The Lindenbergs

We got back to the hotel about 8:00 pm last night from the office. Traffice here is always very bad, so the taxi ride can be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to cover about 6 miles. I needed to grab a quick dinner, so the part of the team wasn't still working headed to a local underground mall. We ate at a local Japanese restaurant (trust me, you haven't had Japanese food like this in the US). 

I ordered "traditional Japanese appetizer) and traditional noodles with scallops. The appetizer was good, but I have no idea what I was eating. Part of it was smelt (a little like anchovies). Head and tail still on of course.  I don't think I actually had scallops with my noodles, I'm pretty sure I tasted tentacle. But, it tasted good so I ate it.

-Eric (Dad)

Brian is my new boss and Tony is the most recent addition to our team. This is out from of the Royal Hyatt hotel where we went for authentic Peking Duck.

Here's my team in Beijing. Great, and very tired, people. We haven't been served our meal yet (authentic Peking Duck), but its on its way.

This is how we make Peking Duck.

And here it is. The head is also served for those that care to partake.

Tony and I ordered Shredded Pigs ear and jelly fish. Believe it or not, its really quite good. It tasted a lot like coleslaw. I'd eat it again.

Yup, that's a ducks head on my plate. He looks sad. Don't know why, I ate the brains and some other stuff in there. It was good. Yes, really, I did. Grossed out?

Every person who took a picture with this sculpture posed in a different place. This woman picked an interesting place to stand.

I had hoped to be able to chronical my adventures in China in some level of detail, but I suspect the amount I'm going to have to devote to work is going to preclude a lot of that. That said, here's some of my impressions of the Middle Kingdom:

1) You have to be mad to drive here. Imagine the most insane traffic imaginable and multiply it by a billion. Its worse than that. Traffic lights, traffic signs and lanes are mere suggestions. I am not exagerating.

2) The food's not bad. You can go to some pretty exotic restaurants and eat just about anything, but your standard restaurant has good, but fairly innocent food. We had prawns Wednesday night served with the heads still on -but ya just cut'em off and then eat. No big whoop.

3) Olympic Village is staggering. I haven't had a chance to walk around the complex yet, but most of its visible from the hotel. Wow. Makes me wish I'd paid more attention to the Olympics.

4) Its a city. If you ignore the Chinese signs (most of which have English on them), it could be a major US city. Just with more personality.

5) Labor is cheap. They have people that wave traffic on, clear the fountains, monitor the public restrooms. Everyone has a job, but I wouldn't want most of them.

6) Weirdest moment: coming back to the hotel from the office the cab slows at an intersection and a guy shoves his hand through the partially open window and tosses in a couple of business cards for a message parlor. (yes, that kind of message parlor).

-Eric (Dad)

Hello regular reader. It’s an interesting time, kid stories are going to dwindle for a little while. The big news is that I’m on a plane to Beijing. I’ve been asked by my company to take over a project for the next four months that involves major travel to China. Currently it looks like I’ll be out of the country for about two weeks, then back home for a week, then back out again. It’s a very exciting opportunity, on a high-visibility, high-risk project.

So, I’ve got a brand new digital camera and I’m hoping to accompany my regular blog entries with pictures of the Middle Kingdom and hopefully some interesting tales of adventure.

But, we do have a little catching up to do. In the last two weeks we’ve had 6 inches of snow and 70 degree weather. Unfortunately, while I would have rather been out playing in the snow with the family I had to finish the final deliverable document for my last project. 67 pages later, a couple of days in Bloomington to make a final presentation, and we can put that project to bed. Just in time to head of to Chicago to get my passport renewed and get a shiny new Chinese Visa.

It took three days.

I’d hoped it wouldn’t take that long, I only had two days worth of clothes with me, so I got to recycle. I got home Friday afternoon, Nora and I picked up my car from the shop (don’t ask, but it was expensive) then we got to spend a little quality time together as a family. I finished the evening by packing a day’s worth of clothes and getting ready to teach my Saturday class for the community college. I also ran up to Wal-Mart and got myself a new PSP and games to play on my scheduled 13-hour airplane trip.

Saturday morning the kids got up early and had breakfast with me before I headed off to teach. We were scheduled to head off to see my Dad and Mary in Omaha when I was done with the class, and Pierce was so excited he was already dressed, shoes on, three bags packed with toys and clothes, and a back pack on. Anna had climbed into bed with us and spent time chatting me up as I was getting ready (and keeping Nora awake….)

We were able to get on the road at about 4:30 pm and made good time to my Dad’s. The kids pretty much know the driving routine: some driving games, a snack and a movie on the portable DVD player. The funny thing was, they wanted to all the activities at the same time AS we were pulling out of the driveway. Nora was kind enough to do the driving, so it was my job to pace the activities to last us through the drive (with a short nap for myself too).

Our favorite family eatery in Nebraska is The Amazing Pizza Machine. Think of a Chuckee Cheese on steroids. Its got a massive buffet with multiple types of pizza and some actual, healthy, choices too. There are multiple dining areas, each with a theme, and all showing classic cartoons on an enlarged movie screen. We’d hoped to meet Dad and Mary there to shave a little time off the drive and get to dinner earlier, but the place is not findable by Garmin (sigh). We got there about 8:00 and the kids were in heaven. It was really a toss-up in determining if they were going to stop watching cartoons and hit the arcade machines or stay put (the dining area was getting ready to close, so the decision was made for us). Of course we all over-ate.

We got Pierce and Anna in bed by about 10:00 and they were out in minutes. Nora and I weren’t far behind them.

Easter morning arrived with the kids’ finding the baskets the Easter Bunny left at the foot of their bed. Each got a DVD (Pierce: Bee Movie; Anna: Madagascar 2), a couple of joke books, and some candy. We broke from tradition this year and did not go out to eat with Dad and Mary, instead having a casual breakfast (and lunch) at their apartment. It was a good decision; we got a lot more “visiting” time than if we’d gone out. The afternoon raced past. Dad and Mary look and sound great. We haven’t seen them since last fall, so both kids have grown quite a bit and we had some catching up to do. Of course, a massive, candy-filled basket was awaiting us. Dad and Mary, with a little inside information from us, had presents waiting for Pierce and Anna.

Pierce, after a year of asking, got an Indiana Jones Troop Truck (a replica toy from the first Indiana Jones movie that he saw in a toy store about a year ago). They don’t make it any more, so Dad had to really hunt around to find one for him. Anna got a tadpole kit –much like a butterfly kit, you send off for the live tadpoles than raise them into adult frogs. She read about the kit in a toy catalog and has been fixated on it for months. According to the reviews my Dad read, the adult frogs can live for several years so this may be a somewhat long-term pet investment.

Much as I hated to do it, we had to get on the road after lunch. This was by far the shortest visit I can remember having with my Dad, but we needed to get back to Kansas for Easter dinner with Nora’s parents (it was also Nora’s Dad’s birthday –Happy Birthday Bill!). Dinner was fun with the kids and their cousins playing all evening. Billy bought a couple of friends from work to join us for dinner. Both are extensive travelers, and coincidentally, one of them has been to Beijing several times for business, so he had a lot of good information to share.

Rather than leaving my car at the airport for weeks, Pierce and Anna spent the night at the grandparent’s house so Nora could take me to the airport this morning. We left on a dark, rainy morning, bleah.