Our Trip to China last week...Part 2

On day three we had our medical exams. It wasn't too bad. But at one point I was expecting to feel some sort of electrical shock. Not kidding.

WARNING. This is about my medical exam and reveals things. If you get squimish skip down to the next bolded heading. 

We showed up at the medical office early and went in to wait for the staff to begin work at 8:00. You can get in, but no one will help you until 8 am. We had to give them 3 copies of a visa photo and fill out a form. After paying the fee we got a list of about 15 things all in Chinese. Fortunately we had Daniel assistant from the company with us and she is native Chinese. She was such a help. We went up the stairs to the second level and into the first station. We had blood drawn and she gave me a q-tip to hold where she had poked me and said "2 minutes!" I thought it was done bleeding and that it had been 2 minutes. So I took the q-tip off and checked, no bleeding and threw it away. When I looked back at my arm again, it was bleeding, like dripping. So she thrust 3 more q-tips at me and snapped "2 minutes!" Awesome. Then it was time for the urine sample. Pee into a cup and then put it into a tube. Not easy. nuff-said.

The next station was the eye check. Daniel was tested with and without his glasses. Then I was tested. They didn't even clean the metal eye cover. Awesome. I love germs.

The third station was blood pressure and weight. Easy enough.

Then we had the ECG. My favorite. so I got in and the woman says a bunch of stuff to Selena (Daniel's assistant. Her Chinese name is Xia Jing) and she says roll up your pant leg and push your sock down. Then hop up on the table and pull your shirt up. So I did. Then she said higher. That's right folks, shirt in armpits. Exposed. Then she puts metal pinchers on my ankle, my wrists and suction cups along my chest. I was pretty sure something was going to go wrong. After a minute she says, "you're done." So I put myself back together. That was it. I told my mom and she said that is 30 year old technology. Awesome.

Then the ultrasound. They do an ultrasound of your ribcage and stomach. I'm not sure what they were checking for.

Then the x-ray. Bra off again. Shirt on. You have to stand on a small platform and hold a protective shield over your bum. At least I did. Daniel didn't. While holding this to your hips you have to press your shoulders into the wall and then the platform moves. Try keeping your balance with your toes and shoulders against the wall. Then we were done.

That was it. It was kinda weird. The whole thing only took 45 minutes. Then we were done. Then we went KFC to wait for our driver and we ate congee with pork strips and preserved egg. It was okay. The egg looked gross though - kinda brown. They have the yummiest sweet bread sticks there in the morning. It's kind of like a Chinese churro.

Then off to the factory.

Daniel works for Lifetime Products. You all know who that is, even if you don't think so. They  make most of the basketball standards on the market and the plastic tables and chairs at Costco and Sams. They have a factory in China where they make a few things for the U.S. and the things that are sent to Europe and Australia. The company is upgrading to a new ERP (it's okay, I don't quite understand it all either ;)) and that is what Daniel will be doing there for the next 18 months. I went with him on our third day (Wednesday) to get a tour and meet the people he will be working with. I just loved his assistant Selena. She is really amazing. Her English is fantastic. She will be able to help Daniel so much. She's one of the best they have there. I also met with the President of the China division.

I got a tour of the factory and all of their parts. It was pretty awesome. The people were looking at me funny. Probably because I was the fat American in the golf cart getting a tour and taking pictures. Not sure what they thought. Here are few pictures of the factory.

This is a woman had cutting the extra plastic off a blow-molded table top. In China it's done by hand. In Clearfield it's done by machine.

This is welding of a frame.

 This is a warehouse full of the plastic and what looks like olympus water is actually color pellets for the plastic.

This is Daniel's office and the foyer of the main office area. In China it's very important to give a good impression as quickly as possible when someone is visiting you.

It is very peaceful.

That evening we walked to some of the parks and then went to a Cuban restaurant for dinner at the request of a member of our travel group.

Next post: Our day in Hong Kong.

Our Trip to China last week...Part 1

We had the opportunity to go and see where it is we will be living, the neighborhood, the office space, etc. We also had to get a medical exam as the last piece of our Visa Z process. That was interesting.

