Xin Nian Kuai Le! (Happy New Year) Gong Xi Fa Cai! (May you become prosperous!) These are typical things being said around China right now.
Since we returned from the western side of the world (and Andy from Japan), Shanghai has decorated itself for the Chinese New Year which is this coming Sunday. There are red decorations and pigs everywhere! It is quite decorative and nice.
Last Tuesday afternoon, HP held a Chinese New Year party for all of the employees in Shanghai. I didn’t know quite what to expect. Andy told me to wear my Chinese jacket that I had had made because there was an email sent out to wear your traditional Chinese clothing for the party. I was excited to finally be in the loop on something. Well, come to find out, the next day, Andy and I were the ONLY ones in the office who dressed up. A few others who were performing on stage put on traditional clothing for their performance, but not while at work. The one time I thought I was actually in the loop, it turns out I was not. Oh and I should not have bought a purple jacket, it should have been red. Who knew? The jacket is reversible and the other side is black. I chose to wear the black side at first but then my Chinese friend told me that “people don’t wear the black side.” Again, who knew? So I changed it to the purple side since I don’t already stand out enough without a bright purple jacket on.
The New Years party was typical Chinese (variety show), but this was the first one I had been to. After about an hour of powerpoint slides, it turned to a two-hour variety show (mostly in Mandarin) where employees were singing, dancing, doing skits…you name it. I started to get grumpy around 6:00 when they were still going strong and I was starving (it had started at 3:00). Luckily, by 6:40, they brought food and the real party began. After a bit of eating, all of the managers were walking around toasting each table and people all seemed to be having a good time. This was an important party for HP to throw because it is these sorts of things that make the Chinese workers want to stay at HP.
We have had a lot of HP managers visiting Shanghai in the past two weeks. Last week, Andy’s managers Jeff Lantz (lab manager) and Jim Nottingham (section manager) were here visiting. We went out to dinner with them a couple of times and Andy went with them and John shopping and sight seeing. I couldn’t join them as much as I would have liked to because I have had a lot of schoolwork!
Saturday afternoon, my manager, Scott Ahlstrom, his manager (my section manager) Rich Forcier and another project manager, Arch Call all arrived. That night both Andy’s management and mine all went out to dinner at the Brazilian steakhouse we really like. It was a lot of fun. Sunday, we met up with them and took the ferry over to Yu Yuan to do some shopping. They turned out to be quite the shoppers, I was impressed. They bought pearls and some clothing for their wives along with a few other things. It was a beautiful day and we took some nice pictures of the city and Yu Yuan for you to check out on the photos page. That night, we tried the Shangri-La buffet that I had heard a lot of great things about. It was amazing, by far the best buffet I have ever eaten at. It had food from China, Morocco, Japan, India and many other places. Big favorites were the all-you-can-eat sushi table and the dessert tables. It was fantastic food and I ate way too much.
Monday, we went into work and had a few meetings. Then late in the afternoon we had Rocky take us to Ke Ji Guan (the fake market.) Again, they were quite the shoppers and had taken their bargaining learnings from the previous day and were applying them to the fake market. There, they were able to find some nice North Face jackets, watches, purses for wives and daughters, DVDs, luggage, soccer jerseys and other things. Arch also got a nice leather jacket. After some exhausting shopping (the bargaining really takes it out of you) we met up with Andy, John (Andy’s manager) and Cathy (our Chinese friend) for Hot Pot. By the end of the night we were all stuffed, and even Scott who was really concerned about getting enough edible food to eat in China (and Asia in general) was impressed with the food we had eaten.
Tuesday was their last day in Shanghai and we had more shopping to do, mostly going back to places that we had already been. Scott purchased some beautiful salt water pearls for his wife and we spent some time walking around Yu Yuan again. We stopped by my apartment and I showed them our jia (home) and then we went to lunch at an Asian noodle place. After lunch, we walked through Century Park and went back to Ke Ji Guan for a few follow up shopping items. That night, we went to dinner at a nice Italian place (okay so we didn’t eat that much Chinese food) and went to an Acrobat’s show that was quite impressive. All and all, I think they enjoyed their trip to Shanghai and it was very nice to have them here.
There is one more visitor here right now from HP, but after she leaves, it should quiet down for awhile. While we will miss all of the nice dinners, it will be nice to have things settle down a bit.
Yesterday, I had to go to the US Embassy to get visa pages added to my passport for my Chinese work visa. It was unreal the number of Chinese people waiting in lines to get a visa to come to the US. I sort of waltzed to the front of the line and was able to go in a separate room for American citizens. I was the only one in the room for awhile and asked them to add the pages to the passport. They said it would take 30 minutes and I wondered how I was going to kill the time since I had not brought anything to read. Little did I know that I was about to be entertained.
First of all (and the Hoobing’s will love this story), this Chinese woman walked into the room and walked up to the window. I was sitting directly behind the window, so she was about three feet in front of me. The room was very quiet until she started asking (in Chinese) something to the lady at the counter AND farting really loud, for like 30 seconds. I was so shocked at first that I thought it must be her purse rubbing the counter or something. But then, it became clear, both by the sound and the smell that emerged that she was indeed, farting. I was shocked. About five minutes later, after the gas passer had left, this whole dance team of young Chinese girls along with three agents from the consulate came into the room. The gentleman from the consulate apologized to me for the disturbance and then the girls starting performing some kind of dance routine. It was pretty good but the customs guy said, “that does not look like a Chinese traditional dance like your interview said.” Then they all started talking at once and came up with another dance for the agent. To me, and the agent, this other dance did not look like a traditional Chinese dance either, but the other two customs agents explained that that is how the Tibetan people dance. The best way I can describe it is “flailing.” After each girl (and one guy) had performed, the customs guy asked how they can possibly be ready to perform on television in the US in February if they have not decided their dances yet. The girls explained that they would only need one day of practice and would be fine. I found that pretty representative of the last minute nature in which things happen in China. The customs agent signed off on their visa documentation and my passport was ready. Really, why does anything that happens in China even surprise me anymore?
Today is a holiday for us, as are Monday and Tuesday of next week. All of the Chinese will take off all of next week, but we are planning to work at least some of the days. I desperately need to get caught up on my schoolwork since I am behind after having so many visitors.
Sunday, we are leaving on an overnight trip to Hangzhou, a nearby mountain/lake town. We are really excited to get out and see more parts of China. Expect a full report on the trip and the massive amounts of fireworks for the Chinese New Year upon our return.
Happy Pig Year!
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