Travel Note - Chinese New Year

Just one quick observation about the sights we see this time of year. Starting from about the 15th of the month, and continuing through the 10th of February, everyone travels. It's like Thanksgiving Sunday on steroids.

Our office is right next to the main Guangzhou train station, so the crowds outside on the street are at least 5x what they are on a normal day. The travelers coming in and out of the train station never ends.

And they all see to carry these gigantic plastic bags. It's not a plastic bag from a grocery store, but a large bag that zips made of material that you would cover your outdoor porch furniture with in the winter. It's plastic-like on the outside, but there is some cloth on the inside. I hope someone in the comments has a better way to describe this material.

When I say they are gigantic, I mean it. It is not a reusable bag from the store - it can easily fit a large suitcase inside of it. When packed, they can weigh up to 60-70 pounds.

Everyone has these bags - and they are brightly colored; red and yellow stripes; blue and green flowers; purple stripes with blue accents. All these people in grey clothing carrying this massive colorful bag.

What's in there? I can't help but think it is the majority of their life's belongings. This is the big holiday for the country, where people travel to their family for 2-3 weeks; why wouldn't they pack up everything in that bage for the trip?

It's oddly mesmerizing to watch these old women, weighing 90 pounds, carrying a 50 pound bag with their possessions around the train station area, looking in vain for their family members to show up and pick them up.

Let's Make a Deal!

Hello all, back from Thailand and the Chinese New Year holiday. Fireworks are still going off infrquently at night here, even though this is now Day 8 after the official start of the Lunar New Year.

We spent last week going to Chiang Mai for 3 days, a city in Northern Thailand, and then to an island in the southeast, Ko Chang. I will have pictures to post from those locations; hopefully it will all be up this weekend.

Chiang Mai has a night market that is a tourist destination - and it was right down the street from our hotel, so we frequented it several times during the trip. It's clear that I am not the best bargainer in the world.

But it's not all my fault! A lot has to do with leverage - who has the leverage in the negotiations?? And it is a FACT that if you have kids with you, you have no leverage.

We stopped at a sunglasses stall the first night - we all needed new ones - and immediately the boys saw the rows of multi-colored Oakley and started trying them on. Even Martin got into the act, and after 3 minutes he was in love with these yellow-framed Oakleys.

Well, it was finally time for the payment.

The vendor pulled out the calculator; "555 Baht for all of them."

The rate is about 30 Baht to 1 US Dollar.

I tried to be suave and negotiate. "How about 300 for all 5?"

She looked at the kids. Freddie and Warren already had theirs on; Martine was actually going up to strangers and saying, "See my new sunglasses? They're yellow!"

She replied: "I'm sorry, fixed price. 555 Baht".

I tried one more time. How about 400?

"No, sir, fixed price. 555 is the best".

500?

"550 is my final offer."

Done! I got her to come down 5 Baht!!!! That's......well, that's 16 cents.

But without kids, you have the leverage. I went into a clothing store to look at some T-shirts. "200 each" was the reply.

I said "I'm not interested", and walked out.

I got 3 steps away, when the man called back "100 each!". Done! I bought two.

I heard every line in the book out there from the vendors trying to guilt the white man into paying full price.

"It's Chinese New Year, this is the best I can do for you".
"Ooooh, you look like someone who appreciates good quality! Let me show you my other golf hats I have."
"I can't come down on price, I have children to feed."

And yes, all those lines worked on me.

T-shirt with a message?

Before we leave for vacation - Thailand, thanks for asking! - I have to share this picture of a T-shirt someone was wearing on the river walk next to our apartment.

It is incredibly difficult to get a picture of someone's shirt, trailing them, without them knowing.

However, I should have asked her how much she would take for that shirt. This would be a great gift for someone I know.....

The year of the dragon

And to prove it is the year of the dragon, the dragon made an appearance at the school program.....

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Guess what???

It's time for another holiday! It is Chinese New Year time here....the whole country closes up shop for one week as we celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Out with the old year (Rabbit), in with the new (Dragon). Apparently, being born under the Dragon year is a sign of good luck - so officials expect a big jump of births in 2012. They saw the same increase in births in 2000, 1988, 1976, 1964, ......

