Friday and Saturday

Friday morning was supposed to be a standard day, meeting for breakfast at 7:20am. However, Mike overslept his alarm and arrived in the lobby at 7:37am. For those from work keeping track – that is 17 minutes late – so there should be some donuts for all to enjoy after our return to Milwaukee. I had no problem being there at 7:20, since I was awake since 5:00am (not by choice – just didn’t sleep well). I then had to hear how Mike was tired from “too much sleep”. Anyway, we ate and headed off to the office at 8:00am.

After a normal morning of work, Grace took us out to lunch at a great local Japanese restaurant a couple of blocks away. We had eaten there on our previous trip, and we knew it would be delicious. Mike was especially happy, as he has a legendary love for Sushi. Upon entering the small restaurant, we took the familiar walk upstairs (where most of the dining rooms are here), removed our shoes, and climbed down into our floor level seats. The table was about one foot above the floor, with a cut-out section underneath that was just large enough for my long legs. The table had enough room for four people, so the others in the group sat at a similar table next to us. I ordered shrimp tempura, while Mike went with his standard Sushi. The meals were brought out on individual trays and were quite crowded with food. My tray consisted of a plate of 5 pieces of different raw fish and eel on rice, a plate of tempura, a large bowl of Japanese noodles, a small dish of accent toppings, and a small bowl of soy sauce. In addition, we each were given a bowl of soup. The meal was tasty and soon we were walking back for an afternoon of work.

In the afternoon, the localization team stopped by to invite us to a party that was going to take place at an employees house on Sunday. Looking over the itinerary for the party, I was quite impressed:

9:00am – Noon Cooking (and eating)
Noon – 3:00pm Games and hiking along the beach
3:00m – 7:00pm KTV
7:00pm – Midnight Drinking at a Jazz bar

I was unsure of what exactly “KTV” meant, and was told that it is a karaoke facility – that makes me a bit nervous, however, we may give that a try anyway depending how the weekend goes.

In addition to Sunday’s planned festivities, two other employees, Nancy and Carol offered to take us shopping on Saturday – which we gladly accepted.

We finished up work around 6:00pm, and again Frank and some others offered to take us to dinner. We ended up at the same restaurant we went to for lunch on Thursday. We again had the mushrooms and dumplings. In addition, we enjoyed a bowl of beans with dates. If memory serves, we also had cooked shrimp, cooked celery and onions, numerous other dishes I cannot recall, and many laughs. By 8:00pm we were back at the hotel. By 9:00pm, I was simply overcome with extreme sleepiness. The only other time I have really experienced this was just after arriving on our first trip here as well as a few days following returning home. Very strange how it hits. For me, it feels like “waves” hitting, each one seemingly capable of rendering me unconscious. Within a few minutes, I was in bed and off to sleep.

I awoke after 10 hours of sleep feeling fantastic. I declared to myself that my body is now fully on Chinese time - a very nice change from the last few days. We had breakfast at 9:20am, and met Nancy and Carol in the lobby at 10:00am.

We walked to the large shopping area behind the hotel. It extends for a number of blocks in all directions. The indoor mall we entered was reminiscent of large US malls, but about 6 stories tall. A “lucky tree” in the atrium caught our eye. It was a part of a tree, with a large message board next to it. On the message board were many notes in Chinese. We were told that you write a message and post it on the board. We all put a message up there and began our shopping day. The outside shopping was quite interesting with a mix of tables similar to a flea market that sprawled out over all of the walking areas (a number of streets where cars are not permitted). The tables featured many different items from USB Jump Drives, sunglasses, toys, jewelry stands, and many small food stands. We hit a few malls, a number of outside stands, took a taxi to another shopping area, and then took a break for lunch.

Lunch was in a large building located about a block from the hotel. It features “Shanghai Style” cuisine. That means that the flavors were less salty and a bit more sweet. Again going upstairs to our dining area, the four of us sat at a large round table, but this time – no lazy-suzan. We had Crab, beef with black pepper, bamboo, baked shrimp (quite crispy), a strange black seeded sponge cookie, Chinese dumplings, and a large “river fish”. The fish was served on a large platter, with the customary head and tail, but all of the bits of fish were soaking in a soupy broth. Mike and I both noted how vast the menus are here – probably 200 different dishes to choose from – each plate with a color picture in the large menu book. It was another very tasty meal.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel for a break. Mike and I met about 6:30pm to return to the mall and pick up a few more items, have some dinner, and maybe a drink at the bar. For dinner, we had the hotel buffet. I was torn in that they had very tasty looking oysters, but was a bit gun-shy after my last visit’s illness. So, I reluctantly passed on the raw seafood. After dinner, we walked over to the hotel bar where we caught a few minutes of the live music which consisted of a piano player and a singer. Sounded nice, but in Chinese. By 9:00pm or so, we called it a night.