Alas the Olympics have ended. In honor of the history we've just witnessed, we'd like to take a moment to give our own medals of Olympic memories. Here are our parting thoughts from this side of the ocean...
GOLD: We witnessed Chinese cultural shift
The first weekend we saw first-hand the local crowd's limp response and the relatively empty stadiums. In contrast we saw foreigners with painted faces and crazy cheers willing to pay triple face value for scalped tickets (including ourselves!). We wondered over the next 3 weeks how the Chinese population would react to witnessing the foreign craziness.
During one local TV program, we heard an official recap how they had received complaints in the 1st week that seats weren't full and crowds were ambivalent. The government's response? "So we filled the seats and told the crowds to be more excited." And hence a culture has forever shifted.
SILVER: We didn't realize there were SO many games in the Olympics
Watching CCTV9 (affectionately referred to as "propaganda TV"), vs. American NBC, meant we got to skip the heartfelt stories of American Olympians overcoming ingrown toenails. The news focused more on the sports and the highlights - showing ALL countries participating. We created our own sport of guessing "what country flag is that?" and "what is this sport anyway?"
BRONZE: The 5% Off
While the Olympics were amazing, there was the 5% off. For example, it was illegal to scalp tickets but ok to buy (hence scalpers with "tickets wanted" signs). The boat loads of volunteers were so extremely helpful...but just a bit overly anxious. Olympic stores were everywhere, but we couldn't find "official game guides" or anything other than 1 of the 5 stuffed mascots. Beijing cleared the roads with special traffic laws (cars - based on even or odd plates - alternated days on the road), but the sky was still grey. The stadiums were amazing architectural feats, but unless you had a ticket you had to admire them thru the chain link fence.
Overall - absolutely fabulous. We're excited we went, and thrilled to have witnessed a small part of history.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Lila's Post Olympic Adventures in Mexico & the US
(It's March 29, 2009, and I just found this hidden in my draft box....)
The day after our Olympic adventure, I was on a flight to Mexico. Small problem… a volcano spewing ashes resulted in the need for the flight to be rerouted and delayed by several hours. Upon arrival to SFO, 9 United international flights arrived late. It was PURE chaos. Sheila (admin) and I completely missed our flight to Mexico. We drove down to Palo Alto for a quick coffee, drove by our house to make sure all was well, and then to Intel's office for work and catching up with a few of the old team. We finished off with dinner with Nabeel & Asha before heading back to the airport for the redeye to Guadalajara.
The next 4 days in Mexico went well. Lila had her staff meeting and got to spend time with the (very impressive) team based there. Everything was excellent! We had software vendors, university experts, and a host of other people present to us. The local team also did a fabulous job making the staff feel welcomed and everyone bonded. I left Mexico very amazingly energized despite an intense schedule. Did I also mention how satisfying it was to have Mexican food?! That is one cuisine I crave in Asia as we haven't found any good restaurants.
Over the weekend was a great chance to catch up on a few errnads and with friends. By Sunday, in the US, Nabeel and I went to Sonoma to do some wine tasting. Wehad a great time exploring some family run wineries and ended the day at Ledson (where Karl and I were married).
The rest of the week was spent in work meetings and at the Intel Developer Forum. My team held some press and analyst briefings around our next generation classmate PC design. It's exciting to read how the press liked the features we are targeting based on years of research by our ethnographers, researchers, and user-centered designers.
The day after our Olympic adventure, I was on a flight to Mexico. Small problem… a volcano spewing ashes resulted in the need for the flight to be rerouted and delayed by several hours. Upon arrival to SFO, 9 United international flights arrived late. It was PURE chaos. Sheila (admin) and I completely missed our flight to Mexico. We drove down to Palo Alto for a quick coffee, drove by our house to make sure all was well, and then to Intel's office for work and catching up with a few of the old team. We finished off with dinner with Nabeel & Asha before heading back to the airport for the redeye to Guadalajara.
