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IN THIS ISSUE

• Louise Kruithof writes about another week in China
• Pat Moore reminisces about going to China to teach
• Catherine Green forwards a story about two astute beggers
• Barbara Wear sends a tale of an eventful shopping trip
• Carol Hansen, Dick Monaghan, Pat Moore and Tom Telfer suggest sites

Louise Kruithof continues her account of life in present-day

CHINA

First of all, to address the replies and concerns about our accommodations, we are now installed comfortably in our "executive suite" on the 11th floor. Strangely enough for the "superior" accommodation, there is no refrigerator in the room and no bathtub - only a shower stall in the bathroom. The bedroom is very large but without a closet. We are living, literally, out of the suitcase.

Last week I had purchased a printer/scanner/copier to take care of my hubby´s needs from work. I was really at a standstill as to where to place this unit, close to the computer, but also to be somewhat inconspicuous in the sitting/living room. The solution became the small round table which was placed beside the reading chair in the bedroom. Remember last week and the set number of pieces of furniture for each room. Well, lucky enough, there was a small round side table by the stuffed chair in the bedroom. Nice to have 2 rooms to share the furniture. So now everything is comfortable and practical, with the small round side table from the bedroom moved close to the computer, holding the printer.

The hotel has central air conditioning and in each room one of the windows opens. I like open air but I also like a cool environment. It is back to the old controversy: do we want a nice cool breeze to sleep or do we want the air conditioning? Well, this city has the perfect answer. It is located on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, which means a constant mild breeze, and it is also close to a desert which in turn means hot days and cool nights. Almost paradise!

On Sunday, we did what we like doing when getting into a new location: we went to explore the downtown of the city. Willem had been here before, about five years ago, and wanted to see if he could recognize some of the sights. We took a taxi to the town centre and started walking around. He liked it because he recognized some landmarks and could talk about it; I liked it because it led us to alleyways with small vendors on either side with an incredible variety of wares. If you see some beautiful Pashminas like we did, don´t hurry, there will be plenty to choose from. The same with jewellery. This is an area with plenty of turquoise, the stone with the original turquoise colour which is plentiful in this area, so there are very many small dealers in jewellery made with the stone. In the same alleyways, there are sellers of leather works, purses aplenty, toys, and jade, and among all that, the occasional restaurant with only four or five tables and people eating noodles. There is a fair size community of Muslims who have been living here for generations and their culture shows up in the wares available and the smells from the cooking establishments. It was a bit warm, so by mid-afternoon we went back to the hotel to put our feet up and rest.

The week went on with my exploring a bit more every day and trying to learn Mandarin. It has become a major challenge so I keep going at it. Eventually, I will speak this strange language.

This having no closet in the bedroom was starting to get to me. Nice to fold the clothes and put them back in the suitcase, but after a while things become wrinkled and one gets tired of going through a pile of shirts to get to the one appropriate for the weather, only to find that it is all wrinkled and there are no iron and ironing board in this room to make it look better. It must be sent to the hotel laundromat to be ironed, and it takes one day to come back. Bottom line: I went on a search for one of those self-contained closet kits.

After some searching, I finally found one in a building that houses a myriad of sellers with a myriad of wares. It did not cost a lot and everyone around this particular seller seemed to think that it was quite good, so I bought it. When was the last time that you had a room in a hotel and had to bring your own furnishings? We are here for a while so now we have a portable closet. Once I got back to the hotel with my new purchase, I opened the box and started to put it together. Flimsy is not quite the word for it but that is the best word I can think of. If it was a thought, I would call it ephemeral!

While putting it together, I kept thinking that it was good thing that there were going to be hangers and shirts and jeans providing some mass to hold the whole assembly together. Fortunately, I had one of those multi-uses knives in one suitcase. I used the pliers to open the end of the tubes so the next one could fit in, and the side cutters to cut the burrs left by the guillotine at the factory. Me being me, it had to be as perfect as possible, but in the end it holds together, the shirts are hanging on the hangers, the jeans are on the shelves, and it is not going anywhere, nor are the shirts getting wrinkles. I must be happy with it!

What is saving the day with this one is that we have the luxury of an extra small room off to the side of the bedroom. It is advertised as a balcony but is actually a small room with one side of it being a glass enclosure. We call it "the bubble". It is now the closet, it has a closet organizer and also a drying rack for when I do some laundry. To keep patrons from leaning on the glass, there is a rail about one foot inside the room, away from the glass, and that makes a great place to put clothes to dry. In Chinese tradition, it is a good idea to have clothes drying on the porch. That is my porch, my closet, and sometimes my dressing room. Seriously, it is a waste of space but would make a great little area to put a chair to sit and read, but if you remember from last week, there are rules about how many pieces of furniture can be in a room so we cannot have a chair in there. Maybe, I should go and get a comfortable folding chair .

