“What did we get ourselves into?": The 1 Year Anniversary

One year ago we arrived in Shanghai, having just agreed to move to China for the job. Actually, let’s flashback to 2007. Lila finishes phone call with Tom about the job opportunity. She joins Karl, who’s sitting in the beautiful backyard of our lovely 1920s California bungalow home in Palo Alto – the one we purchased less then 6 months ago. Lila explained there were 2 opportunities, one of them was to take a job she thought sounded exciting – but required a move to Shanghai. After 10minutes of conversation, Karl declared “Let’s go to Shanghai!” to his wife of 5 months. And thus the decision was made.

A few weeks later, we were on the plane to Shanghai to figure out what we had just signed up for. Lila had been once before – long ago. It was Karl’s first time. We had a great week in November 2007, including Thanksgiving.

During that preview trip last year, we celebrated Thanksgiving in China. At the time, we had to choose between Hooters (who advertised their American Thanksgiving meals…among other things!) and Hairy Crabs (in season). We opted for the latter, complemented by dinner with some Americans from work.

So what will 2008 bring?! Karl’s friends are voting for Hooters, but Lila’s planning to keep us busy with other activities.

How lucky we are to have experienced so much personally and professionally since that decision and first visit a year ago!

Election Memories: Yes, we can!

(From Lila)

I’m writing this from the Shanghai airport, on the way to Dubai. The US election results were announced earlier today, and I’m inspired to capture the history being made.
While we were growing up, politics replaced religion. International politics were discussed every day in the family, to the point in which we would intentionally pick disagreements with narrow minded history/political science teachers & profs. My junior high yearbook even says something about me being most likely to be in political office. Somewhere in my 20s, I became disenchanted and shut off political discussions. For some reason, this election appealed to that old side & lit a fire in me.
This morning I awoke to reports from the family. My sister, a gov’t employee in DC, said lines are out the door and that transition teams are poised to come into the office tomorrow. My brother, in California, remarked that ~2/3 of the county are permanent absentee voters but that people were still waiting when polls opened at 7am. Mom & Dad, in the battleground state of Indiana, commented on all the right wing conservative commentary heard around town and TV. After voting, mom helped with the Obama campaign. Go Mom!
I arrived at the office today just as the first American polls closed. There were 4 other Americans – all of us keeping each other posted on what was happening. I explained electoral votes to Sheila, my admin. Everytime I’d scream, she’d come in and ask the latest count. Then it happened. The state reports coming in. We stood on our chairs and screamed updates over the cube walls. We high fived and did little dances. Most of the Chinese co-workers laughed and thought we were amusing. Sheila, with great pride, told a few folks how she helped me mail in my absentee ballot. As she said, "In China, we don’t vote, so I want to make sure I do this right." Bless her for the enthusiastic extra care she took – it made me appreciate democracy so much more. On the drive home, I kept talking to myself as I read the news on my blackberry. "Unbelievable." Mr. Shen, the driver, clearly found me amusing and in limited English managed to comprehend my excitement was about our new President.
I got home early due to tonight’s travel. Karl and I watched Obama’s speech. It felt so unreal to be in Shanghai, watching US history being made from afar. As I read through status updates on Facebook, the sentiment of hope from friends around the world is incredibly inspiring. During my travels I’ve been asking people their thoughts on the US elections. Of course, they all think they should have a vote as the US President sets the tone for global environment. With the exception of the northern cone of Latin America (where they like free trade plans of Bush), there has been overwhelming support for Obama – a new face for world leadership.
As I sit around the Shanghai airport, I am listening in on people’s conversations about Obama. It’s everywhere – positive comments about the American people’s decision, the process, and America – the land of opportunity. Today I feel proud to walk through the airport with my American passport. It’s disappointing I do not always feel that way, but today is really special. The reality is things won’t be perfect. But, for at least a few moments, the world celebrates the American process, American people, and our new President elect.

Hotel Liebat Officially Opens for Business

On the 21st, we had our first vacationing visitors arrive from the US. From Cincinnati, Erik came for his first visit to Asia with buddy Will. From our California friends, Ahmad arrived on the first day of his sabbatical, while Matt & Kjerstin arrived after a few days in Hong Kong. Three groups of friends all at once!
The first evening was a matter of keeping arrival times straight and getting folks settled. The real activity started Wednesday. Erik & Will woke up early due to jetlag and found their way around our neighborhood (we did a short orientation walk the night before). Lila then joined Erik & Will for a visit to the Museum of Urban Planning. For a city of 20M people, it was impressive to see the city planning efforts – both historical and plans for hosting the 2010 World Expo Afterwards we visited the incredible Shanghai Museum. The exhibits were fascinating and a wonderful China history lesson in bronze, currency, pottery, calligraphy, ethnic minorities, etc. All these months in Shanghai and we had never been to the museums.
In parallel, Karl took Ahmad, Kjerstin & Matt to the back street behind our apartment for a Chinese street breakfast (dumplings, fried bread, and Chinese breakfast crepes). They then went off to the fabric market to have some clothes made. They were quite proud of all "the money they saved" by having things tailor made.
We all met up for a lunch of famous dumplings at Yu gardens, which has been rebuilt in the old architecture. We had heard a ton about the restaurant, but had never been - so it was great exploration for us too. We all got a kick out of drinking soup out of a big steamed bun with a straw! We had originally planned for a water village in one of the nearby towns, but we ran out of time & energy. So we wandered around the Yu garden neighborhood, full of trinket shops and hundreds of thousands of people. From there we went to the next stop: Taikang street. The 1930s buildings now house a maze of small cafes, boutiques, and art shops.
It was 4:15 by the time most of us made it home for a break. Matt & Kjerstin opted to have a few suits made by the fancy tailor shop Karl loves on the way home. Erik & Will ended up walking around the French Concession some more. By 5:30, everyone was sleeping or resting with a glass of wine in their hand!
Dinner reservations were for 8pm at South Beauty, spicy Sichuan cuisine. Our table, on the outdoor deck, had views of the river and Bund all lit up, the Pearl tower, and the new financial tower (highest building in China). It was really incredible. While everyone would have loved more energy, we opted to go home. Erik & Will went out and explored some more, while the rest of us stayed back and packed for the Silk Road tour.
It was fun to play tourist, and we are thankful to have patient friends as we sort through how to host people here in Shanghai.

4 Days & 40 Hours Sitting

The past 2 weeks have been a whirlwind. After Portugal, Karl returned to Shanghai for a whopping 24 hours before heading to Beijing, then Tokyo, and finally back to Shanghai. He spent the weekend at home, ill with his first Asian cold.
Meanwhile, Lila went to the US for a few days of meetings followed by a quick trip to Chile. When we mean quick, we are talking 15 hours on the ground in Santiago. What a shame it wasn't longer; it is such a beautiful city. Within 4 days, she spent 40 hours sitting on airplanes. Upon return to Shanghai, Lila had 2 team members visiting from the US. Tired of sitting for so long, she had requested a pedometer.
Back in Shanghai together, Lila struggled to stay awake past 8pm each night. The weekend finally came and we spent much of it socializing and making up for lost time. We went out for drinks Friday evening, met up with US work visitors, ran errands on Saturday (including to the flower market & a sporting goods store), had brunch with co-workers, and got Vietnamese cooking lessons and dinner on Sunday.

Voting: Enjoying our Democratic Privileges

There is nothing like living in China to help you appreciate the right to vote. We can vote by sending in an absentee ballot. Since we did not receive one in time, we could fill out a form from the internet for overseas voters. US citizens even can FedEx their vote for free if they are based in China. It is a very empowering feeling to send in a vote by express mail! As Lila completed her paperwork, she asked her assistant (Sheila) to help send it. Sheila took so many precautions to ensure she did it right. As Sheila said, In China, we do not have elections so I really want to make sure I do this "ballot thing" right. It was such a charming and meaningful statement -- she may never know just how much I appreciated her comment.

Fun fact: Flying 2/3 around the World

Today is a sad day – vacation ends. We’re convinced the world would be much better if vacations never ended. The interesting point about today is that we departed from Lisbon to Frankfurt together. From there, Karl and Lila depart at the same time. Karl goes East to Shanghai. Lila goes West to San Francisco. The total difference is a mere 200 miles. Given the distance between Shanghai & SF, this means the Liebats will fly 2/3 of the world today!

