Wow. It has been a while. So I find myself nearly as far away from home as is possible without some serious solid fuel and Twinkies. In my first venture off from American soil [sorry Canada, you don’t count], I land in Shanghai, China to meet with current and potential vendors for my job. I am officially here on business, but find it impossible to contain my thoughts strictly to the tasks which I have come to complete. I have never been a foreigner, but have casually thought of those visitors to America as such without giving much thought to how difficult it is to accomplish simple tasks like using a toilet.
In the past two weeks, I have seen, heard, smelled, thought, felt, and eaten some things that might be considered strange, to put it mildly. I am actually surprised to be posting from a Holiday Inn Express in Changshu, because most of the internet connectivity is basic, and does not allow for certain administrative activity. Among the trials and tribulations endured to this point in time were a fourteen hour flight, surviving in smog which limits the visibility to 1/4 mile, and spending 18 hours in a poorly ventilated, non-climate controlled plastic injection molding factory with lighting so poor that my Surfire was used as primary lighting most of the night.
We have one week left, and need to see two more tools run. With any luck we will have blades for the wind turbine before we leave, or at least a definition of the process needed to fabricate them. Wish us luck!