Beijing Olympic Gardens

Well day two was good...

I slept great last night...I really don't think I moved once all night!  These fancy beds/pillows in fancy hotels are amazing! 

Woke up around 7am and went straight to the computer to check my emails.  The first three were from clients coming to the conference my company is hosting here in Beijing...saying they either missed there flights or the flights were cancelled!  Not what I wanted to hear first thing in the morning!  Once that was all taken care of (I am kind of the liaison between our clients and the hotel for this big event), I went for some breakfast at the hotel.  The food here is pretty good.  They have most of the normal American stuff (cereal, toast, yogurt, bacon, etc) plus all the crazy Chinese stuff that I can't even pronounce.  Steered clear of it for this morning. 

I went to the Bank of China across the street today to try and exchange my US dollars for the Chinese Yuan.  I walked in, and of course, everyone just kind of looked at me and didn't speak.  So I saw a little machine that read "exchange" so I pushed the button.  It spit out a piece of paper with a number on it, so I just sat down and waited, hoping that the teller would speak English.  About 10 minutes later, I saw my number flash above one of the tellers (it was announced as well, but in Chinese).  So I went up and told her I wanted to exchange my US dollars (I showed her my huge wad of cash) for Chinese money.  She said "You have passport?" in her broken Chinese/English.  And of course I didn't have it with me.  I shook my head no, and she said, "You no exchange money no passport!" and shooed me away.  Haha…  SO...back to the hotel, get the passport, go back, get another number, and wait again.  This time it is a guy, who really looks just confused when I tell him what I want to do with my $2,500 in $100 US dollar bills I have.  He said, "Exchange US for Chinese??"  I said yes in my best Chinese and nodded my head up and down with a smile.  He typed a number in to his calculator and showed it to me and said "exchange".  It was pretty close to what I thought the rate should be so I said sure.  He took my cash and my passport and I was just praying he was going to give it back with the right amount of money.  Quite some time later (like at least 5 minutes of me freaking out), he finally came back with a HUGE stack of bills.  Roughly 16,500 Yuan – in 100 bills.   So as if I wasn't enough of a target before being tall and light-haired, now I literally have a huge (I mean HUGE) stack of cash in my hand as I walk across the street to the hotel.  Thankfully there are security guards on every single street crossing due to the Olympics, so I was fine. :)

Nothing else too exciting today.  We visited the Beijing Olympic Gardens, which were pretty cool.

We had a welcome cocktail party this evening in the bar at the hotel.  We had about 50 of the clients show up for drinks and crazy appetizers that I didn't touch.  The other roughly 50 clients have either not arrived yet or were too jet lagged to make it down for the event.  I introduced myself to every single person there since I'm kind of the one running this little conference, so it was a night full of me smiling and being nice and professional and answering questions and blah blah blah...while everyone else was just getting drunk!  

It's a little after 10pm here now, so I'm going to bed!  I have a full day tomorrow.  Visiting an orphanage at 8am, and a big company we are invested in in the afternoon, and then a big dinner tomorrow night.

That's all for now!

-TK

Off to Beijing, China...

**DISCLAIMER:  I have been too busy and had my hands too full to get my camera out much yet.  So no pictures, but I will take plenty, I promise!**

Hello all!

As promised, here is the first (probably of many) email update on where I am and what I'm up to... 

I left Reno on Friday evening for Los Angeles...but not before sitting on the plane on the runway for almost an hour!  It was a tiny plane - just two seats on each side of the aisle, and of course I was stuck next to a 500 pound sweaty guy...it was perfect.  ;)  And as if that wasn't bad enough, the take-off was so scary ... some of the worst turbulents I've ever felt.  I swear we dropped at least 10 feet one time! 

It was an easy flight after that, and quick...we finally made it to LAX around 10:30 pm.  Oh yeah - and we're traveling with a four year old and two five year olds (my boss' kids)... 

So we were told we had to transfer terminals once we got off the plane and got our luggage.  Luggage for MOVING to China (aka it's A LOT).  They told us to find the blue "A" bus that will take us to Tom Bradley International Terminal.  Well we found the bus stop after walking around pulling tons of luggage (and REAL tired kids, it's almost 11pm remember) for about 15 minutes.  My impatient boss decided he didn't want to wait any longer because we didn't immediately see a bus coming, and that we would just walk to the right terminal.  So off we go again...luggage and kids for a "quick" walk.  Well, 45 minutes and two wrong terminals later, we made it to the Air China check in.  And NO LINE!  I couldn't believe it.  The China Air security guard let us all get in the 1^st class check line with my boss (even though the rest of us weren't first class). 