Perfect Portugal Vacation

The week of September 30th was China’s MidAutumn Festival, a week long holiday. It also happened to be the first available week Lila could arrange business meetings in Portugal. We decided to cancel our initial holiday plans in Asia in lieu of work + holiday trip in Portugal. It was a fabulous week, marked by our Top 10 adventures below in no particular order:

1. Saturday w/Chavez & Socrates. Venezuelan President Chavez and Portuguese Prime Minister Socrates unveiled details regarding their trade agreement. Among the collaboration areas were the export of 1Mu of Magellan PCs based on Intel’s classmate PC reference design from Lila’s group. We attended the press conference, as perhaps the only Americans in the audience. Needless to say, exciting and fascinating. Later in the week, we passed an oil refinery in Northern Portugal. Karl asked the taxi driver where the oil came from. His response, “we sell computers to the crazy Chavez for oil.” Karl then inquired about the types of computer. “They’re very good, for children, and not so expensive.” How cool is that: taxi driver who’s totally on message. J

2. A trip of “firsts” – This trip marked our 1st trip to Europe together. It was also Karl’s 1st time flying over Siberia (arriving in Europe from the East) & 1st time to Portugal, and our 1st trip where we tagged vacation onto one of Lila’s international business trips.

3. Castles, Forts, & Churches – Oh My! After a week in the country, we believe there are castles on every hilltop and a few churches in every valley. Given the geographical location of Portugal and its very rich history, the architecture is a mix of various centuries and styles. We enjoyed exploring a large majority of them, though got a bit Churched and Forted out after a while.

4. Southern California with a Mediterranean Flair – We spent one afternoon driving along the coast North of Lisbon, visiting the towns of Estoril, Cascais, & Guincho. It was very reminiscent of the San Diego coastline, but with many white washed homes and red tiled roofs. We enjoyed the old fishing villages and visiting the western-most point of continental Europe.

5. Tasting Our Way Through Portugal – Everyday we ate at least 1 meal at a Michelin-rated restaurant. We also tasted port in Porto, wine in Evora, and smoked meats & cheese throughout. We tasted Codfish cooked a few of the acclaimed 365 Portuguese ways (or 1001 ways, depending who you ask). We saw Prosciutto carved off a hind leg of pig, right before our eyes at a high-end restaurant. We had the best shellfish our lives, covered in garlic and olive oil. We enjoyed many desserts, including cheese with pumpkin jam. It’s a good thing the holiday is only 1 week. We would weigh 500 lbs/each if we lived here!

6. Sintra – Our first side trip from Lisbon was Sintra. It’s supposedly a 45minute drive, but took us twice as long as we couldn’t figure out the Portuguese road signs! Famous as a romantic getaway, the town in hills has extraordinary architecture and we learned about Manueline architecture. Our first stop was an over the top estate (Quinta da Regaleira) built in early 1900s. We enjoyed all the hidden doors & staircases. From there we explored the Moorish castle which we equated to Portugal’s “great wall.” The 9th century fort overlooks the coastline with steps along the walls. We were going to make it to the other famous castles, but decided we were castle’d out & opted to hang out in town. We spent a few hours roaming around the tiny streets, small stores, and eating lunch in a café before driving back to Lisbon.

7. Porto – our favorite…and not just for the port! We spent 2 nights in Porto, a beautiful city 3 hours north of Lisbon -- famous for its port and 67 churches. We had a fabulous 1-day private tour around the city where we visited the major neighborhood areas of the hilly town, 6 churches, a tiled-covered railway station, the old stock exchange, and had dinner by the ocean. The highlights also included a 1hr cruise on the Douro river and a private port tasting In Vila Nova de Gaia Grahams. We left with a 1970 vintage bottle of port. The following day, we did a bit more port tasting including at Taylor and Noval. We finally found an area we disagree – Karl prefers ruby’s and Lila likes tawny’s. Overall, a fabulous getaway!

8. Evora – Sleeping at a Convent in a World Heritage Site. Per recommendation of a colleague, we ended our trip in the town of Evora, southeast of Lisbon. We spent 2 nights at a Sheraton Luxury Collection hotel which was a restored convent from the 1400s. During the day we visited a cork factory which was not on any tourist map! The owner called his son from home to give us a tour and explain how cork is imported from around the town, sorted, treated and shipped out for processing. We have a new appreciation for the complexity of cork manufacturing! We toured the country-side of small towns white washed houses and the Alentejo wine region. Most of the day was spent wandering inside the old town within the fortified walls. The trip ended with a private wine tasting in the hotel’s wine cave, with 2 of the hotel staff explaining Portugal’s wine regions and history. What a fabulous way to end our holiday.

9. Everything that China is not, Portugal is! Great wine, blue skies, no crowds, delicious meats, lots of fresh fish (without heads attached), great cheese, and clean public toilets. Portugal is everything that China is not.

10. Lisbon – While Lila had a few days of work, we managed to find time to explore various neighborhoods of Lisbon. It’s a very charming city with outstanding food and architecture. We’re very surprised it’s not more of a destination spot, aside for all the Europeans. While we really liked Lisbon, the quieter towns of Porto and Evora were more our vacation pace.

The lowlight?
Avoiding sticker SHOCK death - our sole entry to the list of worst memories: cost. The US dollar makes traveling in Europe an economic pain in the wallet. Monopoly money would have gotten us further. The perfect example is our tiny rental car cost $100 to fill up ¾ tank. And watching CNN’s coverage of the flailing US economy didn’t help. At least the memories and experiences were priceless!

24 hours: Beijing Beginnings * Munich Oktoberfest * Lost in Lisbon

(9/27)After 2 days, our YGL activities had ended and we were on our 3 hour drive to Beijing airport. We arrived early enough to get a 50min massage to prepare us for the 15+ hour journey to Europe. First stop: Munich. It just happened to coincide with Oktoberfest! Can you imagine 6M liters of beer consumed in Oktoberfest 2 weeks?! We’re thrilled to have contributed our 2 pints during our short airport layover. After finally arriving in Lisbon, we realized we didn’t plan very well. To save a few euros, Lila made the decision to rent a manual car with no GPS. We quickly learned that if we decide not to get GPS in future, we should at least get maps! It turns out that the Hertz folks couldn’t tell us how to get to the Sheraton, that the city’s signs were useless, and we couldn’t even figure out how to ask the hotel for directions (by the time we called, we didn’t know where we even were). After our (very long) search, we settled for a nightcap with an incredible city view. Good thing we’re both so adventurous!

Changing the World with Our Generation

It's been a while.... so we're just skipping to end of September travel.

Our journey began with the Annual Summit of Young Global Leaders (YGLs). In ’07, Lila was elected as a YGL by the World Economic Forum. YGLs are selected on their leadership in both business and civic responsibilities, as well as their age (<= 40). During their 5-year appointment, YGLs address the issues of the coming decades with the goal of creating a better world. Each year a summit is held that brings together ~200 of the 600 YGLs worldwide, including spouses. Lila and Karl joined this year’s summit in Tianjin, China near Beijing.

The first day’s activities were aimed at giving YGLs a better introduction of China. We started with a visit to a junior high school where the YGLs were split into teams. Our group, based out of the high school TV station, got an introduction of Chinese culture (tea ceremony, calligraphy, painting, etc.) from the students. Karl even practiced some Chinese calligraphy. In fact, Karl’s student ambassador kept a close eye on him including holding his hand thru various activities. Fortunately Lila is not the jealous type! J We had interesting discussions with the students regarding their concerns for the world in the coming decade.

After the school, we were hijacked by local officials who took us to their 3D museum. This is quite common in China. You’re taken where officials want to take you – not necessarily where you WANT to go. The museum was quite unique from a technological standpoint with 3D TVs, holographs, etc. Karl was especially happy because of the highlighted 3D adult content. Our final tour destination was a panel discuss at a local facility where entrepreneurs develop start-up ideas with government support. The day ended with a YGL networking dinner at an art museum which included a short workshop on dumpling making. We failed. The good news is that it’s only a few dollars to have a meal of famous Shanghai dumplings back home.

