Day 22 and 23 - Tuesday and Wednesday - GOING HOME!

I can't believe it, but I fly back today! Three weeks is a long time to be away from home, but it went surprisingly fast. Even so, I'm really excited to be heading home.

I can at least say we got the first tractor off the assembly line while I was here. It wasn't 100% finished (still needed decals), but it was fully functional.

Shaun arrived on Tuesday afternoon, so we met up with him and went to Drunken Chef for dinner. Stopped by Bar Street one last time for some last minute shopping and headed back to finish packing.

Overall, it's been a great trip and I'm thankful I was lucky enough to get the chance to come. There is definitely a lot more to see in China, so maybe a return trip in the future is needed....

Day 20 and 21 - Sunday and Monday

Not much to blog... Sunday was a recovery day from Saturday. It was a pretty tiring day with the heat and walking and it turned into a late night. Needless to say, we all played it low-key, slept in, and didn't do anything. I watched a bunch of the US Open until I realized that they were replaying the replays.

Monday was a frustrating day at work; they still don't have a tractor off the assembly line. There seems to be a lack of supervision and drive from the assembly line, coupled with random missing parts, tools, etc. I'm hoping to see at least one tractor off the line before I leave; in my opinion there is no reason this shouldn't happen.

Last night we went back to Tomato Cafe for dinner; like usual, not bad. We walked around the area a little while; long enough to get sweaty again and have to shower for the third time that day. It is always so humid, no matter what time of day.

Well, I can't believe I leave tomorrow...the trip has gone surprisingly fast for a three week trip. It's been a great experience, but I'm definitely anxious to get home.

Day 19 - Saturday

Big Buddha day. Driver picked us up at 7am to get an early start. It's a good thing because he didn't seem to have any idea where he was going. He could get to Wuxi, but the buddha is actually outside of Wuxi and that is when he had problems. He stopped at least a half dozen times to ask people how to get there and luckily we finally saw the top of the buddha sticking-up between some hills. The park has a lot of gardens, fountains, etc. to look at as well as the buddha. The buddha itself is huge...it is 89meters tall...~42meters taller than the Statue of Liberty! It was so hot and we were all drenched in sweat....we only stayed about two hours.

We found the driver and headed back to Suzhou. We weren't sure what it would be like, but we had heard about the Suzhou water and land gate, so we stopped over there. It ended-up being an entire garden as well with a pagoda...it was very nice. We grabbed lunch at TGI Friday's and then headed home to get cleaned up.

Later that evening we headed to Paul Watt's condo...it is pretty incredible. He grilled some sausage, pork, and steak for us, we talked for awhile and then headed to bar street to Pulp

Fiction bar to watch rugby. It turned into a late night, we played a bunch of foosball, had some drinks, ....

Well, I didn't plan this too well...I need to head-off to work.

Day 17 and 18 - Thursday and Friday

First tractor is successfully through the test cell and really only needs the tires/rims installed. The assemblers have made pretty good progress with the other tractors as well; I'm hoping by the time I leave we have at least three tractors off the assembly line.

Thursday night, a new "visitor" came in from the Gosselies, Belgium facility. We decided to keep it local and ended-up at Zapata's for Mexican. I got the same thing I always get at Mexican restaurants; taco's. It was really hot at the restaurant...we sat upstairs and it didn't appear that they had the AC on up there. Then the power went out...luckily we were done with dinner. Still a nice time.

Friday we got back from work about 6:30pm, got cleaned up, and headed back to RainboWalk for hot pot at 789. We weren't with any locals which made it a little more difficult to order. Luckily after they realized we didn't speak Chinese, they gave us an English menu. We still weren't exactly sure how to order, but figured it out pretty well. Unlike the other hot pot we went to which had a communal pot, at this place everyone had their own. We ordered a mix of food; beef, pork, ribs, whole shrimp, cheesy-beef balls, veggies, pasta, ... We had a few different cooking "soups" as well and you get to mix your own dipping sauce from a sauce bar. It was extremely hot in the restaurant with all the pots going....we were all sweating.

