Huafang Jinling International Zhangjiagang

... for some unknown reason
In a meeting you say everything will be ‘wonderful’ and give no details.
You forget that the other person needs to finish speaking before you can start
You burp in any situation and don’t care.
You see one foreign person eating Pineapple (or whatever) and say “Yes, all foreign people like
Pineapple”
You start to watch CCTV9 and feel warm and comforted by the ream
You take a nap while you are dining in a ...

i have less than a week of work left. so i went to the accountant today to talk about my airfare reimbursements. after your contract ends, you're supposed to get 6000 rmb to use for your trip back home, if you want. i want.

you're supposed to get half after 6 mths and the other half at the end of your contract. since my 6 mths was over in july, i was out of town at that time. so i'm supposed to get the full amount now.

so i went in ...

... a couple of things once i'm officially back on us soil. first is a job. like everyone else, this 30% unemployment rate is scaring the bejesus out of me. i've heard that nola hasn't been too bad but i'm not sure if i'm ready to go back to dead-end jobs. but beggars can't be choosers, right?

another thing that's been bothering me is the time warp. i've been away from home for two years. more if i consider new orleans to be my home. but anyway, two years away from america is a long ...

so jason and lillian came over to wuxi on 9/30. they leave tomorrow. in the 7 days that they've been here, we've:

- gone to the best wedding i've been to in my life. read previous entry for further info: (http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-e ntries/maymay1980/wuxi_2007-08/12548069 49/tpod.html) very entertaining and honestly the only thing missing from the spectacle was for them to be on ice OR for them to fly in from the ceiling- peter pan style. that would have been ...

... rencontré beaucoup de gens. Et surtout un sculpteur qui travaille cet art chinois très ancien (à ma connaissance uniqueau monde dans sa formulation tout au moins) la sculpture de racine. Cela consiste à prendre des racines tortueuses, les débarasser de l'écorce et trouver une forme signifiante en sculptant une infime partie de la racine 1/5 du total au maximum. Cela donne souvent des oeuvres fantastiques ou la nature dépasse l'imagination.

email from my brother today:

House got robbed in New Orleans! Give MOM, DAD a call ASAP & me. Love U!

called mom. i couldn't really understand her from all the crying. she was so distraught, it was mostly sobbing on the phone. i have never heard her like this before. usually, she's the epitome of calm during any type of accident or disaster ...

... were. Sophia said "they are just like the ones they set off in Summerland!" We laugh when we imagine what would happen if we did this outside the Vancouver Hotel or any hotel anywhere in Canada. We would most likely be arrested and charged! In any case, Ivan and his family sure made us feel welcome to his City and his family.

Our friend Susan (with her boyfriend) came to Rugao City to meet our family as we were not ...

... spoke" English to me. I was happy so we sat down to negotiate the price. We got a good deal in the end and I was asked if I wanted to take the car with me now. I said that it would suit me perfect if that could be arranged. Note that all discussions and negotiations where held in Chinese and I was only asked to answer a question here and a confirmation there. My colleague "Eric" who had done the negotiation went away together with the owner ...

The three knights for this quest was Anders Lundgren, Eric Zhang and I. Anders and I left Sweden last Sunday and arrived Pudong, Shanghai 10AM the following morning. A driver met us and another two hours later where we at the hotel in Zhangjiagang. We checked in and Eric and Victoria, two of our colleagues from the Chinese office, met us in the lobby. The first mission was to get my health ...

... into different beautiful shapes; trapeze artists on ropes and swings; trapeze artists on those huge silk scarves that hang from ceiling to floor; gymnasts who were bounced off seesaws into people-pyramids; giant trampolinists and trampolinists who bounced on a long bamboo pole; and the finale, 10 motorcyclists, all going around in a small metal spherical cage. On our ride home we saw the Bund lit up ...