I took the keys and left for work early this morning in the hope of a less crowded bus. Any thought of a jacket had disappeared when I stuck my hand out of the window in the shower this morning. It was hot and raining. For some reason as bus after bus crammed full of people stopped I just couldn’t work up the courage to force myself on board, so I started to walk. It is a downhill walk to the bus stop that drops off much closer to the office. I was walking slowly and it took me almost 30 minutes to get there and when the first bus pulled up I felt like I had made a really bad decision. The bus was as crowded as any I had seen, but I did force my way on crammed between the door and the fare box. By the time I got to work I was drenched with sweat and very glad to be at work.
The fun part of the day is captured in the pictures. J.D.’s partner has been managing a project to create an early childhood center. It was incredible to see what they’ve done in a relatively short time. There were two fascinating sites for me that I didn’t get pictures of. The first was of the electrical box. Jerry says the wiring is run in the slab without conduit, but the wiring in the box was as neat as any I’ve ever seen. It certainly looked better than the main panel at the Ark. As we were leaving there was a man cutting a circle in a counter top. I don’t know what the material was, but it appeared to be some hard synthetic. He was cutting the circle free hand with a 4” circular saw. The circle looked really good. I can’t imagine how long it would have taken me to do that.
After touring the preschool we headed to a new restaurant called Canvas. It is across the street from the Grand Theater. The pictures don’t begin to capture how beautiful this building is. We were greeted in English when we walked in and it was clear this was a different kind of place. The menu was in English and Chinese and featured burgers, burritos, and other typical American fare. We all had burgers and fries. The burgers were as good as I’ve had anywhere and that is apparently very rare for China. They even had Heinz catsup for the fries. The food was good, and it was even more fun to listen to J.D. and Jerry talk about culture and the business. On the way back we enjoyed some great scenery and conversation as we drove along the seashore.
On top of all that I had a couple of successes at work today. I was tired by the end of the day, but it turned out much better than it started.
