Visitors from the USA

A few weeks ago, we had 3 girls visit from the US. They were student reporters covering the Olympics. Quinn was from Brookings, so they ended up visiting Daktronics Shanghai for a morning. She is writing articles for the Brookings Register - here is the one that she mentioned us in.

She also has a blog of her own where she posted more about Dak Shanghai and some photos.

Boots

Boots got a new toy - a kitty tree house with 4 different levels. She likes to sit on it and look out over the city.

I have to admit, her new favorite thing is due to the fact I saw it on WoAi's blog! His kitty Tommy has one. Wendy ordered it from China's version of eBay for us (everything was in Chinese.) The best part is that it was about 1/3 of what it would cost in the USA.

Oh, and she likes it so much that she hasn't sat in her box AT ALL since we got it.

Occasionally I like to use my 50mm 1.8f lens. It makes it super easy to get photos with just one area in focus.

Fisheye view from the roof

We went up to the roof to watch the sunset. It didn't actually sink behind the buildings, but quite aways above them where the smog covered everything. The fisheye captures 180 degrees but distorts everything. It can have some cool effects.

Steve and Jon looking out to Zhongshan Park.

The guys were debating if they hit golf balls from the roof, could they land on the track at the girls' school below? Things soon got into discussions of trajectory and such... engineers....

Construction site

We had a big storm with lots of lightning, and took about 80 photos with exposures of 30 seconds each, trying to get a shot with a lightning strike. Unfortunately it was pretty much just the lightning that lit up the whole sky. I do like the stars of light from this construction site though!

Another time lapse

Yet another one... I think maybe they are all too similar!
But I still really like the view of Shanghai from our balcony.

The Blarney Stone

Friday night Jon Settingsgard and Steve Gokie and I went to the Blarney Stone for supper and some drinks. Jon came later after he got back from Hong Kong. At 1:30 AM they rang the bell for last call. Soon after than, a large group of girls came in. A couple had on Canada shirts and
all of them had Olympic passes. The soccer events are held in Shanghai.

A quick Google search on my cell phone brought up the headline "Canada falls to US in women's soccer." The team was there to drown their sorrows or else celebrate just being at the Olympics. They certainly livened up the bar!

Jon, Jon and Steve

Jon hanging out - don't you love his new glasses?

They put on some great American music... I miss this!!


Me and Christine Sinclair, the team captain. We think she looks bit like our friend Jen Connors, but not in this photo.

Jon then bought a bottle of vodka for them. They were pretty excited, but got his name wrong. :-)


Needless to say, the bar stayed hopping long, long after closing time. One of their coaches told us that this was the first time in over a year the girls even drank.

Olympic Venues

Now that I'm in Beijing I wish I would have tried to get tickets for something. Actually, I probably only would be super interested in the opening ceremony. I'm not so big into sports.

But, being here 1 day before 08/08/08, my co-worker Yvonne and I had to check out the most famous things - the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. Hundreds of other people also had this idea!

The Bird's Nest. The whole Olympic village was blocked off (obviously) so all photos are taken through the fence.

The Water Cube. LED lights behind the bubble-surface make it change colors.

I totally don't get this sign. No exploding cars from 6 AM to midnight? The taxi driver said it was to warning drivers not to bump into other cars, but I'm not buying that. Any other ideas?

CCTV

Daktronics has a few displays at the new, famous CCTV building. I went to Beijing to give them software training. It would have been cool to be allowed on site, but the control room behind the display was the closest I got.


The curved HD display is on the left (turned off.)

Beijing Air

Tuesday I went to Beijing to give training. Since everyone is freaked out about the air quality in Beijing, I thought I would post a few links about it.

Here is one article with lots of good links, like to BeijingAirBlog.com and Clean Air Initiatives Asia. Here are photos of US athletes wearing masks in the airport. That got a lot of attention, but no one mentions that locals wear those surgical masks a lot too!

I just learned that the average Air Pollution Index in Beijing is 100, which is six and a half times the World Health Organization’s guidelines for long-term exposure. Great. Shanghai's is lower, but not that much lower!!

