Too close for comfort

There are a lot of unwritten rules in the Men's Room Code of Conduct (despite the irony in that very statement). One of those rules relates to how much distance you have to keep from another dude. Which is why these three stalls (in a Honolulu Airport restroom) will *never* be used all at once.

Fortunately, the airport is currently under renovation. I fully expect this restroom to be one of the things that gets remodeled.

Best PDA Chinese Dictionary

One of this year's CHEMBA participants asked me what Chinese dictionary application I installed on my PDA. The answer is PlecoDict, available at www.pleco.com.

If you're studying Chinese or going to China and you have a PDA, I recommend this software wholeheartedly. It's immensely useful because it saves a LOT of time when looking up characters, and is way more convenient than carrying around a dictionary. Depending on how you use it, it might also be good in conversations, as you can pass your PDA and stylus to a friend, and have them write out a character that you're having a hard time understanding.

Another good software is DimSum, available for free at www.mandarintools.com. DimSum can be installed onto a PC, and is works similarly. One great thing about DimSum is that you can copy Chinese text into its "Notepad" window, and move the cursor over the text for instant look-up. This feature saved me a lot of time while I was at my internship.

Beijing and Shanghai pages ready

Over the past week or so, I've been sorting, renaming, resizing, editing, and formatting my pictures from Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo. So now I have some webpages ready and linked on the main page. They're not the only pictures from August to November, but I thought they'd look better sitting on a separate page than with the hum-drum daily stuff I usually put up.



I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out, but I've been using Mozilla's Firefox as my browser and I can't get the "thumbnail-to-larger picture" links to work right. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong, but they seem to work OK in Internet Explorer, so maybe it's not just me.

At any rate, enjoy the three new pages. And if you normally use Firefox, too, I'm sorry, but you may need to use IE to get the larger pictures.

Leaving Hawaii

Dumping the moped

Figuring out what to do with my moped has been a pain in the neck. But not anymore!

Rather than try to fix the battery, (which was dead) and get the fuel/air issue fixed so that it can still start when the engine is hot, I decided to give it away to QuickFix cycles for the whopping sum of $0.

Before leaving for China, I had thought to fix it while it was still under warranty and then sell it, but because University Cycle couldn't get it done in time that didn't happen. I ended up leaving it with a friend while I was away.

One day he took it down to the gas station to get it filled, and it wouldn't start again (the same problem I thought got fixed). He tried for about 30 minutes, and in the end had to call another friend to haul it back up the hill. There it sat for another few months.

After a few days of wondering what to do, I tried calling around to moped shops to see if they would take it. University Cycle said they'd take it, but didn't have a truck. QuickFix had the means to come get it, so I went with them.

My schedule was a bit packed today, so I left the keys and the signed-over title in the pocket near the ignition, and let them know everything was ready for them. I didn't even bother with a tearful good-bye; I was happy to be rid of the troublesome thing.

Visiting JAIMS, Leaving Hawaii

Tomorrow I leave Hawaii after 11 years (minus 2 years in Korea). I'm sad about that -- unlike the other times, this time it's permanent, as indicated by the 6 boxes I've sent to my parents' house.

I stopped by JAIMS this morning to say hi to the next class of CHEMBAs, and ended up talking to them for about 45 minutes, just answering questions. They're at the stage now where they're starting to think about which company they'd like to do their internships in, and I'm afraid I wasn't much help. Although I got to hear a few bad stories, I didn't really know enough to give advice.

The one thing I have left to do is leave my forwarding address for my mailbox. After that, it's "aloha" for the foreseeable future.

Retro-culture shock

I half-expected this: I’m feeling rather sad.

Being back in Hawaii and eating the foods I’ve craved has been nice – I’ve eaten Burger King, Subway, and Boston’s Pizza – but there are a number of other things that are weighing on my heart.

I feel sad about leaving China and the friendships I’ve built there. I’ll miss my classmates. I’m in Hawaii without my wife. There’s a lot of turmoil in my church. I don’t have a job or a home, or even a solid plan for what comes after next month.

And even though Hawaii is the closest thing I have to home (not counting time spent in Korea and China, it’s nine years), I’ll be leaving it permanently in a week, and don’t know if or when I’ll see it again.

So, yeah, I’m sad.

A very long day

Today was a very long day for me.

We dragged our luggage yet again, this time to church. It was really difficult because one of my suitcase’s front wheels ground down to nothing from the course sidewalk, and the other is barely functioning. From the house to the train station, and then to the church, I was not a fun person to be around.

After church, we had lunch with a couple who SY knew from when she lived in Busan (I think SY’s friends have colonized Japan). They gave us a ride to the train station, which made me very happy indeed. We made it over the airport coach bus pick-up spot, and then caught the bus to the airport.