The next 4 days in Mexico went well. Lila had her staff meeting and got to spend time with the (very impressive) team based there. Everything was excellent! We had software vendors, university experts, and a host of other people present to us. The local team also did a fabulous job making the staff feel welcomed and everyone bonded. I left Mexico very amazingly energized despite an intense schedule. Did I also mention how satisfying it was to have Mexican food?! That is one cuisine I crave in Asia as we haven't found any good restaurants.
Over the weekend was a great chance to catch up on a few errnads and with friends. By Sunday, in the US, Nabeel and I went to Sonoma to do some wine tasting. Wehad a great time exploring some family run wineries and ended the day at Ledson (where Karl and I were married).
The rest of the week was spent in work meetings and at the Intel Developer Forum. My team held some press and analyst briefings around our next generation classmate PC design. It's exciting to read how the press liked the features we are targeting based on years of research by our ethnographers, researchers, and user-centered designers.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Lila Named "Most Powerful Women Of The Channel"
In case you missed Lila's latest 2 minutes of fame, below is an excerpt from VARBusiness(www.crn.com/it-channel/209903827). It's been a tough transition to the new role, but this is exciting for Lila and her team to be recognized for the work they are doing.
Collectively, they have a voice that resonates through every corner of the industry. Individually, their roles run the gamut from distribution executives to vendor channel leaders to presidents and CEOs of solution provider organizations. Meet the 2008 VARBusiness Most Powerful Women Of The Channel.
LILA IBRAHIM
General Manager, Emerging Markets Platform Group - Intel Corp., Shanghai, China
Years In Position: 6 months
Years In Channel: 6 months
Hope To Accomplish: Ibrahim firmly believes that access to technology improves economic and social conditions around the world. By partnering with the channel, she says we can make a sustainable difference. This year Intel will continue to make technology a key tool for education in both emerging and mature markets while offering channel customers continued opportunities to differentiate their products. Intel will also introduce new products that enable PC accessibility and skills to new users.
Mentor: For almost four years Ibrahim served as Chief of Staff to Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, a man she says is a "tireless advocate for improving education worldwide and facilitating access to technology for all people." Ibrahim calls him a "mentor and a role model--a man who is able to weather both the worst and best of times with humor and grace."
Executives You Admire: Ibrahim looks up to those with backbone and those who do what's right even when it's not popular. She says she has been fortunate to work for many who are role models in ethics and value, and who listen, learn and grow as leaders no matter how many years of experience they have.
Collectively, they have a voice that resonates through every corner of the industry. Individually, their roles run the gamut from distribution executives to vendor channel leaders to presidents and CEOs of solution provider organizations. Meet the 2008 VARBusiness Most Powerful Women Of The Channel.
LILA IBRAHIM
General Manager, Emerging Markets Platform Group - Intel Corp., Shanghai, China
Years In Position: 6 months
Years In Channel: 6 months
Hope To Accomplish: Ibrahim firmly believes that access to technology improves economic and social conditions around the world. By partnering with the channel, she says we can make a sustainable difference. This year Intel will continue to make technology a key tool for education in both emerging and mature markets while offering channel customers continued opportunities to differentiate their products. Intel will also introduce new products that enable PC accessibility and skills to new users.
Mentor: For almost four years Ibrahim served as Chief of Staff to Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, a man she says is a "tireless advocate for improving education worldwide and facilitating access to technology for all people." Ibrahim calls him a "mentor and a role model--a man who is able to weather both the worst and best of times with humor and grace."
Executives You Admire: Ibrahim looks up to those with backbone and those who do what's right even when it's not popular. She says she has been fortunate to work for many who are role models in ethics and value, and who listen, learn and grow as leaders no matter how many years of experience they have.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
WITNESSING CHINA WIN THE GOLD
We woke up Sunday determined to get into the fenced off indoor stadium. After all, can you really claim to have "gone to the Olympics" without getting close to the Birds Nest, Water Cube, etc.?! We set off to find tickets….