Does Rolls Royce really make airplanes for Air China?

You actually don't see many white fluffy clouds here, so I thought these deserved a photo.

Harley-Davidson Shanghai

Chad needed to go to the Shanghai Harley-Davidson store to pick up gifts for his family. There are stores in Beijing, Qingdao and Shanghai.

Chad and Jon with the owner of the store. He pulled up on his bike just as we were leaving. He must have some REALLY good guanxi - bikes are actually illegal inside of Shanghai's 3rd elevated road and have to be registered in Beijing.

We stumbled upon a park a couple blocks from the store so decided to check it out. It was a little strange - it didn't seem like a Chinese park at all. Here we even got the whiff of freshly cut grass. That's not something you experience very often in Shanghai.

The park was pretty much empty too - this is very unusual!

the Radisson Sky Bar

When Hanna and Henrik were here, we looked at the Radisson bar from the Le Meridian and thought it "looked pretty cool." We decided to try it.

Upon arrival, we decided it wasn't cool. There was a band from the Philippines, singing cheesy songs and doing bad dancing.

Chad and Jon hurrying to finish their drinks so we could leave. :-)


"Silver threads and golden needles..."


More dancing/singing madness...

This guy was great.... permed mullet, fanny pack, orange pants and what appeared to be a Wii guitar.

A bath on Nanjing Lu

I was a little surprised to see this guy taking a bath on Nanjing Lu. He was standing in his underwear and was using a hose in a planter to fill a red bucket, then dumping the water over himself. You can see anything on the streets here!

789 Nanjing Lu

Jon, Chad and I went to 789 Nanjing Lu on Friday night. It was a pretty clear night so we had a decent view. But, it wasn't a very good atmosphere so we left after 1 drink.

Poor Boots!!!

Today I took Boots to the vet. When Inge was here, we noticed that she seemed to be getting scrapes on her neck, then one appeared on her chest. Yesterday the one on her chest seemed to be getting even bigger, so we decided she should get looked at.

I took her to PAWS which may be one of the only foreign-run vets in Shanghai. The first thing he said was, "I'm going to have to shave her to get a better look." So, she has a funky haircut now. Luckily, it is NOT fleas!! The doctor thinks that it is a fungal infection. We just have to put ointment on twice a day.



I also asked if she was too fat. The answer: yes. He said to be fair, she is a "large lady" - she has a big head and is long (sorry Boots, you are just big-boned.) She weighs 5.85 kilos right now and he wants her to get to 5 kilos in 6 months. He talked a lot about how cats typically eat 10 to 20 small meals a day, like mice or other small things, so we feed them all wrong by doing it twice a day. For other cat owners, here is a link to a site that he recommended to me.

You can all help in the fight against obesity by sending her toys! She needs more stimulation. One thing we are supposed to do is feed her 11 tiny meals throughout the day and night, and put them all over the house. Then she has to move to get them (kinda like getting prey).

Up on the roof

We went up to the roof so I could get a time lapse video of the sunset. I had to do the time laspe by hand because my laptop was dead. That sucked.

Inge's photo - I really like the angle.

Another of Inge's photo - good eye. I would have never thought to take photos of the dishes (all perfectly legal, I'm sure) but the it turned out well.

Zhongshan Park (I took this one.)

Jiangsu Lu is the street you can see (all of the orange-looking light.)

Time laspe from the roof

789 Nanjing Lu

Saturday night was Inge's 2nd to last night here, so we decided to go out. We went to the "taser", otherwise known as the Le Meridian hotel. They have an expensive bar that overlooks Nanjing Lu.

Inge got a little burned in Hangzhou yesterday. She is wearing one of the dresses she got made at the fabric market. Jon is in a fabric market shirt too (as usual).

Beijing Railway South

I went up to Beijing to help with the data part of the displays that are being installed now at the new Beijing Railway South Station. It was a huge construction site, and my "head-back-turn rate" dramatically increased. I don't think many of the migrant worker men expected to see a foreign woman on the construction site.

The Chinese version of the Keyframe logo animation, created by Hugo.


The main hallway - it's HUGE!