SY and I said our goodbyes at the security checkpoint with only 15 minutes to spare before her boarding time (6:30 pm). My flight to Hawaii left three hours later.

I arrived in Hawaii at 9:10 in the morning (because of the date line). I got out of customs, found a car rental, and went over to church. After that I ate at the Pearlridge Subway with a few people I was very happy to see again, and then got a haircut (the weather here makes short hair necessary).

After that, I went home to the friend’s place I’ll be staying for the next eight days and slept. I didn’t even worry about unpacking the car – that could wait until tomorrow.

Final CHEMBA presentation

Today was SuYoung’s birthday (and I won’t say which one). I also gave my final presentation for the CHEMBA program, an analysis of the American Trading Center program in China.

[The short version is: it’s a good program that could actually boost U.S. exports, if only U.S. companies knew about it. However, because the government doesn’t advertise, it will most likely remain small and therefore ineffective at reducing the U.S. trade deficit.]

So it’s just smooth sailing from here.

There was a mixer in the evening where I got a number of business cards, plus a whole buffet of Hawaiian food. There was Kalua pig (shredded pork with cabbage), li hing pineapple, poké, and lomi lomi salmon. You probably have no idea what I’m talking about, but as Hawaiian soul food it really hit the spot.

Tomorrow we move from one couple’s place (where we had been staying) to another of SuYoung’s friends. (We didn’t want to wear out our welcome too quickly.) Unfortunately, it means lugging our suitcases across the city again. *sigh*

In the evening, we have our graduation ceremony and reception.

Internship Last Day, upcoming plans

Today's the last day of my internship, though not the last day I'm in Shanghai. If you're curious about what I did at work, here you go: "What I did in the Shanghai Consulate-General Foreign Commercial Service"

And if you're interested in my final internship paper -- An Analysis of the American Trading Center Program -- email me and I'll happily provide it.

As for upcoming plans, here's what going on next:

Friday, November 10 -- The office is going to be closed for Veteran's Day (that's why today's my last day) so SY and I will be packing up the apartment. I think the landlady will stop by, too.

Saturday, November 11 -- there's a Thomas Friedman lecture this day, and I weasled my way into going through connections at the consulate. He's a New York Times editorial writer and author of the book "The World is Flat."

Sunday, November 12 -- SY and I travel to Tokyo.

Monday, November 13 to Wednesday, November 15 -- Final presentations in Tokyo.

Tuesday, November 14 -- I do the telephonic Korean language assessment. Passing will increase the likelihood of being hired by the State Department by January.

Thursday, November 16 -- Graduation ceremony

Friday, November 17 -- SY goes to Korea to visit family for two weeks

Saturday, November 19 -- I return to Hawaii.

Sunday, December 3 -- SY arrives in Hawaii.

From this point, I'm not really sure what will happen next. A lot depends on passing either the Korean language test in November or my next attempt at the Chinese test in December.

VIPs galore

The consulate here gets a lot of visitors. As the "New York" of China, it's a principal center of commerce, finance, and politics unlike anywhere else. And for that reason, it seems like anyone coming from Washington to China stops in Shanghai.

On top of that, whenever a state or city wants to send a trade mission, they inevitably come here. It makes for a lot of high-powered traffic.

Recently, we've had the Treasury Secretary, the head of NASA, a Hawaii trade mission, and the Commmerce Department's Under-Secretary for Technology come through (that last one had several of my officemates worked up). Soon there will be a Utah trade mission, the Commerce Secretary, and possibly the mayor of a large city.

It's nice to be in a place that gets such attention. I just wish I had access to those people. Oh well....

Internship update

I like my internship. Allow me to explain what I've figured out so far in a Q&A format.

How does the consulate general in Shanghai work?
The U.S. Consulate General is divided up into a lot of parts, only one of which is the FCS.

There are people that push U.S. agricultural exports (like wine - those guys are cool), people take care of U.S. residents (including those that reside in Chinese jails), people who do nothing but interview visa applicants ALL day, people who monitor the political and economic situation here, and people who provide security for these people.

There is no single building where all of this takes place. The FCS office and the public affairs' office are co-located with the Portman Hotel in one building, though we're on different floors. The consular section, where all the visa stuff happens, is in a different building three blocks away.

The main consulate grounds are a car ride away and behind much more serious security. It makes sense -- I'm sure public affairs is much more problematic when you're behind layers of security, and FCS might have a harder time attracting event attendees with a line of visa applicants out the door.

What does your office do?
The Foreign Commercial Service (FCS) promotes U.S. exports to foreign countries. We don't help companies that want to offshore. We don't help U.S. companies import. We push exports because it helps narrow the trade deficit and because all the other industrialized countries are doing it.

