#255 Canoe w Marco

Sunday was a beautifully sunny and cool day in Suzhou and I asked Maria, Marco, and Juliana each if they wanted to go for a paddle on Jinji Lake. All turned me down despite my arm twisting. As I was leaving the house to go alone, Marco had a change of heart and decided to go with me.

We paddled out near to Island A which now has the name - "Tao Hua Dao" which means "Peach Blossom Island". From there, we headed toward the Ferris Wheel and also saw the large boat that we watched being built during our first winter in Suzhou.

There are now tour boats running out to Tao Hua Island from the new Ferris Wheel amusement park. So we saw many more people on the island compared to when we explored it last year.

Marco and I spent about an hour paddling about and watched the sunset over the lake and the SIP financial district. It was a very pretty afternoon and Marco was in a good mood - especially when he was allowed to hold and manage the bag of boating snacks - Goldfish crackers, Diet Coke, and a single Tiger beer (for Dad).

#254 Ferris Wheel

Juliana and I went on Saturday to ride the new Ferris Wheel on Jinji Lake. It is a monstrous structure that lights up at night with changing colors and a TV screen in the center. The wheel and amusement park opened up earlier this summer and seems to be drawing a good crowd.

The view from the top is great, though the sky was overcast and dreary on Saturday. It cost us 80 RMB ($12 US) each to get into the park which included a ride on the giant wheel. The line was pretty short and the ride is pretty long. The wheel moves slow enough the passengers load into the cars without stopping the motion. In fact, it is quite hard to tell from a distance whether the wheel is moving. We forgot to check our watches, but one lap around the wheel seemed to take about one half hour.

There was a whole list of posted warnings inside the passenger compartment of the wheel. One that caught my eye and made me think of my back-in-the-states friend Bill - "No Heart Problem People". Pregnant people and those under 1.5 meters are also banned from enjoying the wheel.

We quite enjoyed the ride and the view. Afterward we found an outside table at the nearby Times Square Starbucks and had a mocha and a frappacino. It was a bit of a special afternoon for Juliana and I and we had a great time.

#253 Chinese Lessons

I have now been taking Chinese language lessons for two years and you can see me above with Angela, my most recent teacher. Back in January, with the economic downturn and the cost cutting that came along with it, Caterpillar stopped paying for languge lessons for expats. When I had to start paying for lessons myself, I realized I couldn't afford the premium package I had before. I was fortunate to find a more affordable arrangement with Angela.

Angela is great (though Kathy, Annie, and Isabel, my previous teachers were also great). Angela is very enthusiastic and very encouraging through this very difficult pursuit. Chinese continues to be among the most difficult things I have every tried to learn. It just could not be more different and foreign.

Angela encouraged me to start learning characters and I can tell you, this is like trying to learn a third language while you are already studying the most difficult language on the planet. At the same time, as I have started to learn some Chinese writing, I am excited to start to be able to read parts of the signs and advertisements around town. I know maybe 100 characters. The only way to learn characters is through brute force repetition. You can see above my workbook where I am writing and rewriting the words for "dirt" and "he" which are quite similar characters.

Most of my colleagues who have been here for a couple years have given up on their Chinese lessons. I am not quite sure what keeps me going, but I suppose it is the occassions when I can make a Chinese colleague laugh or have a short conversation with our driver or a shopkeeper. I cannot help but think how much better my Italian would be if I had spent two years living in Italy. Nonetheless, I will continue to persevere if for no other reason than because I have put so much effort into it already.

#252 Tony's Birthday

The Caterpillar Suzhou factory and office has been closed on Fridays since July. We are working four 10 hour days instead of five 8's so we have every Friday off. This is a nice schedule and today was one of those quiet and relaxing Fridays.

This morning at the gym, I had an appointment with the manager to discuss their opening hours. One of the iClub employees told me recently that the gym management had decided to change the opening time from 6:15 AM to 7:00 which would be too late for me to exercise before work. After a very frustrating, but very typical negotiation with a Chinese manager, I managed to get a promise that the "soft" opening time would remain at 6:15.

I spent the middle part of the day reading a Harlan Coben novel and studying Chinese. In the afternoon I had my Chinese lesson and in the evening a birthday party with the Cazzato family.

Today is actually the day after my birthday, but since we had a conflict with the work function last night, tonight was the house party. Kathleen served homemade lasagna and carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (my favorite). The kids all had handcrafted cards and gifts for me. Maria made a necklace, Joseph made a small robot, Marco gave me a Caterpillar calendar that I bought for myself earlier this year, and Juliana gave me a book of Do's and Don'ts for fathers. Photo evidence above.

All in all, it was one of my best birthdays ever.

#251 Bowling & Bday

It has a while since my last blog. We have had a fairly routine couple of weeks in China, though we have had some troubling news from home. My brother Chris was recently taken to the hospital with respiratory distress. He has had a disease called sarcoidosis for many years. It has left him with lung problems. Something caused it to become acute about 12 days ago and he was taken by ambulance to the hospital. He spent some time in intensive care on a ventilator. As of a few days ago he was doing much better and was able to breath on his own. He seems to be getting stronger each day and hopefully will recover enough soon to go home. Please say a prayer for him.

In other news, my workgroup got together tonight and went bowling at the Dushu University Lanes in SIP. We had a competition with the winner taking home a model of the Caterpillar 14M Motor Grader - a sweet prize indeed. There were no real ringers among us, but Francis won that honor with a two game average score of 105.

Today was also my birthday - 41 years old. Kathleen and the kids came to the bowling alley and brought cake for the birthday boy and all of my colleagues. It was a fun night.