New pics are up!

Qingdao, Canton Fair, and Budapest are up! Check them out here.

Budapest!

Well, I am in Budapest, or more specifically I am in Pest (pronounced Pesht). It is a really beautiful city (I'll put pics up later)... its as beautiful as Paris, but with more of a ... Russian? flair. I can't quite put my finger on it. I spent this morning wandering the city. After going the wrong way on the tram, I finally made it into the center of the city. I visited the Palace (now the Budapest history museum) and Hero's Square. Later this afternoon I will walk to Parliment and have dinner at a nice Hungarian ourdoor restuarant (with some nice local Hungarian Pilsner).

Oh well, I had better go for now... my adapter doesn't work in my hotel room and I am going to run out of battery!

I miss Wawa

I miss Wawa terribly. You would think I got used to not having Wawa when I lived in Hanover, PA but I would go home every few weeks. I've now gone 10 months without a delicious Wawa turkey hoagie. Give me that and some Wawa green tea. Oh, and some pepperoni pizza Combos.


And I wonder why I'm overweight...

Chinese English names

Most Chinese here who speak English well choose an English name for themselves. The great thing about the names they choose is the fact that they don't stick to traditional names, or even names at all for their chosen monicker. Here is a list of some of the Chinese people I've met in the past 9 months. M/F is male/female.

• Apple (f)
• Cherry (f)
• Lucifer (f).. (yes, she knew what it meant)
  
• Rabbit (f)
• Answer (m)... ( I was really hoping he had a friend named Question)
  
• Super woman (f)
• Purple (m)
• Snow (f)
• Dragon (m)
• Otter (f)... (yeah, Animal House)
• Lulu (f)
• Ambition (m)
• Invincible (m)
• NBA (the kid is 6'6")
• Echo (f)

With names like these, you would think that most of the older Chinese population lived through the Hippie era, not the Cultural Revolution. Don't get me wrong... I'm not making fun of these names, I just think it is really cool that you can choose any name you want to and have everyone in society think it is a normal name. Sure, I could go in to any local courthouse in the States and change my name to Wisdom McPowerful, but everyone would think I was nuts. Here, that name would be perfectly acceptable.

Professor Harvey

Yesterday I gave a presentation on Human Resource Management at the Shandong Institute of Business and Technology. Haha.. me, a college professor. God help the Chinese youth! Basically I gave an introduction of my company, discussed the difficulties of working in an international joint venture (for both myself and Chinese staff), and had a question/answer session afterward. I was one of three guest speakers from local companies (but the only whitey). After class we had a nice dinner with the school's officials, some members of the local government, and some of the top students in the class. It was pretty interesting!

Upcoming...

I have some exciting things on the books for the next few weeks.

May 22: Fly to Budapest

May 23: Drive to Slovakia for first business meeting

May 24: Drive back to Hungary for meeting in Kecskemet

May 27: Meet up with my friends Fargus, Eli, and Josh in Beijing for a few days before coming back to Yantai

June 7? Show my friends around Yantai for a few days

End of June: Meet my parents somewhere in China... probably in Beijing

Send my parents traveling around China and then show them Yantai

Now I'm just waiting to hear about that trade show in Dubai... hope that one comes through.

Today is very hot!

Jintian hen re ! Wo xiang he leng shuai kashi meiyou leng shaui, women you re shuai. Wo bu hui he re shuai !

Stream of thought

Just because I need a 5 minute break from my work or I am going to go all Bruce Lee on someone's butt... so, back by popular demand (meaning, I wanted to), here is another Stream of Thought

New Factory
Hungary
Hungry
Food
Banana
Monkey
Thailand
Beach
Beaches the movies
Barbara Streisand
Mike Meyers
Wayne's World
Garth
Dana Carvey
President Bush Sr. (vague reference... had to have watched first episode of Dana Carvey Show)
W.
DW
Darkwing Duck

And people say I don't have ADHD...

BalereearghHHHH!!!

Please could someone explain to me why Hotmail is randomly unblocked in China now? I can almost understand them wanting to block it... ok, so they make the decision to do so... don't they realize that only sometimes blocking a site will not help them achieve their goal of total citizen ignorance to the outside world? If you're going to do something, do it right people! Don't do a half-ass job of it!! Do it properly, or don't do it at all!!!!*

There... I'm better now.

*and by do it properly, I mean still overlook the Outlook window. I like being able to check my email.

Stressed...

...would hardly begin to describe how I feel right now. I just realized that I will be in Hungary in 10 days giving a presentation on the financial implications of starting a new factory in China. I HAVE SO MUCH TO DO IN THE NEXT 10 DAYS!!!

Nick: 1, Chinese government: 0

Take that you Commies... you thought you'd be all Big Brother and block Hotmail because it was providing your citizens with too much unrestricted info from the outside world... well, you may have caused me not to receive my precious "Get a larger penis", "Become a millionaire in two weeks", and "Busty blonde bucksome bimbos" junk email for a whole two days, but I have beaten you and your antiquated internet filters.

Ok, so I found out that if you check your hotmail using Outlook, it still works... who knew that Microsoft was actually good for something?

Hotmail blocked?

For the past two days I have not been able to login to Hotmail, in fact I have been unable to even get to the login screen. Anonymouse doesn't even work to get there. Not being able to check my emai is driving me crazy!!! Did the government block it or is their server just having issues?

Mac Truck

Today I feel as if a Mac truck has hit me. At first I couldn't quite figure out why... I've been sleeping quite well recently. Today I went to have a full battery of medical tests so that I can get my Chinese residency card and according to them I'm fine. Sitting here today and looking at all of the other staff in the office, seeing how absolutely tired everyone is, it finally occured to me why I think I am so tired. Its these six day 60 plus hour work weeks... and the really kicker of it is, I can't complain because A) Its what I expected, B) I only work 6 days per week, whereas the other staff usually work 7, and C) I am getting paid a western salary when they are getting paid less than normal Chinese salary.

Any why am I getting my Chinese residency, you ask? So I can get my Chinese driver's license of course! Lets just say that I am sick and tired of being in the back seat of a car, praying for dear life that the insane Chinese driver is going to get me to my destination without killing myself and half a dozen pedestrians at the same time. The company's new driver is the worst... I cringe when I walk out of my apartment in the morning and see him sitting in the driver's seat. I actually scream at him to slow down when he is driving, which I am sure transcends language barriers, but does he listen.... nope. At least if I am driving the company's car I will have more control over things. No more driving at 95 mph down city streets, no more passing cars on around a blind corner, no more driving on the wrong side of the highway, no more... well, you get the idea.

In other news... at the end of this month I will be traveling to Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary on business. I originally thought I would be going to Moscow also, but that portion of the trip fell through. On my way back to China, I will be stopping in Beijing to meet up with my friends Fargus, Josh, and Eli. That will be great to see them. And then, only a month or so later my parents will be coming to China to visit. Really looking forward to showing everyone around!

Dwarf Bar

A few nights ago my friends and I went to the coolest bar in Yantai. They had been talking all evening about a dwarf bar near my apartment, but I didn't believe them so they decided to take me. Much to my disappointment, when we entered the bar/coffeehouse everything was the normal size and I accused them of pulling my leg...

...and then we went upstairs. The entire second floor of this place was only about 5.5 feet tall, with an even smaller section maybe 4 feet tall. It even had tiny little tables and chairs!

Definitely the coolest place to have a beer in Yantai!