On Thursday I went looking for a seamstress to shorten a skirt I purchased prior to leaving Canada. I found one in a little hole on the end of a building. In a room less than three metres by three metres, this woman has two sewing machines and a serger, and the walls are covered with pieces of fabric and samples of what she can sew for the customers. She agreed to do the hemming for the skirt. In the meantime, another woman came in and started talking to me. To my great amazement, I understood enough of what she said that I could reply and answer some of her questions. Wow!

On the other side, ordering food in a restaurant is still quite a struggle to be overcome. We walk every night to find a place to eat, and that is great because that is where life goes on, on the streets.

The nitty-gritty of living elsewhere: There is a note above the tap in the bathroom: "the sweet hints: this tap water can drink after boiled." Luckily, there is an electric kettle just outside the bathroom!

The rest of the week went on uneventfully as I kept exploring while hubby was at work.

To be continued.

Pat Moore continues her reminiscences about a visit to

CHINA

Our flight from Beijing to Chengdu was uneventful and we were again pleasantly surprised to be met by an interpreter and a driver. This made our arrival so much easier as all arrangements had been made at a hotel for accommodations with space for everything - this was important, as this was to be headquarters for Bob, William, Mary and me while we were there.

We have always been early risers but when told the driver would pick us up at 7 a.m., it meant we had to be up very early, have breakfast, and be organized for our first meeting about the teaching project, and be waiting for the driver - who was on time to the minute.

Even though much correspondence had preceded our arrival, we were surprised to find that teaching global marketing/managing strategies included a very mixed group of managers ... all male. Some of the directors were responsible for large factories with staffs of thousands, while other managers were responsible for small or medium factories with fewer employees.

Fortunately, among the four of us we had a mixed bag of experiences and we started our program, improvising as we went along. The days were long and intense as pick-up time every morning continued to be 7 a.m., and often after a day of teaching, a dinner meeting was announced and we would not return to the hotel until 9 p.m. after working/discussing the day all through the dinner.

One of the first dinners we attended was very interesting as I really did not know what I was eating - and did not want to ask or know. It was obvious that the fish was fish, but other than that I was not sure. I quietly asked our interpreter what they were serving during the several courses and he admitted that he really did not know as he had never eaten the wonderful dishes before, only much plainer food. When I learned that, I insisted that the interpreter accompany us to all the official dinner meetings, and he loved it.

The Chinese are very anxious to practice their English, so after a few days we found that if they had enough cars and interpreters available, we often would end up with two or three, and sometimes four of each. This gave a greater number a chance to practice their English and business English. This was wonderful, especially on the days when there were four cars and four interpreters, and I would quietly talk to the interpreter assigned to me - by now a friend - and say that the special excursion planned for the time-off were interesting, but I had seen enough panda bears, etc., and I was more interested in seeing a school for special students, or a regular school, or a silver factory, a jade factory, or an art school. I explained that I had brought art gifts from the Canadian and Alberta governments to present to the directors of the schools or factories, and that seemed to be the deciding factor.

When we found out months ahead of time that our project had been approved, I had contacted the Canadian and Alberta governments to see if there was anything I could take to represent Canada. Much to my delight and surprise, I was able to pack a separate, huge suitcase full of Canadian gifts - from small art pieces, art pictures, etc., to hundreds of Canadian pins and special stickers from Alberta - a small embroidered Alberta rose that I could stick on the clothing of all I met. This caused much confusion at customs - both in Canada, where they wanted to charge me extra for the weight, and in China when we arrived, but I talked my way out of the problem.

I was so glad that I had done this as I often found that when visiting a school or factory, the director often had arranged a short "tea reception". I was also amazed that in chatting with the directors, they knew much about Canada and were anxious to talk about their thoughts. They also knew - but not always - who was the premier of Alberta!

Quite often the interpreter would say my request could not happen - but wait - after several minutes on the phone, somehow something had been arranged. I did not always know where I was going but I did not care - while the other three went off to see another tourist site.

The visits were great and I am going to write about those schools and the factories on another occasion, as that should be a separate story.

One wonderful treat was arriving at our hotel late in the evening after a dinner meeting, or perhaps a night to ourselves at a restaurant, to find the hostess on our floor ready with tea, which was brought to our rooms. Another treat was that we could take our laundry to the hostess on our floor each morning and it would be washed, ironed, and ready for us when we arrived later that night.

The work week in China is six days, but occasionally we asked for a Saturday and Sunday off so that we could do some traveling to see the surrounding areas. Sometimes this could be arranged if we had organized projects for the managers and directors to work on while we had time-off.

