Chinese National Holiday

October 1st marks the annual celebration of Chinese National Day.  I would liken this to the Fourth of July in the US.  The official holiday is for three days however it is stretched to a full 7 day holiday.  Many companies will have the employees work the weekend prior to the holiday and then take all 5 days of the work week as vacation. Most Chinese use this time to travel back to their hometowns to visit friends and family.  Others plan trips abroad to sight see or just simply relax.

I have heard this time also referred to as Mid-Autumn Festival, New Moon Festival or as Landon says, "It's Moon Cake Day!"  One of the traditions around this time of the year is to give moon cakes to your friends and families.  Moon cakes are hard to describe but the best I can do is liken them to the holiday fruitcake that Americans re-gift, I mean gift, to each other around Christmas time.  More important than the actual cake is the presentation and the gesture of good will.  The moon cakes are packaged in very elaborate gift boxes and each cake is then individually packaged in its own intricate little box. We were advised that we needed to give moon cakes to both our driver and our ayi (maid) or else they would lose face among their fellow peers.  So Cynthia got the scoop on the best ones to purchase from some friends that have been here longer than us and we made sure to not allow any "face" to be lost on our watch. 

Now you are probably wondering what exactly IS a moon cake?  Well, essentially it is a marzipan type center that has been coated with a pie-like crust with some sort of intricate Chinese pattern pressed into the surface.  The filling varies from red bean paste to an actual egg yolk (hard boiled texture) which I think represents the full harvest moon - hence the name as well as the association with the Mid Autumn festival.  We were given a lovely gift box of moon cakes from one of my co-workers.  We have tried them but found them to not be exactly pleasing to the Western palette.  In fact, when I ask my Chinese friends most of them say that they really don't like moon cakes but that they have to buy them every year or else they would be considered being very rude by their families (who really don't care for the taste either but you had better give them to me anyway).  Now that I think about it this whole Moon Cake phenomenon sounds like some sort of a scam run by the Chinese moon cake industry - kind of like Hallmark cards manufacturing fake holidays like National Garbage Collectors day then run sentimental ads that guilt you into buying a card for Gary the Garbageman. (Not sure where that came from - I guess I have some suppressed anger towards Hallmark)

Anyway I want to thank those of you who send notes and comments regarding the blog.  I am glad that you are enjoying these random journal entries.  I think it will be fun to go back a few years from now and recall all the experiences being documented.  I am trying to get you-know-who to try her hand at this as I think she would offer an entirely different perspective.  We'll see.

Random items

Landon has joined the cub scouts and we had our first meeting this past Wednesday.  He is in Den 11 and his Den Leader is Mr. Leung.  Both Cynthia and I attended the den meeting and really enjoyed the time.  Landon is very excited to get his uniform and start working on achievement badges.  We tried scouts with Regan back in the US but the troop was so unorganized that we quickly dropped out.  This troop seems very well organized and should be a great experience.  We even have a camping trip planned - should have brought our tents after all.  Oh well. 

Regan left this Friday for a three day retreat with Abundant Grace International Fellowship (AGIF).  This is the protestant church near our house.  He was rather nervous about going because he only knew two kids.  they have over 150 attending and I am hoping he has a great time and meets some new friends.  It may not have helped that he and I wheeled up on Cynthia's electric trike while all his classmates came by their chauffeured Buicks.  (Our driver had the day off to observe the first day of the National Holiday)

We have only made it to church one time.  They only offer one service and it is at 3pm on Sundays.  Landon's football practice and games go until 2:30 on Sundays and it is very hard to get cleaned up and back in time.  AGIF will be hosting the Willow Creek Association Global Leadership Summit and we are planning to attend.

Cynthia has been battling our appliances and having a hard time getting the upper hand.  First, we had them replace the washing machine as the old one had rust on the outside.  Then the dryer started acting up and you have to jiggle the door handle to get it to turn on.  We called the service center (SC) and they promptly send out the maintenance man (who speaks no English) and he proceeds to explain to Cynthia the "correct" jiggling technique and "Voila" he has solved the problem - (not so much).  Then came the stove - it has two temperatures OFF and BURN.  Even at the lowest setting the temp rises to over 350 degrees.  The Chinese do very little baking so there is correspondingly very little "oven knowledge".  Again the SC sends over the maintenance man, he turns on the stove, it heats up, No Problem!  "I fix"- "You sign here".  Now the only temperature rise is the slow burn that Cynthia is feeling as the SC man leaves.

Mason has been studying Chinese, filling out college applications and doing his best to stay in touch with friends back home.  He and Ali (girlfriend) speak at least once a day and she has even started studying Chinese.  Ali will be coming for a visit just before Christmas and we are all looking forward to her time.  She will be our first visitor unless someone else can beat her to it.  Mason has also made a few friends at Fudan University but it is hard to stay connected as we are about 45 minutes from campus. 

For those of you who receive these posts via e-mail - please go check out the blog and see the new pictures that have been posted.  While you are there be sure to click on an ad or two.  We are going to use the earnings from the Google Ads to donate to a local orphanage.  Each click through earns a small amount and costs you nothing.  So please consider clicking an ad.

