Work Ethic

It's been a great week.  Once again a busy week.  Work is keeping me very busy and then also trying to find a place to live has taken up any free moments.  Our plan is for me to find a place and then move in a few weeks before the family gets here so I can get everything organized and ready to go.  Our house will be furnished with beds, couches, chairs and appliances but things like bed sheets, towels, dishes, clean supplies will be furnished by us.  So after I get settled into the place there will be trips to Ikea and Walmart to get everything.  Alauna and Mikayla will be here the week after Easter.  They will get a chance to see Nanjing, finalize the housing situation, visit the school and Mikayla will meet with the school counselor and schedule her classes for next year.  I can't wait to see them.  It is great seeing them daily on Skype, but it will be so much better to see them in person.  

I have been coming to China/Taiwan for many years beginning in 1990.  I have really learned to appreciate and love the Chinese people and their culture.  One thing that has really stood out to me is their work ethic.  On a daily basis you will see people working extremely hard to make a living and provide for themselves and their family.  I am grateful that my kids will get to see how hard people work for just the basics of life.  We have been very blessed and Alauna and I have always tried to teach our kids to work.  We were both taught by our parents to work hard.  My dad can still outwork any of his kids.  Below are a few pictures of some examples of the hard working people that you see on a daily basis living in China.

These ladies are mending clothes.  They
sit outside shops and you take your clothes
and they will mend them.  You see they are
bundled up because it was about
40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Look behind the guy with the green jacket.
There is a guy with a long pole
hanging his laundry from the power lines.

This lady is collecting sheet metal.  She will
load up her bike with metal and then take to
be recycled.  You will see people do this
with plastic, Styrofoam, cardboard and
anything else that can be sold for money.

This guy is delivering water.  I think he can
fit seven large water bottles on his
motorbike.  What is even more impressive
is seeing him carry two of them up many
flights of stairs on his shoulders.  

The weather has finally broke through the cold and is now actually warm.  We are supposed to get 5 days of sun.   I have been here for three weeks and we have only had 2-3 days of sun until yesterday.  The locals say there are only two seasons in Nanjing, winter and summer.  I guess it turns really hot very quickly.  Yesterday and today were beautiful spring days.  Soon enough the intense heat will be here.  

As mentioned previously we have our final move date.  We will leave the US on June 6th.  We have now listed our house to rent.  That seems to be going well and there has been a decent amount of interest in the house.  It will be great to have the house rented.  

Things have been going well here in Nanjing.  Can't wait to see my family again.  Everyone take care.

Boyd

Getting Local

This week has been a great week.  Very tough being away from my family.  I don't think it will ever get easy being away from them.  I am really looking forward to Alauna and Mikayla coming here in April.  It will be great to see them and spend a few days with them.  Skype has been great.  They turn Skype on the kitchen computer and I can talk to everyone.  It's a great way to be part of what's going on when I'm not there.

Work was really good this week.  I did get sick this week and lost my lunch.  I was only sick in the evening and then the next day felt pretty good.  I'm glad it was just a quick bout with whatever it was.  Could have been something I ate.  That day we ate a pretty traditional meal in this little village restaurant.  We were visiting stores and were out in the countryside about an hour outside of Nanjing.  When we walked up to the restaurant there were quite a few little wood "cottage" type buildings.  You would eat in one of the cottages.  In front of one of the cottages they had a rack with dried pig faces hanging on it.  They dry the pig face and then thinly slice it.  I tried a couple pieces and it was actually pretty tasty.  Kind of like a pork jerky.  That might have been what trigger my episode later in the evening.

Dried Pork Face

On Saturday Nanjing International School (NIS) had an expo.  They have students from 44 different countries at the school.  The expo had representation from about 33 of the countries.  It was a great event.  Lots of fun, food and cultural activities.  It was a great example of how the school really has built a strong community there in Nanjing.  I'm excited for our family to meet friends from all over the world.  My work team is also a very diverse group of people.  We have people from China, US, Ireland, Canada, Scotland, England, Wales, Pakistan and India on the team.  

NIS expo held in the school Gym

The Peru Booth.  I put this in for Ethan in Peru.

NIS Theater.  

Seating in the theater.  They can retract these seats
 back into the wall so there is a large open area. 

Here are some additional pictures I took of the school.

Walk way in between buildings.  

Student Art

Cafeteria

Soccer "Football" Fields

Swimming Pool.  There is also a smaller
kids swimming pool as well.  Normally
opened on Saturday, but closed due to the Expo.

This morning I woke up to some banging outside my window.  I was a little shocked by this since I live on the 53rd floor (top floor).  I looked out the window and saw some ropes swinging around and hitting the window.  A few minutes later I saw someone sitting outside my window.  It was window washing day.  It was amazing.  53 stories above the ground and the guy is sitting on a small board held up by ropes.  I snapped a couple of pictures and watched him for a second.   He had a couple of mates on the next windows over.  Even though he was a foot away from me he made no acknowledgment of me being there.  I guess he get's pretty focused on the job.  Not sure how window washers usually do it, but it was just a single knot that held him up.  He would lessen the slack on the line and gravity would pull him down until he tightened the knot and gravity would keep him suspended.  It was really quite amazing to watch.