The 2nd day focused on leadership development. We were split by region and then by business sector. Within regional discussions, Karl joined the China group, and Lila the Americans. The most interesting part was creating a fable based on the leadership traits of our business sectors – whether financial, governmental, non-profits, technology etc. In the afternoon we spent time discussing basic leadership fundamentals for our generation. The evening included a dinner and very fun nightcap catching up with everyone. We are working on a separate blog entry summarizing our learnings from the day’s discussions.

Overall, the participants were amazingly well connected and influential – whether reporters for major news agencies, Royalty, business leaders, or bankers. Everyone is out to change world – they believe they can and they are already doing it. Everyone was also really friendly. Egos were checked at the door and we were all equal regardless of title (Prince, CEO, General Manager, or Spouse). Each time a group formed, people listened and were ok with collaborative leadership. We found this especially fascinating and contrary to work environment. It became very clear that a strong leader isn’t necessarily the one with the best idea, but the one who is able to bring diverging people and ideas to a common direction.

More to follow on this topic soon…

Liebats' Olympic Analysis - what won the Gold?!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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)

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.

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.

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)

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.

Fabric Markets, Construction Magic, Cheap Massages, & More!!

We were pretty delinquent in writing a July update, so here’s the summary of the month. While there was a lot of travel, we did a good job of preserving our weekends for time together. It was wonderful. Some of the things we enjoyed:

Fabric Market - We discovered and liked it enough to make 3 stops in 2 weeks. There are about 300 stalls of which we tried ~10. Only 1 was below expectations. After a bit of trial and error, we figured out how it works. You take clothing or pictures you really like and want copied. You pick the store based on the fabric options, price you’re able to negotiate, and your guess of their quality. Lila had several blouses, a suit and a skirt made. Karl had some shirts, shorts, and linen pants made.
Approximate prices we paid at the market:
Men’s dress shirts = $11; men’s linen pants = $11; men’s shorts = $8.50
Women’s blouses = $14; woman’s wool suit (180 wool) = $45; woman’s silk blouse = $14
We had a blast and are excited to find this very inexpensive and funky method of shopping!

Flower Markets – Visited 2 different ones in the past few weeks. We bought some beautiful orchids, some outdoor plants for the balcony, and a few stalks of lotus that are taller than Lila. Great bargain, adds life and color to our apartment. We still can’t figure out why they dye roses weird colors (blue), then wrap the flower itself in netting and paper to do arrangements. Not so attractive.

Construction Magic – We were on the Pudong side of town on a clear day and got to see the tallest building in world (at least this month it is!). It’s beautiful! Also, we were surprised one morning to wake up and notice workers removing a tower from the building across street. Next thing we know, it was torn down. We’ve learned that buildings age in dog years here, and are quick to be torn down so something bigger and more stylish can be built.

Massages: Thank goodness they’re cheap. We now have a favorite new one (Sakura) – which is 3 minutes walk away. We average one massage per week over the past few weeks. The 2 hour traditional massage costs us about $25.

Restaurants: We found a few new places. Whisk is right around the corner, tucked behind a gate. Good food, reasonable, and easy. They also have awesome chocolate desserts! We visited the Bund brewery and enjoyed some real micro brew beer. Lila’s colleagues took us out to the famed Constellation bar, with its uber-precise traditional mixologist. We had so much fun we went back on our own – convenient 5minute walk. And Karl finally took Lila to Driver Peter’s favorite noodle bar where the man pulls and throws a bunch of dough then presto! Noodles. J

Waterfront: One Saturday, we found ourselves at this funky old mansion turned restaurant on the east side of the river. We were surprised that Shanghai really doesn’t look so big from the waterfront. Karl described it as "LA-like." We watched the busy river and barges going by. Some of the barges were carrying so many rocks they were half way submerged. Clearly the transportation laws are a bit different.

Office Stuff: In July, Lila had to deliver her first business update meeting, represent the entire organization in Family Day (which required her wearing a purple wig and hip hopping on stage). She took business trips up north to Shenyang & Beijing. Karl changed cubicles and hosted a US coworker. He’s been learning a lot about China from his team and is always full of fun facts.

Wandering: We also spent a lot of time wandering around on "many hour walks." We walked from our apartment to Jing An Temple. We did the Frommers walking tour of Old Town – which took us through a wet market, by the ancient city wall, and by a fight at a Taoist temple which brought 3 policemen! We did another walking tour of the Bund by the old 1930 European-style buildings. We met a college couple who were anxious to practice their English. We also had our first art appreciation class provided by a college art group (of course we were encouraged to purchase their student artwork afterwards).

A MOMENT OF A 1-HOUR COMMUTE

(Lila) Usually on my commute I catch up on email for the hour. I can’t do phone calls very well since the cell connection drops at least 3 places. It’s so frustrating. Anyway, today my computer died so I had to reboot. I found myself looking around instead – a rare experience. At a single intersection I saw…

• A workman in a white button down shirt and grey slacks riding a bicycle. As soon as he stopped, he rolled up his shirt and tied it above his waist to get fresh air.
• A woman on the back of the moped with her boyfriend. To shade her self from sun, she opened an umbrella.
• I’m no longer shocked to see families of 3 or 4 on mopeds. (yes, a family of 5 still grabs my attention)
• An old man standing by the side of the road in an undershirt and shorts pulling the hair out of his chin mole.
• A 3 wheel bicycle cart carrying enough styrofoam to fill a dump truck! (this still amazes me how they pack so much on bikes)
• A father carrying his little daughter. Chinese don’t use strollers, they carry kids as a way of nurture and protecting them. Given the 1-child law, there is a saying that 1 child has 6 parents – 2 sets of grandparents & 1 set parents. It’s the more spoiled generation.

And now my computer is working and we’re passed the intersection. Another glimpse of life in Shanghai…

The Best Chicken Feet

Lila's traumatic 24 hours of food incidents…

Last night, as we were walking home from sushi dinner – Karl told me about the day’s lunch with his cube neighbor. “They were the best chicken feet e-VER.” The trauma caused me to forget everything else about the conversation. I do remember something about toe hairs falling off the bones oh so gently. He swears he said 'skin' not 'toe hairs.' I think my story is better. Either way, YUCK!

I work in the middle of nowhere – 1 hour outside of Shanghai. Everyday I bring my lunch. Today I forgot my forks/chopsticks from home. So I went to the office kitchenette and started rummaging through drawers. This happened one other time when I was forced to use 2 coffee stirrers as make-shift chopsticks. Just as I was about to resort to fake-chopsticks, the cleaning lady came and got me a cup. I know how to say “cup!” But that’s not wanted I wanted. Finally I got an engineer to help translate what I was looking for. The cleaning lady walked over to the --- get this --- refridgerator and pulled out plastic ware. Expensive storage.

JAPAN & EGYPT

The past week had Karl in Japan and Lila in the Middle East. Fortunately we get to spend the weekend together here in Shanghai.

Lila in the Middle East: There’s nothing worse than being sick and traveling. Especially when going through so many airports: Shanghai. Dubai. Cairo. Abu Dhabi. Doha. Shanghai. Can you find those on a map?! The trip started very rough with feeling faint in the hour wait to check-in. I slept the entire flight, and was well enough to enjoy the few hour layover at the airport in Dubai. I really like the airport – it’s perhaps one of the most colorful, diverse, and clean airports.
My meetings in Cairo went really well, even though I wasn’t 100%. One evening we even made it to the Pyramid light show. Last time I went to the pyramids was 1994 with my grandmother. It was really amazing. We also had 1 weekend day – which included some sight seeing in Cairo. It was very special. The trip coincided with the entire regional sales team having a face to face in Cairo. I got to catch up with a lot of old friends. It was really wonderful. After my Cairo visit, I made a day stop in Abu Dhabi for meetings before continuing home.
I did realize that there are times that being an ‘Ibrahim’ is a good thing – like immigration in the Middle East. Although it’s officially my middle name, it stood out enough to always be asked "where are you from?" Trying to explain makes no sense and I’ve learned the right answer is that Dad’s from Lebanon.

