Bye Bye Beijing

I'm leaving for Tokyo in bright and early in the morning... just a quick note before turning out the lights...

Beijing is such an interesting city full of dichotomy: - signs of a city here for tens of thousands of years, brand new construction every direction you look. Perfectly preserved history amoung incredible relics that are ignored-- people who will rip you off without a second thought, only to smile and invite you to meet them for lunch because you are their new best friend moments later. A city full of life...

I don't know if saying the past few days (or even the segment that was just the past 36 hours) were 'insane' or surreal or how you'd explain it-- maybe it's just hyperbole, maybe I'm just jet lagged.

But I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt and can say with complete certainty that I shall never forget my stay in Beijing.

Chinese Firedrill

Literally. I'm staying in the hotel today, and of course this is the day that they would test the fire alarm system during the afternoon.

However.... and this is brilliant... While the sirens are going off, they are blasting the speaker system with some sort of Chinese-teeny-bopper-pop-tart-type music that repeats every 30 seconds or so, in order to drown out the sirens.

Awesome.


Good thing I got a full three hours of sleep last night!

Tues March 31

More than I bargained for

Holy shit! That was totally effin nuts. Are you kidding me? Okay- enough with the explatives, though I likely dropped enough dancing f-bombs (You know... The kind im most likely to drop. As in 'f*ckity-f*ck-f*ck') the ") on the great wall to blow it up.

So: this was no sight-seeing event. This turned out to be a group of hard-core, everyweekend for 12 years, euro-hailing hikers that go to different parts of the Wall each Sunday and hike. Sorry, make that Hike.

When the bus stopped, we were in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere and everyone hopped out of the bus to start bundling up. As well they should have since it was well under freezing. Not to worry!! I wasn't cold long, oh, no. We started up tge steep incline -a mere 60 degree incline which proved later to be nothin- at a breakneck pace.

If you'll recall, the Great Wall lines the mountain TOPS. Oh eff.

In short (since the 'hike' sure as h*ll wasn't), we were NOT just going up to take some pics and come back down. As soon as my sorry@ss made it to the top and caught my breath (no longer in the middle of the pack biut now bringing up the rear with Pierre from Holland--just wait until you see sweet Pierre's picture. And to be sure, he was being kind to stay back with me, not the other way around) off the rest of the crew went. Fastforward to the part where I think I cannot possibly go any further than the 40 minutes of excrutiating torture already endured and innocently ask (inbetween heaving breaths) 'when do we turn around?' only to learn that we don't (!). Softly followed by, 'hmm. How high do you think we are?' oh, that would be a 500m ascent.

At this point we've been joined in the back by Klas, my Swedish colleague who brought me along on this fine journey, and who was now feeling quite guilty that this very well may be the death of me. A couple hours later, as it was snowing, he turned back and said with a smile (imagine sveedish aksent) 'I got you on dees mountain, I'll be sure to get you off dees mountain!'. I replied with a hearty 'Thanks, Klas!!'

We were fortunate enough that todays path had an option -after 4 straight hours- of making it down to a valley, and then a road, and a short 30 walk back to the bus. Which I happily opted, thank you very much! I figured, well my shoes are already busted so maybe I should call it quits.


So, yes, I have seen, hiked, and become intensely well acquainted with The Great Wall of China. And in a way, I can safely say, very few others have. Therefore, I believe I can adequately check this, of the 7 World Wonders, off my list.


**please excuse the excess cursing in today's post. :)

**author's note: I recognize that there were way too many commas and side notes in this post. What can I say? Today I apparently am long-winded, need a few more pauses and am craving alternate routes.

*final note: the area we went to was near a village called hochunnen and is at the furthest east point from Beijing, almost to Taipei.

March 29, 4:30 pm, Beijing

Chinese countryside

Sitting on a nice but very full bus for a two hour drive to The Great Wall. Thankfully (1) I have an mp3 player (2) I got a great seat. Quite narrow but comfy and more -than-average foot room Plus a big window to stave off motion sickness from yhe crazy driving.. (3) I have my trusty myPhone to play with :)

Lots of rice fields and neat rows of tall thin trees. It's 32 and overcast today; unlike yesterday's abnormal blue clear skies and sunshine that filled the parks with Beijing's people en masse: dancing, singing, tai chi'ing.

In a small town now. Wonder the name of it... Or where I am on a map. I'll have to wait to publish this... Likely until tonight when back in Beijing. Klas taught me a neat trick with my phone so I can get *some* Internet access- occasionally. Unpredictable or not, it's nice to have.