Chengdu is a very thriving, bustling city and it was amazing to see all the construction. It was fascinating to see all the scaffolding was made of bamboo. Also interesting was that about a third of the work force was female, and those women carried huge loads of cement, balanced on poles over their shoulders, up the planks to be carried up the bamboo scaffolding to the floors above. I was told they could use the bamboo up to the ninth floor, because apparently it was very safe. It was very different from the sights when we arrived in Shanghai, as most of the great building expansion going on there was done by cranes. Apparently, Shanghai has the most cranes in use in the entire world.

Catherine Green sends an example of

MARKETING

Two beggars are sitting side by side on a street in Rome - one has a cross in front of him; the other one the Star of David. Many people go by, look at both beggars, but only put money into the hat of the beggar sitting behind the cross.

A priest comes by, stops and watches throngs of people giving money to the beggar behind the cross, but none to the beggar behind the Star of David.

Finally, the priest goes over to the beggar behind the Star of David and says, "My poor fellow, don´t you understand? This is a Catholic country; this city is the seat of Catholicism. People aren´t going to give you money if you sit there with a Star of David in front of you, especially when you´re sitting beside a beggar who has a cross. In fact, they would probably give to him just out of spite."

The beggar behind the Star of David listened to the priest, turned to the other beggar with the cross, and said: "Moishe, look who´s trying to teach the Goldstein brothers about marketing."

Barbara Wear forwards the story of

THE KOHL´S SHOPPING TRIP

Clutching their Kohl´s shopping bags, Ellen and Kay woefully gazed down at a dead cat in the mall parking lot. Obviously a recent hit ... no flies, no smell.

"What business could that poor kitty have had here?" murmured Ellen.

"Come on, Ellen, let´s just go...."

But Ellen had already grabbed her shopping bag and was explaining, "I´ll just put my things in your bag, and then I´ll use this tissue paper." She dumped her purchases into Kay´s bag and then used the tissue paper to cradle and lower the former feline into her own Kohl´s bag and cover it.

They continued the short trek to the car in silence, stashing their goods in the trunk. But it occurred to both of them that if they left Ellen´s burial bag in the trunk, warmed by the Texas sunshine while they ate, Kay´s Lumina would soon lose that new-car smell.

They decided to leave the bag on top of the trunk, and they headed over to K&W Cafeteria. They went through the serving line and sat down at a window table. They had a view of Kay´s Chevy with the Kohl´s bag still on the trunk. But not for long!

As they ate, they noticed a woman in a red gingham shirt stroll by their car. She looked quickly this way and that, and then took the Kohl´s bag without breaking stride. She quickly walked out of their line of vision Kay and Ellen shot each other a wide-eyed look of amazement.

It all happened so fast that neither of them could think how to respond. "Can you imagine?" finally sputtered Ellen. "The nerve of that woman!"

Kay sympathized with Ellen, but inwardly a laugh was building as she thought about the grand surprise awaiting the female thief. Just when she thought she´d have to giggle into her napkin, she noticed Ellen´s eyes freeze in the direction of the serving line.

Following her gaze, Kay recognized the woman in the red gingham shirt with the Kohl´s bag hanging from her arm. She was brazenly pushing her tray toward the cashier.

Helplessly they watched the scene unfold. After leaving the register, the woman settled at a table across from theirs, put the bag on an empty chair and began to eat. After a few bites of baked whitefish and green beans, she casually lifted the bag into her lap to survey her treasure. Looking from side to side, but not far enough to notice her rapt audience three tables over, she pulled out the tissue paper and peered into the bag. Her eyes widened, and she began to make a sort of gasping noise. The noise grew. The bag slid from her lap as she sank to the floor, wheezing and clutching her upper chest. The beverage cart attendant quickly recognized a customer in trouble and sent the busboy to call 911, while she administered the Heimlich maneuver.

A crowd quickly gathered that did not include Ellen and Kay, who remained riveted to their chairs for seven whole minutes until the ambulance arrived. In a matter of minutes, the woman with the red gingham shirt emerged from the crowd, still gasping, and securely strapped on a gurney.

Two well-trained EMS volunteers steered her to the waiting ambulance, while a third scooped up her belongings. The last they saw of the distressed cat-burglar was as she disappeared behind the ambulance doors ... the Kohl´s bag perched on her stomach!

SUGGESTED SITES

Carol Hansen forwards the URL for a very funny video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Dick Monaghan suggests this nostalgic tribute to "Airplane" and "The Naked Gun":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcKJdmXbBBc

Pat Moore sends the URL for a video of a dog and cat friends:

http://arunaurl.com/3516

Tom Telfer sends the site for an unusual and entertaining clip of an amazing Italian performer who uses paper costumes to transform from one person to another:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAFI1i5FIBc