SEARCHING FOR TICKETS
But first, we got distracted with our morning coffee and a few hours of hanging out with Jim. Alas, caffeine up, we set out. Our first stop was near a subway. It was fascinating to watch the co-existence of scalpers and police officers. Apparently it's legal to buy, but illegal to sell. So scalpers had signs that said they wanted to buy! We also learned to look for groups of people. Since it was the first weekend, the "scalping scene" had yet to be defined. There were quite a few tickets available, but most were for later in the evening (after our flight) or other days. Every ticket was at least 1000RNB ($150 US) - even though face value was 35RNB-200RNB. Having no luck by the subway stop, we walked the massive Beijing blocks to the main entrance of the indoor stadiums. Beijing is MASSIVE for those who don't know. A "block" is about 3 American blocks. Something that is "right around the corner" is about 10minutes away - sprinting. Ok, we're exaggerating - but not much!
GIVING UP
There were a lot more people scalping at the main entrance, but a lot less tickets. We walked up and down trying to find something - anything - for the afternoon. We finally took down some telephone numbers of scalpers who said to call back at 1:30. In the meantime, we went for lunch at this awesome restaurant place that Jim likes. We were a bit bummed we couldn't land any tickets, even though the day had been quite fun so far.
THE RACE TO MAKE THE START
With no expectations, we called one of the scalpers who actually had found diving tickets for 2:30. He called us a couple of times, asking if we were coming because he had people offering more than we paid (1250 RMB - so about 1000RNB scalping fee). While far more than we wanted, it was at least getting us into the stadium area. We raced back to the stadium to find all the streets around the venue were blocked for the street bike race. We were dropped off "nearby" which means about 2 miles from where the scalper was with 20 minutes until the start. The stadium area is fenced off, so we couldn't even shortcut in because first we needed to meet scalper guy for the ticket.
Once we finally got the ticket, getting through security was really easy given how well it's organized.
TICKETS FOR WHAT?!
It was only when we finally arrived at the Water Cube did we realize we were seeing Synchronized Woman’s Diving. We were a bit late to the start, but only missed the first of 5 rounds of dives for the 8 participating countries. The venue was awesome - so much more of the Olympic spirit. The event finished with the medal ceremony. It was particularly exciting as China won the Gold (Shanghai's first!), Russia won silver, & Germany bronze. We think China is still learning to be expressive. The audience and medal winners were far less rambunctious than the minority foreigners in the house.
We hung around inside the water cube - closer to the pool - watching the men's diving group warm up. Unfortunately we were kicked out for the next event, but not before Lila poked on the air-filled plastic walls of the water cube. It's really an interesting engineering approach to construction and gives the water cube a very dynamic shape.
THE INSIDE SCOOP
We were so excited to be walking around the inner area of the Olympics. We took pictures of the Birds Nest, went into some sponsor buildings, saw the National Indoor Stadium, the sculpture garden, the Olympic tower, etc.. We did notice, however, there were no stages or live music, or people tail gating. Definitely a more protected and serene environment, but didn't feel too Olympic.
As we were preparing to leave, there was a MASSIVE downpour. We hung out in some volunteer's tent, manned by University students. They helped us translate with Jim's driver to get picked up. Overall, the masses of volunteers were so warm, friendly, and helpful throughout both days.
Once the rain let up, we found Jim's driver and headed to the airport. Traffic was still wonderful. We like the half-capacity program where even and odd license plates alternate which days they are on the road. Overall, an absolutely wonderful trip - attending the opening weekend of the Olympics.
SEARCHING FOR TICKETS
But first, we got distracted with our morning coffee and a few hours of hanging out with Jim. Alas, caffeine up, we set out. Our first stop was near a subway. It was fascinating to watch the co-existence of scalpers and police officers. Apparently it's legal to buy, but illegal to sell. So scalpers had signs that said they wanted to buy! We also learned to look for groups of people. Since it was the first weekend, the "scalping scene" had yet to be defined. There were quite a few tickets available, but most were for later in the evening (after our flight) or other days. Every ticket was at least 1000RNB ($150 US) - even though face value was 35RNB-200RNB. Having no luck by the subway stop, we walked the massive Beijing blocks to the main entrance of the indoor stadiums. Beijing is MASSIVE for those who don't know. A "block" is about 3 American blocks. Something that is "right around the corner" is about 10minutes away - sprinting. Ok, we're exaggerating - but not much!
