An American in Provence

Apparently, we were unable to confirm our seats for the flights by phone and they wanted to get to the airport as soon as possible. So we gathered up our things, checked out, and took a taxi to the airport. (About 80 euros)

Once we arrived at the airport, the check-in desk was still closed. We walked down to the airline office, which was open, and confirmed our seats. We were speaking in French to each other when the Korean says in French "Oh, you are French?" and starts talking with us in French. Apparently he had studied in Paris for a few years. Just goes to show you, you never know when someone might understand what you are saying.

Once we finally went through security, we had about four hours of wait, due to mechanical troubles with the airplane. The Incheon Airport is full of designer shops, which rather just depress me after awhile. What is the point of looking if I can't even begin to think about buying something?

Anyway, I found some nice green pottery souveneirs so I bought them. Some were containers for their strong alcohol. The vendors warned me that I wouldn't be able to bring them through security, but since we were taking a connecting flight from Amsterdam, I figured it would be okay. The hours passed slowly, and we got ready to board the airplane at 3:30 when they made the announcement that in fact, it would be another three hours because of mechanical problems. This meant that we were going to miss our connecting flight and be stuck in Amsterdam. Sigh. I called Alain to tell him that I would not be coming home today. Finally we boarded the plane after a ggod 8 hours in the airport, and it took off around 7 pm. Besides one annoying (approximately) 10 year old seated in front of me, the flight was pretty uneventful. We arrived in Amsterdam around 10 pm. They would not give us our luggage, so I was unable to pack my liquor bottles in my checked baggage. The lady from KLM said that it should be okay to go back through security with them if they were still in the sealed Duty-Free bags. We took the shuttle over to the hotel (decidedly less-nice than all the others we had stayed at) and went to bed around 11:30.

Friday morning we woke up at 6 for a 7 a.m. pickup (except T. who forgot that Korea was one hour later than China and woke up at 7). We made the long drive back out to Incheon, where we again visited a factory, the largest of the ones we had seen. It was quite impressive. Afterwards, we had lunch in the VIP lounge, then drove to a parts warehouse in Amsam. The whole day it was raining like crazy. We got quite drenched. The parts warehouse is where they keep the spare parts for the engines, in case something breaks and needs to be replaced ASAP. Their system is computerized, with large robot/cranes that go in between the rows to the correct box.

We then went down to the buffet in the hotel restaurant. They had a Mongolian barbeque, which was very good. After that, we headed over to their office for the commercial meeting, which lasted several hours. Then we went out to a traditional Korean place. In the middle of the table was this gas burner, on which you place meat, mushrooms, etc. then combine with the very spicy kimchee and other hot hot things on your plate. At one point, I felt tears coming to my eyes and was desperately seeking water, while they wanted me to translate something. "Gasp! Can't! Fire!"

This night is when the Shanghai, um, Shizzle started. Sweet dreams Megan!

After another morning of meetings/visiting factories, our hosts took us to a barbeque place, complete with live singing. At first I thought it was karaoke, but it was the same two people (a guy and a girl) singing over and over again. It wasn't horrible singing, but it was just not what I needed to hear while trying to eat. I asked our host, Sherry, what they were there for, and she said "To wish us a happy meal". Oh, so maybe that's why I had indigestion later...

After that, they drove us to visit the Forbidden City of Shenzhen. Very nice, very old, and if it hadn't been so freezing we would have spent more time there. I had brought my scarf and mittens, but my ears and nose were very very cold. After a running tour, we browsed some shops, where Sherry got yelled at by one of the vendors. She was helping to translate/negociate for us, and she said to us "Don't buy this, it is too expensive." Apparently, the vendor was mad and told her something along the lines of "You should be helping me to rip off these foreigners as we are both Chinese." After some more browsing in stores, we got quite tired and went back to the hotel. It was just the three of us for dinner, as we had begged off. The other two asked me what I wanted to eat and I said "Anything but Chinese". So we went to a nice French restaurant in the hotel. I think we were the only French/french speaking in there. The menu was in English and Chinese, which I found funny. The food was quite good but the waitor made me laugh because he kept whisking my plate away in his overeagerness before I was quite done. It was strange for me to be in a French restaurant, speaking French, with French, but with Chinese waitors. The price of the food was very low, but the french wine was very very expensive.

(what animal is it? You decide.)

After a late bedtime and another early start, the three of us flew to Shenzhen, a two hour flight from Shanghai. This city is in the northeast of the country, near North Korea. When we got off the plane, we were immediately struck by how cold it was. There was snow on the ground. Our new hosts met us at the airport, and shuttled us into the city. I immediately felt like I had been transported to the Chinese version of Minnesota. Can I get a “yah sure you betcha” please? We checked into our hotel, another Four star place, with plenty of luxury shops in the lobby. I was hoping that being in China and with the exchange rate that I could maybe afford say a pair of Armani socks or something, but nope. Nothing doing. I really can’t understand why designer clothing is so expensive and why people actually buy it. Why do you need a scarf for 200$? Anyway, after another huge meal in which our hosts ordered way too many dishes for us and which we could have done with a good 3-4 dishes less, we went to visit their factory. We spent several hours at their factory, then went, again, to eat. This was at a place with individual dining rooms, a big round table, and a lazy-susan in the middle of the table to facilitate the passing of dishes. Some highlights included octopus soup, shish kebobs, raw salmon, tofu (firmer this time) and many many others that my memory is blocking out for self-preservation. We rolled back to the hotel and went to bed.