China Trip: Meeting, Dog, and Apartment

Note: Sorry the spacing is all jacked up on the paragraphs. I can't seem to fix it.

I had a meeting today with the head of purchasing and head of maintenance. Meetings in China are GREAT! You just never know what's going to happen. I spent an hour before the meeting prepping the Jerry (Guy I'm training) and Tracy (Local Rockwell sales person). I left nothing to chance. I explained what we were going to cover, whose job it was to present certain information, and when it should be covered. I had handouts, I had an agenda, and I had mayhem within two minutes of going into the meeting.

Sometimes you just have to laugh! Within minutes of starting the meeting everyone started trying to cover different topics! The Goodyear people and local Rockwell team. I was more like a referee to start. Blow the whistle, false start Rockwell....5 minute no talk penalty...repeat start of meeting!

The meeting actually went really well! We covered everything that we needed to, it just took a little longer...and we took an indirect path. But!!! We got there.

Here's an example of how it can go crazy. I made copies of a bunch of different reports that I wanted to show as samples to Goodyear. I wanted Jerry to make the presentation to practice is public speaking and presentation...so I could judge where we were at. I had Jerry put all the reports in a specific order, so that they complimented each other. I had him review them the night before, then we went over them again in the morning (Just to make sure he was ready). Well, he was! I was very excited about the progress. The one thing I didn't think to tell him was to hold on to the reports until it was time to talk about them.

We walk into the meeting, Jerry gives everyone their copies! Ughhh! Everybody starts going through them. I ask if we can wait to view those a little later....everyone agrees. So we go on with the meeting. When it comes time for Jerry to present, everyone comes back to the reports. Well, Mr. Gao the head of maintenance just starts leafing through them. Instead of Jerry telling him there is a specific order, he tries to peer at Mr. Gao to figure out which one he's looking at, then he tries to find that one to talk about. Then everyone else has to fish through the pile to find that report....no more complimenting reports :( The good part is that Mr. Gao liked the reports and was very excited about getting this kind of information. So it ended up well!

I think part of the problem is a cultural thing. There is a definite hierarchy that has to do with age. I think Jerry defaults to Mr. Gao's lead by up bringing....if that makes sense. It's strange for us, but very natural for them. All in all the meeting went extremely well! We are on our way! Data collection starts next week! Hopefully all goes well...I'm confident it will.

Second event today, we went to lunch and I ate dog! That's right! I tried it! I have to say as often as it's said; it tastes like chicken. I had two little pieces. They served it like shredded pork. It wasn't bad...I couldn't eat it like it was chicken because I knew it was a dog. Tracy and Jerry ate it like it was going out of style. They both liked that I was willing to try it. There's a field engineer that has a pet dog. We joked that it was his dog. When we walked back to the plant, we saw a couple dogs on the way. I asked if we should take them home for dinner. They both about fell over laughing! Apparently they only eat dogs that are specifically raised for food. As Jerry said, "Just like pig."

Finally, here are some pictures of my apartment, thought you might like to see my home away from home!

Here is the Living Room