In Transit

Going home for Christmas is one of the hallowed rituals of Western culture. Last year I wasn't able to go due to work commitments, but this year I "crossed the pond" to spend a week with my family. In the process I learned the following:

1) Wheelchairs in the US are much bigger than wheelchairs in China and they have seat belts!
2) When you ride in a wheelchair going through customs is really fast.
3) Bulkhead seats really do provide more legroom.
4) Gate changes are the bane of the wheelchair traveler.

My Chinese teacher has a close friend who works for American Airlines, so on my way home she arranged for a bulkhead seat and wheelchairs at all my connections. It was great - the fastest I have ever moved through an airport. If only I could have controlled the weather too.

In Chicago, my flight was delayed for almost 4 hours with 3 gate changes. Flights were getting canceled left and right and a group of us became friends as we commiserated and shared stories about our holiday plans. There was a couple from Melbourne, Australia, a gentlemen from Moscow, me from Shanghai, a group from Southern California, a pregnant college student from Texas, some pharmaceutical reps who had been to Houston for a conference... all going home for the holidays. We bonded, shared snacks and made it as pleasant as possible. Overall, not a bad outcome.

Coming back to Shanghai I also dealt with weather in that my flight was canceled! Fog and thunderstorms resulted in moving back my departure one day. We got a 2am phone call Saturday morning announcing this so I had one extra day with my family which was unplanned but not unwelcome. The flights back went smoothly - I upgraded to business class, had two seats to myself and managed to sleep over 6 hours (a new record).

Question: Any travel horror stories or travel surprises/connections / interesting people you want to share?

Happy New Year! May 2009 be the best year yet.

G

Lucky me

I'm a health care consultant working in China.  I've given speeches on the Chinese health care and insurance system, I've helped clients with plan design questions and researched administrative procedures.  Now I can add first hand knowledge of Chinese hospitals, emergency rooms and medicine.

Lucky me.

Two weeks ago Saturday while at a party, I thought I would demonstrate a yoga pose to some friends.  I started prepping for it, transitioning my weight to my left foot, bent down and then collapsed on the ground.  My left knee gave out with no apparent warning.  My friends laughter (my balance has always been bad) transitioned to concern as they noticed my white face.  Something was wrong.

I sat there for a while, had some water, then tried to stand up.  No go.  I got dizzy and leaned against the table.  My fun night was over.

My wonderful friend Ade went with me to the emergency room.  We went to Hua Shan hospital that was pretty close and I had been to a talk earlier in the week where the hospital director there had spoken about his hospital's prestige and excellent facilities.  The driver dropped us off at the night entrance.  I limped inside, in quite a bit of pain by this point while we tried to figure out where to go.

We found someone who told us that the international clinic was down the hall and to take the elevator to the 8th floor.  Very slowly we made it there, only to discover that was the wrong location.  I waited and Ade went back.  They told her we had to walk across the campus to another building (in the dark).  She threw a fit.  Although we were hampered by not knowing the word for wheelchair, knee or accident in Chinese, she managed to procure a wheelchair and someone to push me across the campus to the "international" clinic.

Five minutes after arriving I was in the room with the doctor.  I started, tentatively, in English to tell him what happened.  "Can you speak Chinese?" he asked.  I sighed, but between the two of us managed to explain the incident in Chinese.  He gave me a brace, told me to wait until Monday and they'd schedule me for a CT scan.  Cost of service - about $90

Monday I had my team ready - my colleague Ma Jian (who has been trained as a doctor) and my good friend Lily (Mike, her husband went to Notre Dame).  They both agreed to accompany me.  However, my CT scan had been pushed back to Tuesday.  My leg, however, still hurt and I couldn't bent it.  Ma Jian knew people at another hospital (Rui Jin); Lily picked me up.

First we went to the emergency room - the doctor there was very nice, but decided it wasn't an emergency and told me to wait for my CT scan on Tuesday.  Cost of consultation - $2, which they refunded because they couldn't help me.