Window Washer on the 53rd Floor

It's starting to get warmer in Nanjing.  Not warm yet, just warmer.  The locals say this is the longest winter in 20 years.   Hasn't been snowing or anything, just much colder weather than they usually have this time of year.  It has been 50's or low 60's and is starting to feel pretty good.  Still rains quite a bit.  I'm ok with the cooler weather for now, because I have been here in August when it was almost 100 degrees and about 100% humidity.  There are three "furnace" cities in China because they are so hot.  Nanjing is one of them.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Furnaces

There is a quote describing the heat in the article that I love;  "especially hot and oppressively humid".  Oppressive is a great way to describe it.  So while I look forward to it getting warm, I'm not looking forward to the oppressive heat.  

I have been looking for places to rent.  There are not a lot of places that will fit our size family with our budget.  I have found a few that will work and am getting excited about getting settled into a house.  We will be living in an area called Xianlin.  It is on the northeastern part of Nanjing.  It's about 30 min on the subway to get to downtown Nanjing.  I'm starting to feel a bit more local.  I got my subway card and found a shortcut from my hotel to the subway.  There are a series of underground tunnels from the hotel to the trains.  I found a pretty direct way for me to get there.  It's like a mouse in the maze.  I found the cheese at the end.  It looks like we will make the final move on June 6th.  I am really excited to have the family over here.  It will be great to all be here in China together as a family. I look forward to getting the family all here and then experiencing China as a family.  

  

  

Hello from China

I made it to China.  I left last Thursday March 1, and arrived in Shanghai the evening of March 2nd.  There was a lot going on right before I left.  We had the Blue and Gold Banquet for Scouts the night before I left.  It was a great night.  Alauna is a leader in the Cub Scouts so we were there until about 9-10pm cleaning up.  It was a great night.  It hasn't snowed much all winter, but the day after I left it snowed quite a bit and the driveway was full of drifts.  Larry Fluckiger came over and cleared out the driveway with the snow blower.  Thanks Larry.   

I started my stay in China at the Westin Hotel.  It is nice because it's close to the office.  I just moved to the Crowne Plaza Serviced apartments.  They have quite a bit more space, a small kitchen, and is quite a bit cheaper.  The Crowne Plaza rolled out the red carpet for me.  They sent a car to the Westin to pick me up and when I arrived at the hotel, there were eight people waiting to greet me.  They took me up to the room completed the check in process in my room.  They then brought my luggage up a couple minutes later.  I'm not anything special, but they sure made me feel that way.  It should be a good stay here.  

I went an saw the kids school today.  It will be a great place.  It's a great environment.  The school serves a dual purpose for education for the children and a community center for the families.   There are two pools, a workout area, a dance/yoga studio, a basketball court and soccer pitch all for the families to use when the kids are using them.  They also have a small cafe geared towards the parents.  They have great learning environments.  The art room was a great space.  Lots of room for creativity.  They have a dark room as well as a pottery kiln.  They have chemistry, biology, physics and general science labs.  They also have a great theater and drama rooms.  They don't have a drama program for 11th-12th graders, but they have drama club, so Mikayla can still be in the school productions.  She'll be excited for that.  The school has a very interactive environment.  Each student grades 6-12 will have a Mac book.  They have computers in each classroom as well.  Each classroom also has a projector with smart board in it.  I'm excited for the kids.  I really think they will do well and excel in the environment.  

I started my new job on Monday.  I'm very excited about what we will be doing.  We have a great team.  We have people from China, UK, Ireland, Canada, and US on our team.  We have spent the last few days visiting many Five Star stores as well as our competitors and trying to understand the buying experience for the consumer in Nanjing.  It has been a great experience.  I look forward to the work opportunity we will have here in China.

I have attached a picture of a local Chinese taxi.  These are pretty common in tier three and four cities.  We didn't have the opportunity to ride in one of these, but thought it was worth a picture.  They also have standard car taxis as well.  

I really enjoy the Chinese people.  I try to connect with the locals that I interact with every day.   We had a cab driver that was a bit ornery the other day.  By the end of the cab ride I had him smiling and laughing.  This past weekend, I was walking near Xuan Wu Lake and a guy was selling cotton candy.  It was only about .15 cents so I bought one.  I was eating it and then this guy tried to sell me these candy covered plums.  Another older guy came up to me and told me that the cotton candy was bad for me and had no nutrition but that the plums would be good for my health and I should buy the plums.  I thought is was pretty funny.  I bought the plums.  They were pretty good also.  

I have really missed my family.  Trevon had his sixth birthday yesterday.  I missed not being there.  Trevy did get compensated though for me not being there, however.  I think he had four birthday celebrations, so I suppose he was pretty happy about that.  The family still can't kick the strep virus.  They are all on antibiotics now to try to get the virus out of our house.  I think we have had 9 or 10 positive strep tests in the past 6 weeks.  No fun.  I'm sure grateful for an amazing wife to support me in all my craziness.  I know she would rather stay in the great situation we have in Utah, and I really admire her for her willingness to put everything in storage and move to China.  Alauna, you really are amazing.  I love you.   

Boyd