GIVING UP
There were a lot more people scalping at the main entrance, but a lot less tickets. We walked up and down trying to find something - anything - for the afternoon. We finally took down some telephone numbers of scalpers who said to call back at 1:30. In the meantime, we went for lunch at this awesome restaurant place that Jim likes. We were a bit bummed we couldn't land any tickets, even though the day had been quite fun so far.
THE RACE TO MAKE THE START
With no expectations, we called one of the scalpers who actually had found diving tickets for 2:30. He called us a couple of times, asking if we were coming because he had people offering more than we paid (1250 RMB - so about 1000RNB scalping fee). While far more than we wanted, it was at least getting us into the stadium area. We raced back to the stadium to find all the streets around the venue were blocked for the street bike race. We were dropped off "nearby" which means about 2 miles from where the scalper was with 20 minutes until the start. The stadium area is fenced off, so we couldn't even shortcut in because first we needed to meet scalper guy for the ticket.
Once we finally got the ticket, getting through security was really easy given how well it's organized.
TICKETS FOR WHAT?!
It was only when we finally arrived at the Water Cube did we realize we were seeing Synchronized Woman’s Diving. We were a bit late to the start, but only missed the first of 5 rounds of dives for the 8 participating countries. The venue was awesome - so much more of the Olympic spirit. The event finished with the medal ceremony. It was particularly exciting as China won the Gold (Shanghai's first!), Russia won silver, & Germany bronze. We think China is still learning to be expressive. The audience and medal winners were far less rambunctious than the minority foreigners in the house.
We hung around inside the water cube - closer to the pool - watching the men's diving group warm up. Unfortunately we were kicked out for the next event, but not before Lila poked on the air-filled plastic walls of the water cube. It's really an interesting engineering approach to construction and gives the water cube a very dynamic shape.
THE INSIDE SCOOP
We were so excited to be walking around the inner area of the Olympics. We took pictures of the Birds Nest, went into some sponsor buildings, saw the National Indoor Stadium, the sculpture garden, the Olympic tower, etc.. We did notice, however, there were no stages or live music, or people tail gating. Definitely a more protected and serene environment, but didn't feel too Olympic.
As we were preparing to leave, there was a MASSIVE downpour. We hung out in some volunteer's tent, manned by University students. They helped us translate with Jim's driver to get picked up. Overall, the masses of volunteers were so warm, friendly, and helpful throughout both days.
Once the rain let up, we found Jim's driver and headed to the airport. Traffic was still wonderful. We like the half-capacity program where even and odd license plates alternate which days they are on the road. Overall, an absolutely wonderful trip - attending the opening weekend of the Olympics.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Olympics Day 1: Working the System for Rowing Tickets, Celebrating with Peking Duck
We arrived in Beijing at 7:30am and quickly made our way’s to our friend Jim’s place. He had Olympic tickets for the first heat of the rowing preliminaries later in the day. We spent the morning catching up and plotting how we might be able to get 2 people in with the 1 extra ticket he had. We eventually headed out to pick up the other co-workers from their hotel, then made the 1-hour journey to the rowing/sculling venue.
It was shocking how few cars were on the highway. Starting nearly a month ago, the government restricted traffic on Beijing’s roads. License plate numbers determine which days cars can be out, alternating between even and odd plates, though taxis can drive every day. We had allowed extra time to get to the venue, which was way outside of the city towards the Great Wall. We arrived 1.5 hours early due to the wonderfully light traffic. With the extra time, we stopped at local Chinese restaurant to watch the rerun of the opening ceremony. It was our first glimpse of the magnificent performance since the train ride didn’t have TVs.
