Doublemint Dilemma

Take a look at the container for the Wrigley’s Doublemint gum. Now tell me what flavor the gum is (Doublemint is not a flavor). This is where you can get trapped in China or any other foreign country. You look, see Doublemint gum and toss it into the your basket and take it home. Later that day, just when you least expect it, you grab a piece of gum and start chewing……ugh! What the heck is that taste? It starts out slow but begins to build in intensity as you chew. It’s too late now to do anything about it so you suck it up and try and figure out the flavor. And then (dum, dum, DUMMMMM!); it hits you. This tastes exactly like Lemon Pledge smells. [Now for everyone in my family, we know what Lemon Pledge smells like. If any one of my siblings claims not to know, they are either lying or have some serious repressed memory issues.]. Seriously, it tastes like Lemon pledge. Why? Because it is Lemongrass flavor. (Of course!) Who the heck wants lemongrass gum? The Chinese do (and 1.3 billion of them can’t be wrong).

Now, look at the photo again. You see the blades of grass around where it says 64 (something-something-something). It was clearly indicated on the package, although the other side shows the gum and some mint leaves. You’ve got to be a little more careful about what you pick up without taking a second look. This just reinforces the point. You can’t just trust what you know; you’ve got to take a closer look (unless of course you like the taste of Lemon Pledge).

I read a book

You read it correctly, I read a book (now where is my gold sticker?). It’s not often that I start a book and finish it, at least not recently. The year leading up to the move to China, I read many books but most of them were about living in China (“The Expert Expat”, “Third Culture Kids”, Living Abroad in China”, etc). Everything was about getting ready to move to China (it’s always about me). Before that I think the last book I had read was “The Candy Bombers” about the Berlin airlift. A very interesting read describing how the Berlin airlift happened and why it worked. So during our time in the US, we stopped by the Barnes and Noble and looked for books to bring back to read since English books are hard to come by in China. Although I did purchase up one book on Chinese history (which I started to read but it’s very slow progress due to many reasons, one of them being that the professor who wrote the book loves to show off his large vocabulary…I think he’s probably compensating for something), I was still looking for something else to read. Tom Clancy novels used to be some of my favorites but he left me hanging with Teeth of the Tiger and I’m waiting for the end of the story (perhaps he is as well). Being from Maine, I think it’s in your DNA to always check out the Stephen King section. I’m not a big fan of horror stories but not all of his novels are like that. Bag of Bones is one of my favorites written by Mr. King and although it has moments of spooky reading, it’s not what I would consider a horror story.

So, as soon as I walk into the section where the King books should be, I see a large new book called Under the Dome (funny thing, Stephen King’s name is about 3 times the size of the title but I guess they want you to know who wrote it). It is a HUGE book, almost 1,100 pages but when you have to take a plane trip halfway around the world, what else have you got to do? The movies I watched on the flight over, Book of Eli and Wolfman, were about all I wanted to see so I wasn’t really interested in seeing another bad movie (although they had Date Night available so I had a chance to forget the just plain bad movies and kick it up a notch to the simply awful movies). Just to be clear, I didn’t like Book of Eli (kinda dumb) or Wolfman (lots of effects, blood and guts but a poorly written script). Anyhow, everybody knows that you can only kill a werewolf with a silver bullet but in the movie the older werewolf (played by Anthony Hopkins…is he in all of these old school horror flicks?) gets decapitated by the younger werewolf, so he’s dead. Am I supposed to forget about the silver bullet thingy? Perhaps I think too much into it, after all, if the werewolf lived without his head, how would he eat?

Sorry, I digress into my inane babbling again (focus Scott-san). Back to “Under the Dome”. I completed the book in a little less than 10 days so that should give you an idea of what I thought of the book. I also was home by myself so I could do what I wanted and could keep the TV off and just keep reading. It’s the kind of book that draws you in once you make it past the first 50-100 pages of background information on people, places and things. Bad books, either take me a long time or I give up on the book. I’m not going to waste my time reading something “just because” I started it. A bad book can drag on for weeks (months, years) and it’s like watching a bad movie. When it’s over you wonder why you wasted the time. Although, a bad movie is perhaps 3 hours of your time, a bad book is a much larger investment.

Anyhow, it was a good book (although I thought it ended rather rapidly) and would be on my “Dudley’s Book Club” list. Reading is something I haven’t done enough of but it’s tough when you can’t find books in a language you can read. The only thing the kids seem interested in reading are the cheat codes for the video games. Different generations I guess (I still remember the RIF – Reading is Fundamental campaign from when I was a kid) but the school is putting more emphasis on reading this year so hopefully they will improve and perhaps it will give Tammy and I more time to indulge ourselves in some of the other books we brought back with us. Once we have read those, we can start to share them with others and pass along the books. We’ve been told that there are places here where you can swap books with others but we haven’t really got a library of books to swap so it has to count (and I’m sure that our Expat books on China probably aren’t on the top of people’s list of books they want to read). As you might have noticed from the photo, we don’t have a lot of other books in our “library” but if we can share with others, our options will expand rapidly.

