Cymraeg

Cymraeg. That's "hello" in Welsh. Yes, I am in the land of Tom Jones. I'm in the middle of a two-week visit to Wales, home of the world's largest second-hand bookstore. This is actually a working trip so I'm by myself. It's my first real business trip since we moved to Shanghai. I did take a quick trip to Korea back in August but it was so short, it doesn't really count. This time really felt different from other trips I've had to take. It was weird leaving Kristi and the girls back in China. And it's also weird to be looking forward to returning "home" to Shanghai.



One good thing about this trip is that I get to drive again. We're not allowed to drive in China and have to rely on a driver to take us everywhere so it's been great to be able to come and go as I please. It's a little unsettling to be driving on the wrong side of the road and on the wrong side of the car but I'm getting used to it. I think it has helped that I haven't driven at all for a few months. I still haven't figured out the rules for the roundabouts but I'm not so sure there are any. Everyone handles them a little differently but it works. I must be doing alright though because no one has gotten too upset with me. However, there was one guy who was so impressed with my roundabout skills that he honked his horn and told me that I'm #1, if you know what I mean.

I had some free time Sunday so I spent a couple hours driving around the area. Once you get away from the towns, it's nice and peaceful. In fact, some of the land here looks a lot like home. I didn't realize how much I missed seeing hills and trees with all the fall colors, and cattle, and horses, and birds, and farm land. It wasn't easy to drive and take pictures but I did manage to get a few. You can find them here http://picasaweb.google.com/baamick/Wales.

Hangzhou

The first week of October was a national holiday in China. Actually it was two holidays - one traditional and one modern - rolled into one. The traditional holiday is the Mid-Autumn Festival (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival). The modern holiday is National Day, which celebrates the formation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, kind of like our 4th of July.

There are only three holidays in China (this one, Lunar New Year, and the May Holiday) but each lasts for an entire week. Since this is the only time many people get off work, it is common to travel during these times. We decided to act like the locals and take a short trip with a couple of other Dow Corning families.

We visited Hangzhou (pronounced hong-zo), which is about 100 miles southwest of Shanghai. It's an old city built around a large lake named Xi Hu, or West Lake. The city is modern, clean, and with only 4 million people, much smaller than Shanghai. In the 13th century, Marco Polo declared the city to be "paradise," but I wouldn't go that far. The surrounding area has several museums and Buddhist temples. We took lots of pictures, which are here http://picasaweb.google.com/baamick/Hangzhou.

More information about the city can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangzhou.

World Cup Video

Here is a short video of the team introdcutions. It has audio but doesn't capture fully the volume or intensity of the crowd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBSLk-0vato

"We will not only beat the Germans..."

"...we will castrate them!" So said these Brazilian fans prior the the World Cup finals in Shanghai last week. However, I don't know if they considered the fact that these were the women's teams playing. Anyhow, here are some pictures from the matches. http://picasaweb.google.com/baamick/WorldCup

In the first match, the USA beat Norway by a score of 4-1 to capture third place. In the championship match, Germany defeated Brazil 2-0.

A couple of observations...

• People like Americans. Several times outside the stadium, we were stopped by people who wanted to know where we were from and asked if we would have a picture taken with them.
• People like to root against Americans. This was interesting in light of what I mentioned above. Maybe it's people's natural instict to cheer for the underdog but the only people rooting for the Americans were other Americans.
• Brazilians are absolutely insane about soccer. Their fans were few but very vocal. They live and breathe this stuff.
• Germans are also pretty crazy about soccer but these fans are just obnoxious. With the Brazilians, it's all about having a good time and supporting their team, win or lose (even the comment about castration was done if good humor, if that's possible). The Germans don't just want to win - they want to dominate their opponents. They don't just want their team to win, they want you to know that your team is inferior in all ways.