Day One at Guangzhou, and why I cant sleep here

My body clock is still all messed up and I'm awake at 3am and 5am here, hopefully I can go back to sleep for a few hours so I can have a productive 13 hour day here. I'm not really sure how these guys do it, 8am to 9pm every day with an hour for lunch and dinner. Factory work is crazy. When I walk around and learn about things I'm usually talking to Amy or Evya our translators/helpers, while they understand us very well I realize that the person doing the factory work has no idea what we are saying. The language barrier is at times impossible to fill.

The factory conditions are really quite nice. Well this is not to say I have ever worked in anything like this place, they all seem relatively relaxed and generally enjoying themselves. Faded jeans, nikes and designer shirts are all the rage and I'm amazed how trendy some workers look. I dont know what I imagined them wearing but some look like they are ready to go clubbing, but instead they are assembling some part of a ski.

The food is incredible. Hopefully in a week I will be writing the same thing, but its really quite delicious. I fill a small bowl with steamed rice and sit down a a large round table covered in food. Here my english speaking counterparts, all 5 of us, and a few cantonese speaking office workers watch chinese soap operas at maximum volume. There are about 8plates of food in front of you to pick off of and consume. none of the food is what I have ordered at Panda express or restaurants but its close, and so far I cant complain. I have a 2" long cockroach lying in the middle of my room right now, i'm hoping he doesnt crawl into my clothing bag, and my bed i suppose too.

After work last night while I was desperate to fall asleep Ken and I walked to the night market for a few beers. 6beers, 4red bull energy drinks, and a pack of some gummy candies ken likes cost us a little under 5dollars. People are outside everywhere at night. I need to go out again later this week and explore more at night but its overwhelming. Also the fact everyone stares at you is great and some kids yell in excitement of seeing a white person. I'm not sure where all the bikes with passenegers on the back are going, or what the guangzhou'ites do at night but I'm hoping to find out.

Eben and I may be off to some indoor skiing this weekend, we've both agreed to snowboard if we go. There is also an outdoor waterpark we are debating, all a few hours from our factory. I will also be off to the DVD store later this week, they just got Shrek3 in and Spiderman3 too, If i get bored I know what i'll be doing. Anyways its 5:20am for me and I better try and sleep a little more. My bed is very firm, pillow undersupportive, but the bug net surrounding the bed is made of expensive lace with ducks designed into it. Priorities

Hong Kong part 1

First off because i'm writing this from China, everything on my page is in chinese, and I dont recognize the characters yet, so this may or may not make it to the internet.

We have arrived in Hong Kong after a short train ride from the airport to our stop at Kowloon. Its just like I have seen pictures of but never really paid attention too. Huge buildings holding thousands of people stacked side by side litter the side of the tracks, it feels surreal. We check in at the Harbor Plaza Metropolis where a doorman takes our bags to our room. My room is small, has 2 of the smallest beds I have ever seen, there is no view out the windows as they are covered in condensation. It was about 87degF at 8pm and humidity was high. Eben and I took a shuttle to Hong Kong from the hotel, I suppose it would be like traveling from Capital Hill in Denver to Denver, not a far ride at all. We walked the streets and were offered suites, jewelry, electronics and massages. Nothing is cheap in Hong Kong, and our venturous taste buds will wait until tomorrow, tonight we ate Pizza Hut.

Pizza Hut is not like you know it though. They serve shrimp cocktail, fresh seafood, and of course pizza and pasta. To accompany my pizza I ordered a “Black Cow on Rocky Road.” Basically a coke with a scoop of rocky road ice cream on top. A Hong Kong recipe for indigestion.

Tomorrow we ride the train to Guangzhou to the factory, hopefully they have air conditioning or I’ll have to get lighter weight pants.

Sunburns/iceburns and skiing on a volcano

Well my weekend was good, I relaxed friday night and spent much of saturday doing the same. From resting I loaded up my car with 3 coworkers and drove down to Portland OR for a day of skiing at Mt. Hood. Staying at a coworkers house in Portland we woke up after a half sleepless night on the couch and headed to the mtn. Above the clouds Mt Hood sits with yearround snow and great summer conditions. Skiing in a sweatshirt in sunny weather I had my first day of warm skiing since moving to the northwest. Im ready for our 08 testing season to begin, I will be back at Hood a few more times this summer for work. Hood is a cool place, mostly buried in the winter it has almost too much snow. Getting back into Seattle late I went to bed to work an early monday morning, where I missed my 7:05 ferry. Next week I fly to denver on thursday night, Adams wedding for the weekend then off to Hong Kong for 2 weeks. In hong kong I'll be posting more pictures and blogs than usual, to keep you all informed on which mammals i'm eating.

