On Jet Lag, Smiles, and Proposals

I thought that I was doing fine until about 5:00 yesterday (Friday). We were riding in a car on the way back from visiting a factory. Suddenly it hit, jet lag. I kept dozing and then I kept wondering when we'd get back to the hotel. All I wanted was my bed. The car we were riding in had trouble so we had to pull over and catch a taxi. When I finally made it back to my room (about 6:30), I crashed. I woke up around 8:30 and got ready for bed. I didn't wake up again until 8:00 this morning. So much for my thoughts that I beat it. Oh well, I'm glad we finished early so I could go to bed early.

Yesterday I learned how to make it through with a smile. My driver came to pick me up at my hotel in HK and he didn't speak any English. So we drove in silence. We went through customs (odd experience, very surreal, like a scene from a movie). Anyway, we made it to my hotel where I met up with Ken from our China office here. It was great to hear him speak English.

We went to the first factory. No one spoke English so I had to rely completely on Ken for translation. The whole time I was touring the factory, there was some girl taking pictures of us. Then the owner insisted on getting his picture taken with me (smile). He took us to some restaurant where we walked through what can best be described as a live menu and picked out what we wanted to eat (or rather they picked it out and I pointed out some things I could tolerate). Then we went to a "round table" room to wait to be served. (I should've recognized this as a "round table" dinner.) Anyway, I ate some pretty odd stuff, but I made it through with a smile. When the owner found out I was single and that I owned a house, he proposed. Lucky me. (nervous "help me" smile)

We went to the second factory. This time both people we met with spoke a fair amount of English. Several times I didn't understand their English so I simply nodded and smiled. I toured their factory and learned more about mold making and injection molding. Very interesting! Oh and as we were leaving their factory, I spotted a large rat (cringe) scurrying through the trash. Luckily I was in the car so I felt a little safer. If not, I might have screamed. Oh and I experienced true grid lock. We literally moved only a few inches per minute until we reached a main highway. Super fun!

I don't have any great pictures to share other than these two of my room and the view out my window. (I really wanted to get one of the "live menu," but I didn't want to seem weird.)