Jim, an American w/great Chinese skills, was the constant master of working the system. He managed to get our 2 vans right up to the entrance while most people had to take a bus from the barricade a few miles away. Then he negotiated with the volunteers to get us to the front of the line due to the 3 small girls who charmed the volunteers. The parents were so worried about the girls ability to handle the extreme heat: 95F with 95% humidity. The volunteers also let the 3 small girls without tickets which left us 2 extra tickets to get in! By the end of the day, Jim had definitely wow’d us all with his chinese negotiation skills and ability to work the system.
The rowing event was quite fun. One of the US visitors is a big rowing fan, so he gave us the full download on the athletes and sporting rules. We ended up squatting in seats towards the finish line, and enjoying the beautiful pace in which the athletes rowed. (I do believe, however, Karl was charmed more by the female athletes running around warming up in their skimpy outfits.)
After the event, we made our way back to Beijing with a very enjoyable Monitor at the Kerry Center bar. Those were the best mojitos we’ve had in the country – and extremely refreshing after a very hot & humid day. It was then off for a quick refresh before Jim went to a business dinner, and we explored the city for Peking Duck. Unfortunately Jim’s recommendation (1949) was totally booked, so the driver took us to another restaurant (forgot name) where we had an awesome meal. We were exhausted from the lack of sleep on the train and the day in the sun. Nevertheless, we rallied enough to make it to the Olympic stadium. We had hoped to take night pictures of all the venues, and were very disappointed to find a massive fence all around the water cube and bird’s nest buildings. There were a lot of people out in the street, walking around and taking pictures with the fence blocking the view to the distant buildings. You needed an official ticket for an event to get into the main area. We were surprised by the lack of tailgaters, partiers, etc. in the streets. It was still full of energy and gave us an opportunity to try to understand the scalping scene. We found out it wasn’t as easy as expected. Perhaps we’ll have better luck figuring out tickets tomorrow. We have none right now…
Olympics Bound: 8/8/08 Train Adventure
Our journey to the Beijing Olympics started Friday evening. While billions of people worldwide watched the Opening Ceremony live, we opted for the 12 hour overnight train to Beijing (don’t worry, we’ll download the video!). Our train tickets were a mere US$71/ea and allowed us to work a full day before catching the 7:30pm northbound Z-train. Since this was the first time we’d taken the train, everyone was worried about us. My admin sent 3 messages and Driver Shen tried to buy an “accompanying” ticket to ensure we boarded the right car. The train policy during Olympics stopped him from taking us to the gate, which made Shen very nervous about us. While appreciative of the concerns, we were pretty comfortable finding our way around with minimal language abilities given our adventurous spirit. We got there early enough to enjoy wandering the train station's snack food shops, which sold every imaginable packaged Chinese snack (nuts, dried fish, instant noodles, & a bunch of stuff we couldn't recognize).
Overall, the train was great – quick check-in, very clean, and on time! Although many had compared the train to a 5 star hotel, it felt more like a 3 star with very clean rooms and attentive English-speaking staff. Each cabin had 4 bunks, fresh flowers, small table, hot water service (for tea & instant noodles) and slippers. There’s another 2-bed “T” train, but we weren’t able to get on.
Two downsides of the train. First, our roommate for the night was a Chinese man who slept as soon as we departed the station, and didn’t wake up until his phone rang at 5:30am Saturday morning! The other was the lack of electricity in the room....and no, not for our notebooks (which were not opened during the trip thankyouverymuch). There were, however, outlets at each end of the car. Luckily Karl had bought a 5meter extension cord to power his CEPAP machine through the night. The extension cable required convincing the train staff to allow us to run cable down the hallway. Our cabin neighbor (Penny) was bilingual and built a “life or death” story around Karl’s need to run the wiring. The train staff lady was so freaked out that she sat outside our room all night making sure no one unplugged the machine. We gladly abided to her request: provide feedback about her customer-orientation in the train log. Ah! Foreign-friendly customer service points.