Hiatus

While not an intentional break in blogging I have just been too busy. In my time sans-blogging I have visited home in Colorado for a weekend and worked a bunch, and went to a work costume party. First off hometrip

The night before going to CO some friends and I bbq'd on the beach, watched sailboats/seals and had a mini bonfire. Its pretty cool looking out over puget sound and seeing the sun set over a mountain range and ocean. Who knew seattle was surrounded by mountains and had the ocean too. My shoes still smell like campfire. Colorado was a blast. I spent friday with catherine throwing a huge frisbee around in a park in Boulder only later to go eat dinner with my parents. Friday night a quick stop in with rob and ashley at her(their) house in superior and the day was pretty much over. Sat was spent with catherine doing random boulder things followed by ski team party for 2 hours, then denver for the night. A little bar-hopping then back to jeff's for a nice sleep on a love seat. Parents house the next morning and flight out sunday night. Quick weekend but really good to see these people who dont live in WA.

Work has been hectic. We are currently prototyping and getting the 08-09 skis modeled and prepared for production this fall and its crazy here. I've got a ski test at hood in the coming weeks to prepare for and Im working 12+hour days. I leave the Mt. Hood test to fly to Denver for Adam Foy's wedding, followed by a 2week trip to Guangzho China to visit our manufacturing facility. I'm excited for hood and the wedding and china, an exciting month ahead of me. I'm going to purchase all kinds of clothes in china so I'm packing light, if theres something you want me to bring back tell me. And sam i'll work on getting you your xbox.

This last weekend was k2 costume party fiesta. We partied for a bit at a house before arriving at the bars in our regalia. I dressed as a "mexican cowboy" outfitted myself in womens size 6 red jeans, plaid shirt, handlebar mustache, cowboy boot looking shoes, and bandana. I tribute this outfit to Spoes who pioneered this costume a few years ago. Spoes won the contest of who looked better in it, his costume was more complete. I looked more like a Cowboy Borat. Other costumes included cookie monster, 80's rocker, lifeguard and a few tom cruise's from Top Gun. I'm writing this at lunch and feel I should get going to do my work, i'll add more later.

Burritoless in Seattle

A staple of my diet is the newest thing here in Seattle. It seems burritos and more importantly Chipotle Burritos are just making wake here in Washington. Not a trip to Chipotle goes by where I do not hear the persons behind me in line explaining to their friend what makes these burritos special. "They seem so plain" i hear and "Chipoltay," it makes me want to cringe. The struggle choosing what type of beans to order, asking for veggies when you didnt order a fajita burrito, and needing clarification that guac costs more have me wishing for colorado-ites. 2 of my 3 trips to Chipotle near the UW campus have let me down. The guac is good but the burritos leave something to be desired. Stale chips and crispy black beans have caused me headaches here. I guess I'll learn a little bit about Washington while they learn a lot about burritos.

Easter egg hunting

Well i regret to say I didnt go egg hunting today, nor did my roommates. Instead we cleaned the garage, mowed the lawn, and went boating. Yes thats right a Colorado boy is now a boating enthusiast. I mowed our 100sq foot lawn in the sun and by the time we got to the water to meet our boat-owning-friends the clouds had rolled in. A nice cloudy/rainy boat ride led to an early docking and dinner at a local restaurant. If today's weather is a hint towards summer then im ready for it. I even took the roof box off my car with the anticipation of ski season winding down.
Its kinda like california here... only the waters much cooler/ rains far more/ and the burrito places are few and far between. Cheers to fish and chips

crazy days

I did some math today and found I have worked 103hours in the last 8 days. And unfortunately all this working really takes away from Andy's relaxing time. But its been worth it, i've learned more at work in the last week than I would in a month and met some really cool people. Yesterday was ski test day where a group of athletes/designer/marketing peeps/ took our prototype skis out. We skid 10pair of skis and judged what we liked, didnt like, wanted to push further and what we wanted to nix from the lineup. This is a very cool process that I will volunteer for anytime. Leading our tests was the guy who started Line skis and for our meetings post-skiing a few big named pros stopped by to give a few words and show some clips from next years videos. I'll elaborate on all this later but I felt the need to describe my last few days as they havnt been documented here. This work will continue at a more relaxed pace for a bit and I am looking forward to catching my breath. I need to sleep now.