Karl - JAPAN DELICACIES
I was in Japan for 4 days – Tokyo & Miyazaki, and will be returning every 6 weeks. Meetings went well, but the real highlight was the food. The sushi breakfast at the fish market in Tokyo was quite good, but dinner was one of the best meals ever at a restaurant recommended by the Imperial Hotel. I decided to build my own 5 course meal...
Course #1: Smoked summer vegetable with creamy anchovy sauce
2: Assorted fresh sashimi (including tuna, egg cockle, sea bream, ark shell, and halfbreak)
3: Grilled tuna cheek meat. Marinated in soy sauce
4: Roasted iberico pork with spicy tomato sauce
5: Tsugihagi special desert (plum cake, campaign gelatin with fresh fruit, chocolate cake, fresh cherry, fruit gelato)
Extras courses since I was sitting at bar: Cream cheese preserved in miso and Tuna liver with onion
Plus two glasses of sake:Azumaichi - Fukui Prefecture and Kakurei - Niigata Prefecture. Then finished with Japanese tea. I have to say this was one of the best meals ever!

BLUE SKIES OF SHANGHAI

Karl : This is the best day I have ever seen in Shanghai: incredibly blue sky with beautiful clouds, crystal clear air, a great breeze, and ~88 degrees. It’s the type of weather that could convince millions of more people to move to Shanghai! It must have been like this for years before we move here (otherwise why would Shanghai now have 20M+ people). Actually, we’ve been surprised this summer just how nice the weather has been. It’s warm and humid, with days of occasional rains. However, we see the blue sky on regular occasions. It’s not as great as the Bay Area, but far better than we ever expected.

Fanagaling More Magazines: US Visitors descend on Shanghai

Over the past 10 days, we were thrilled to host several US friends in town.

In the last update, we mentioned our first anniversary celebration weekend. Karl arrived home with beautiful flowers on June 16. Our special evening was spent with David, a Palo Alto neighbor and fellow Intel co-worker who happened to be in Shanghai for 1 night only. To compensate for crashing our anniversary, David managed to negotiate 3 free bottles of alcohol from the flight attendants as a gift for us! It was really fun to catch up. Later that week, Lila had a girl’s night out of foot massages & tapas with 2 colleagues, including 1 who was visiting from the US. On Saturday, Abdul, Ahmad, and Len arrived from Santa Clara. We hung out at the apartment for a few hours before heading for dumplings with one of Lila’s Shanghai colleagues and mutual friend of Ahmad’s. We learned a few important lessons during that visit: 1) we need to stock our fridge with more beer for when people come over, 2) having 2 guest rooms is great! (both Abdul & Ahmad stayed with us), and 3) the espresso maker was by far the best investment we’ve made! Sunday, Karl went to a resort area with Ahmad and a few Shanghai-based folks to enjoy volleyball, swimming, and an amazing brunch. About 14 hours later, they had managed to also squeeze in a night of poker (Karl tripled his money! :)), KFC, and a foot massage. Meanwhile, Lila met up with Craig, Abdul, Jim, and Len in Shanghai before flying to Chengdu in Sichuan Province. (Will post separate blog entry for update from earthquake impacted region.) By Tuesday, Lila had returned to Shanghai to host 2 of her staff. Overall, a fantastic week for catching up with 8 US visitors . We also managed to get Sudafed, 4 bottles of wine, a lot of news, and a stack of new magazines out of everyone’s visits.

Aside from the visitor excitement, Karl spent 2 days in Beijing. He’s becoming a pro of visiting up North. He then flew to Hong Kong, where they happened to have a level 3 Typhoon warning,which later turned into Level 8 (severe). All businesses closed, so he was stuck at the hotel for the entire day. Fortunately around noon, they downgraded the warning back to Level 3 and the mall opened for business. He returned home, after no meetings, but with shirts and appropriate sized tennis shoes (hard to find in Shanghai). Lila also spent 4 days in Penang, Malaysia, for her boss’ staff. Even though it’s in the same time zone, it took an entire work day to travel there & another day to travel home. Fortunately the meetings went well despite the cold she caught. For both of us, the week was full of airport delays. The previous blog entry was just a foreshadow of the remaining 6+ hours of delay we would face later in the week.

Lila returned to Shanghai on Saturday, 6/28. Karl had prepared a wonderful BBQ dinner of sausage, corn, a baked potato, and a bottle of wine. It was fabulous. We were both pretty exhausted today, so we caught up on movies (Kung Fu Panda and Sex&the City) for the entire morning. In the afternoon, we managed to get out for a 3 hour walk to Jing An temple and around our neighborhood. Dinner was another BBQ – chicken, mushrooms and a Chardonnay. We typically ration our wine, but since this is a month of busy travel we’ve decided to indulge!

Work is going well for both of us. Lila is finally finding her groove, which has been a big issue given all the changes her organization has gone through. The past 6 weeks have been good as we’ve both had limited travel, but the next 2 weeks will be tough as Karl goes to Japan, while Lila is in the Middle East.

While Lila types this blog update, Karl’s reviewing his Chinese studies. The language remains very difficult for us, especially as we have limited opportunity to practice. Until the next update…

Flight Prison

Both of us ended up on flights delayed by at least 3 hours today. Lila's flight from Chengdu was delayed due to weather in Shanghai. Karl's flight from Shanghai was delayed due to weather in Beijing. The majority of the delay was spent waiting on the plane. We gained some cultural insight: no matter what country, passengers everywhere get frustrated with long delays! At least in China, the attendants serve you food and drinks.

The following are text messages from Karl...

9:51PM: After 4 plus hours at the gate, I am starting to feel like a prisoner. There are reports of a plane scheduled for one hour later departure already touching down in Beijing. All the passengers are starting to revolt and complain extremely loudly. If they don't do something shortly we could all end up being stormed by the Chinese police to settle this group down. All they keep saying on the intercom is sorry for the delay. I can't believe this!

10pm: We now have 50+ people standing up and screaming at the top of their lungs asking for an explanation. The flight attendants are smiling and saying they don't have any more information. This is getting funny. I wish I understood some of this tragic, comedic dialogue!
Ps now every flight request button is being pushed!
Ps I don't see any police, but they must be on the way!

10:11pm: We are moving! Looks like they are moving us to a spot easier to storm. Or maybe we are going to take off? I'll tell you shortly!

Since that was the last message I received from Karl, I assume he's on his way to Beijing. However, if I don't hear from him in 24 hours, I will have to figure out how to contact the police.

Pet Peeves: Enough of the Niceties

We’ve moved out of the honeymoon period, and now are at the point of becoming more acclimated to Shanghai life. With that, comes some observations…

Top Pet Peeves

• Internet connection is s_l_o_w, unstable, and often blocked
  (frequently websites are inaccessible, particularly blogs)
• The food is awesome, but if there was ½ as much oil, it would still be too much
• Everyone talks SO loud – whether on the phone or to each other
  (it really sounds like people are mad all the time)
• It would be nice to have a cell phone connection that lasts more than 10minutes in a car
• Did we mention the rough toilet paper? As Nabeel said, "never underestimate the value of your a… "
• Spitting…and other bodily fluids and sounds: whenever. wherever. ICK!

Things that were pet peeves, but are now rather charming…

• Without their little crotchless pants, little kids peeing on the street wouldn’t be as cute
• The sheer size of Shanghai means there is much to explore. If you wake up early enough, you can even explore with only 10M of your closest friends. (Population estimates vary from 18-30M depending on who you ask, and what assumptions they have made about unofficial population numbers.)
• CCTV Channel 9 is affectionally called "propoganda TV"
• There is no shame in hanging laundry outside to dry for your neighbors to see, especially if it’s colorful undergarments

Pix: Around Shanghai

Karl's pictures from around Shanghai:

http://www.liebat.com/gallery2/v/Karl/China/Shanghai_Summer_08

Vietnam: Pix Posted

Karl finished posting his Vietnam pictures: http://www.liebat.com/gallery2/v/Karl/Vietnam/. We included the “whole-BBQ dog” pictures, so dog lovers skim pictures carefully.

