As I was walking back to the hotel after my long day of work, I witnessed some sort of altercation. There was a group of men and women standing on the sidewalk. One of the women was yelling or something and it looked like one of the crowd was throwing water or something on her face. I obviously couldn’t understand any of it, but it seemed to me that she was upset and they were trying to calm her down. Well, as I walked by, she bolted from the crowd into traffic and just stood in front of this bus. Everyone in the crowd was screaming at her. The bus slammed on the brakes and she just stood there like Bill Murray from Groundhog Day. One of the people in the crowd ran out, grabbed her and carried her to the other side of the street. I just walked into the lobby shaking my head. WTF?

So I’m in China. It has been a long couple of days. Here is a quick version of my trip so far:

I got up on Thursday at 4:00AM and drove to the airport, arriving at 6:00AM. I got through security and to the terminal about 30mins later. The first leg of my flight was to Chicago. I sat in the terminal at Chicago for about an hour, and then boarded a 747-400. I’ve only flown on a wide-body once before. Usually my flights are all short haul domestic so it is a little strange to get on board such a huge plane.

The day before, Meghan upgraded me from Economy to Economy Plus. As it turns out, I was also on a row with no one else, so I had my own 3 seat bed. That was a huge help. The jet took off about 10:00 CST. I spent most of the flight reading the Lord of the Rings and sleeping. The route took us over the North Pole and down through Mongolia. The sun was bright the entire trip…no darkness. As we descended into Shanghai, I began to see how large that city really is. It seemed to go on forever. The buildings all resembled giant government projects. All together, that flight took about 14 hours. It was 1:00PM local time on Friday when I landed.

The first thing I noticed when I got off the plane was the smell. Diesel fumes were everywhere. You could taste it. Also, there were English signs everywhere, which was nice, but I figured that would change when I got out of the airport. Customs was no big deal, they just examined my passport, gave me the once over, and then stamped me through.

The customer I’m here to work for had one of their guys waiting for me. He helped me find the bus that would take me to the Shanghai Railway Station, bus #5. It was about an hour drive. The traffic here is out of control. Signals and lanes are mere suggestions. Bicyclists will ride in front of moving trucks without even looking. I will probably see at least one crash and one bicyclist get killed before I leave, I’m certain.

The train station was crazy. The place was PACKED to the limit. I’m glad I had a guide with me. He got my tickets for me. I had to wait an hour or so for the train. there was only one other caucasian in the entire terminal, and the place was packed. By this time my guide had left and I was on my own. At this moment the realization that I was 9000 miles from home and totally on my own in a country where I didn’t speak or read the language hit me full on. That is a feeling that I highly recommend you experience at least once. Even buying a bottle of water took a lot of courage.

I waited for a while and then saw that my train was boarding. I followed the throngs of people and got on board. I screwed up and got on the wrong train car so I ended up standing for most of the 2 hour train ride. By this point I was dog tired and getting cramps in my back and shoulders. The train ride was uneventful, since i was standing and couldn’t see clearly out of the windows. When I got to Nanjing, I needed to get a taxi to get to the hotel. Every guide book I read said to be careful of pirate taxis, guys who operate with no license or meter. They were everywhere. But the problem was the line for the real taxis was ridiculously long, and I really needed to get somewhere to crash, so I bit the bullet. I found a guy who looked like I could beat up if he got crazy, and went with him to his car.

It was a good choice since I had an uneventful cab ride. I got to the hotel, took a shower, made a few phone calls on my China Mobile cell phone, checked my work email, and then went to sleep.

So now I’m on the job site. I’ve been here all day and everything is going well. More later!