Not jet lagged yet, just up late.
Flight was long, but basically uneventful. I was in the very last row, on the asile. The flight was apparently overbooked by 20+ people, so I counted myself lucky. We went past the north pole, and I took a picture out the window of the ice fields. The most exciting part of the trip was when my seat-mate decided to aaaaaaalmost be sick right near the landing. Which, of course made me not quite as sick as him, but certainly put a sour spin on the veggie entrees that United was kind enough to feed me. Yes indeed, on international flights, if you request the “special” meal, you get the “special” meal. Contrast with domestic flights, where you either get (a) nothing or (b) hamburger.
Meeting that was supposed to be Tuesday morning moved up to this evening. They took me straight from the airport to the new apple facilities, and we met with Mr. Bigshot. He’s apparently pretty important, based on the entourage he brought, and the fact that there were five apple suit-level-guys nodding when he spoke. I felt a bit like a scrub after my trip but I did my best. It was interesting, I’ve never been on that side of the language divide quite so thoroughly. I speak zero mandarin. They would have a fast paced technical conversation and occasionally my team-mate would pause to translate something and get my perspective / answer. Fun. Tomorrow, I try to teach. Based on the language wall I hit today, I have way too many slides for a half day. I plan to wing it.
Limo (okay, a towncar, but it’s a limo compared to a “taxi”) ride from the airport to the Apple facilities was fast and efficient. Driver was an anonymous chinese man in a dark suit and aviator glasses. I felt like a damn rock star for real right then.
Taxi ride to check into the hotel, driver clicking a pair of the “relaxation balls” or whatever they call them in his left hand as he drove, sounded the horn, and talked on the phone with his right. Nobody else wore a seat belt, and I felt sort of like a wuss for wearing mine.
Hotel bumped me up to the “horizon club” executive floor for reasons unknown. Insisted that the apple guy who came in from Singapore was on the same reservation, and got him up here too. This entails (a) free beer and breakfast in the “horizons lounge” (b) free internet (c) being checked into my room be a pair of eerily identical chinese women dressed in eerily identical uniforms.
Dinner with Jeishing, my corporate partner out here. It’s the first time we’ve met, and he’s quite cool. He took me to his favorite restaurant, a place where they prepare most of the food using tea leaves for spice. I felt awful that I couldn’t eat more, but sitting on the plane for so long, plus the body clock thing had left me with the appetite of a constipated hamster. He offered to show me the town, but by then I had been up for almost 24 hours (I think…does that sound right?) and I was just beat.
Back at the hotel, explored the fitness club. Amazing. Took my bathing suit down and took a swim, earning a reprimand (very gentle, but insistent) from the staff that I needed to be wearing a bathing cap to swim. Here I was being so careful to avoid stepping on cultural toes, and I fail to read the sign at the pool entrance. Duh.
The city is a city like many others. It’s being spruced up for the 2008 Olympics, and there are english signs on most of the streets. If anything, it’s a Cleveland on the way through a restoration. Lots of 60’s and 70’s era concrete construction, but also lots of new investment in steel and glass towers. Names like “Microsoft” and “Oracle” on the buildings.
Tired. Now I sleep.
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