Back to staring at roadsides...

March 29, 9:30am, Beijing time

Cool on the Home Front

House update: the A/C guys have been coming around for the past couple weeks to install the new air conditioner upstairs. Nothing too exciting, just new air ducts, new air handler and a new compressor outside, new return vent for the whole house(for both systems).... but a really sweet, kinda timid, kiddo named Brooks is a really hard worker and makes us smile.

Don't laugh -- but they stepped through the ceiling. Yep, this makes THREE holes stepped through our ceiling by the a/c guys (there are 3 different teams, they've all taken a turn). Yep. This one was in the closet of the guest room. Luckily, Mr. Price happened to be in there and heard it happen. He went upstairs to talk to them about it and they acted like they didn't do it and were shocked he would accuse them of such a thing. But once the head guy saw how big of a mess was made, he apologied and promised to fix it.

The contents of the closet remain sprawled across the room.

Next up: the dreaded INSPECTIONS. ick.

Pulling a 'Charlotte'

Remember that scene in the Sex & the City movie where Charlotte is in Mexico in the shower, so relaxed and comfortable that she forgets where she is, opens her mouth and it fills with water?

Yeah, that was me last night. So glad to be in a hot shower and done with my marathon travel over to China... i'd been so careful, already brushed my teeth with bottled water.. and... whoops. But not to worry! Good news: i promptly spit it out, reached for my trusty listerine and rinsed away...

MORE good news: that was last night and there's been no 'running to the bathroom' scene that followed Charlotte's mishap.

=)


Tomorrow: Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City and The Temple of Heaven. Woohoo!!

Pimp tight in Peking

I admit I was a bit skittish - but you would be, too - had your travel agent hurled a "i've never heard of THIS airline..." as your ticket is booked to fly over the big blue ocean. Hmmm... nothing like a little reassurance.

Turns out, the flight from Seattle to Beijing on Hainan Airlines (China-based International with a new flight to Seattle) was fantastic! Not only were there swarms of sweet attendants catering to my every need (seriously, when I was reclining in my massive chair: someone came over and held her finger on the button so I didn't have to. WHUT?) ... the meals were incredible. Lobster, delicious ravioli with generous fresh cilantro (!) and on from there. Here's the real thing that won my heart: clean bathrooms. The whole way there.

Guess I'm just going to have to start flying in/to China more often now so that I can partake.

Needless to say, this trip is off to a good start. In spite of the fact that I didn't get to sleep until after 4 hours of laying there...mind racing... with the lights out, fluffy satin blanket, a couple pillows, eye pillow and noise cancelling earphones...

So other than not really sleeping (which isn't a huge shocker since I always have trouble sleeping on planes) my trip and arrival as been extremely smooth. Cake walk. I dig it.

Need to get to sleep soon so that I can catch up for the 27 hours of travel - woke up at 3am (Austin time) then arrived Beijing the following day at 5am (Austin time).

Everyone is REALLY helpful, but I get the feeling they may be skeptical of me.

One more comment - don't get me started about how much I LOVE all the gorgeous geometrical print designs on everything. Wait, to do it right, this is gonna need a post all it's own. Tomorrow! Good night (or good morning for my party people back home!)

Great Expectations

The weekend I'll be at The Great Wall of China. Pretty cool.

Have a whole unpublished blog. Post from last week, but as herring ready for 3 countries in 3 weeks (in another hemisphere) will do to you... I've kinda been chasing my tail to get ready to go.

So here's the scoop:

Beijing, china
Then next wednesday
Tokyo Japan
The the following Monday
Singapore

Day before Easter at 6:40pm:
Home.

More to come...

Xxoo

Last Hurrah

Big work trip coming up: 3+ weeks in Asia! Trouble is, I found out about the trip last week and my Chinese work visa hasn't come through just yet. Actually, that turns out to be a good guy because it has helped me postpone my trip by a few days (they wanted me to leave tomorrow, the 16th). Once my paper work is complete, we'll finalize my itinerary and i'll be off to the other side of the globe as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, had a lovely weekend states-side and headed to H-town. Quick summary of the whirlwind 24 hour celebrations:

• Cassie's 30th Birthday and Surprise(!) Engagement Party ...got to know that I'm HUGE a fan of the surprise engagement party, having attended my first SEP (if you will...) at my own engagement announcement =) Saw tons of old friends- fantastic evening
• Got to stay with the lovely Sara T & Boyd - whose house would classify as 4 stars if you could rate it... in fact, I wouldn't have minded to extend our stay by several days... but alas, a few more fresh baked cookies, another cup of coffee, an hour of 'bejeweled' (a method of time-loss and meditation fueled by play station) and we were on our way, leaving their beautiful home behind.
• Spent the afternoon with EmCon and precious little Georgia and her (not-so-little) baby brother Deacon (said by G as "Deaccoli"...she learned his name the same day as the word 'broccoli' ...let me just say: so damn cute.) Deacon *might* be the happiest baby ever. Remind me to tell the "rice and beans" story at some point. I might wet my pants laughing trying to type it up right now...

