Monday Blends into Tuesday

Monday I knew was a day to work on whatever I could. I had nothing scheduled. I explored the hotel, worked out and did a bit of Snugaboo work. Nothing super eventful.

Tuesday I was looking forward to meeting with Kevin. I called him mid-morning and thought he had communicated that he was on his way. Either I misunderstood him or he was really late.

At about 2PM I headed out for a walk and discovered I'm right next door to a shopping mall that has both high-end goods, a grocery store and low-end goods. I also came upon an optical/vision shop. I brought my prescription here because my housemate, Shanna, had told me that the prices were crazy low. Sure enough! I ordered one pair of regular glasses and one pair of sunglasses. The total comes to about $75 US. They tell me that it's a 24hr turnaround.

I then wanted to check out the grocery situation. It would be good to find some things so I don't have to rely on restaurant food or room service. The store is so fun. I have no idea of what I am looking at 50% of the time. The biggest bonus was finding a grape candy that my boss Kerry said was his favorite. "If you find any, bring it back" he said. I bought two small cases! The packing was practically the same but maybe a bit updated with some english "Hi Chew" with dew speckled grapes and a pretty asian girl on it looking very happy and stylish. I bought some diet coke, edamame chips, crackers for some tuna I brought and frozen mixed vegetables!

I discovered that with my room, each day I'm given two coupons for a free breakfast buffet and the choice of a free second buffet, lunch or dinner. I have scanned it a couple times and it seems almost every dish has odd meat parts in it. One day was veggies with turtle or something with tenticles or curly fish parts. I tried it one day for lunch and found cauliflower, carrots and brocolli! I also had an omelette for breakfast with wheat toast. Orange juice is a favorite beverage. It's offered everywhere at anytime.

The best part of the buffet is that there is ice cream! The favorite flavor seems to be this pale blue number. There is barely any left. I try some and it's sort of a light fruity or coconut taste. Really good.

Finally around 5PM I get a call from Kevin. He says he is on his way. He gets to my hotel around 5:30. I am really not sure what we are going to do. Turns out he never was able to look or didn't understand my PDFs that I worked on last week till the wee hours for him. It becomes clear that he can't read english. So we spent about 4 hours going over the details of every 2008 blanket design. We do this through a variety of communication styles, charades, pictures, drawings and spotty translations. It is exhausting. His girlfriend shows up and she helps translate.

They leave with the brown blanket and he says he will now give me more concrete pricing. He also mentions that he will show me a sample in a few days. His girlfriend Wendy is really sweet. She offered to go shopping with me. Cool!

They finish the meeting in typical Chinese business style by asking me if we could now go out to dinner. I thank them but decline. (I'm plagued with fatigue from translation exhaustion!)

Earlier on Tuesday, Judy called and is planning to pick me up at my hotel on Wednesday morning at 9:30 because she has arranged for me to meet 2 other factories.

Good deal!

XXOO