Saturday, September 1, 2007

A good bye (August 20-26)



The view is from a restaurant called M on the Bund. The first is Puxi side, and the second is Pu Dong which is the new city which was all but marsh land in 1990. and now it's ridiculous. They did a really nice job with Pu Dong. wide streets, lots of trees, a lot cleaner than Puxi. THe the Pearl tower is the building with the two bulbs, The lower bulb they are renting out apartments with a hefty price tag. I don't know the exact numbers, but I hear its insane.
A shout out to my boys, Ryan and Jason, who ended their internship and went back to school in the US. Great to meet you guys, sonsabitches better stay in touch. I know where you go to school….Jason, now who the hell is going to handle the menu? You know I ain’t trusting Jon with that shit. And Ryan, whatever the hell you do, do not, I mean do not, drop that yellow cake. Don’t drop that shit. So pretty much, I’m gonna miss you guys a lot. Okay back to being a guy now.

So at work we have some issues with one of the local safety authorities. Can’t go into specifics, but in China there are about a million freaking laws and probably thousands of codes that you have to adhere to, depending on your business. I was trying to find the laws that we needed to work with in a database, and I think I stopped counting at 10,000 at least that’s when I stopped hitting (next page) on the website. In any case there are specific instructions on food processing, each specific food additive, I mean pretty every nook and cranny. However, if an audit is done, I bet money that you will find more companies in violation of these laws rather than in compliance. At least that’s my bet. If there are any laws/guidelines/ restrictions for food vendors, there is no way they enforce that in Shanghai. You can see meat being cut up in pretty unsanitary conditions. Easily.
So anyways, back to our problems. In China, all buildings and structural designs have to be approved by a local design institute (LDI) and they are supposed to adhere to all codes and give you a design with their seal. Without their seal, you can’t put up anything permanent for sure, (temporary is defined as less than 5 years). Even if something is temporary, depending on the size, you still might need LDI approval.
So we have a meeting with the LDI and the government to decide on a solution that we can all live with. For communciation’s sake, my boss who speaks Chinese, the LDI, and the government guy all speak in Chinese and me and one other guy who is American just sit there and I try to pay as much attention I can, but pretty soon, I’m thinking of fantasy baseball analysis and trade and wondering if I am going to do Fantasy football this year. I wonder how long it will take me to be a part of a conversation like that. I hate meetings, holy cow, imagine a meeting in a languge you barely understand and not wanting to fall asleep. I mean I have slept through class in two continents ( I perfected the art of sleeping and pretending to take notes, I mean I had people ask me questions on how I did it. practice baby practice. )and meetings in 3, well it took all my efforts not to fall asleep in this one. Anyways, the meeting went really well and we have come to a good solution that everyone can live with. So it is just a matter of executing it. That’s where yours truly comes in.

So Saturday, I decide to freaking kill myself. Starting at 2PM, I start playing sports, Ultimate, Bball, and then finally badminton, Olympic sport style. I played against one of my colleagues who is freaking really good. I stopped playing at 9PM. 2-9PM, with an hour in between for traveling. Let’s just say I slept like a freaking baby.

Sunday was great, I had brunch, read a book, church, dinner. Just relaxing.

All this week, I’ve been pretty sick too. So I can get antibiotics over the counter here. It’s awesome. I get a z pack of zithromycin for like 5 USD. It was awesome. The freaking Orange Juice absolutely destroyed me with a price tag of 8USD. This was imported Florda’s Natural. I just wanted non concentrated stuff and this was the only one I could read the tag on and trusted. Hefty freaking price. Unbelievable. Well some pics for your perusal.

2 comments:

Rock said...

Nice view is Pu Dong, considering that they turned marsh land into golden real estate land. Well taken picture as well.

Anonymous said...

dude- don't know why you were so tired after a few hours of sports, in bball you should have like a twelve inch advantage. Oh, I forgot, no skills though(hee hee). Keep typing, I've almost got this readin' thing down pat.... Jody