The real highlight of the journey was that Penny was an exchange student to the US about 10 years ago. She was traveling with her host sister and brother in law from Texas – both really fun lawyers. We had a wonderful time hanging out with them talking in the halls, then downing a few beers in the dining train. It was great until 1am, when the beer had run through Lila (who slept on the top bunk). Imagine climbing down in pitch black, then squatting over a Chinese toilet of a moving train in the middle of the night!?! Needless to say, the train was a fun adventure and a great way to start our Olympic journey.
Overall, the train was great – quick check-in, very clean, and on time! Although many had compared the train to a 5 star hotel, it felt more like a 3 star with very clean rooms and attentive English-speaking staff. Each cabin had 4 bunks, fresh flowers, small table, hot water service (for tea & instant noodles) and slippers. There’s another 2-bed “T” train, but we weren’t able to get on.
Two downsides of the train. First, our roommate for the night was a Chinese man who slept as soon as we departed the station, and didn’t wake up until his phone rang at 5:30am Saturday morning! The other was the lack of electricity in the room....and no, not for our notebooks (which were not opened during the trip thankyouverymuch). There were, however, outlets at each end of the car. Luckily Karl had bought a 5meter extension cord to power his CEPAP machine through the night. The extension cable required convincing the train staff to allow us to run cable down the hallway. Our cabin neighbor (Penny) was bilingual and built a “life or death” story around Karl’s need to run the wiring. The train staff lady was so freaked out that she sat outside our room all night making sure no one unplugged the machine. We gladly abided to her request: provide feedback about her customer-orientation in the train log. Ah! Foreign-friendly customer service points.
The real highlight of the journey was that Penny was an exchange student to the US about 10 years ago. She was traveling with her host sister and brother in law from Texas – both really fun lawyers. We had a wonderful time hanging out with them talking in the halls, then downing a few beers in the dining train. It was great until 1am, when the beer had run through Lila (who slept on the top bunk). Imagine climbing down in pitch black, then squatting over a Chinese toilet of a moving train in the middle of the night!?! Needless to say, the train was a fun adventure and a great way to start our Olympic journey.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Olympics Bound!
Tonight we are heading to Beijing on an overnight Z-train from Shanghai. The train is supposed to be super posh & some compare it to a five star hotel (we aren’t holding our breath). We’ll miss the Olympic Opening Ceremony -- wasn’t very high priority for us to buy uber-expensive tickets or be jammed outside the stadium to watch fireworks with 20 million strangers.
We’re pretty excited about experiencing the opening weekend. Unfortunately, we don’t have game tickets yet. Paying scalped ticket pricing of US $400/ticket for one swimming event seemed a bit ridiculous. So we’re going to see how in person scalping goes, per Nabeel & Lila’s learning at the Nagano Olympics. Karl spent the morning learning/practicing his Olympic ticket buying phrases in his Chinese language class! [Phrase of the day: Women xiang yao liang zhang tiao shui de piao; or those mandarin challenged -> we would like to buy two tickets to diving] We do think we’ll get rowing tickets Saturday afternoon from an Intel friend. We’re returning to Shanghai late Sunday.
We’re pretty excited about experiencing the opening weekend. Unfortunately, we don’t have game tickets yet. Paying scalped ticket pricing of US $400/ticket for one swimming event seemed a bit ridiculous. So we’re going to see how in person scalping goes, per Nabeel & Lila’s learning at the Nagano Olympics. Karl spent the morning learning/practicing his Olympic ticket buying phrases in his Chinese language class! [Phrase of the day: Women xiang yao liang zhang tiao shui de piao; or those mandarin challenged -> we would like to buy two tickets to diving] We do think we’ll get rowing tickets Saturday afternoon from an Intel friend. We’re returning to Shanghai late Sunday.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Catching Up...