One Year of Marital Bliss …and Change

June 16 marked our first wedding anniversary. What a year it has been! In the past 14 months, we sold Karl’s house in San Diego, bought a house in Palo Alto, moved Lila from Sunnyvale, got married with the most amazing wedding (ok, we’re biased :)), had job changes for both of us, and moved to China. It has been a wonderful and amazing journey for us.
We decided to take a weekend away to celebrate. About 2 hours outside of Shanghai is a town famous for its tea, lake, and beauty. Even Marco Polo is said to have commented on Hangzhou’s beauty. You’d never guess this town of 6M people would be so pristine and relaxing!
Although it was a rainy weekend, there was some occasional sunshine. We started with the Tea Museum, which was fascinating. As all good museums, it ended in the store – but not before a bit of tea tasting. During our honeymoon stop in southern China, we really enjoyed tea tasing –and were thrilled to try again. We settled our belly full of tea with a local meal out of someone’s house before continuing on to the Silk museum. The afternoon ended with Karl’s driver Peter dropping us off at the hotel for the night. After some relaxation, we ventured out for dinner. We were so excited to say enough basic things in Chinese that the wait staff understood us! The famous dishes were river shrimp in tea, beggars chicken (even Lila liked it), and a pork dish. Dinner was followed by a long walk around the city and a few mosquito bites, before returning to the hotel for a fabulous 2 hour massage.
Early Sunday morning, we went biking for ~3 hours around the lake and into the tea field countryside. The lake is gorgeous with bridges, pedestrian walkways, lily pads & lotus ponds, little islands, tai chi & dancers. It was so much fun! Our hotel package included a 30min massage – which was just long enough to be a refreshing end to bike ride. After brunch, driver Shen picked us up. On our way out of Hangzhou, we stopped in the old town with a visit to the Chinese Medicine Museum (absolutely fascinating with the history of medicinal cures based on plants and weird animal parts!). Hangzhou was great - we will definitely be back.
While we were away, our drivers and Ayi (maid -3x/week) kept our Shanghai life on track - dropping off dry cleaning, picking up our artwork that was being framed, buying groceries, etc. This is especially helpful given 2 careers + Lila’s 2 hour commute each day + Karl’s customer meetings. We find we have more time together living here. With all the changes, we’ve had to depend on each other more. We are exploring, learning, and growing together. It’s been an adventurous first year of marriage – and a very special one at that! May it be followed by many, many more. J

Week of Action: from Texas to Taiwan, Grilling in China to being Generally Lazy

Karl in Texas: Beef, Jeans, and Espresso. That is what stands out in my mind from a 6 day trip back to Texas. I was in Texas for a staff meeting and had a chance to even enjoy some good ol’ American baseball. Driving? Well, I didn’t hit anything. After a month of not driving, it actually came back pretty quick thanks to basic American driving rules (China’s driving rules are more spontaneous). I was a bit surprised that gas prices are so high – even in Texas. In China, gas is a set price at $2.60/gallon , which means it’s costing the chinese gov’t billions of dollars. Per a blog we read, that policy won’t change until after the Olympics is over. While in the US also had a chance to do some shopping. There were a few key purchases. First, benedryl for the never-ending rash as it’s not approved for sale in China. Also used some of the final wedding gift cards to purchase an espresso maker. While we love the coffee at Starbucks here (they warm the milk!), at $3.20 for plain coffee (latte is ~$5) it was getting to be an expensive habit. And for Lila, they don’t open until 7am – well after she’s departed to work for her hour commute. The highlight – other than catching up with the team - good Texas food – BBQ, steak, Mexican!

Lila in Shanghai/Taipei: While Karl was in the US, I had my first weekend to myself in Shanghai. I have to admit it was a bit depressing not to have anyone to call or go out with. My one friend had in-laws in town. At the same time, I decided to enjoy some quiet time. As Nabeel (brother) said, “it was the ‘old Lila’ weekend break.” I spent a lot of time at the gym, working at coffee shops, running errands, cooking, and sitting outside. It was very mellow, and exactly what I needed. I also spent 4 days in Taiwan for the Computex event, arriving the morning after their earthquake. That’s 2 of 3 times I’ve been to Taiwan in the past month when there’s been earthquakes. Computex went well for us – a lot of customer meetings and a big launch. It was great to see some US friends as well.

Together in SH: Karl returned on Saturday afternoon, just in time for a major rainstorm. We had a home-cooked Vietnamese dinner with some of Lila’s colleagues. It was fabulous food and great company. They live on the Pudong (east) side of the river with nice views. We even got to see a little fireworks show from their pad. Sunday was Dragon Boat Festival holiday. A lot of places were closed, but we managed to get a few errands in. We took 3 of the Vietnam paintings and 1 Chinese embroidery (purchased at antique market) to be framed. We had a wonderful brunch at T8 restaurant, and for dinner we barbecued! Yes, we shipped over our grill, managed to get it switched to Chinese propane (regulators & connectors different), and voila! BBQ! It was awesome. Monday was a work holiday, and we pretty much stayed put. Karl didn’t leave the house and Lila only left to pick up some ginger, milk, & bananas at the street market behind our house (for a whopping $3 total). We got a lot done around the house – some of the final unpacking/organizing. Karl worked on photos, and Lila did some work. The cleaning lady came too. We’ve realized that we get so much time back in our lives together with having drivers and Ayi (helper) running errands for us.

Vietnam - the end of our first vacation

Our vacation has ended and tomorrow we return to work. We're both returning very refreshed and with everything in perspective. It feels great & was such a wonderful trip. After Halong Bay, we wandered around the city and bought some art. Our legs are so tired from all the walking! Had another nice dinner too.
Most of today was spent in airports. We left at 11am, transit in Hong Kong, and then arrived in Shanghai. Our Hong Kong connection was so tight that our luggage didn't make it! Fortunately there was nothing urgent we needed from the suitcases. And we actually had enough foresight to give Driver Shen a small suitcase before we left. He showed up at the airport with the suitcase for Karl, who continued onto Beijing for meetings.

Vietnam – Spectacular Halong Bay

After reading so much about Halong Bay, we decided to do a 2-day/1night side trip. We did some investigation before arriving in Vietnam, but had not made reservations. Our desired tour didn’t include transfer from Hanoi – another $115 adder! We instead decided to go with the tour company recommended by the hotel. We left at 8:15 for a 3.5hr journey to Halong Bay. The boat, Bahya, is made of wood with Chinese Junk style influence. It’s very charming. The capacity is 40 people, but there are only 3 other groups on board (3 Austrian women, 9 Indonesians wrapping up 2 week family trip, and 2 other people who we barely saw). The bay itself is 600 square miles and ~3000 islands, located in the Gulf of Tonkin. It’s said the bay’s topography developed 250,000 years ago when the limestone was under the ocean.

This has been the highlight of Vietnam – hands down. The scenery is absolutely stunning and has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Picture 2000 islands made of limestone jetting out of the Bay. Old style junks and streamer boats wandering around, among the fisherman who are seeking squid and fish.

We watched the sunrise and sunset, learned how to squid fish, did Taichi exercises after sunrise, learned to make fried spring rolls, and dined outdoors. There were also a few side trips. We went into the ‘Surprise’ grotto and visited a fishing village where the houses are on water – no usable land nearby. The floating two room school house was very adorable, as were the kids on summer holiday who rowed up to see us. We quickly learned that life as a Vietnamese fisherman is not bad – the floating water village included multiple big screen TVs w/ satellite service. Fresh water and land foods are brought in daily by one of transport ships. There are no taxes and the government pays/subsidizes the fisherman. Not a bad life in this beautiful bay.

Every worry and rush seems to melt away while we’re out here. We definitely need to get to water more frequently! :) It’s been a wonderful – but way too short - stay on the boat. Life is good…!

Vietnam – Nice day in the countryside + the grossest sight ever!

This may be surprising with a Shanghai address, but Karl really is not a city boy. While Lila loves city life, she’s also a country person as well. So after a day of sight-seeing and traffic in Hanoi, we hired a private tour guide and driver for the day trip to Ninh Binh & Hoa Lu. (Figured we could also do without the war memorials & museums.)