On India

I just returned from a one week trip to India with two colleagues from the US.  We began the journey at our facility in Bangalore then travelled to Mumbai and finally ended up in Chennai.  India is a country of contrasts to say the least.  You can find some of the finest 5 star hotels situated next to shantytown slums.  India has some of the best IT infrastructure in the world but has some of the worst road infrastructure as well.  You can look out the car window and see Bollywood stars walking down a 5th Avenue style boulevard only to have your view suddenly blocked by a 11 or 12 year old slum dweller holding and infant and begging for food or money.  India is a vibrant country however that is in the midst of incredible growing pains.  There is activity everywhere as the country tries to keep pace with the huge amount of growth and investment that is flooding into the region from foreign companies.  Its like India is a teenager that has had a growth spurt over the summer but has yet to update its wardrobe so none of its clothes fit quite right.  To be sure, the Indians are a very industrious and hardworking people.  They pride themselves on their rich cultural heritage and are always more than eager to explain the multiple religions, gods and temples that you come across in the course of the day.  Temples and shrines are ubiquitous even to the point of them being set up in our factory.  They place incense and matches next to a statue of Ganesha (the elephant headed God who is a lessor god that handles all troubles in this world) for use whenever they feel a need to pray.  During our time in Mumbai there were two very much anticipated events taking place.  The first was an ominous one as the entire country was awaiting a verdict in a years old court case regarding the destruction of a Islamic mosque by the Hindus.  The judgement has been years in the making and the tensions were very high as the government closed schools for the day anticipating a violent reaction by the "losing" party in the case.  Fortunately, the judgement was postponed due to the Commonwealth Games and all the troubles they have been having there.  I guess the government wanted to limit their "crisis management" to one major issue at a time.  the second event we experienced in Mumbai was of a very different and festive nature - the annual Immersion of Ganesha ceremony.  For this tradition everyone in Mumbai (okay NOT everyone but literally hundreds of thousands) constructs or buys a clay or plaster of paris Ganesha statue and parades it through the streets until they reach either the ocean or lake then proceed to walk the statue into the water where it dissolves away.  This is symbolic of giving all of your troubles to Ganesha and he washes them away in the water - I think.  the statues come in all shapes and sizes with the largest being 20 to 30 feet tall!  Bands of people throng into the street and traffic is all but stopped for hours as the celebration moves toward the water.  The Times of India estimated that over 190,000 Ganesha statues were immersed on this particular occasion!  India's tourism board has coined a slogan that I find absolutely fitting - Incredible India!  I look forward to returning later this year - probably in December or early January.  I just hope they get the verdict settled before I return!  I have added a couple of web links on the blog that pertain to India if you are interested.

Home Again

Just got back from a week in India. For those of you who check the blog on a daily basis - sorry for the inactivity but it was hard to find the time on this latest trip.  However, that is not to say we didn't have an action packed week.  It started out with Mason having to get his student visa finalized along with Cynthia and the boys visas extended.  I think we are all legal now as far as I can tell.  I flew to India on Saturday to join up with some colleagues from the US.  We had a full week consisting of customer visits, a trade show, and meetings with potential distributor partners.  We began our trip in Bangalore, flew to Mumbai on Wednesday and then to Chennai on Friday.  During the course of the week I was able to stroll along the coast of the Arabian Sea (Mumbai) after dinner one evening and one day later walk down to the shore of the Bay of Bengal (Chennai).  We had some time left late Friday afternoon and were able to tour the temples of Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu.  My flight departed from Chennai at 12:01am on Saturday to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia then connected with a flight to Shanghai.  I finally reached home on Saturday at 3pm which means that I had been in the same clothes and without sleep since 5:00am Friday morning!  I was so ready to just relax in the newly organized home that Cynthia had worked on for most of the week before I was told that we had to go with Mr. Dong to replace Cynthia's new ride which had been not-so-affectionately nick named "The Electric Hummer".  I was just coming off my own episode of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" and really wasn't looking forward to yet another drive to the part of town to exchange trikes but off we went anyway.  By this time I was going on 34 hours with only a cat nap here and there on the planes.  When we arrived at the bike shop the owner was waiting for us as Cynthia and Mr. Dong had arranged the exchange the previous day.  Well nothing takes the amount of time that you would expect it to here in China.  By that I mean it always takes much longer.  While Cynthia and our driver pointed out every small detail of the new bike and the shop owner fixed each and everyone,  Landon and I took a stroll in the area where they really don't see alot of westerners.  Landon is a big hit and gets lots of stares and the occasional thumbs up.  By the time we got back to the shop Cynthia had befriended a two or three year old little boy and was exchanging pretend gunfire - she with a finger and he with a plastic AK-47.  It was quite the scene as they battled it out in the street with several amused onlookers.  Finally, the bike was finished after spray painting blemishes, fixing lights, wiring the batteries and the piece de resistance - chinese stickers including flames, flowers and phrases (in Chinese of course which we think say something like "Keep your distance from this one")  We again repeated the drive and follow method to get the trike home - this time with the shop owner as the driver.  We exchanged the bikes (trikes) at home and finally I could rest - after we went out to eat.  Needless to say, I slept very well Saturday night.