Though we can do many things, principally we do Gold Key Services (GKS) and Single Company Promotions (SCP). GKS is for companies who want to sell to the Shanghai market. The team that handles their particular industry will try to find the best Chinese companies interested in importing their product, and set up a full day of meetings (typically four or five).

If there's a good number of Chinese companies who are interested, we might recommend the client go with an SCP rather than spend a week in individual meetings. Maybe 50 people from 25 companies will come in and watch the client's half-day presentation. If they want, we can provide use our conference room and we can arrange catering (all for a fee, of course), and then the companies can follow up as they want after that.

How is FCS organized and what do people do?
The FCS section of the consulate is divided up into five teams, each with about four or five people on it. Each team consists of several locally hired people (FSNs) who do the market research that goes into determining how feasible a U.S. company's entry to China is, and is headed by an expatriate commercial officer.

The team I'm on is an exception -- it's just me and my boss, a U.S. citizen who's originally from Shanghai. While the other teams have their responsibilities divided among the various industry groups within Shanghai, we handle all the industries in the second-tier cities outside Shanghai (specifically Nanjing, Ningbo, and Hangzhou). To make stuff happen, cooperate with a Chinese entity called the CCPIT.

The CCPIT is sort of like a chamber of commerce that promotes international trade, and within that mandate they do the dirty work that the FSNs would do in other teams. If this seems unclear, don't worry -- I've been here a month and a half and I still don't fully grasp it.

What do you do?
Not much.

My team is in the middle of two SCPs right now -- one construction materials company and another that does cosmetics. With the economy in Shanghai (and throughout China) being what it is, it's easy to see why these two companies received such a good response.

Apart from that, I mostly draft and proofread emails for my boss, and attend functions that others with greater seniority don't want to.

There is something I volunteered for that I look forward to. The Management Section is doing a cost-of-living survey this next month, and was looking for someone to help compite the data. Since that's just my cup of tea, I jumped on that. Hopefully, there will be a lot of Excel involved.

Single Company Promotion (SCP)

This evening the office hosted a single company promotion at the Shanghai Westin Hotel for a U.S. organization interested in expanding their presence in China.

As I posted earlier, in an SCP we arrange for a conference room for a U.S. company to present their product or service. We send invitations to appropriate potentially interested parties, do the requisite follow-up, and lend the reputation of the U.S. Government (this is particularly important in China, where guanxi rules).

The company pays for these services (including any catering), but the Commercial Service does the reservations -- the kind of work that would be really difficult for anyone unfamiliar with Shanghai.

The Westin was a really cool hotel, too. I took a couple of pictures, but these don't do justice to either the interior or overall beauty of the architecture.

Government appreciation

Today was the consulate's annual Government Appreciation Dinner. We hosted a number of Chinese government officials as a gesture of gratitude for the friendly relations we enjoy with our partners (remember, this is the Commerce Department).

I sat with my boss and ten of the top managers for the organizations we work with on the American Trading Center initiative. Unfortunately, only two of the guests at our table spoke English comfortably, leaving me out of most conversations. Another spoke Korean well, but even in that language he was far better than me. Needless to say, I was nervous the whole time.

(You can click on the picture above to expand it and see my name card.)

Office View

By some luck in office landscaping, my boss gets a great view -- better than some of the commercial officers. I took some pictures today.

Throne Phone

Yesterday I went on my first business trip -- I accompanied a client's representatives up to Nanjing for a Gold Key Service. I didn't have any time for sightseeing, but I did manage to get one picture of the city from the hotel room.

I also saw this, which I thought was amusing: a phone in the bathroom.

If only Elvis had had one.

Security badge and Week 2

This afternoon I went back to the consulate for my security badge, and had no problems. I even got a chance to stop by the HR office and pick up a more detailed description of a Commercial Assistant job that has opened up, which I'll pass on to a guy I know who's looking.

It would be a great job for me, too, except that it only pays about $12,000 a year -- fine in China, but not so good for paying off student loans. I'll stick to the U.S.

Tomorrow's the big Labor Day BBQ at the consulate, which I'm excited about. I'll be hob-nobbing over hot dogs with those whose jobs I've envied for the past seven years.

As far as this week is concerned, it was pretty interesting. There was a meeting on Tuesday which I think will be weekly -- it's nice because I get to hear what's going on in the differenct sections of the consulate as well as what the other teams are doing within this office.

On Wednesday I sat in on a courtesy call by some government employees from a city in Anhui province. I brought my notepad and pen to take notes, but because the entire meeting was in Chinese (two Chinese officials, my native Chinese boss, and me), I didn't understand a thing and was really frustrated.

The meeting ended with no better understanding. I have a page filled with notes, but the only thing I wrote down were questions like, "Who are they? Why are they here? What am I supposed to be scribbling?" I had to get all the details afterward.