It’s been a while since we wrote updates. In fact, we are now in our 5th month living in Shanghai. Seems somewhat surreal to be honest. We both agreed that it feels like home now. We can go to Carrefour on Saturdays and not be completely overwhelmed by the million or so who decided to sift thru the bananas at the same time. We can communicate with our drivers and to complete strangers with enough vocabulary, sign language, and the trusted translation tool on Karl’s cell phone. Anyway, time to update the rest of the site… enjoy!
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
BASKETBALL: GO USA!!!
Xiao is our hero tonight. He’s a former Intel colleague who went off for the sexier job with the NBA. He also got us tickets to the pre-Olympics exhibition basketball game: Team USA vs. Australia. We had box seats and even ran into a couple of Karl’s customers from Dell. Getting to the game was quite an experience! Driver Shen took us down 2 roads that were blocked off completely unless you had tickets in hand. No way could we pass thru the police barricade. Alas! Driver Shen is extremely resourceful. He found the road that got us around the mess to exactly where we needed to be. We had SO much fun watching professional players literally "wow" the audience with their speed, resilience, and dunks. The Australians weren’t bad either. Go USA! (ok, we’re feeling oddly patriotic right now)
Monday, August 4, 2008
THE FIRST DINNER PARTY
Our weekend was nice. We spent the whole weekend cooking and grocery shopping. On Friday night, Lila just returned from Portugal and Karl found out that his Sunday Singapore trip was cancelled. We decided to host a party to thank our key friends that helped us get established here. It was mega late notice (we didn’t send out the e-mail invite until after 7pm on Friday night). We decided to do a BBQ / wine party. We didn’t really have an recipes in mind and Karl thought he’d pull some ideas from our family website. However when we discovered the site was being renovated on Saturday morning, we decided to look through the Bobby Flay cookbook (Christmas present from mom) for ideas. We made the following menu:
- APPETIZERS: Lila’s family fried eggplant salad, Lila’s humus w/ various vegetables, Cheese & crackers imported from Germany (by Lila on Friday afternoon due to a plane transfer in Frankfurt), Grilled large shrimp tossed in a red chili vinaigrette
- MAIN: Sixteen spice chicken served w/ roasted red pepper sauce and sweet cilantro / spinach pesto, Mashed potatoes w/ pesto folded in, Chopped romaine lettuce & three bean salad served with a mustard vinaigrette, Mexican grilled corn salad, and homemade sundried tomato focaccia bread
- DESSERT: Homemade tapioca based dessert pudding with a cooked blueberry & mango topping.
Our friends added some hot/fresh bbq beef jerky (for an appetizer), two types of chocolate cakes, and some egg custard tarts. Throughout the meal we served three different CA white wines, three different CA red wines, and two bottles of French sparkling wine.
To build this feast, it took us stops at four separate grocery stores to gather all the ingredients. However even with all our searching (and pocket translation dictionary) we didn’t find things like fresh pumpkin seeds, onion powder, habanera peppers, tomatillos, or corn tortillas. I guess they don’t have many Mexican dishes / cooks here. We then spent most of Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning prepping all the sauces and raw ingredients. It was extremely relaxing for both Lila and I to spend the day in the kitchen.
The apartment looked great & the party turned out great! Fourteen of our friends were able to join the party. We enjoyed all the conversations – especially the ones that started, "Have you seen …. In Shanghai yet" It really meant a lot to us to be able to thank our co-workers and friends for all the help they’ve give us.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
ALLERGIC TO CHINA: KARL’S RASH UPDATE
The rash has been driving me crazy, but we’ve finally figured it out. It is NOT as the first doctor said, "you’re allergic to China." In fact, it’s wheat.
Over the past few weeks, the rash got better than terrible again. I finally went to the clinic for the third time. The Dr said I had 2 rashes: Eczema and Urticaria. They are both caused by something internal, not likely a contact rash. The Dr said it was either stress or a food allergy. After reviewing the foods we’ve been eating, he told me to stay away from mushrooms, local seafood (farm raised), and spicy foods. What was I to eat?! Anyway, he prescribed 3 new drugs including allergy medication and steroid cream for my legs. I had them also run a blood test to see if they can figure out the cause, but it would take 7-10 days to process.
