The First Day of Work

Woke up around 7:45am today and got through my email as I prepared to head out for the day. After an overly expensive breakfast buffet, Gord and I grabbed a cab to our client's office. Some areas of Hangzhou are subject to power outages (which seem to be power/cost savings measures), so we immediately went, with some of our customer's employees, to another nearby facility to do our work. The drive took about 20 minutes and brought us around the West side of West Lake (a large lake that Hangzhou is famous for). This second facility was a large warehouse that had no apparent central heating. At zero degrees C, this isn't wear you'd want to spend most days. I don't think I've worked a full day with my jacket on until now.

Lunch was army food in the cafeteria. A disappointing episode of hard chicken, overcooked veggies, tofu, and rice. The work day went smoothly, and we were back at the hotel by 4:30pm. A short break of emailing, and Gord and I headed out for a walk to West Lake, only about 1km away from the Radisson Hotel. By the time we got to the Lake, it was already dark. We walked slowly along, playing around with our digital cameras. We found a decent restaurant on the Northwest side of the Lake, relaxing for 2 hours while chatting about various subjects. Then we headed back to the hotel, where I am now. I've still got about an hour of work emailing to do, so I better head to Gord's room now to work on that. Overall, the day went by quickly and was fairly pleasant.

That and we get tomorrow off (due to the lack of any work needed to be done). Chances are, we're going to rent bikes to ride around West Lake tomorrow. We'll also meet up with one of our client's engineers who will show us around Hangzhou with his girlfriend. A generous offer considering he has no obligation to do so, and has chosen to on his weekend.

Kevin, signing off from China... the place where the worst drivers are probably also the most skilled drivers, and warm tap water stinks like hell.