the size of this thing you would laugh. I think in the states they give you a bucket or at least something bigger .
Anyways, the apartment is really nice. I am living with someone I lived with in Clearwater and a college kid who speaks Chinese which will be huge. They have not given us much information on what to expect. I think tomorrow will just be one big day or orientation and getting to see the Olympic Village.
I am going to head out to try to find something to eat. Hopefully its cooked!
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