Maggie, Maggie, Maggie

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Our first vendor was Chang Sheng Plastics, and I don't know where to begin. We came down to the lobby and met Linda, our host for the day. She introduced us to our driver and explained that he was new and in training. Now here's a tip... If your driver is new, and they tell you he hasn't been to Shanghai only maybe once or twice... RUN! Run quick and run far.

As we waited curbside for him to get the car, a lady approached me about a shoe shine. I told her "no", but she wouldn't give up. I backed away and tried to get her to stop, but ended up with my shoes getting shined. Now this is a bit of a sore spot with Mike (as the vendor ended up paying for it), and he wants a free shoe shine. The good news is that their is a complimentary shoe shine certificate in the room.

The car finally came around the corner and we all got in. I found it interesting that little Linda (all of 4' 10" and this little skinny girl) chose to sit by the window in the back seat leaving Mike riding the hump. I was by the other window, and the more experienced (though I can't qualify what that would mean) of the two drivers was riding shotgun with the map in hand (for all the good that did us).

We started off and quickly came to realize that this would be more than just an experience, but an ordeal. It didn't take long for our driver to get lost, and here, I must interject an explanation that will help all of us westerners understand a common occurence in the US. You know how, and my time in Las Vegas before coming to China is a perfect example of this, people will just stop in the middle of the walkways and you have to be looking out and walking around them or run them over? You know how often times it seems that it is very common that these "stoppers" are oriental? Well, over here, they do the same thing on a much higher level. It is totally acceptable, and in our case frequently probable, that cars will just stop in the middle of everything (freeways, exit ramps, turn lanes, streets, etc.) to get their bearings.

We had this happen within the first few minutes of traveling to the Chang Sheng factory. It was obvious that these two drivers had no clue how to get out of the city and back to their factory. I can't list here, without taking paragraphs and paragraphs of space, the number of times that they stopped to figure out where they were going. Even after numerous phone calls (more on this later), we struggled finding our way. Multiple stops on the freeway and in the middle of traffic and I was having a very difficult time not just laughing out loud.

At one point, the "navigator" actually turned the map upside down to try to figure out where we were and where we were trying to go. It was truly comical.

As sore as my butt was getting by the time (3 hours later) that we finally got to the factory, Mike must have been experiencing sheer hell. The car had no shocks. In fact, there was one section (about 20 minutes from the factory) where there were like speed bumps in the road. The first one was rough, and the second one, we caught air. Mike let out this "yee-haw" yell when we hit the second one and I couldn't hold back the laughter any longer.

The meetings went fairly well, after having trouble getting a connection on the network to give us internet access, and other than Maggie placing herself within about 6 inches of the monitor (her eye sight must be poor), we got through it all and answered their questions relevant to how to use the Vendor EDI system.

It was time for dinner, so we loaded up in the car, this time Linda took shotgun and Maggie sat next to Mike, and headed for our Hunan province cuisine experience. It turns out the Maggie is from Hunan (and very proud of that fact), so she chose our restaurant.

We walked around the different prepared dishes and chose the ones we would eat... some familiar, and some totally scary (it was a bit of fear factor asian style), and then chose the fish (it was swimming at the time) we would enjoy as well. Some of the dishes were very tasty, and others we just told ourselves it was something other than what it truly was. We had some intestine, but no one knew from what animal it came.

The ride back to the factory after dinner to retrieve our belongings was interesting, to say the least. Between the questions from "Beautiful" Maggie (here words, not ours) of which of the girls was the most beautiful, her native songs (sung often in multiple keys... always ending the same with this little school girl giggle), and her obvious attraction to my traveling companion (you'll have to get more information from him... I'm sworn to secrecy here), it was just more fodder to describe how the entire day had gone.

For the trip back to the hotel, we found ourselves with Linda, Heidi, and the "driver" once again lost and unable to find where we were staying. Mike spotted our hotel (or at least others in the same area) and offered his directional skills, but they couldn't be bothered, choosing instead to stop in the middle of the road (see previous references) and flag down a taxi, paying the fare the get us back. Thank goodness, because as tired and sore as I was, I know Mike's hump-riding butt had to be numb by now.

Oh yeah, my previous reference to phone calls... It isn't sufficient to just talk on the phone, and there is no such thing as courtesy when taking a call on your personal cell. In China, you answer it, whether in the middle of a meeting or not, and talk at three times the normal volume so EVERYONE can see that you're on your phone. This continues to happen everywhere we go.

Here's the gang from Chang Sheng Plastics. Maggie is the one in black.