Wahoo! Home by dinner. Ran a bunch of errands today and going to start packing for my multi-latitude, multi-country work trip (where I insist to do some sight-seeing). Read the multi-country part as: 'several inter-asia flights' meaning: better not pack too much or you'll regret it because (1)not sure of my trust level of these airlines track record on lost checked luggage (2)i'll be lugging my bags all over the bloody continent. Packing challenge? Um, yes. Slightly. More where that comes from soon...

Anyway - how fortunate to get to see all those fun faces before heading to another continent for several weeks.

Late

i was on time to work yesterday, but my first meeting ran over... i had back to back meetings so was late to each consecutive meeting as the day wore on.. at the end of the day, boss man looked at me and said "you're wearing that to dinner?" which i immediately dismissed for him getting his days wrong (i have had several partner dinners lately) and told him i didn't have a dinner tonight. in short: there was an awards event i was apparently invited to and it started a few minutes later. it was 10 minutes north of the office (the office is 20 minutes north of my house), and it was a semi formal event. yet, i was in khakis a sweater and hair in a pony tail (it's cold and rainy in Austin this week). Sweet Mr. Price dropped what he was doing, put on a suit, grabbed a change of clothes from my closet and headed north in the middle of Austin traffic. so again: late for the awards dinner.

nothing about yesterday was on time, it seems.

New word

It is with great pride that I report the continuing additions to Madeleine's growth and development... I taught her the word 'cupcake.' (sounds like cup-kuh)

my heart swells.

Drying out

Some how I managed to drink every day last week. Not exactly proud of this... a little more shocked after looking back on it and realizing: "Oh, $#*%! I drank every day last week!"

How'd you manage that!? - you ask... Quick recap as to how this transpired, innocently enough:

Sunday *thankfully* at family dinner last week, I didn't feel quite right -likely allergies- so I didn't have any wine... otherwise, you might be calling AA on me because the count would be higher...
Monday = Brittany is in town! Left work a wee bit early to go hang out with her and pequeno Presley. After Presley eats- the timer starts and wine is poured. Woohoo!
Tuesday = wake up at the crack of dawn for work. go to Dallas and back only to go to a junior league meeting which means cocktail hour is required. Over to Leah's with martini in tow.
Wednesday = work event- Quarterly Business Review followed by dinner at Jasper's (Mmmmm....) with Partner Company with expense account. One Martini, Two Martini... Kate joins me and we switch to wine. late night.
Thursday = We go to The Mansion at Judge's Hill for dinner. Need I say more?
Friday & Saturday = acceptable drinking nights, no need to outline unique event that would lead to cocktail hour. however... Saturday did entail some serious celebrating: Leslie's Baby Shower = Mimosas in the Morning and Supper Club = Martini (in theme with my week, apparently), freshly made margarita (in theme with Supper Club) and -of course- plenty of wine. Which really made for a 2-for-1 day.
Sunday family dinner = at this point... why stop now? may as well round out the week.

Tonight? Officially ON the wagon with every intention of detoxing my poor liver. Uggh.

Confessional over; more on upcoming travels soon-- (as the details roll in)

Day Tripper

Woops. forgot to hit 'publish' on my last post. And then blogger froze up on me and reset my post... boo.



Heading to Dallas for a day trip tomorrow and really couldn't dread it more. For starters: I fly out at 6am. If one thing is certain: I do not make a happy early-morning person. I squarely left 6am flights behind when I ended my consulting days. OR so I thought.



Second: I'll be meeting with my less-than-favorite partners up there.



Third: there will be little time to do anything besides dart between DFW (not Love Field - make that #4) and the offices and back - so there is not even the slightest consideration to be able to stop in and say hello to friends up there. nor possibly meet someone for lunch because, oh wait- I'll be with my less-than-favorite partners at lunch. that's right.



So think of me tomorrow. I'll be in Dallas. Gripping onto my apathetic thoughts and trying to be replace annoyance and frustration with productivity of some sort.