When we (Bill Teeter & I) arrived they had a lunch prepared at the plant. Bill is here for about 2 weeks. The food was better than I had presumed or expected. We also went to a fancy restaurant for dinner tonight.
Though English has not been totally absent, the hotel apparently does not have English speaking personnel. At least it appeared so. When I got back from dinner, I asked about an iron since most all of my clothes are mashed and creased in multiple directions. After much giggling an hand motions from each of us, the clerk wrote 6019 on a paper for me. I understood to call the number.
When I called it I had no idea what the conversation on the other end was about and then the phone went dead. Shortly thereafter, 3 young, uniformed ladies (~16 y.o.?) knocked on the door and one asked if they could help me. Together, they giggled and each tried to ask about what I needed. Finally one of the girls got a notepad and gave it to me to write 'Chinese' on. I made a weak drawing of an iron and they giggled and cut up some more, then made motions and hand actions which I may have understood and maybe just thought I did, but I think they got the message that I did not need them washed, just ironed.
Then we got down to when I would get them back. One wrote 7:40 on a notepad, but then a 2nd girl wrote 10:00. I got it over to them that 10 would not work, but 7:40 would.
Working at the hotel, they are obviously employed by the government. They must be in some program and learning English. They learned the written part, but were not confident in the speaking part. Unless I find out tomorrow that they did not have a clue to what I thought we visited about tonight!
Interpreter is named Lucas. Young man about 20 from somewhere down south. Born and raised in China, never been outside the country. Says he self taught himself English mostly from listening to BBC radio. I do not know what to think of his story, mostly because he does not speak with an English accent. He speaks with very little accent of any kind. 2 + 2 = ?. Nevertheless, seems to be a very nice young man & MOST importantly, appears to have a sense of humor.
China has a cartoon character who does ads for H1N1 on the video screens on airplanes and is on posters on the planes. He is a pig. They are making a very strong effort to educate their public on this matter.
Congratulations to Jamie [nephew] on finishing the marathon, but now the bad news. He's about to turn 40!
Offices are unheated, with everyone wearing winter coats and drinking hot water. Hot water is a common, or popular drink, for warming. There is a young lady at the office who has the task of refilling your hot water drink if it gets low or cools off.
The Changyi Hotel is government owned and their firewall may be the problem with accessing the blog. The room is clean, just 1950-ish with apps! There was quite an animated conversation between the Tyson local mgmt & the hotel mgmt about ensuring I had heat on demand, not just during the heat hours.
I can stay here (much less than 5 star) and have a 5 minute commute or in Weifang and commute (at best) 45 minutes to an hour each way. This will likely be best.
They charged me for 30 days up front & gave me 1 free breakfast ticket. What a deal.
4 clothes hangers & 2 are for bath robes they provide!
I also have pics. 1) Japanese airport toilet. Toilet I encountered at Tokyo stopover. The Japanese don't let their feet dangle.
2) Lela's oatmeal raisin cookies she sent with me are now a loaf.
3) the bunny humidifier I have in my room
4) my room's fresh water jug'-with both cold & hot water (hot water is preferred here)
5) my toilet here at the Changyi Hotel-it almost takes a pilot's license to use it!
W
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