Next we went to see a specialist from Lily's connections (which meant waiting in the hallway of another building for a very long time).  After he looked at my knee he determined it was a ligament or tendon problem - not bone, so he recommended an MRI instead of the CT scan.  That meant going to another building where they scheduled me for an appointment the next afternoon.  I paid in advance - consultation and MRI together was about $185.

Tuesday the drill started again; Lily picked me up and Ma Jian met us at the hospital.  I got a wheelchair and was wheeled into the basement of the hospital.  I'd never had an MRI before - they are very loud.  The technician was startled to see a foreigner.  He rattled off a lot of Chinese at me, then said, "DON'T MOVE!"  I didn't.

Lily and Ma Jian managed to get another doctor to look at my film (after a 45 minute wait).  He was flipping through the pictures making comments - all of which were negative.  "Internal bleeding...tendon damage... ligament...swelling..." At that point he decided that if it was a serious as the pictures were showing I shouldn't be able to stand.  Since I could he decided to examine me.  He looked at my knee, bent it and proclaimed that I should wear the brace for 3 weeks, put Chinese medicine on my knee and I should be fine.  I got the medicine (a poultice and pills for about $10 total) with Ma Jian's help and went home, thoroughly confused.

After all this, I think that I have an overstretched ligament in my knee, caused by the yoga move.  It should heal by itself.  The pain and swelling are almost gone now [2 weeks later], though I am moving really slowly and am not that stable.  I am very lucky to have friends to support me through this process from both a language and cultural perspective.

Lucky me.

Question: Getting sick away from home is never fun. [Christmas 1999; my friend Christa; Austria - enough said] Do you have a story to share?

Happy New Year to all!

G

Notes on Business

I’ve been in my new position about three months now and met with half a dozen clients and just as many vendors, had countless phone calls, given two speeches and worked more hours than I care to count. It’s been a challenge and many thanks to those I’ve forced to listen to me. I’m adjusting to a different work schedule, a different language, new colleagues and time zone differences. I can now direct dial Singapore and Hong Kong without looking up the access codes and I’ve talked to clients and colleagues in Europe and Africa. Mercer is a global company and working out of Shanghai it feels that way.

Today we had a meeting with an employer coalition that we’ve been helping at a multinational level for several years. However, this was the first time local Chinese HR was involved and we had a great turnout. The majority of the meeting was in Chinese, but I (the foreigner) gave the intro in English on the Chinese healthcare system and compared it to the current system and issues in the US. I even got a couple of laughs out of the crowd. It was great.

Looking back I thought I’d document the two most common conversation starters during the breaks.

Conversation #1:

Me: “Are you finding the conference useful?”
Client A: “Your Chinese is so good!” [This is normally spoken in English which I find ironic.]

Conversation #2

Me: “很高兴认识你。我看你的名片，你是经理吗？” [Pleased to meet you. I see from your card you’re the manager, right?”]
Client B: 你很漂亮。(You’re very beautiful.) [This one I’ve only heard so far in Chinese. The first time it happened I thought it was a one-off thing, but it happened multiple times now. I was trying to imagine what some of my female colleagues in the States would do if that happened to them during a meeting. My imagination only gets so far.]

Then the discussion will inevitably switch to why I came to China, how long I’ve worked at Mercer, etc. None of my side conversations actually talked about business, but I figure, eventually…
After the session we took two photos – one with the clients present and one with the vendors. Everyone else was wearing black or navy but I was wearing my dark pink jacket. I stood out for sure – in a good way. Watch out China! I’m here!

Question: Ladies – how would you respond to, “You’re so beautiful?” Gents – would you have the guts to say it at a business meeting?

To surviving!

G

Housewarming photos!

As promised, attached are the photos that I have from my housewarming party. There were several friends who avoided my camera (Curt, Jasmine, Ade, Richard - you know who you are!), but this captures almost everyone who stopped by and shared the evening with me.

Housewarming!