Matt-ah

Last week was the last week for Matt in China. He came over to Suzhou for a brief 3 month stay to work and help me with one of my departments. I’ve known Matt for many years and he is a hard worker and someone that I trust to provide input on many things. We both have kind of a strange sense of humor which probably was not understood at all by the Chinese but we always would have fun at work and still get the work done that was needed. Matt arrived in early May and at the end of July it was time for him to go back. If you want, take a look at Matt’s observations of China in his blog which I have linked; Matt’s China Cabinet. The experience with Matt highlights some aspects of living abroad.

Part of the life of an Expat is to accept that most other Expats are only around for a relatively short time. This means that you will meet people, get to know them (a little or a lot, it depends) and then say goodbye (whether it is them leaving or eventually, you leaving). Matt’s situation was the same but also different at the same time. The difference is that I’ve known Matt for a long time. While we worked together back in the US; we only communicated at work and never did anything outside of work (although we talked a lot about things other than work). We worked closely on many projects and so I knew him well and I respect him for his ability to do many things beyond being a machine operator (not that there is anything wrong with that, being a good operator is a great skill to have).

Another part of the Expat experience is to help other Expats become acclimated to their surroundings. When I was told that they had asked him to come over, we communicated via e-mail back and forth to get him ready (at least as ready as anyone can be). As you might imagine, he had plenty of questions and we did our best to get him the right answers. Once here, along with the other Expats here from my company, we helped Matt find his way around Suzhou. We took Matt around to see just a few of the local sights like Tiger Hill, The Master of Nets Garden and Fengqiao Scenic Area. We also took the time to go to Shanghai with him to give him a feel for the city. During his three month stay, it was really nice to get a chance to hang out with Matt outside of work and do things with him that had absolutely nothing with work. The friendship that we had before I left the US grew stronger during his time here and so it wasn’t like he was just another “short termer” in Suzhou. Matt helped me in many ways. He was a sounding board for me when problems came up and he has always had good input. Although I would say I am lucky that some of the kids at work understand English, having someone with experience running the machine that would use the same terms that I used made it much simpler. His experience was also needed to help me to look around the machine and find the causes for different alarms or machine faults. This is where having an experienced maintenance group would come in handy but we’ve got to teach them from the ground up. Sometimes, being “hands on” and wanting to do the work yourself is not the best thing for others. You need to allow people to get to know the machine and the best way is to let them work problems with you right alongside to help. Making mistakes is also something that comes along with that and sometimes the best way to learn is to make an error and then have to fix it. To sit back and let this happen is frustrating but a necessary part of training.

Although he was another foreigner at AJTF he seemed to fit in with most of the young operators very well (although with some it took a little more time). They accepted him since he was one of them and I was viewed a bit differently, perhaps more like a boss. He was told right away that he was “cool” (they never told me that, {sniff, sniff}). Towards the end of this stay, I was able to take a different approach with the kids and that was to meet with them outside of work, which we did (check out the blog post Meeting the Kids and stay tuned for the pending blog post Night in the Tunnel) and I think that has helped build some bridges and better relationships. It was easier to do this with Matt since meeting them on my own would require me to carry the conversation, which is not something that makes me very comfortable. But with Matt’s help I will continue to carry the torch since I think this does make a difference (I was told this a long time ago but I wasn’t really sure that it was true but it turns out I was perhaps mistaken). This will be just one of the many legacy items from Matt’s visit. There will be many more that relate to the machine performance, the skill level of the operators, etc. but those I won’t post since they would probably not mean anything unless you know the operation.

The one other thing about Expat living here is that due to the relative isolation, separation from friends and family; that you (in my opinion) either build stronger relationships or the experience overwhelms you and you compensate through other perhaps self-destructive methods. If you think about it, it’s really a rather simple point. People tend to hang out with people like themselves (which is what would be called a comfort zone). When you are surrounded with people different than you and have a hard time communicating, making a frustrating experience for both sides, you fall back on the comfort zone to keep your sanity. Although Tammy and I have lived at large distances from our families, we were never more than a couple of hours drive or flight away. She has made friends here but as I mentioned in my first point, friends will to leave so you are always meeting new people. Tammy posted this before, here you either decide to open up to people quickly or you are kind of by yourself. To go back to the point, you build a stronger relationship with your family (if your family is with you otherwise it's co-workers or perhaps you find a good friend) since they are the ones that will be there or I think you flounder a little and compensate with whatever else fills the void for you.

