Zong Zi Lunch

Vicky's brother, Tony, gave us a special lunch that his colleague's family prepared.  Zong Zi consists of some pork surrounded by young beans, rice and finally wrapped in a lotus leaf.  The whole thing is steamed and has an incredible flavor!

A Day With Middle School Friends

(Editor's Note:  Evidently blogging is being blocked in mainland China... all my backdoors into the blog don't work.  I'll share a couple of updates today from Hong Kong, but if I go dark after that don't worry... I'm being well cared for in Guangzhou.  You'll get the rest once I get back.)

On Saturday, Vicky invited her friends from Middle School over for a visit.  This series of friends has stayed together over the years... several of them own businesses and really support each other in each person's endeavors.  The day started with them all bringing their children over for a portrait session.  (Yes, I took a flash and a reflector to China with me.)  We had a great morning shooting various combinations - even Tiger (Vicky's nephew) joined Vicky and me for a "family" portrait.

(I won't bore you with all the photos... check out www.georgereiner.smugmug.com for the others - under "Travel" and "2014 Chinese New Year")

We had a great time hanging around Vicky's apartment for a while before heading over to Dim Sum.  Then in the afternoon we went over to the Agile development's recreation center and used their indoor sports arena for some badminton.

Throughout the day I observed that kids in China are just like kids in the USA... in a mixed social situation, they prefer to get lost in their cell phones (probably texting each other), and responding to the occasional interruptions by adults.

Late in the afternoon, the kids were returned home and we all met at a restaurant above a local fish market... talk about fresh seafood!  Their favorite teacher (who was only 20 and just starting out when they were in their senior year of middle school) joined them for a true celebration.  The starting dish was this plate of huge "peapod" shrimp.  Again, I was the group photographer.

First Impressions on Returning a Year Later

After a quick night's rest, I traveled across Guangzhou my first day back to visit my company's new facility located here.  This was a large state-of-the-art flavor processing plant and I had a chance to see some of the new technology I recently worked on in actual use (this is always satisfying for an R&D researcher).  Obviously there are no photos.  It was a pleasant visit and nice to meet some new colleagues.

It's always jarring to get here and see the huge volume of traffic, and as I said, the smog just hits you like a brick wall.  While a lot of the driving customs are weird to this PA/NJ driver, once explained, they make sense... let's just say they're trying to fit a huge amount of traffic into a small space.

The smog seems much worse than last year.  Last year, I'll admit that we were visiting during the height of the economic shut down for the New Year celebration, and this year we are about a week early... so economic activity in the city is still somewhat strong, though getting lesser each day.  Some days the sky is completely grey, while others, we can make out some sunlight poking through and just a hint of blue in places.

We ended our first day back with a small dinner with Vicky's family (mother, father, and Tiger's family along with her Godfather's family.

In China!

I arrived at the Guangzhou airport after 25 hrs of airport travel. The smell of firecrackers (actually the air quality) hits you as soon as the plane touched down. 

Home Sweet Home

Vicky and Tiger picked me up from the Guangzhou airport and we got home about 11:00 PM - about 28.5 hrs door to door.  My favorite massage chair was waiting for me.  

After a great nights sleep, Vicky made breakfast and I got ready to go visit my company's new Guangzhou facility. 

Tokyo

Just a brief layover... nice, but huge airport. 

Takeoff???

We had a blizzard overnight with maybe 10-12 inches of snow, so I was a bit surprised to see my flight listed as "On Time".  John was a trooper and made it here in time to get me to the airport... I'll spare you the potentially incriminating photo of us trying to look through the funky frozen windshield to find our way to Terminal C.

As we arrived, the airport was just waking up from the storm.  There were no lines and I flew through check-in and security. That left me with a long wait... The sign  beckoned, and I had an incredible "Roast Beef Hash" as my last western meal.  

I probably won't live as long for having this breakfast, but in my mind the trade off is worth it.