The school had the Chinese New Year program yesterday - here's one of the songs from the show.

The Bugs Bunny trick

Do you remember Bugs Bunny cartoons - when Bugs was running away from Elmer Fudd or Yosemite Sam? He would disappear into a rabbit hole; Elmer would point the gun down the hole and say: "I got you now, wabbit!"

All of a sudden, Bugs would somehow pop into the picture and get his revenge on Elmer. Elmer would have that look on his face, saying "But..how? How did you get out of there???"

Funny, right? Hilarious?

Had the same experience yesterday. One of the joys of being an ex-pat is that our supporting firm requires us to pay quarterly taxes. They give us some money and the 1040-ES forms, and the requires us to file the forms. Never mind that they are based in Cleveland and we are 12,000 miles away in China.

Anyway, our OND returns were due this month, and we still don't have a good way to mail anything back to the US. I found out that one of the managers was heading back to the US on the week of the 9th; great! I put the form and the check in the envelope, sealed it, addressed it to the IRS center in St Louis, and asked him to mail it in the US. I gave him $2 for the stamps, even!

Fast forward to yesterday. In the Guangzhou office, I get a note that I have pouch mail for me at the mail office. Now, we have a PO Box in Cincinnati that letter can be sent to and then it is automatically forwarded here to work.

I go downstairs to see what came - a card? A Bill? - and what is it?

It's the envelope that I sent to the IRS - addressed to the IRS in St Louis. Sealed and all - with the uncashed check and tax form inside.

How? How did this appear back to me in China? There are no stamps, no postmark, no markings whatsoever that it was handled by the US Post office. My PO Box was used as the return address.......but still, how is this back to me?

I feel like Wile E Coyote after lighting a stick of dynamite, closing his eyes and putting his fingers in his ears....and then , 5 seconds later, the stick returns to him just as the fuse is about to run out......

Hoosiers!

Two people care about this....

God I have to get acclimated to the Big 12 quickly. College sports is all they care about down here. Kansas vs Baylor is all anyone could talk about today.

I was asked in front of 150 people today, which local college I would follow. I wanted to say who cares about your fly over conference, but I couldn't. I said that I won some money this year on K St football so I'm partial to them, but I'm really curious about KU basketball. That did not go over well at all. Then someone asked "Well what about Missouri" which I responded "What about them?" Everyone looked angry. I then joked that I'll cheer for the only college that can win a championship....Pitt St. That got a laugh and I quickly asked for another question.

Found out today that one of my female managers played on the Purdue golf team from 2001-2004. She has a fathead of Drew Brees in a Purdue uniform in her office which just looks weird. Asked her if she wanted to come to vegas to play golf with some other purdue grads and she asked when did they graduate. I estimated that it was in 93, and she said, Wow, why are you hanging out with such old men and I said I ask myself that same question every year. HA! Loved it.

The Move to Kansas City

While I'm sure it won't be as exciting as Eric's updates on his experiences in China, I'm going to try to provide some interesting updates from Kansas City now that I'm almost settled in here. We can then compare which culture is more strange and interesting. Just a few notes since arriving here on Christmas:

• Upgraded our 1600 sq foot home for a cozy 3500 sq foot home. And its half the price of our home in California. That's going to be nice.


• Got a nice kick in the pants this past week as we got some snow. First snow that I've experienced in about 9 years. It was snowing sideways and the high that day was 11.


• Moved to a town called Olathe. Quiet little suburb southwest of KC. The local McDonalds advertises a 50 peice chicken mcnugget meal deal. Its number 15 on the value meal deals. McDonalds wouldn't be doing this if there wasn't a demand for it, so wow! Very impressive.


• Looks as if KC's values their Bass Pro Shops like most of us values Nordstrums. Bought Morgan's first piece of camo which was a pink camo stuffed animal. She loves it and won't put it down.


• Funny to see people's desk decorated with Royal's gear. I have seen countless Brett, Sabs, Wilson, and Quisenberry bobble head dolls.