After dinner we split-up; a few people went to get massages and grab a drink, and a few of us went to "bar" street to walk around and shop. We spent a few hours walking around and stopped in a few random stores; I bought a few DVD's and other things. We took a cab back to the hotel about 10:00 and called it a night. Saturday morning bright and early for Wuxi.

Day 15 and 16 - Tuesday and Wednesday

Well, my internet is extra slow tonight and it is midnight, so this is probably going to be a quick update....no pictures either since they take forever to upload. Tuesday at work was pretty good; the first tractor reached the test cell and successfully started. After work a few of us headed to downtown Suzhou on the #68 bus; it cost 1 RMB (~$0.14 on buses without air conditioning; 2 RMB with). We went to TGI Fridays....yeah I know. It tasted pretty good though...just like back home. We walked around the area for a little bit afterwards. There is an area with a ton of little store fronts selling clothes, hair extensions, jewelry, etc. Nothing really that nice.

Wednesday the first tractor almost got through the test cell. We had one leak (due to a missing seal) that was resolved fairly quickly and just about finished up the test without further issues. I think the tractor should be off the assembly line by the end of the day on Thursday and we have a few more that should be close behind. After work we met up with Tina and Clif from the hotel and went back to the Tomato Kitchen Cafe. I had pasta with sausage...it was pretty spicy. They have a "fixed/set menu" in which you can get a meal, soup, salad, dessert, and drink for 89 RMB (~$12). We had a few Tiger beers as well, but overall, a really cheap, good meal.

Well, only a few more days this week and then the last weekend here. Countdown is down to seven days!

Alright, one picture. I'm not sure why it keeps turning sideways, but the photo is a typical lunch at the plant. You get to choose between A or B meal option; typically one is a rice dish and the other a noodle dish. It is a lot of food; what I choose didn't include a few additional options that I turned down. This was noodles, dumpling, some kind of meat, scrambled egg combo, soggy lettuce, shredded potatoe, watermelon, and iced tea. It's forcing us to become very proficient at chop stick usage.

Day 14 - Monday

Well, the electrical tester issue we had last Friday appears to not be a tractor issue, but just the test system not being fully prepared. It seemed like a slow day today, but we have the tractor just about ready to complete the fluid fill and test cell. They pressure checked the tractor and found no air leaks, so that is a good start. Hopefully tomorrow we'll start it up!

Tonight we had dinner at the Drunken Chef. Pretty good; I had a T-Bone and a beer (or two).

Day 13 - Sunday

Slept in a little bit today, had some breakfast in the hotel, and then called home. Van ride to Shanghai took about 1:30 with traffic, etc. Bill Baird (one of the CSCL managers) and his wife (Tamara) were nice enough to go with us to help show us around. We had a pretty tight schedule, so we didn't get to do a ton of things. We started just doing some sightseeing, walking around. Walked along the Huangpu River (across from the Bund) and by the Pearl of the Orient TV Tower (photograph). We walked around for about an hour and then all met-up for lunch at the Blue Frog. We started with some really good chicken wings and then I had a hamburger...really good. After lunch we drove to the Hongqiao International Pearl City/Market to do some shopping. It was pretty incredible....store front after store front. They all sell the same stuff watches, purses, shirts, luggage, electronics, ... It was pretty fun, but it is pretty tiring as well with everyone trying to get you in their stores. The entire complex is very confined, there is no air flow, and there are a lot of people. A number of the stores also have hidden rooms in the back with additional merchandise. We spent a little over two hours shopping; I bought a few things.
We headed home after that and made it back about 6pm. Since we had eaten lunch pretty late, I wasn't really hungry, so I ate some crackers, watched TV, and called it a night.