The first stop and highlight of the trip was a river cruise. The 2 hour journey was in a row boat, very low to the water. We were surrounded by rice paddies, limestone karsts (towering mountains), and a few other boats. Given the lack of westerners, we were a tourist site by ourselves for the school kids who were also on the river. We’ve had our picture taken with complete strangers, heard “Hello” countless times since moving to Asia. Although sometimes we feel like characters at Disneyland, it has also been charming. There’s not that much to say about the ride, aside from the fact it was beautiful, relaxing, and so hot that we were sweating endlessly! Lila even got some exercise in. She felt sorry for the old lady trying to row us, so she chipped into help. Clearly her professional strength is in the cubicle workplace and not on the river.

After a quick lunch break, we took country roads to the former capital of Vietnam, where we visited two temples that were 17th century recreations of the originals. Having lived in China, we have picked up 2 habits:
1) Our table manners have deteriorated relative to Western standards. We make a mess when we eat!
2) Chinese public toilets prepare you for anything. We can now go to any public bathroom and not be grossed out.

The drive back was so relaxing – passing rice fields with people and water buffalo. There were occasional towns with cathedrals jetting above the “skyline” – a reminder of past French missionaries who settled here in the early 1800s. It’s very picturesque and calming. The homes are quite narrow and tall. Taxes are based on the width of your land, and people save money for a decorative front facing. The facades are very colorful and ornate with unpainted concrete sides (assuming someone will build next door). Karl noted that this is reminiscent of a Hollywood set! The colorful facades are even found in the countryside, where you often see large rectangular ponds for raising duck and fish.

** Warning – following text may be too graphic for dog lovers **
Speaking of pets and food… we also passed a market where dog meat is sold. Apparently dog can be bbq or grilled. It’s often eaten in the 2nd half of month to rid bad luck. Our guide explained that the good news is that this delicacy is not the same as your pet. There are dog farms who specialize in raising tasty Fido. Despite all her travel, Lila has never seen this before. We did take a picture during a drive by. Upon close observation, the head of the dog is visible. Due to graphic nature, we’ve opted to keep it out.
** end gross story **

By the time we got back to the hotel, we were exhausted. We eventually made it to dinner, then had a long walk back to the hotel – successfully dodging mopeds. Although we’ve been gone a weekend, we definitely feel more relaxed and content. We’re both surprised by how quickly we were able to shut down from work!

Finally, a few key learnings about private tours:
* Always start 1 hour than they plan to start. It helps beat crowds and results in better lighting for photography. We only did 30min ahead – was good but not enough time.
* Make sure you don’t hit great photo sites in the middle of the day – if you do, then ask to adjust schedule (e.g. reverse order, starting earlier, etc.).
* Always do 1 thing off the standard tour schedule. We took country roads between sights versus standard roads. The result was a very bumpy – but very beautiful - drive.
* Ask to go to local restaurants and select off the menu versus the poor adaptation of local food tailored for western palates

Vietnam Vacation: People on the Move, Where Baby Puppets Come From, and other adventures

Exactly 2 months after we arrived in Shanghai, we set off on our first vacation. Destination: Vietnam. It was a last minute trip resulting from both need for a break and opportunity (US out for Memorial Day)! Vietnam was chosen based on a past trip Lila made and that several of our friends love it here.

We arrived Friday afternoon in Hanoi -- population of 4.5M people and at least 3M mopeds! After 2 days here, the best description we have is that Hanoi is a city on the move. There is constant motion, and feels far more active than Shanghai.

Upon arrival, Lila “forced child culture” on Karl by insisting they go to the famous water puppet show. It’s a charming tourist trap and well worth the $3.50 for the hour performance. With live traditional music, very artistic puppeteers controlled the puppets with bamboo cane from under the water & behind the stage. Sound confusing?! It was! The highlight was the phoenix bird puppets who joined together momentarily before we realized they were actually reproducing. Out popped an egg puppet followed by a baby puppet. Not sure this qualified as G rated. We left the theatre to seek out dinner but were quickly confused by the poor maps. Fortunately a drunk bicycle taxi driver “helped” us. He led us on a 30 minute adventure in the front seat of the bicycle rickshaw. It was an exciting way to get indoctrinated into Hanoi’s traffic chaos (imagine bees – on bikes, in cars, in rickshaws, on mopeds- swarming a beehive). Dinner was at the very lovely Wild Lotus where we had an 8-dish set menu and bottle of wine for a mere $50 total in a very beautiful setting.

Saturday we spent 8 hours walking around Hanoi’s Old Quarter. Some highlights:
* The architecture is gorgeous. A lot of brightly colored, narrow and tall, French style building fronts. For ~80 years, Vietnam was a French colony and still has strong French influences.
* There really aren’t that many foreigners, and very few Americans. We’ve seen/heard a lot of French, Canadians, Australians, and Japanese. Interesting to note that the US dollar is accepted everywhere, in addition to local currency. We wonder how the foreign visitors are doing converting US dollars to their local currency in the price negotiations.
* There were 24 official stops according to the Frommers guide, but we mostly enjoyed the bargain basement shopping. Vietnam’s art, lacquer, and clothing options were all outstanding!
* A lot of farmer merchants actually wear the pointed cylindrical, woven hats and carry a pole on their shoulder balancing 2 extremely heavy baskets.
* Crossing the street is like a game of Frogger (lila translation of Karl’s video game reference: makes Purdue jaywalking seem like child’s play). There are no lights, lots of 2 & 4 wheeled vehicles, and no breaks. Karl was initially timid, while Lila embraced the challenge. It all changed when lila declared, “Follow-me! Follow-me!” Then BAM! A moped lightly ran into her. No injuries, just ego. Karl didn’t need Lila any longer to cross the street.
* There are “Reproduction Art Shops” everywhere – which do a great reproduction of oil paintings by famous artists. Example: a real painting by a high end Vietnamese artist is US $2,000 but a knock-off version is $20. They seem to have mastered the western artists much better than up& coming Vietnamese. Van Gogh for 20$ anyone?
* Streets are named after their original goods sold. Bamboo Street, for example, sells bamboo used for construction, decoration, and smoking pipes. Our route took us through door knob/lock street, shoe street, etc.
* There were people everywhere. No one seemed to be inside, except at internet cafes. It appears the favorite pastime is sitting at an outdoor restaurant eating with your friends.
* Local food is cheap! Lunch consisted of 2 noodle bowls with delicious toppings and 2 beers for a whopping $5.
* The President of Rwanda happens to be in Vietnam and staying at the same hotel. Lila feels like she's back on a geo trip with Craig - pointing out security and staffers. She met President Kagame in Rwanda last year, but didn't have guts to seek him out in Vietnam!
* We finished the day with dinner at the Green Tangerine, in honor of Melissa’s birthday. It’s a great French restaurant where Karl enjoyed green tea encrusted duck breast with lychee and Lila had a fabulous 3 rice seafood paella.

China Earthquake

The big news last week was the earthquake. Lila was in Taiwan when Karl sent the following from Beijing (1000 miles from the epicenter): “Just my luck – I just arrived in Beijing for a meeting when we have an earthquake here. Now I'm starting to feel like home. I have no clue on the size --- but my guess is 5.3 or so. I just ignored it… but all the locals evacuated the buildings … I just looked outside and there are millions of people out there. I'm not sure what is safer – hiding in the building or waiting for one of them to collapse on top of you. I'm fine however the local Intel sales team thinks it might have been 10 years since they felt a earthquake here."
Karl then sent the follow-up mail: “Oh my gosh… I just pulled the report from the earthquake site. It is listed as a 7.8 only 6 miles below the surface (but over 1000 miles away). No wonder we felt it all the way over here!"
It turns out that the Shanghai site also felt it and sent everyone home. They were told to expect light aftershocks in the evening so people stayed home. Fortunately all is fine with everyone we know. The government just announced that May 19 - 21 will be the China Mourn Days to grieve the earthquake victims. During the 3 days, the national flag is at half-mast across the country and all the entertainment is to be stopped. We didn't realize what that meant until we got home and flipped on the TV. Several channels were blacked out with statements:
“Dear subscribers, According to an announcement of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, May 19 to May 21, 2008 are national mourning days. In order to express our heartfelt condolences for the victims of the disastrous earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan Province, we will suspend the relay of overseas channels with limited landing rights that contain entertainment programmes during the above period. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.”
Sports, the Discovery Channel, and Star Movies are still going. Meanwhile, the Chinese stations are filled with the sad images and reporting from out west. Between record snowfall and earth shaking, it appears Mother Earth is sending a message to China.