Thursday and Friday were dominated by a search for accurate GDP-per-capita (国内生产总值人均) figures on nine of the largest cities in China. Surprisingly, this was hard to get, as there is no central source for this information on the Internet.

We had to check the Chinese versions of the city webpages for this information, but even that was not completely reliable -- along the coastal cities there's an officially registered population and an unofficial migrant one of people from the countryside working outside their "hukou." (This, by the way, creates a societal stress that results in situations like this.)

So there's no way of knowing whether the city is using the official or actual population. The actual population would be more accurate, but of course there's no authoritative figure. The city government has an interest in using the lower, official number, but that sacrifices accuracy for the sake of precision.

So we used the best numbers we could find, but like many other figures coming out of China by government authorities, they really don't mean anything.

Going to Disneyland

That's what it was like today as I got to go to the main consulate building for the first time. Oh boy!

The FCS (Foreign Commercial Service) division has two drivers for official use, available on a first-come, first-serve basis. One of them took my boss and I over to the main building, where after a security check we were let on post.

There's only one word that can describe the consulate grounds: palacial. After driving past a big lawn, our driver dropped us off in front of the COB building (no one knows what that stands for), and we walked up the stairs.

We passed through the marine guard and walked into the main reception room. A big blue carpet with the Great Seal of the United States was the first thing you notice, followed by pictures of all the ambassadors on the left and the chief executive on the right.

And then there was a problem. We were announced to the RSO (regional security officer), who responded with a slow "oooh." He then informed us that the person who normally works the security badge machine was out. Although she had emailed us only yesterday, that had been from home, and she was not yet recovered from an illness. And having only been at post for a month, the RSO didn't know how to work it the machine.

He asked us to come back tomorrow when she might be in. Frustrating, but that's State, I was told later.

It was also a bit humiliating to have to explain to him all the benefits that I'm denied because I'm under the Commerce Department rather than the State Department. I don't get housed with consulate staff (in fact, no one in FCS is provided housing), I don't get a diplomatic visa (and not even cultural exchange, just tourist), and I don't get health insurance (covered only by my school's program). All of this was news to him, especially the part about the visa issue.

So the good news is: I might get to come back to Disneyland again tomorrow, but since my first day of fun was ruined, I'm not really looking forward to it as much.

First Week in Review

This week has been ... uh ... difficult.

Not only have my feet been in agony because of the shoe thing, but I've had stomach problems, too. Between that and the way the horrid humidity makes me sweat every time I'm outside for more than five minutes, I've been losing a lot of water, and so now I've been getting headaches from dehydration. Ugh.

I've decided this weekend I'm going to get an even newer pair of shoes -- something that can match somewhat-dressy office clothes as well as a pair of jeans. And they will be less than 200块 ($25). That's my mission this weekend.

In terms of work, I've been doing a lot of reading, proofreading, formatting, and drafting of documents and email of a "CYA" nature. For most of the week, though, my boss and the office's intern manager were out of town, so my job has been to get acquainted with service. With my ample free time I've been going through the network drives looking for interesting reports and what kinds of companies have a chance at exporting to China.

On Thursday, my boss said it would be OK for the other person in our team and I to split taking time off until she comes back on Tuesday. They took Friday, so I have Monday off (which I really need).

So it's been hard, but I've started off well, and I earned my first vacation day. Can't beat that, I guess.

Killer first day

Oh my gosh, what a brutal day.

I got a new pair of shoes just for work, and I wore them for the first time today. This was a bad idea, to say the least.

Within just the half hour commute from home to work -- 10 minutes to the subway station, 10 minutes on the subway, and the 10 minute walk to work -- my shoes had rubbed through two layers of skin and opened large sores on the inner quarter of my heel.

Having arrived to work before my new boss, and knowing there was no way I could tolerate the rest of the day like this, and I embarked on a bit of shoe surgery. I figured that there was no way I could return the shoes as they were (blood had stained the interior of my right shoe), so I took a pair of scissors and make vertical slices along the backs of my shoes. SY was saddened to see the new shows she bought for me mutilated, but that was the best thing I could think of at the time.

When my boss came in, I got the walk-through, met the other four interns (three of whom were from summer and will leave in a week), and got familiar with the organizational chart.

After that everyone met with a visiting Deputy Assistant Secretary. He listened to short statements about what everyone did, including the interns, and I wondered what I was supposed to say. When it came my turn, I just said I was a graduate student at the University of Hawaii and added "I'm sorry; this is my first day so I really don't know what I'll be doing." That got a few laughs.

In the afternoon, I did some searching on the Internet for various things -- a resume by a Nanjing official, any large U.S. companies' headquarters there -- and did some translating work with the help of AltaVista's Babelfish.

Quitting time came at 5:30, and what a relief it was to get home, take off my shoes, and relax!