OK - I’m still on the plane, but we’ve crossed the International Date Line and we’re now somewhere over Siberia. It’s November 3rd where I am, and I want to try to keep up with this entry a day nonsense as best I can. So here I am. I feel like I haven’t moved much, but we are moving right along! Coach sucks, but any 15-hour flight does. There’s 5 hours and 45 minutes left in this flight. I think I’m gonna be OK. But talk to me after I land, please.
…Later, much later:
Okay, so I didn’t get to finish the entry yesterday, and though it’s still November 3rd back home, it’s already the morning of November 4th where I am. I don’t know that I’ll be able to get an entry in tonight for Nov. 4, but I’m going to try. We’ll see.
So let’s see, where were we? Oh right, the flight.
OMG, the rest of the flight was tough. I did not sleep one wink on that 15-hour flight and it was rough going after the last entry. It was fine enough, but I just can’t sleep sitting up and I got super antsy. Was lucky in that it wasn’t a full flight and there was nobody in the middle seat in my bulkhead row, but it was still pretty excruciating during the last bit.
Then the factory owner picked me up at the airport and drove me to the (really bad) hotel, where one of my colleagues was already staying. He’d picked out the hotel based on (supposedly) location, but he got it all wrong. See, it’s actually a good location for my meetings today, but not for him. He got it wrong.
It’s a Chinese hotel, and again, I’m not really a prima donna, but I prefer to stay in Western hotels when I come over here. The Chinese way of staying in hotels is different that what we’re accustomed to, so…my bed is harder than a rock. And if you think I don’t know what I’m talking about, think of a board basically on the floor with just a piece of plywood that gives just a little bit under a block of something that’s not even foam. It’s bizarre. And there are only two tiny little “porthole” type windows in my room! You can’t see out of my room at all because they are waaaaay up high, like 10’ up. I seriously feel like I’m in jail. And there are NO English channels on the TV. Every single channel is in Mandarin, so I’ll see if I can get some news online after I finish this entry.
Can’t wait to see what the breakfast is like!
(Sarcasm)
But I did get to go to one of my favorite dumpling places last night, even though I literally fell asleep in the factory owner’s car going there and going back.
And I did get to see Best Bud after she flew in from South China pretty late. She’s been traveling for about 6 days already. We had a glass of wine in her room - she brought her own little cups of wine - Copa, have you seen these? They are pre-packaged glasses of wine! We chatted and laughed until almost midnight.
I got 3.5 hours sleep, which is pretty normal for a first night here. I will be dying later tonight, and we’re going to one of my favorite restaurants in the WORLD for a big relationship-building dinner with a new factory owner and I’m exhausted thinking about it.
But I’m up and making weird Chinese coffee in my room. We are staying close to a park that I like, so I’m going to get up and take a nice walk and maybe some photos and then start my new day!
Hope to see you on here later!
Love,
GS
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