The medicines helped a lot as I anxiously awaited the blood report. I was told that I have an extremely high allergy level to ragweed and mugwort, which is hay fever. However the doctors does not think this is the problem that is causing my skin rashes. However I have to watch this going forward. I have a low to medium level allergy to wheat flour. The doctor recommended that I eliminate (or greatly reduce) all the wheat from my diet. Our guess is that I’m eating more noodles, dumplings, and dishes thickened up with wheat products here. We had Sheila translate "NO WHEAT PRODUCTS" for our Ayi (Helper) when she cooks, and will be searching for alternative food options (or bringing them back by the suitcase-full from US!).
Also searching the web I found that watermelon and bananas (eating a ton of both) are the foods related to ragweed sensitivity. Mugwort sensitivity has foodstuff connections to coriander, garlic, carrots, paprika, and hazelnuts. Oh my gosh – these are all my favorites! I’ll try this for a while and see how I feel. Luckily I can add mushroom & spicy foods back into the diet. At least I now know I’m not allergic to China…. Well, kind of.
Over the past few weeks, the rash got better than terrible again. I finally went to the clinic for the third time. The Dr said I had 2 rashes: Eczema and Urticaria. They are both caused by something internal, not likely a contact rash. The Dr said it was either stress or a food allergy. After reviewing the foods we’ve been eating, he told me to stay away from mushrooms, local seafood (farm raised), and spicy foods. What was I to eat?! Anyway, he prescribed 3 new drugs including allergy medication and steroid cream for my legs. I had them also run a blood test to see if they can figure out the cause, but it would take 7-10 days to process.
The medicines helped a lot as I anxiously awaited the blood report. I was told that I have an extremely high allergy level to ragweed and mugwort, which is hay fever. However the doctors does not think this is the problem that is causing my skin rashes. However I have to watch this going forward. I have a low to medium level allergy to wheat flour. The doctor recommended that I eliminate (or greatly reduce) all the wheat from my diet. Our guess is that I’m eating more noodles, dumplings, and dishes thickened up with wheat products here. We had Sheila translate "NO WHEAT PRODUCTS" for our Ayi (Helper) when she cooks, and will be searching for alternative food options (or bringing them back by the suitcase-full from US!).
Also searching the web I found that watermelon and bananas (eating a ton of both) are the foods related to ragweed sensitivity. Mugwort sensitivity has foodstuff connections to coriander, garlic, carrots, paprika, and hazelnuts. Oh my gosh – these are all my favorites! I’ll try this for a while and see how I feel. Luckily I can add mushroom & spicy foods back into the diet. At least I now know I’m not allergic to China…. Well, kind of.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Lila in Portugal
(Lila) I spent more time on airplanes this week then on the ground. But it’s ok because we had a huge win in Portugal, and it was really amazing to be a part of it. I departed Monday and got home Friday – but basically spent 3 days in airports. While on the ground in Lisbon, I had a great time catching up with my old team (Craig was there, Abdul too) and having meetings with the sales organization. The night after the launch my inbox was full of excited mails from my team around the globe. Their energy fueled mine, and resulted in not being able to sleep beyond 2 hours. I returned to China with a lot of energy and feeling very inspired.
You can check out the news at Intel's pressroom: "Intel Collaborates with Government of Portugal on a Comprehensive New Education Initiative" at http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20080730corp.htm?iid=pr1_releasepri_20080730r)
You can check out the news at Intel's pressroom: "Intel Collaborates with Government of Portugal on a Comprehensive New Education Initiative" at http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20080730corp.htm?iid=pr1_releasepri_20080730r)
Along the way, I dealt with the Frankfurt airport during the Lufthansa strike. It turned out to be less of an issue than originally thought. Fortunately flights were on time. But no catering (food was small packaged snacks), no customs forms, and service that makes US domestic airlines look luxury (since you have to pay for food, but at least you get food).
On the return, I slept a total of 11 hours between the 2 flights which totaled ~13 hours.
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