Travel Day - SLC to San Francisco (2 hrs) then San Francisco to Hong Kong (14.5 hrs.) then a 2 hr delay in our flight from Hong Kong to Xiamen (1 hr.) We got to the hotel at 12:30 am after traveling for 31 hrs. Long day. This is the 747 double decker we flew on. I've  never been on one before. It's only nice if you are the one upstairs. It was a pretty good flight.

  

This was my only problem.  I have a condition where my blood has a tendency to clot. So I wear compression socks to force circulation and an aspirin for blood thinner. Here are my feet after 16 hours in the compression socks.

Two of those lines are from the shoes I walked in for a while. We were really tired when we finally got to Xiamen. We slept really well.

Our first day there I was able to tour Xiamen with the wife of another Lifetime employee who lived there for 10 years. We went to the markets and saw the apartment. It's a really nice apartment and a really nice area. I only took a few pictures that day. Mostly playing with my camera. It was good day. 

On our second day there I toured Xiamen again. We went to the campus of Xiamen University, where I will be attending the Chinese class that I enrolled in. Here are a couple of pictures of the campus. I am still figuring out my camera and it was an overcast day, thus the blue hue to it all. 

It's a beautiful campus.

Right next to the Campus is a famous Buddhist Temple on the island of Xiamen. We were able to see the temple and walk the mountain behind it. There are boulders up the side of the mountain and in the boulders have been carved steps to climb the mountain. There are a few temples up the mountain. We only hiked up to the second one. Sometime Daniel and I will hike all the way up and down the backside where there is a botanical garden.

This is one of the entry gates to the Temple grounds.

 Inside the courtyard there are two towers with holes at seven levels. You throw coins into the holes and the higher the hole you can get a coin into the more luck you will have. I got a coin in first try in the 4th one up. Sweet. Luck in China!

 This is the main temple from behind and up the hill a bit.

 These are some of the steps up the mountain.

 These are some the steps behind the second temple up.

 This is another of the temples in the area.

Xiamen is so beautiful. I am so excited to live there. We walked the water front and through some of the parks. I will have opportunities to take some beautiful pictures while we are living there.

Tomorrow I will post about our third day -the factory and Pearl Island and our day in Hong Kong.

One Last thing...

We got authorization to have our tickets purchased for our moving trip. By the end of Monday business day we will have our tickets to move to China on April 12. 24 days from this date of post. I'm excited. I feel I can take a deep breath now and move forward with a plan of action for packing up.

For those of you who want to follow our adventures, I will be posting here on this blog throughout our journey. To keep up with us it's easiest to follow or to add my blog to your RSS Google Reader. I would love to hear from everyone while we are gone. I will most definitely be following so many of you and keeping up with your lives. May the next 18 months be good for all of us!

My trip to Virginia

I had the opportunity to go to Virginia once more before we move to China and I'm so glad I did. I had a wonderful time with my grandma and my cousins. Here are few pictures from the trip.


Monticello is a regular must. This time we got a special opportunity though.


They are now offering special tours of the upstairs, second and third floors. We got to see a few bedrooms on the second floor and the Dome room on the third floor.

This is the window at the top. It is 54" in diameter. One solid piece of spun glass. It is not original, but it is a reproduction made by the same glass blowers who did the original and done in the same way. This is now protected by plexi-glass so it won't break with the hail.

This is historic downtown Staunton (pronounced stanton) in Virginia. It's a pre-civil war era town.
In Staunton there is a glass blowing factory. We had the opportunity to watch the glass specialist blow a bud vase. It was awesome. I got a few pieces of glass, but I can't post those yet. It's a secret. ;)
It was a good time and I got to chat with my grandma quite a bit.

Yay for Virginia.

So soon to China. We leave this Saturday the 19th for our preview trip. I will most definitely post about that. Also - I got that camera I wanted yesterday!! We sold my car and with some of the money we bought the Nikon D5000 and a laptop for me while we are in China. Getting so excited and yet so nervous! It's going to be so fun and such a wonderful experience.