Airports Galore

Somehow putting the below with the earthquake update didn't seem right. So on to the more mundane things in the Liebat household…

KARL: I spent 3 days in Beijing this week. The Chinese airport is so funny: for everything that is almost liquid they take it out of bags and smell it. Then they randomly decide what you can keep and what must be thrown away. This time they decided that my hair stuff had to go. After 4 trips, this happened to be the time someone decided hair products could not go through. Unfortunately, airport negations have not been covered in my Chinese lessons. However, I practiced my Chinese with Driver Peter, and he understood about 95% of all the words I said. I can now also count to 900,000!
This week I also found out that they don't sell Benedryl in china. I went to the pharmacy and they finally gave me two drugs in the same family. The problem is that they don’t work! They had to get doctors ok for both but said I could have gone to a Chinese clinic and gotten both without doctors approval. How strange. This rash over my body has me missing the overpriced American health system.
We shipped our grill from the US since it was brand new. Too bad the Porsche couldn’t be shipped too. Anyway, the total cost for installation and 2 tanks is about $115US. Each tank refill will be US$13 – not a bad recurring revenue. The company also has air filters. We have one now – that’s about the size of Lila. The “gas tank, air filter” guy said we need another one given the size of our apartment. Although they cost thousands of dollars, it’s a small price to pay for clean air.

LILA: I spent 2 days in Taiwan this week, before heading to the US for my boss’ staff meeting. Unfortunately I ended up with massive stomach pains that killed ½ day of work and my shopping night.. I’m convinced it was the clean air. The weather was gorgeous – even hit 90s in Portland. The greens were beautifully green and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! After a business dinner the next night I did squeeze in the Costco-Target run to pick up stuff. It was kind of wild driving, knowing my way around, and there’s nothing like terrible TV to make you appreciate American commercials. I did end the week very tired of airports after having gone through 11 airports (only 5 unique) this week. The worst part was the security and check-in lines at SFO were horrendous and my seat mates (had a middle bulkhead) kept invading my personal space. Very excited to be home in China!

You must be allergic to China

Karl’s rash saga continues. He made it to the doctor again, who finally determined, “you must be allergic to China!” He’s on another dose of benadryl and non-scratch cream. We also switched to a new hypo-allergenic laundry detergent vs. the “Chinese Tide” (or so we think it’s Tide because of the packaging tho we can’t read a darn thing!).

We ventured out this morning around 10am for a Frommers walking tour of the French Concession. The book said 4-6 hours but we couldn’t believe there would be that much to see. Guess what? We were out until about 5pm walking around! Last weekend, we did the Frommers walk from the JingAn temple to the waterfront in 3 hours. The book points out where to stop and gives you the history and background of the main points. For example, today’s walk took us by the hotel where Zhou Enlai and Nixon met in ’72 when China opened to the West. We went to Sun Yat Sen’s (China republic) former residence. We went into the lobby of the Hotel Okura and around the corner to see the beautifully restored art deco work.

Last week Lila’s staff was in town for 3 days of meeting. Three of them arrived with goodies we had requested – magazines, healthy snack food, wine, and cereal! It was good to have everyone from the US, Brazil, and China all in 1 spot for 3 days. Some folks came early & left late, so we also enjoyed the social time with everyone. Lila also traveled to Taiwan on Monday. It should be ~3hr flight, but you can’t fly directly between Taiwan and China due to political reasons. That means transit is required in Hong Kong, turning the short journey into a 6 hour trip. Hard to do in 1 day, but can be managed w/overnight. The rumor is some upcoming election may resolve this in time for direct flights to start in July.

Our sea shipment finally arrived. We hung up some pictures and are kicking ourselves for not bringing more. Some of our clothes smell like “yucky sea” so we’ve put everything through our tiny washing machine. We did laundry all weekend, but saved the ironing/folding for Ayi (helper/maid). We’re also sending relevant stuff to the dry cleaners, which is fortunately a tiny fraction of the US cost.

In honor of mother’s day tomorrow, we cracked open a can of Cincinnati’s famous skyline chili that Karl’s mom Mary gave us before we left and sitting out on the balcony with a glass of Zinfandel in honor of Lila’s mom. The weather is fabulous, though it’s rained the past few days. The view is quite nice as pollution and heat haven’t hit yet. There’s a symphony building near us so sometimes – like now – we can hear people practicing. It’s a nice distraction from the construction that’s happening about 3 more blocks down. It’s 7:40pm on Saturday night and they’re working!

Sunday afternoon we went up to the 12th floor club room of our apartment complex. We didn’t even know this place existed! The owners keep it for Thursday Mahjong parties with their friends and as their own benefit. They made the mistake of inviting the tenants up for “tea time.” The building is only 1/3 full or so, and the tenants are really vocal about everything that’s wrong. For example, the TV signal dates back to America 1950s (but in color) and the utility bills are outrageous (because we are charged commercial vs. residential rates, and charged for common areas such as lobby). The group now wants to take the Chinese landlords to a disputes court to hopefully resolve the billing differences. If that doesn’t work, most of the tenants will move out when their lease is complete (one already left and just walked away from his security deposit). As an FYI: the difference in utility bills between consumer & commercial rates is about $150-300 / month (depending on personal usage).

More Pix from Karl

More pictures posted from weekend adventures from Nanxu (blog update to follow soon): http://www.liebat.com/gallery2/v/Karl/China/Nanxu/

We're way overdue on Shanghai pix. Lila has a few to post, but Karl added a few here: http://www.liebat.com/gallery2/v/Karl/China/Shanghai_08

Socializing! Kidney Massages, Duck Tongues, and Another Ancient Town

It’s been a while since the last update. We’re getting into the groove of living in Shanghai, especially as Lila hasn’t been traveling.

Last weekend we were lucky to finally have some social opportunities. Larry and Jean were visiting from the US, and we were able to meet up Friday and Sunday night for dinner. We had a great time with them, and they even helped us reconnect to Deanna (a former colleague) who now lives within walking distance from us. We also had Karl’s driver (Peter) show them around on the weekend – our first trial run. By the time the rest of you get here, this should be a well-oiled machine! We also met up with work colleagues on two other occasions – Saturday night and Sunday brunch. We’re slowly getting answers and tips to all of our expat orientation questions. In addition, it is so nice to start having a social life.

Among the weekend activities, Karl got his first kidney massage designed to remove toxins from your body. Karl decided that it was a little “too personal” for his western comfort zone. On the bright side, he felt less sluggish for the following days.

We spent Saturday exploring Suzhou, about 1.5 hour away. The old town, dating back to 464BC (!!) and famous for its gardens, is surrounded by a moat and canals with a modern city around the corner. We spent time at the “Humble Administrator’s Garden” (which is also translatable as ‘garden of the stupid officials’). Dating back to 1513, it would have been absolutely beautiful if there had been a few less hundreds of thousands of people. The nearby pagoda, topping 122 feet, was built in 1119 and now leans 10 degrees or so. The area was famous for its silk back in Tang Dynasty (600-900AD). The silk factory included some of the old looming machines that were unbelievably complex but still functional. For 15minutes, we watched 2 women operate the machine and still could NOT figure out what/how they were doing because of the complexity. We did gain another important key learning from the day: when a map looks like it is only 3 blocks, it’s really an hour walking away. Everything here is so spread out. We’re definitely getting a good share of walking exercise.

Karl had another business trip, this time to Xiamen on the southern coast of China across from Taiwan. The city has a population of 3M, and is mainly considered a tourist city. Karl’s customer manufactures and builds PCs here for North Asia. During his travel, Karl took Shanghai and Xiamen airlines. Because the government sets the airline prices, the smaller airlines differentiate themselves through service levels. Imagine this: they served beverages 3x, a meal and 2 hot towels during a 1.5 hour flight. The downside: no frequent flier miles with a US airline partner.

The food in China has been wonderful. Yesterday we found out there are > 40k restaurants in Shanghai! We haven’t gotten tired of Chinese food – there’s so much variety. In fact, Karl’s staff is trying to teach him how to identify the varieties of Chinese cuisine. This week was particularly interesting as they forced him to expand his culinary horizons while in Xiamen. He ate duck tongue, chicken feet, and multiple types of mushy unidentifiable sea stuff. Shanghai is known for its dumplings and sweet and sour flavors. There is a lot of oil and carbs in the food, which makes dieting difficult. We’re getting to the gym regularly to keep the weight in-check.