• They are opening up a brand new casino (Hollywood Casino) about 10 minutes away at the KC Speedway. I'm praying that they don't have UTH there....please don't have it there.


• People are religious about college sports down here. Kansas, Kansas St, and Missouri dominate most of the conversation. Fun.

Me and Mike Gundy

Well, I guess today is officially the day I can imitate Mike Gundy and actually be telling the truth!

Short clip of Gundy
Here's the long version, the 3 minute press conference.

I'm always fascinated to see who shares my birthday. For the longest time, it seems that there were only a few celebrities that shared my birthday:

Rod Stewart
Pat Benatar (boy, those two names explain a lot, don't they? -ed)
George Foreman
Wille McCovey

Now I've finally found a few more names to add to that list:

Jake Delhomme (1975) - maybe this explains why I was so excited when he was named our starting QB in 2010.

Glenn Robinson (1973) - the Big Dog. Where is he now?

Doug E Doug (1969) - does he qualify as a star?
and finally

Chris H E Smith (1979).
Don't know who he is? Well, read this and it will make you want to jump.

Kansas City and Golf

Am I the only one super pumped about the start of the golf season? Its come to a point now where the start of the season for golf now rivals those of other sports. If I had to ranked the most anticipated start of certain sporting seasons I would have to go with:

1. The start of the NFL season. Fantasy Football, Gambling, and now the SuperContest, I really couldn't sleep. It felt like Christmas as a little kid. That Saturday was a wash as I was just trying to get prepared for Sunday. I think I was in bed by 9 the night before.
2. The start of March Madness. Yes, I count this as its own separate season. Vegas, the games, and being with friends at the tables the night before arguing who is the idiot and who has the true lock of the year is very entertaining.
3. The start of the golf season. The main pickem pool, the side pool, the fantasy league, and the gambling. I spent most of this afternoon dissecting a new pool I joined that uses last years earnings for golfers and sets a salary cap of $19 million. Pick your team. Extremely entertaining and challenging.
4. Everything else from Baseball, NBA, College Football, NHL, and WNBA.

The only downfall to this golf season is that I'm now living in Kansas City in the Central Time zone. Man I'm going to miss the Pacific Time Zone and having those early Thursday and Friday morning text messages coming in when I'm still in bed about my golfer.

A late Christmas gift for Layup

Just before Christmas, I took the boys to the mini street market a block from our house. One of the "booths" in that market is a DVD stand.....selections of many recent American movies, with the sound in English. They also had many DVD sets of American TV series, such as House, Glee (for Janice), Grey's Anatomy, How I Met Your Mother, etc.

Then I saw this. I think this makes the perfect gift for Layup, at the low low price of 25 RMB!

Also from the China Daily...

I bet many of you NBA fans out there are asking yourself: "Geesh, I'm glad the NBA is back, but what I really miss is Stephon Marbury. The world is not the same without him".

Well, fear not! He has a weekly column in the China Daily. Here is one of them from a few weeks ago.

"The world has taken notice of our start..." Jay - isn't that correct? Aren't you noticing the 10-0 start of the Beijing Ducks and putting them in your daily 3-team parlay?

A friend

Posted without comment: Here is the front page of China Daily, the official English newspaper in China, on the day after Kim Jong-Il's death was announced.......

NFL Week 17: Marina Bay Sands

Happy New Year! Active blogging should begin soon, as the NFL season winds down and the photo backlog on my iPhone continues to grow. Let's see if I can put in 10 posts over the next 10 days.

With the kids out of school, we took a quick trip to Singapore this week. What a neat city/state. It's hard to get over the fact that the whole country is only 30 km x 40 km in size......but there's enough to do for a good 3 days. We went to the science museum, went snow tubing (there is a place called Snow City, a warehouse-size building that makes artifical snow and allows you to tube down a 60 foot hill), rode the big ferris wheel, and saw a movie! An actual movie! We haven't seen a movie in a real movie theater in .......2 years? 3? That was nice......

I have to include the famous pool picture..swimming on top of the world....

And oh yes, of course, gambling. We stayed at the Marina Bay Sands, one of only two hotel-casinos in Singapore. So of course I had to try out (every night...even had a good session with Janice!)

