Tianjin

Oh by the way, the flight I’m supposed to take today, the first domestic one, from Shanghai to Tianjin has been delayed for almost an hour now. Make that freaking 1.5 hours, after we boarded on time. And I’m in the middle seat (I’m like Elaine in that Seinfeld episode where she’s stuck in the subway and the lights go out, just move…JUST &%^*&^ MOVE….) well maybe not that much, but you get the drift. So I’m traveling with my boss and Kyle, who is fresh out of one of the universities here. This is his third week with us. This is his first time on a plane and he gets the 1.5 hour delay. You know you feel for him. So by the way, I cannot access this blog outside of work (did I mention that already), the proxy at work lets me connect. Normal ISP does not let me connect to my blog. So what this means to you slave drivers is that I can only upload picture and my text at work…yeah so either I do it on company time or after work.. Definitely not before work because I got enough trouble showing up on time, let alone early. That would be just asking to set myself up for failure.

So let’s get back to Tianjin. The hotel is the Renaissance and it has the softest bed since I got to China with ridiculously soft pillows and comforter. Beds here including the one at the apartment are pretty much wood frames with maybe an inch thick of foam at best. Let’s just say I am one happy camper and the Television has Batman Begins on TV. This is exactly what I needed after getting in at midnight instead of 10:30PM. I should be going to sleep but the TV addict that I am, I stay up, order a club sandwich and don’t get to bed t’ll 2:30 AM. Good thing I have a meeting on my project at 9:00 in the morning.

The meeting goes well. My books that I shipped from home are stuck in Customs so I gotta sort that out. And for lunch we go to this bar in Tianjin which is probably a couple hours of driving from Beijing and close to the sea. Tianjin city itself is about 1 hour from the plant which is located in TEDA (which is short for Tianjin Economic Development Zone)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Economic_Zone_of_the_People
If you are interested. Note that tax breaks are foreign companies not local…they are doing away with SEZs pretty soon I think. So anyways, TEDA itself is really nice (perfectly wide roads, not too much traffic, clean, smooth ride) but the city of Tianjin itself from what I’ve been told is not so nice.

So anyways, lunch, we go to a western restaurant (Belgian beer on tap, and they have cheesteaks and wings), too bad its lunch. So Kyle really hasn’t tried too much western food and he doesn’t really like it that much (or just hasn’t acquired a taste for it). Heck I remember having sausage patties for breakfast the first time, and it did taste funny. (Insert all types of sausage jokes in here you sick bastards). Just don’t fill up the comment section with obscenities, you can email those to me personally. I like that personal touch wink wink. So Kyle decides to order a sirloin steak (the most expensive thing on the menu). I kind of talk him out of it (yes on the down low, otherwise I’d be showing him up and being overall ass), and he decides on lasagna. And he hates it, and now I feel freaking terrible that he’s had a bad lunch on my account. But a sirloin? So that was an insight at culture for both of us. So we had a talk after dinner and he hints at regret for not liking western food. How he never really tried it that much (oh we ordered some patte for appetizer and he enjoyed that).

I’m thinking “are you kidding me dude, we should be the ones apologizing for being idiot fucks who refuse to adjust ourselves, shit we should be apologizing for not liking Chinese food” Anyways I think its good for him to get to like a little western food because you don’t want to be that close minded either. It works both ways. I am sure he will be dining out on western food as long as he is with the company.

So let’s get to dinner. So Tianjin is close ocean, and well ladies and gents, that means seafood time. We go to Zhou Ji Famous Restaurant. Zhou Family Famous Restaurant. Fresh Fish to pick from, anywhere from squid to toads to clams of all sorts, and live crabs, lobsters, and tons of other fish. And so we order four fresh crabs and Isabelle orders a soup made from fish stomach. So knock that off the weird food list that is not part of my usual western diet. What does fish stomach taste like? Well kinda tasteless, but it has the consistency of spongy cartilage. So all my gripes about Chinese food is absolutely gone today. Food was great and no food poisoning. The crab was awesome, brings back memories when we accidentally stole crabs from one of those crab traps during a summer day on the jersey shore (you know who you are) and had a crab boil. My first time and me trying to eat the gills. Ah memories. So holla at me with some crab cakes anyday over live crab or Alaskan crab legs or whatever. I hate all that work.

Got back to the hotel to see this African 3 piece band sign some covers. The lead singer was one of the skinniest women I have ever seen and she had some gorgeous braided hair (yes I used the word gorgeous to describe hair). Manhood…sexuality…both check. Just had to make sure there for myself….

So enjoy the pics. It’s a pain in the ass to upload and flickr is also blocked for me by the GreatFireWall. No joke, that’s what its called.