We walked to our gate, and decided to try and find some food.  Well it's almost midnight at this point, and the only two places still open are Burger King and Starbucks.  I got some BK for everybody, and they literally closed the doors and locked down right behind me.  We ate and shopped at the little gift shop for awhile, and decided to try and make some beds for the kids at our gate.  No one could sleep, except for Molly, the four year old, who I was flying with.  So when it was time to board the plane, I got to carry a very heavy and completely dead to the world child on to the plane.  I literally thought my arms were going to break and I was going to drop her!!  (SERIOUSLY.)  Thankfully we had a couple open seats next to us, so I just laid down flat on my back and put her on top of me.  We both got some pretty good sleep (her a little more so than me - but at least she wasn't screaming the whole time).  The flight was about 13 hours and she probably slept for 10 or 11 of them – laying on top of me - sweating.  Man was I lucky!  ;) 

When we landed in Beijing (5:15am local time), a lady was holding a sign with our names on it as SOON as we got off.  It was great - big international airports can really be a pain to figure out sometimes - especially with kids - so the first class treatment was great! :)  Since it was so early in the morning, there wasn't a line at the airport at all...it was almost scary how quiet it was!  We hardly waited at customs at all, and it wasn't long before our bags came.  We checked in 11 bags in Reno, and of course only 10 actually made it all the way to Beijing.  Oh well -- that's still pretty good I guess!  The lost bag should be here tomorrow morning. 

We hopped on a bus (a private bus - for all of us and our luggage) and headed for the city - no traffic (since it was so early) so it only took 25 minutes (usually takes at least 45).  It was just crazy to see how much this city has changed since last October.  It just isn’t the same Beijing at all!  The skies are blue, no traffic, less pollution, and green trees and flowers everywhere!  I really had my doubts about how "cleaned up" this city was going to be, but it really does look great!

Our hotel is amazing, of course.  Sofitel Wanda Beijing in the Central Business District.  Big fountains and pretty lights…fancy elevators and beautiful flowers.  One whole wall in the bedroom is glass and looks through to the bathroom.  And in the bathroom you just push a button and it tints the glass so no one can see in...It’s pretty cool!  And the shower has two settings.  One says hand shower or something like that, which is just like a regular shower, and the other one is rain shower...and the water just pours out of the ceiling like it's raining!!  It's great... :)

So I've been at the hotel most of the day.  Went to visit my boss' apartment which is just a couple of blocks away, and figured out what kinds of things everyone is going to need to live here.  And then...we went to WAL-MART to get stuff!  I've never been to a Wal-Mart in a foreign country, and let me tell you, it was quite an experience!  Think of Costco or some other crazy big store...at its busiest time, and then add 1,000 Asians and smelly raw meat everywhere!  Oh it was just insane!  And if you thought stuff was cheap at Wal-Mart in the U.S. - you'd die if you saw how cheap it was here!  We pretty much half-furnished a three bedroom apartment for $250.  I love this place!!

I just wandered out for a walk since the sun is going down and it's cooling off, and got a massage!  One hour full body massage for like $20, which is a total rip-off over here, but it was a nice place and I just didn't feel like bargaining tonight.  I'm so tired.  It's 8pm over here and I've been up since 2:30am.  I ordered room service (love this job!) and as soon as I'm done eating, I'm going to get some SLEEP!

Hope everyone is well back home!  Miss you guys and I'll write again tomorrow...

-TK

Las Vegas

I made my first trip to LAS VEGAS last weekend - which also happened to be Super Bowl Sunday!

Shannon used to live there, so she knew all the cool/fun places to go...and we got a really good deal on a room at Paris, where we could see the Bellagio fountains from our hotel room window!!

We flew in on Saturday evening (we had to work Saturday morning) and just walked up and down the strip for awhile.  Watched a little show outside of Treasure Island, walked all around inside Venetian...  All the casinos are SO BIG and fancy!

We grabbed some quick dinner and drinks at Margaritaville (live music!), and walked back to watch the fountains for awhile before getting ready to go out for the night!

I LOOOVE these fountains!

That night, we went out to Jet at The Mirage casino.  Shannon and I didn't have any problem getting in, but the guys had to bribe the door guy to let them in!  It was a huge nightclub, with three separate rooms playing three different kinds of music.  It was SUCH a cool experience, and we all had a blast dancing the night away!

 

Yea, I look like I just got out of the shower.  That's sweat from dancing! Sick!

 On Sunday, we slept in (of course) and then walked all the way to the end of the strip and through most of the casinos!

We walked through some more casinos, but didn't stay up too ridiculously late because we had a super early flight back to Tahoe Monday morning (and it was back to work for all of us for the day)! 

Sunday night we watched the superbowl and came really close to winning a WHOLE lot of money on a ridiculous bet.  



It was a crazy early morning and a rough Monday.  I believe at least one of the guys slept under his desk while he was supposed to be working.  Oh well.  Probably to be expected after a Vegas weekend...