Sea Urchins, Pick Tags, and "Rental DVDs"

The girl in the last post picture was Vivien. She was my tour guide in Shanghai. This picture I took because I thought those Dragons were cool looking.

The last two days have been interesting. I went to dinner Thursday night with some Rockwell folks, we had another Ex-Pat here named Bryan, he's the global account manager. The dinner was interesting. First, I don't know if I mentioned this, but everyone that works for Rockwell picks an American name to go by. The amazing part is they have an uncanny knack for picking a name that fits perfectly. Thursday I met the greatest name of all! A guy named Steel! He's a project engineer for Rockwell. When he introduced himself to me, it sounded like he was saying Teal. I thought, "What an odd name?", then he handed me his business card...I was like, WOW! This is a great name! He's a short guy with salt and pepper hair. He talked a mile and minute, and loves movies. He new all about the Oscars and who won what. (Side note: Favorite Tom Cruise movies are the Mission Impossible movies, they absolutely love them! Apparently part of the third one has a scene in Shanghai. Can't stress enough, THEY LOVE MISSION IMPOSSIBLE) Anyway Steel, kept going on and on about the movies, I decided to nickname him Slum Dog Millionaire. We then just shortened it up to Slum Dog. We liked the nickname, but the name Steel was AWESOME! We were torn all night, which way to go? Tough decision, you win either way. Steel/Slum Dog (I still can't decide) was a great guy, hope to see him again.

So this whole conversation happens at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant. We're sitting at the table, Steel does the ordering. The first thing we get is a Sea Urchin. It just looked horrible. Steel yells across the table (Very loud), "It's good for penis!" Bryan and I started looking around, but we were the only two taken by the comment. Everyone else was nodding in agreement. Hilarious!

So a quick description of the Sea Urchin (Yes I tried it). They take this...thing...and cut the top off. It has prickly things all over the outside of it. The inside looks like snot marinaded in spit. (I'm not even kidding!) Bryan and I look at each other, I look down at Steel, he's already on his second one! I tried it and it was disgusting! Steel, Tony, and Jerry couldn't believe we didn't like it. They were shocked. We also had shrimp...the whole animal, eyes and all...just staring at you as the Hibachi guy cooked them up. There was pork and beef...the Chinese guys preferred the fat that was cut off and grilled separately. All in all a great time! New experiences and great conversation.

Now we move to Friday! Today I decided to find a print shop to make tags that we use for work to track assets through the plant. Jerry (The guy I'm training) takes me to this little shop. I mean LITTLE. There are four people stuffed in this little room, manually cutting out business cards. They have two computers in the corner, and paper everywhere. The whole room was the size of a small bedroom...just stuffed to the max. I am trying to get our existing tags copied and change the language from English to Mandarin. I never thought the movie Lost In Translation was that good...I do now. I'm dying to see it again.

I think I'll be the most patient person alive, when I get back. You just have to roll with the punches. I tell something to the person that speaks English, I watch about 10 minutes of animated talking, then I try to interject, then they keep talking. It's really actually funny if you roll with it. But it can take forever! Also, the Chinese pirate EVERYTHING!! They have every software known to man! They get it all for free off sites on the Internet. Every computer is just loaded to the bone! They have it all! It's really impressive. So it took 1-1/2 to get everyone on the same page for the tag design (Even though I brought actual English ones). Then we came back in the afternoon to see a computer printed sample. Then it took another hour to get the mistakes fixed, but we should have a bunch ready by Wednesday...you might ask, "Why does it take till Wednesday?"

The tags are going to have a string attached at one end. That all has to be done by hand. Someone's going to attach 2000 tiny little ropes! Gotta love it!

The last story is the best one! Jerry took me to the...well...we'll call it the "DVD Rental Store". We walked to what looked like a subway opening. We walked down some stairs, then we took two escalators down further. The next thing you know we are in this giant underground shopping area. They call it a mall, it looks more like a high end flea market. Jerry just starts walking like we're at Woodland Mall. I'm standing there in amazement. Every little area is a completely separate shop/seller. There is all kinds of stuff, you name it, it's down here. It's like a bootleg Wal-Mart. I can't believe what I'm seeing, there's so much stuff down here! Jerry waves me to hurry up and follow.

We walk further into this complex...just passed the pet section, just passed used coffee makers, just passed pots and pans, just passed used dehumidifiers...I think? We walk all the way to the back. All of the sudden Jerry looks around and says, "Oh, no! They are closed again!" (I'm not sure if this means the police shut them down, or he's just out to lunch...I didn't feel I needed to know.)

All of the sudden a lady says, "DVD's Upstairs". Jerry says we should follow her.

I asked Jerry where we were going, he said to get DVD's....of course.

We walk down this hallway to a door. The lady knocks on the door, there is some verbage exchanged...maybe an "Open Sesame" password exchange. The door opens up, and there's a guy standing there with a smoke in his mouth. He says to come in. He pulls back a curtain from inside the door, we are now in bootleg DVD heaven! An Ex-Pat god sent! With only four channels of TV, this is as good as it gets! They have everything. They have stuff that isn't out on DVD yet! And not a guy shooting in a movie theatre...don't ask me how they get it! So I "Rented" 16 DVD's for 22 bucks!

Here's what I "Rented": (Some are old, but when they are that cheap to "Rent")

Valkyrie

Shawshank Redemption

Blade Runner

Atonement

Quantum of Solace

You Don't Mess With The Zohan

Superbad

The Hunt For Red October (Gotta have a Connery flick on an International mission!)

Click

Reservoir Dogs

The Firm (What does she find Mitch? Heartache.)

Out of Africa (My Dad keeps telling me to watch this one, so I'm going to)

And four war documentaries

The Concise History of WWII (2 Disc)

The Last Secrets of The Axis of Evil (History Channel DVD)

The Road To Victory (WWII)

Victory In Europe (WWII)

Not a bad deal! There were just to many to keep looking! I'll be back later. Hopefully some pictures of Dalian tomorrow! And an update of my schedule!