Another one of the 11 displays, in the main hall.

Unfortunately, my laptop crashed! I was working the next day and it crashed. Then repeatedly blue-screened before even getting to the login screen. I was pretty freaked out that all of my data would be lost! That day I flew back to Shanghai and our wonderful IT guys Aaron and Michael had a new laptop waiting for me AND got all of my data off my old one. Whew.

Beijing's new T3

I think I have blogged about T3 earlier. The place is getting tons of attention, so I guess it is worth a couple posts. Here's a few more photos.

Security in Beijing is really up. So you definitely want to get there a few hours early (usually to only sit on a delayed plane.) But, due to enough frequent flyer miles on United, Jon and I have access to the business class lounge so we can chill out and work (or not if your laptop is dead) or read while killing a couple hours.

The pollution level is supposed to be down and the air quality way up, according to the media. However, the sky doesn't seem to have cleared up a lot to me.

Only half the private cars are on the road. At first I was really confused - the city seemed so empty but it should have been filling up for the Olympics? Then I figured it out... half the cars made it seem like there were a lot less people. There is a special lane for Olympic vehicles too.

The airport is new and nice. I did notice that they just fixed some Chinglish too. The escalators used to have signs that said "Take care of oldster and children" but they've changed it to "Take care of elderly and children." I should have gotten a photo earlier.

Fashion Friday from a fellow blogger

This is probably the best post on fashion I've seen. Don't miss it!!

Time lapse of Boots in her box

I took a photo of Boots sitting in her box every 10 seconds for about an hour. It's pretty funny to watch her head bob around. She is content to just sit there for hours. My last post about her in the box got 5 comments... which is way more than I usually get.

Plastic surgery

The Propaganda museum is so close to our house that we just walked back. On the way we noticed this sign for "New Face Plastic Surgery." I guess it's great if you want a whole new face!

Propaganda Poster Museum

We also went to the Propaganda Poster Museum. It's a private collection and we met the owner. A lot of the posters were destroyed right after the Cultural Revolution so it was pretty amazing to see so many posters from throughout so many years.

We bought this one - it's a unique one because it is felt.

the Shanghai Aquarium

Today Inge, Jon and I got up fairly early and went to the Shanghai Aquarium. Unfortunately it wasn't a pleasant experience.


There were thousands of people, and it is not the culture to stand back and let everyone have a look. Instead, everyone tries to push their way to the front to see. I guess the mentality is if you don't fight for it, you won't get it. Parents would throw their kids up against the glass for photos and bang on the glass (as the signs clearly forbid.) There were thousands of kids screaming with excitement - it was just a bit too much for us.

Videos from the aquarium

People watching

It was much more interesting watching the people at the aquarium than trying to see the fish!

Here we have a nice large man-bag, murse, or whatever you'd like to call it.

Red and orange - anything goes in Shanghai!

Most ladies here wear ankle-high nylons with their sandals or shoes. Another common thing is to wear shoes that aren't even close in color to the rest of the outfit. (yellow shoes, pink shirt)

Most Shanghai girls wear their shorts short. The almost-mullet crimped hairstyle is popular too.

Inge

Our friend Inge, who we went to school in Sweden with, arrived on the 13th. She'll be here about two weeks. Inge's suitcase was loaded with goodies for us! Boots even got a present! We love Stroopwafels so she brought 3 packages of them, some books for me, and a game called Moods that we ordered from the US and played a lot in Sweden.

One of the best part about having visitors is when they cook for us.... :-) Inge made nasi, with her family's secret peanut sauce. She made it for us several times in Sweden and it is SO good!! She'd also sent us packets to make it in the US, but we couldn't quite get the secret sauce right. We really enjoyed getting it again.

Hugo's wedding

Hugo, one of the Keyframe animators, got married on Sunday.

Jasmine and Hugo

One of the cool things about a Chinese wedding is that the bride will change dresses at least three times. So she gets to wear a few of her favorite dresses, not just one.

David, Jimmy, Ryan, Sofia and Yvonne taking a shot of baijiu.

The Dak group with the beautiful, happy couple!