So, I started off by talking about Matt and then went off track for a little discussing some of the aspects of living the Expat life (from my viewpoint). The point I was trying to make (I think) is that it was difficult to say goodbye to Matt for many reasons. Because I knew him beforehand, it made the situation slightly different than the standard Expat interaction. I really enjoyed having him over here and getting the chance to know him better. I also greatly appreciate the effort he put in here at work, which was really to help me more than anything else. He allowed me to focus on other departments and other issues that needed my attention without making many sacrifices in other departments. He also helped me to communicate better with the operators. Unfortunately, like many of the other Expats you meet, once they go home, the chances are that you will never see them again. At the end of my time in China who knows where I will end up but the chances of working with Matt again are very slim. So, we’ve known each other for more than 15 years and this was probably the last time we will have a chance to hang out. That’s why it is the same but also different. I will miss Matt being here and hope the best for him upon his return to the US.

HOT!!!

Today in Suzhou it was 98 with a real feel temperature of 120. Now that is mighty hot!!! I know you are asking yourself, “What does “real feel” mean? Real feel is the term used here to describe the combination of heat & humidity to arrive at what the temperature really feels like outside. It was 104 this morning when I went down and hopped on the e-bike for the ride to work. There is zero breeze so the heat just bears down on you and with the high level of humidity, you just can’t seem to sweat right to cool down (although you will sweat!). So Summer has finally arrived (when’s Fall get here?).

On the e-bike, there’s no chance to cool down either. By riding through the heat, it’s like being in a convection oven. I guess you could say by the time I get to work, I’m half-baked (or perhaps I started out that way). My shirt has a nice wet streak down the back where I carry my backpack. Oh yeah, looking mighty professional. You just can’t escape the heat while on the bike although many people try to ride in the little shade provided by the trees (and some even use their umbrella to have some transportable shade). It really doesn’t work much since the tree shade is limited and it’s tough to ride the bike fast while holding an umbrella (Mulan Poppins). The only relief comes from rain since it stays hot even at night. On the brighter side, I can dry a pair of jeans outside in little time (and I’m getting a check from the gov’t for having such a small carbon footprint, thanks Uncle Al)! Back to the e-bike story. I have finally figured a way to describe the experience. It must be similar to being in a NASCAR race. You have a fast car (my e-bike tends to be faster than most of the others since I can easily pass them and few pass me) but each time there is a pit stop (which would be a red light here, although those can be optional) everyone you have passed has a chance to catch up to you while you wait. Then you start again in a large pack and once again have to weave your way through to the front, only to be stopped again by another pit stop (wreck, whatever). This happens over and over on the trip, in the morning it is much easier since traffic is thinner but in the afternoon, forget about it. No one is patient and everyone wants to get around everyone else. They ride 2 and 3 astride, sometimes it’s a group riding together that block everyone’s path until the finally decide to get a clue and ride single file to let the mass loose. There are days where I swear it’s a miracle that there aren’t a bunch of e-bike on e-bike crashes since they seem to relish coming as close as they can to your tire as they cut you off. This is why being at the front of the pack makes more sense. You can ride along, looking in the mirror but keeping your focus on what’s ahead (like that bus turning right just…about….now!!!). I’m more comfortable riding the e-bike than I was a month ago but there are days where I feel that it’s just a matter of time. Losing some of that fear is what gets you into trouble, you start to take the risks that you know aren’t really the prudent move. I haven’t had many close calls but it doesn’t take a lot to ruin your day. I’ve driven past some of the carnage but never seen the incident, which is a good thing because I’m not hanging around either way (foreigners standing around could be blamed for the problem). It’s tough to describe exactly how many other e-bikes there are and how they all intertwine into the mass on two wheels headed in your direction (and some on your side of the road headed against the grain). I’m going to get photos one of these days, perhaps I can con the kids into taking them of the kind of traffic that exists in the afternoon (since the afternoon is when the fun begins. I think it would surprise you but maybe not.

So, what do you (meaning me) do in this kind of weather? Stay inside and hope your air conditioner holds out! I went out over the weekend and I started sweating as soon as I walked out the door. It was crazy hot; I think it got to 127 on Sunday. This global warming stuff must be for real; I don’t remember it being this hot in Suzhou when I was a kid (think about it).
Tammy and the boys get back home tomorrow. They had their flight cancelled in Detroit so they had to stay in the Motor City (can it still be called that?) an extra day (again; but that’s another story) and try again tomorrow. I hope they get out this time, They are about to endure the long journey and I hope that they get some sleep on the airplane. On my return flight, I had a complete row to myself so I was able to lay down and get some decent sleepy time (at least for me, I don’t sleep well on a plane especially with the stupid seatbelt sign turning on and off with the announcement). It made the transition back to Suzhou time a little easier although I must admit that this week has been tougher than the first week back. It seems that the jet lag has taken hold more now than before, I don’t know why.

Next time I blog, things should be back to normal with all of the Suzhou Dudley’s once again residing under the same roof and driving each other crazy but what else is new.