My "apartment" photos

Here are a few photos of the hotel/apartment I'm staying in:

Day 12 - Saturday

Went golfing today at Suzhou Sun Island golf course. It was a nice course; it's private, but apparently money can buy anything; especially in China. We played a scramble; two, three man teams (From L to R: Bob Egging, Me, Dereck Dezwart, Paul Watts, Paul Fuller, Tim Conroy). I played with Tim and Dereck. I'm pretty sure we ended-up "winning" (we shot 75) : ) . It was a really hot day, but it was a lot of fun. Afterwards we grabbed a bite to eat in the golf course restaurant. All in all, it was about $170 for everything.

After golf, we got cleaned-up and met-up with the rest of the group. We walked east on the north end of the lake to a restaurant, shopping, and entertainment area. One of the main attractions is the trial-run of the "Birds Nest" building for the Beijing Olympics. It houses a number of theaters, exhibits, etc. We headed over to an indoor/outdoor shopping area and had an authentic Chinese meal at Burger King, followed by gelato. We walked around a little more and then called it a night.

Day 11 - Friday

What a long week... The first tractor we have been working on is mostly assembled and we are at the point of completing an electrical checkout. We tried it briefly today and ran into some problems which could be interesting to try to troubleshoot as none of us have much experience with that. Next week could be a long week as well.

We seemed to get home a little earlier than we have been lately, 6pm, so that was nice. We went to a pizza place, Malibu's (?), across the street for dinner. I'm doing a load of laundry now; the washing machine and dryer are part of the same unit which makes it pretty automatic. I feel like I haven't slept that much this week, so I am probably going to go to bed pretty soon. A few of us are golfing tomorrow morning at Suzhou Sun Island golf course. Looks pretty nice on the website. We are potentially going to meet-up with everyone else afterwards to try to catch movie. Apparently there is a theater within walking distance that plays some English spoken movies. Shanghai still on Sunday to do some shopping for fake goods : ) . Hopefully I'll have some good photos to post.

Day 9 and 10 - Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday at work was uneventful. After work though we went out for dinner with the team we are working with here. We had a traditional Chinese meal at East Gate restaurant; fish, frog soup, chicken feet (photo at right), duck tongue (below left), shrimp, sticky rice, dumplings, .... It was probably the most difficult meal to eat; everything was just a little to hardcore Chinese. It was still a really good time though. After dinner, a few of us stopped at JJ's Bar to have a few beers and talk.

Today two out of the six of us didn't feel well and stayed back at the hotel; I'm thinking it had something to do with the meal last night. Luckily, I felt fine. Work went pretty well (and I finished my performance review!) and we kept it pretty low key this evening. We had dinner at Big and Whistle, a local restaurant at the RainboWalk; I had a Club sandwich with french fries. Not much else tonight.

Almost forgot

We will be going to Shanghai this weekend where you can get some good deals on watches, purses, jerseys, etc. If anyone is interested in anything, provide me as much detail as possible, and I'll see what I can do; mdesveaux@gmail.com

Day 7 and 8-Monday and Tuesday

Past two days have been pretty uneventful. Worked, ate, worked a little more from the hotel, and went to bed. Work has been busy this week; making progress, but still struggling with resources to help out. Now I just received an IM from someone in India to help with an on-going project. I also have to try to finish up my "performance review"....could be a long night.

Anyway, yesterday my manager and I went to Larry's Golf Shop after work to see what kind of deals we could get on golf clubs. He tried to haggle on a driver, but couldn't work out a deal. I ended up getting a better deal than I thought I could on a putter. We went out for a quick bite to eat and called it a night after that. Tonight was about the same. We went out to dinner with Tina and Clif (only one "f") from the hotel at a Japanese-Italian restaurant. Not exactly a combination you would expect....it was pretty good. I had penne pasta with shrimp. That was about it!

Tomorrow night we are going out to eat with the team we are working with here in China, so that should be good. Hope everyone is doing well.