It's just a little different there - even different than Macau. First, you have to present your passport at the door - to at least 3 people. Foreigners can get in for free, but if you are a Singpore citizen, you have to pay a $100 entry fee just to get in. So there are multiple checks to make sure you are truly a foreigner.

The casino itself is amazing. It's two stories, with the main floor filled with tables. Filled. Blackjack, Roulette, Sic Bo, Baccarat - and two new ones, Pontoon and Three Pictures. I have no idea how to play those last two - Pontoon is sort of a blackjack variant. They also had the other Texas Hold em Table game, which I played a lot.

The whole feeling gambling there is just....a bit different. Dealers seem to change every hour or more, less frequent than most US casinos. There are a host of side bets on the blackjack table - there is a "lucky 8s" bets where you see if you can get a pair of 8's with your hand and the dealer's up card (or, if you are lucky, 3 of a kind). And the dealer does not deal himself two cards right away. He deals himself the up card - and that's it; normal play commences. Once all the players are done, then the dealer takes his second card. I don't like that.

About the side bets: it seems to be accepted that anyone can bet on anyone's cards. For instance, I was playing blackjack, and got a pair of Aces. Yes, split please! Play came to me, and the dealer split them - and then asked if I wanted to put a separate "any Pair" bet on the split aces.

Uh, no thank you. Just deal the card.
The dealer was about to pull the card out --when the guy 3 seats to my right leans over and puts a $25 chip next to my card. He wanted to play the any pair! The dealer pulled up a 7.
Then the next hand; the delaer paused again asking for the any pair bet; I didn't even get a chance to say no when another $25 chip came from the same guy. I got a 10, which was not a pair for him.

It is common to bet for other's hands. I can't get use to that.

In the end, it's still gambling, it's still fun, but it's just a bit different and you never know what unknown idiosyncracy you will bump up against.

It's kind of like week 17 in the NFL - it's still football, but the week is different; you don't know who is playing at full speed, who is mailing it in, who will sit the starters in the 3rd quarter and which 3-12 team will play full out to win.

Anyway, on to the games:

Chi 28, Min 20. I have to believe the Vikes will mail this in after the AP injury last week.

GB 20, Det 17. There will be a letdown factor for the Lions after the win last week; also, Flynn is not that bad as a backup.

Ten 16, Hou 13. Tennessee needs to win this game.

SF 24, StL 6. The Rams are already trying to figure out who will be their next coach; the 9ers still need to win to lock up the #2 seed.

Was 24, Phi 20. Why are the Eagles going to try hard in this game?

Jax 17, Ind 10. I can't believe the Colts will win this and lose the #1 pick.

NO 27, Car 24. The Niners will win, and that means the Saints will let up down the stretch.

NE 31, Buf 10. The Pats need this game and will try to gain some confidence - especially on D - after last week's Miami game.

NYJ 20, Mia 17, OT. Can't you just see theJets somehow sneaking in?

Atl 30, TB 10. Tampa has mailed it in since November.

Oak 23, SD 16. I just don't think the chargers have one more good game in them after they were eliminated last week.

Az 24, Sea 17. Who is the most unmotivated here?

Den 23, KC 13. Are we really going to deny Tebow a chance at the playoffs?

Bal 27, Cin 17. Baltimore needs a win to get the 2 seed and home field if they play pIttsburgh in the playoffs........I can't believe they will actually let this slip through their fingers.

NYG 27, Dal 20. Who will choke the most?

Best bets: we're ending with 20 of them! Last week: my worst week at 5-10; overall: 133-109-11

Chi +1.5
Chi/Min over 41.5
GB +4.5
Ten/Hou under 39
SF -10
Was +8
Jax -3
Ind/Jax under 37
Car +7
NE -10
Buf/NE under 49.5
NYJ +3
Atl -10
Oak -3
SD/Oak under 48.5
Az -3
Den -3
Bal -1.5
Bal/Cin over 38
NYG -3


And for the final supercontest picks:

GB +3.5
Was +8
Car +8.5
Bal -2.5
NYG -2.5