I've just about recovered from the party now - my house is back in order, the leftovers have been eaten or stored away and now I'm looking forward to Christmas. I'll be back in the States in under two weeks.

Enjoy the photos!

Cheers-

G

What do you get when you have...

- 27 friends
- 9 pages of lists
- 5 baguettes with 5 types of cheese
- 4 cakes (3 chocolate, 1 coffee)
- 3 weeks of prep
- 2 sous chefs (Todd & Chris)
- 1 awesome housewarming party

I threw a party on Sunday.
It rocked.

Ever since I moved into my new place at the end of September, I had been thinking about throwing a housewarming. My place is so big, it’s the perfect venue for a party and so after my things arrived I started planning to “warm my house” as one of my Chinese colleagues put it. I am blessed to have wonderful friends in Shanghai and everyone I invited came! There were 7 countries represented; friends from Kaien, or formerly from Kaien, Joy and Huang whose wedding I went to, my Chinese teacher, work colleagues, friends from random meetings…

The food was great, recipes and sauces from my friend Todd, a couple of my own dishes, cakes from Ade and Geoff; wine, cheese… what more could you ask for?

I didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday – I worked – but this Sunday was my ode to friendship and support. I could not live here without these people. I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to host them and share this time, in this city, together.

A few of my favorite party memories:
1) Chris helping me prep and washing dishes with “Happy Holidays” in the background
2) Ma Jian cooking river fish for us all
3) The corkscrew getting stuck on the bottle and Rolf saying “Violence solves everything!”
4) Convincing a Chinese friend to try cheese and she liked it so much that she tried all five kinds
5) Sampling sweet Chinese warm wine with plum
6) Todd giving a “dumpling lesson” to my coworkers in the kitchen
7) Joy giving me a toaster oven. Now I can bake!

Question – What was your favorite party? I'll hopefully post pictures from mine this week.

I can’t believe it, but I’ll be back in the States in a little over two weeks. I’m only home 8 days, and only in Michigan, so it’s a really short trip, but I’m very much looking forward to it. To a great holiday season!

Cheers-

G

Red?

I wore a bright red pair of tights to work yesterday. I think I may be starting to follow Chinese fashion.

A couple weekends ago I bought some new clothes at a very fashionable boutique. A pair of black velvet pants, a black cashmere sweater with a shawl attached that can be swept to one side, or in four other positions, a black ruffled shirt and a black structured dress with elbow length sleeves and pleats on the sleeves and at the bust. The unifying factor is that all of them were black. The sales girls (two of them) were incredibly helpful, bringing me over a dozen things to try on, necklaces, belts, shoes….As I was checking out with my purchases one of them disappeared, telling me to wait. She came back with a bright red pair of tights and told me that it was a free gift that I should wear them with my black dress. I looked at her and smiled and said – “But everything I bought is black, why the red tights?” She laughed and said, “Trust me.”

That was two weeks ago. The dress has been hanging in my closet, but yesterday I bravely put it on with the red tights. My cleaning lady complimented me as I left the house, then in the elevator, someone else complimented me. At work – I received five or six additional compliments. “Your tights look great!” “Beautiful color.” “Where did you get them?” Now that I think about it, no one actually commented on the dress, just on my legs.

The sales girl was right. At least in Shanghai.

Question – Any fashion stories? Things you thought were great but looking back you can’t believe you wore them? Share!

A big Happy Birthday to my dad for today!
Cheers-

G

Free

The weather the last two weeks has been pretty nasty overall. Rain, fog, pollution, mist, wind … we’ve had the entire spectrum. Yesterday morning as I was struggling down the driveway of my complex I saw a pair of men’s underwear (boxers) by the side of the road. The picture that immediately came to my mind was someone stripping off their clothes and dancing in the rain, free from everything. The less romantic vision is that someone didn’t securely fasten the boxers to the clothes line and the wind had carried them away. I prefer my initial thought.

Question – Have you ever danced in the rain?