Day 6 - Sunday

Woke up a little early today to do some work that is due this week. I had a hard time getting motivated, but made decent headway. We met downstairs at 9:15 then to walk to the bus stop to meet Paul, Anna, and Jack. We took the #68 bus for 1Yuan ($0.14) to downtown Suzhou. We walked north along Moye Road along the eastern side of the city. Along the way, we stopped for tea at an old tea house (seen in photo). I'm not a huge tea fan, but I had a strawberry tea and it was really good. We continued to Dongbei St. and went to the Humble Administrator's Garden for a tour. There was a "tour guide" offering his services in English, so we took him up on it. It was a nice tour, we learned about some of the history of the gardens, and the gardens themselves were beautiful. It was a perfect day to be outside as well, not too hot. After the gardens we found a local restaurant that had English on the menu. We had some basic Chinese dishes; cucumber, Kung Pao chicken, pork ribs, spinach dumplings, mushrooms, .... It was pretty filling like most of the meals we have had. We ended up just walking around for a little while and then split-up and Mike and I headed back to the hotel. We decided to just take a cab back which is usually straight forward; we carry businesses cards for the hotel which we can show to the cab driver so they know where to go. This time, the cab driver didn't seem to know where he was going and at one point he made a turn that I knew wasn't correct. Luckily, I had a map on me and I was able to clarify on the map where we needed to go. As we were getting into the turn lane, a police car pulled-up beside us and pulled us over. Two other police cars came up behind and on the other side of us. We couldn't understand what they were saying, although it seemed pretty civilized. We ended-up paying our fare and walking the rest of the way which was pretty close. Still not sure what was going on.

I did some more work this afternoon and was debating about just eating left-overs, but Mike called me and I needed a break from work anyway. We met up with everyone else and went to Zapatos, a Mexican restaurant in Rainbow Walk by our hotel. It was really good. We stopped at Coldstone for ice-cream afterwards; the area is very westernized! Now I'm back here, do a little bit more work, and then call it a night.

Day 5 - Saturday

Well, I didn't feel that good this morning; not really sure what it was. I ended up staying at the hotel until lunch time and then we met up with Paul Watts, our main engineering contact, and his wife (Anna) and 15month old son (Jack). We went out for a hot pot lunch in Suzhou, including his/our driver, Jerry. Hot pot is kind of like fondue in that there is a large heated pot at the table to cook the food in. With this hot pot, we had two sides; one spicy, one more mild. We ordered a lot of different food; potatoes, cauliflower, thin sliced pork, egg, fish balls, duck blood, pig brain, ... Overall it was really good; the pig brain and duck blood were pretty bad. The brain was very mushy and literally disinegrated when you ate it. The duck blood looked like liver and was also kind of mushy.

After lunch, we walked around Suzhou for a few hours until Jerry picked us back up. Suzhou is a very densely populated area with a lot of little store fronts. Areas are greatly varied from nice newer buildings to rundown, dirty stores. We found a pagoda that we stopped in at (25RMB) that had a surrounding garden. We climbed the top which had a very nice 360 degree view of the city. We stopped back at the hotel to drop-off our stuff and then headed out to the grocery store. It is about a 20minute walk to the mall/grocery store. We each got a few snacks and I bought some laundry detergent. We got back to the hotel about 6:30 and touched base with Mike Oudyn, my manager, who just got into China today. We met up with everyone else and headed to the Rainbow Walk area for dinner at a German restaurant. I had pork sausage which was good. We were all pretty tired from all the walking and sun today, so we called it a night early. I'm doing a load of laundry and doing this blog....might do a little bit of work tonight, but that may wait until tomorrow morning before we head back to Suzhou.

I thought this was kind of a cute/funny picture.

Day 4

Last day of the first work week. The build is going a little better; it is still slow going, but the first tractor is making progress.

After work, we met up with a couple from Madison, WI (Cliff and Tina) that are staying at the same hotel. Cliff works for a company that distributes HVAC type components and he was just promoted to work at their facility here in Suzhou. They have only been here a week, but will be staying at least five months (he's not sure if he will continue to stay here full-time or not). We went to a restaurant they had previously been, Tomato Kitchen Cafe, in the restaurant district, Rainbow Walk. Really big menu with a lot of western type food offerings. I had fried rice with beef; it was very good. After that, we went to "bar" street in downtown Suzhou. We started at Dream Hollywood; kind of a trendy, modern bar. There was a Philippino band that sang American pop songs. They were pretty good, but we only stayed for a few drinks. We stopped by a store that sold DVDs for 15-20 RMB (~$2-3); I didn't buy any. Then we headed to another bar down the block, an Aussie bar. It was a little quieter and was open to the outside which was nice. We called it a night after that.

