Lordy. It was a rough, rough day yesterday. Right after I wrote that last entry, I was picked up by the factory guy and we started driving. I told him that I drank too much the night before and he just laughed. He’s such a cool guy. I really like him a lot and have gotten to know him pretty well over the last three years. He has a small family (wife + 1 kid) and we keep up with each other’s lives. He’s taken me to meet his friends a few times…one time he took me to his book club, which turned out to be a lovely dinner with VERY interesting people who were all so kind to speak English.
Anyway. We laughed a bit about the night before and then my stomach started to rumble. Not the hunger rumble, but the other kind of rumble and the thoughts swirling around my head went from a mild concern to a small panic. I knew that even if I did make it to the factory without incident, that there would be no toilet - only a hole in the ground. So I’m dealing with both the possibility of soiling the poor guy’s car AND my lady issues and…just NOOOOOOO!!!
So somehow I summonsed up enough mind control to just keep it all together and on the inside for several hours. I mean, I have NO idea how I did this because it was one of those feelings like I might just possibly blow right up.
I worked through the day, visiting two textile mills out in the countryside. The first mill was a plush factory - they make faux furs for the apparel industry and the home décor industry - really cool stuff! But going through their showroom area was a struggle. I say showroom because that’s where they had all of their fabrics on display (kind of…really more of a dumping of giant rolls of fabric and some large and small cuttings of fabrics), but it was more of a warehouse that I had to dig and dig through. In the dark. That’s right. The only light in this warehouse were some dim bulbs at the top of the tall warehouse and some natural light towards one side of the building. I’d pick some fabric out and then carry it over to the natural light so I could see what I was doing. Over and over until I had a giant pile. My mind was completely occupied, so I didn’t think about the gunk and nastiness that I was holding inside.
We made it through lunch. I will have to describe “simple lunch” sometime. In a nutshell, it’s almost a formal experience, with dishes and dishes and dishes of food just coming and coming one of top of the other onto the giant lazy susan. I’m used to it now, but it used to annoy me having to take so much time out of the day to do this “simple lunch”. But this is a tradition that is enjoyed by the people I work with and it’s a wonderful excuse to get out of the office or factory for a little while, and I enjoy it. We don’t always get to do it - sometimes we get food brought in. But when we do that it’s always something super fatty and gross like McDonald’s or pizza. So it’s best to go out when time allows.
Anyway, got through lunch and another drive to another country area and made it through the second meeting, which was similar to the first: pulling piles and piles of fabrics. The only person who understood English was my factory owner guy, so he did all the translating and really they all just let me do my thing.
I also had to conduct a phone interview from the second place. Best Bud is trying to hire someone in China to help me out with my area. So I got through that and finished my work and then it was time to go. My factory owner guy had to drive back to Shanghai and I needed to get to Wuxi, so one of the other guys from the textile mill drove me to my new hotel for one night. No English was spoken - just a bunch of hand signals and polite nods, laughs and smiles.
He got me safely to my haven. I’ve stayed at this hotel in Wuxi many times and it’s lovely and the bed is awesome.
Made it inside my room by about 6:30 in the evening and my body quite literally exploded. It was rough going for a while, but SUCH a relief! I’m sorry if this is disgusting, but I can’t even describe how much better I felt after expelling all of that gunk I was holding in for a whole day! I was quite impressed with myself and the tricks I was able to play with my brain. You gotta do what you gotta do, right?
After that event, I went to a shopping mall located next to the hotel. It’s actually quite a nice indoor/outdoor mall and it was great to not have a dinner to attend last night. I walked around and shopped a little and got the stares - was clearly the ONLY Westerner in the place. So cute, this little girl was clearly talking about me with her mother and just staring and staring. So I smiled at her and it kind of surprised her, I guess.
Anyway, I was dragging by 7PM, so I went back to my hotel and decided that my dinner would consist of snacks that I packed with me: some beef jerky and nut mix and tootsie rolls. It was delicious. I fell asleep and woke up at about midnight. Got up for a while, watched a little BBC, and then went back to sleep.
And now it’s time to go through all of my emails and start another day. Today I go to a factory in Wuxi with a different group of factory people. I’ll work here all day and then a different factory guy will drive me back to Shanghai, where I’ll stay for one more whole week. I’m not homesick yet, but I miss my dog something awful.
Love you madly - good night and good morning, depending on where you are!
GS
Loading comments...