Other mundane daily life type things:
We both have our official Chinese work permits. Our sea shipment from the US should clear customs next week. We’re anxious to personalize our apartment! We are still learning to communicate with our ayi (maid). She now cooks dinners for us, does our laundry (though our whites & blacks are now both grey), irons (though everything still looks wrinkled), and cleans (but doesn’t pick up a vase to see the dust under it). This is actually very common here as standards of cleaning are different. We are still in training mode and hope the new book we bought (Ayi Survival Guide) will help. The drivers have been great. We are learning to have them run errands, grocery shopping and dry cleaning. The most difficult thing, however, is the timing. If you say pick up at 7am, you feel obligated to be there (time to finally invest in a ‘fake’ watch).

We had an English bookstore craving. As we were wandering around we found the very limited magazine section with a government issued catalog on the process for ordering foreign magazines and newspapers. A 1-year subscription to the New York Times costs $2500. Most every other magazine was over $400 / year. I guess we won’t be indulging in any US magazine subscriptions! In plain print, the catalog also states, “We hope our customer don't show the newspapers and periodicals on the public places.” ?!

We also discovered Taikang Lu. Tucked off the main road, it’s a hidden gem of small boutiques, art galleries, and restaurants housed in the old shikumen style buildings. The shikumen are British style terraced housing with elements of Chinese courtyard style house, literally translates as “stone gates” after their fancy archways. At times, up to 80% of population lived in these style houses. We read they cram 120 of these houses per acre (a developers dream!). The area was restored approximately 8 years ago, but hadn’t taken off as a successful shopping area until 2 years ago. Now every Japanese photo tourist has this top of their destination.

Pictures from Xitang, the water village

We finally posted some pictures from last weekend at the water village described in the last post.


Super Old Smoking Woman in Xitang: http://www.liebat.com/gallery2/v/Karl/People/

Xitang, the water village: http://www.liebat.com/gallery2/v/Karl/China/Xitang/

Boats, Planes, Really Old Villages and $10 Ice Cream

KARL: Last weekend, I joined 200 people for an open sailing day on Lake Dianshan. The majority were first timers dressed in their Sunday best – suits and dress shoes. Showing up in my shorts and life jacket, I was immediately accepted as the expert of the crowd. Unfortunately only 5 boats were volunteered for sailing, which meant most of the day was spent queued up (did I just really say “queued up”?! What's happening to my English?). I decided to join the Yacht Club which includes ~250 sailors from around the globe. With the multi-national membership, I was told I have to learn “blue/red/yellow line” and a dozen other words in 10 different languages to be effective sailing in Shanghai. I’m still trying to learn Chinese! After 5 lessons, I can finally pronounce all the Chinese sounds, 5tones (4 + non-tone), and can remember a dozen words! Only 100 more lessons to go before I can communicate at a taxi driver level.
I also had my first solo adventure in intra-China travel between Shanghai and Beijing. The two-hour flights are like mega-buses, departing every ½ hour on 747s/777s that are at 95% full with 300+ passengers. Travel proved to be interesting because the government has my passport to process the work visa. I traveled with a single sheet of paper full of Chinese and my grinning passport-sized photo. Fortunately, my passport and new Chinese ID returned just a few days later.

LILA: While Karl was enjoying Chinese transportation, I should have been excited about going to Italy and Portugal. However, I spent 14 hours flying from Shanghai to Frankfurt in the middle seat next to the bathrooms, then connected to Rome and visited Portugal before finally returning home. The 5-day Europe trip was quite short when you consider 2 days were spent on yucky flights. By the end, I wish I’d invested in a few rolls of that $2 Charmin to cushion the ride. The good news? I have now visited 68 countries in my life -- Italy was #67 and Portugal#68. I’m wondering what took me so long to get to both countries. However, after spending days inside the gold-wall, blue-carpeted Marriott conference rooms, I definitely earned a vacation trip back!

TOGETHER: Intel expat buddies came to the rescue the past week – helping us adjust and answering our 3 pages of questions. Jay arranged a special tour including 7 stops at home stores, sporting goods, and book stores. We were thrilled to find our way around. A week later, Kapil and his wife had us over for a home-cooked (!!!) meal, complemented with Wii advice from his son.

After developing a Chinese flesh-eating skin rash (clearly self-diagnosed), we got Karl to the doctor. Fortunately the expat-friendly WorldLink medical clinic proved that the US healthcare system really does have a ton of room for improvement! Within 2 hours of a phone call, Karl had an after-hours appointment with a dermatologist – no waiting beforehand & he even walked out with medication in hand.

Karl arranged for our first suburb exploration into Xitang, about 1.5 hours from Shanghai. The town is pending UNESCO World Heritage status, and is composed of traditional houses from ~1000 years ago along a canal. It’s more famous, however, for the cameo in Mission Impossible III. We had so much fun exploring the town. Of course, we stopped by the DVD store on the way back to pick up the movie. Pictures to follow soon – beautiful and very picturesque.

We still have fun exploring the city, wandering around. We’ve discovered our ayi (helper) cooks. She’s now preparing dinner for us 3x/week. That’s very helpful with Lila’s 2 hour/day commute and Karl’s late office hours. We also finally gave into our ice cream craving, walked down the street, and actually paid $10 for a pint of ice-cream. Yes, it was worth it.

My Mouth Muscles Hurt!

That line comes from Karl who spent about 9 hours studying Chinese this week. As he said, "I didn’t know sounds like this could come out of my mouth!"

Karl: While Lila was in the US on business, I ventured out to explore the city. The highlights include the art district (30+ galleries featuring a range of modern art), the antique market (where I purchased two "500+ year old vases"), fake market (where I’m sure I didn’t bargain hard enough), and the gym. Spent most of my work week trying to learn the background on the account. Weather wise it has been nice - mostly in the mid 60s with all the trees/flowers just starting to bloom. However one day it poured and my 15minute commute took 1.5 hours due to traffic (this city hasn’t figured how to drive in the rain, kind of like LA). I’m worried because the typhoon season is supposed to start in ~3 weeks and last 4-5 weeks (everyday heavy rain).

Lila: Spent 5 days of meetings in Vegas, starting as soon as I landed– including the channel Board of Advisors meeting, customer meetings, my boss’ staff, and the Solutions Summit. Whew. I didn’t even make it out of the Venetian to see daylight for those 5 days, except for a 1 hour scavenger hunt. Being stuck inside for so long gave me a new appreciation of Shanghai’s air quality. The flight from the Shanghai to SFO was FULL of Intel folks returning from IDF. It made it hard to sleep, lest you want photos on our intranet site with your mouth wide open.
The personal highlight of the week was meeting up with family: Paul, Karl’s bro, was an attendee in Vegas – and I spent < 12 hours (incl sleep) in the Bay Area with Nabeel (bro) & Asha (his wife). The major lowlight was traveling back to Shanghai with 6 suitcases totaling ~300 lbs. I picked up the stuff we’d left at Nabeel’s, got it to SFO and thought "OH NO!" Somehow I managed to transport it from the car rental return to check-in with only 1 cart crash & 1 emotional near-breakdown. It was worth the pain for now being stocked with medicines, food, and spices (can’t ship per company policy).

Together: The weekend was great fun. Our helper made us delicious dumplings Friday night after an evening adventure to the art district. All but 3 galleries were closed – but that was ok! We met 2 owners and 1 artist. All were extremely chatty and made for an unexpected and pleasant date night adventure. On Saturday we spent most of the day with Jay, another Intel employee. He took us on a tour to the fabric market, 3 home stores, the sporting goods store, English bookstore, and a flower market. He answered tons of questions we had as we adjust to our new life. We will definitely pay it forward for the next employee who moves here. Saturday night we tried a great Thai restaurant nestled in an old estate. We even made it to the gym 2x this weekend – must start working off some of this China-chubbiness gained by too much good food.

Next week: Karl goes sailing, then off to Beijing. Lila goes to Europe for 5 days.