Day 3

Well, I'm still tired...more so that I thought I would be. The days end up being pretty long; leave for work around 7, work until 5:30, go out to eat, and get back to the hotel about 8:30. The work days have been busy and leave little time to keep up on work emails, etc. We're slowly but surely making progress...a number of frustrations though.

Anyway, the day was pretty uneventful. We witnessed two bike/motorcycle accidents on the way to work today; luckily minor accidents. I'm surprised there are not more accidents based on the number of bikes/motorcyles/cars/buses/you name it that are randomly driving on the road. Stop lights seem to be optional for bikes and buses.

Dinner was good tonight...it was our first authentic Chinese dinner (we have Chinese at lunch in the cafeteria everyday). One of the native Chinese engineers we are working with was nice enough to take us out. Typical Chinese meals seems to be very extensive. At dinner we had at least ten different items. Not sure exactly what everything was, but it included spicy noodles, frog soup, white fish, potstickers, rabbit "wings", beans, "inside components" of ox (according to Hanson our host), potatoe, ... It was very filling... The restaurant was close enough that we could walk back to the hotel just as it started to rain.

Well, I'm going to call it a night.

First day in China (kind of)

Well, this is one day late, but I was really tired last night by the time we got back to the hotel. The flight actually seemed to go suprisingly fast for a 14hr flight. We took off on time and actually arrived slightly early, which was good to try to account for the H1N1 flu check that China does. Health inspectors board the plane upon arrival and take everyone's temperature with a laser thermometer (on the forehead). I had heard that originally they would quarantine the entire plane if anyone had a temperature, but thought it had changed that it was now only the three rows surrounding an at risk person...I wasn't really sure though. So everything seemed to be okay, they checked everyone in about 15 minutes and left the plane. We were waiting a few minutes for the all-clear, but they then reboarded the plane and targeted a select person that was at risk. At least half-a-dozen inspectors, clothed in white haz-mat suits started doing further tests, not sure what, to collect more info. After about another 30-45 minutes, they finally let everyone except the 7 rows around the individual, which was luckily 7 rows behind where I was. I'm not sure how long they had to remain on the plane...I'm just happy we didn't have to go through that.

Anyway, after another 30minute wait for my co-workers baggage to arrive (not sure why it took longer than mine), we found our driver to take us the two hours to the hotel. The hotel is great! It is and extended stay/apartment type of hotel with a living room, dining area, kitchen, bedroom, bath, and balcony. It is in a very nice area of Suzhou which has numerous hotels and restaurants within walking distance. Right after checking into our rooms, our main contact at the facility contacted us to make plans for dinner. He sent a driver to pick us up and we met at a nearby restaurant. It appears that most of the restaurants are very westernized to cater to all the Americans/Europeans that visit the area. I had steak which was pretty good. We talked for awhile, but called it a night right after dinner. I was wide awake up until that point and then almost feel asleep when I sat down on the couch. I slept really well last night.

We had breakfast this morning at the hotel; they have a buffet in the restaurant. You can choose from a lot of different things from what we are used to (eggs, bacon, fruit) to fish, tofu, ... We have a driver that picks us up every morning for the 20min ride to the Cat facility. It is a very nice facility; most of it is completed, but there is still some construction going on. Work was good today, we still have a long way to go though. We worked from ~7:45 to 5:45, stopped in at the hotel, and then a few of us met up for another local dinner. Tonight was pizza at a small restaurant within walking distance. We were all pretty tired, so called it a night after that.

Well, that's about it right now. I'm pretty tired again, so I think I'm going to call it a night.