Signs of a non-laborer

In China, it is desirable to show that you don't have to do physical labor for a living. For example, pale skin is very important - some girls have even said that it's the most important thing when determining how beautiful a girl is.

Another one of these signs is long nails. Many times taxi drivers will have a very long nail on their pinky finger. Jon S. sat next to a guy on a train with very long nails, and when he fell asleep Jon took a photo! I have no idea how people can keep nails this long - mine break off as soon as they are getting a little length.

Where the Hell is Matt....

I've blogged about this guy before - now he is in the New York Times. I bet I have watched his new video 10 times already. Be sure to click on his other videos and watch them as well.

Everyone who watches them has a different reaction. Matt purposefully doesn't say what message he is trying to convey. Watch them yourself and leave a comment!


2008



2006



2005

Sky in Shanghai

On Wednesday I saw tons of people taking photos in the street with their cell phones. A LOT of people. I looked up and saw a rainbow! Now, you'll recall that almost none of my photos have a clear blue sky in them. Mostly, they are foggy or smoggy. So a rainbow was really special.

I couldn't resist getting a photo of everyone else getting photos!

My co-worker Yvonne (she's Shanghainese) said that she remembers seeing one other rainbow, when she was in elementary school. Just shows how special a rainbow in the Shanghai sky is!

Summer in South Dakota

Last month, a few of my co-workers from Shanghai and Macao went to South Dakota. Judd took a some people from the A/P region to the lake and Andy Tai (from our Macao office) shared these photos with us. Seeing these actually made me homesick for the first time since moving to China. Thanks for letting me put these photos up, Andy!

Beautiful blue sky, blue water... this is what SD looks like at the lake in summer!

Typical SD farm

Andy (PM in Macao), Fred (head of Shanghai repair center), and Gina (process engineer)

Judd driving his boat

the work never ends.... Jon S.

Fred and Gina taking photos of Judd

Jon trying to do a flip

Happy 4th of July!!

Well, it's the 4th and all of our friends back home are probably grilling, drinking and playing lawn games. *sigh* Wish I was there too!!

Dan and Wendy came over tonight and somehow we started talking about Schoolhouse Rock. (YouTube has about everything you can imagine on it, so we jumped on to show them some clips.) It just so happens that each of the things we played were pretty patrotic.

Enjoy the trip down memory lane!









and one of the most popular ones.... Conjunction Junction!

Boots in a Box

Yesterday, Kelly (sales coordinator from the Beijing office) came to the apartment so she and Jon could put the official company chop on hundreds of bid documents. She brought all of the documents in a box, which Boots loved.

She's always had a box addiction. This lid is her favorite type of box. The sides aren't too high, and it's small enough that she needs to curl up to fit in it.

I think she's spent about 80% of her time in the box since Kelly gave it to her. At this very moment, she is sleeping in it with her head curled down and tail sticking out. Today I told Xiao Huang not to throw it away since Boots likes it so much. Thanks Kelly!

Shanghai guys

As we were leaving Era, I noticed that Dan was carrying Wendy's purse. You'll notice many guys in Shanghai carrying cute little purses - mostly belonging to their girlfriends. I promptly complained about how Jon never carried my pink purse.... so he very grudgingly obliged and glared at Dan.

The moment was too good to miss. I don't think Jon will ever volunteer to carry my purse. He thinks pink isn't his color.

Era - Shanghai Circus World

Last night we saw "Era" with Dan and Wendy. It was amazing!! It is an acrobat show similar to Cirque de Soleil but with a very Chinese style.

You aren't supposed to take video, but you can find anything on YouTube.




These guys were amazing. Super flexible and they did about 3 different scenes that were amazing - the first one was like the West Side Story gangs.




This was the finale. It's a Death Cage with eight motorcycles in it! When there were four motorcycles, they start crossing paths and we actually saw a wreck. Two collided and had to be taken out. The guys seemed OK but one of the motorcycles didn't roll out. They promptly added two more and did the trick, then added two more so six circled all over (no crossing!) and then two more came in and circled at the bottom. Just crazy.