The ramblings of Steve-0Posts RSS Comments RSS
I found some time and posted some pictures from our trip. I’ll probably posting some more work-related photos tomorrow. Follow the link below:
I just discovered Microsoft Internet Explorer will stop the page from working. If it does, you can click the info bar right under the address bar, and select ‘Allow’ to let the site work as designed. Or better yet, just switch to Firefox instead 
Well, on the plane home now, had a great time in Shanghai, and also acquired some great experience at work. Didn’t do much but work the last few days, as Angie headed back home Wednesday morning. I worked until 9pm the last copule days, and was able to get pretty much everything done that I set out to do. Also, it was nice to actually get back to working out a bit, the hotel actually had a great gym. Will post again with more details and some pictures of work stuff.
One cool thing I almost forgot - I took the Shanghai Mag-Lev train back to the airport, 7 minutes for the whole trip! The train is the only (commercial) one of its kind in the world, it reaches a top speed of 431 kph, and stays there for about a minute and a half. Its pretty cool, at one point it goes alongside a freeway, and the cars just zip by like I’ve never seen before. The train levitates using electromagnets, so there’s no friction besides that of wind resistance.
Hmm, no weird food to report about in the last few daysâ?¦. We had Korean bbq & hot pot last night, which included octopus, clams, oysters, scallops, and shrimp, but those things are just “normal” food to me nowadays
Not as much going on today after a busy weekend. Just worked during the day, Angie and her mom generally just relaxed, and got another massage
At night, we decided to head down to the ‘Bar Street’, about 4 or 5 blocks of pubs & nightclubs in Pu-Shee (west Shanghai). It was an interesting place to be, but unfortunately reminded me a bit of bars in Thailand. Lots of seedy looking bars, all stocked with pretty young girls trying to get you inside ( and then to take them home later). An unfortunate consequence of this, at least judging from the way that people were staring at us, was they thought Angie was my, ahem, “escort”. White guy, walking around with a pretty young Chinese girl, I guess its understandable.
It was a Monday night, and nothing was really happening there, so we hopped in a taxi, and headed back to the German pub. Not really creative, but hey, itâ??s a fun place.
Well, today was another good one overall, but the highlight was definitely the food!!! Lunch and dinner today were definitely the best Chinese food I’ve ever had.. For lunch, we hit a nice restaurant for Dim Sum, and the quality of the food was leagues above what I’ve had before in the US. Ended up stuffing ourselves, and we went back to the shopping/swap meet place to walk it off.
After a long day of shopping, we were invited to dinner with one of Angie’s family friends. He’s, how should I put it, quite rich, so we new we were in for a treat. Ended up at a Cantonese restaurant in a posh part of town, and it was some top quality food. Didn’t stuff myself as much as at lunch, but the food was amazing - I wish we had a place like this in the US, but it would probably be mucho $$$ - tonight’s dinner was somewhere around $250 USD, which is super high for China.
After dinner, his Chauffer gave me a ride back to the hotel, and he treated Angie, her mom, and cousins to a massage at a place down the streetâ?¦ I’m sure she could get used to days like this :)â?¦
Quote of the day: “Look-uh, look-uh! Watches-uh, clothes-uh” -a vendor trying to sell us fake designer stuff
Well, it was my first weekend day here, and finally I was able to sleep in!! A great change after waking up at 5:30 AM yesterday.
Last night, we went out on the town for a bit, at least until I was basically falling asleep at the bar. Luckily our hotel is pretty close to downtown Pu-Dong, so the cab ride was only about $3 US each way. We went to the Jin Mao building, home of the highest hotel in the world. Conexant tried to book this hotel for me actually, but unfortunately, it was already completely booked.
We went to a bar on the 87th floor, with amazing views of Shanghai & the river. It was pretty cool, but not really happening. Had a good time with the wife just chatting and enjoying the view, but was glad Conexant was paying for most of it. We ended up spending something like $40 USD, for 1 drink each plus some ‘Asian Tapas’. Again, was very good, but not worth 40 bucks.
Today, we went shopping at the sort of swap meet out here. The place is really huge, but Angie’s mom was there to help out. I ended up buying to fake watches ;), both Tag Hueur, and quite nice looking if I may say so myself.
Tonight, we went out for my new favorite Chinese food, Sezchuan (pronounced suuh-schwan)â?¦ We stuffed ourselves, and generally couldn’t taste it towards the end of the meal (quite spicy),, but it was so good. On the weird-food-o-meter, tonight’s winner was Duck’s blood. Didn’t really enjoy it (like the other coagulated bloods I’ve sampled over the years 
) , but did try it.
After eating, we ended up in a odd but fun place. uWe went to a pub, with quite a diverse crowd. We’re in China, we went to a German brewery (Pauliner, awesome beer), and listened to a Filipino band/singing group. Hey, who says asia isn’t multicultural?
The quote of the night was from one of the songs the band played. I guess something got lost in translation, but the original song (donâ??t know the name) goes something like ’shake your bootie, shake your bootie.. shake shake shake, shake shake shake,â?¦.’. The verison tonight said ’shake your Buddah
Well, my second full day here, and nothing major to complain about :).
Although, last night I did discover the one thing that I don’t like here- the water. I’ve never tasted any water so foul. Of course, you can’t drink the water, but you know water is bad when you can smell it. Seriously, when you turn on the shower, you can smell the water - a sort of dirt / algae mix, and a similar taste (i.e. when brushing your teeth). We went out for Shanghai food last night, and it was generally good, but it seems that they cooked with the tap water, so any food cooked in water tastes like the Huang Pu (yellow) river, and is generally appaling. I can’t get over how bad the water is here.
Beyond that, it was a productive day at work. I got the new filer installed and configured, and moved most of the equipment around to its final resting place. Lots of heavy lifting, but hey, that’s what they pay me the big bucks for (or not, actually).
I did go out to lunch with Farmer today (The engineering manager @ Conexant Shanghai), and have some more stuff to add to my ‘weird foods’ list. Had an appetizer dish that was Sezschaun style, it was basically stomach and liver, with a bunch of garlic and chili, served cold. I really enjoyed it - it’s so strange that I’ve reached a point where the wierdness of a dish no longer prevents me from eating it. I guess that’s a good thing,I can go out with anyone and be satisfied with the food
Made it in at 6:30 pm last night, got to the hotel around 8. What a place! Definitely worth the 5 star rating, our room is amazing. We upgraded to the ‘club’ level, we get free breakfast, drinks, and laundry with our room for $20 more per day. Since we’re not paying for the hotel already, I figured itâ??s a bargain :).
On Wednesday, we ate at the hotel restaurant, nothing to write home about.
It was a good day at my first day working here - the office is fairly small, but not bad. I only met a couple people, Farmer, Charlie, and Kenny today, and mostly worked with kenny. We went out to lunch for some noodles, I definitely enjoyed it. It only cost $53 RMB (about $6 USD), so I let the company pick up the tab
I do have quite a bit of work cut out for me, a good amount of equipment to install and configure, and a lot of reorganizing of the current equipment to do - the place is a mess.