Sunday, February 27, 2011

Ramblings of an international traveler

This is the one week in my life.

Saturday - Marathon travel day.
- Who in the world thought this would be a logical booking to replace a canceled flight - San Diego, San Francisco, over night to Chicago, Hong Kong.
- I departed San Diego on Saturday at 7:30pm and arrived in Hong Kong on Monday at 6:00pm.

I spent the week in Guangzhou, China doing my job - Shoes.

 Each time in China, one night is reserved for a Factory Team dinner. There are some who think this should go away from the China culture but I'm a believer it's their way of saying thank you. This is the establishment closest to the factory. I'm not convinced it would pass any inspection in San Diego but it's fairly good. Apparently there is another place in the area that is spicier. I'll bet that's where we go next time. My dinner included, Tofu, Roasted Goose (tough meat), lamb, rice, super spicy veggies, and lots and lots of wine. There is a tradition to toast and when you toast or are toasted you are asked to empty the glass. Great Wall of China Wine. Good times with the factory folks.
 I found this sign hilarious. Much of China is still not 100% westernized. Why would it be? So a toilet in most places is a Squat toilet. You don't sit, you squat. This sign is in the bathroom on the train. It's just kind of funny that you'd be on the squat and then the train hits a big turn and you go slipping.
Traveling by car in China deserves an entire post. I trust my buddy Norman to get us from A to B but if  it was you or me doing the driving no way. Life is in balance every time. This truck was right next to us. That is ply wood stacked way above the wall of the truck bed. As you can see they've devised a way to go higher. There is nothing holding that wood down but gravity. Wood, steel, you name it, it's stacked hauled and delivered.

I ended this week with a workout everyone should give a try.
Solana Beach Boys and Girls Club
Sunday
Masters 10:00am

They call it cross training. I call it boot camp. Today it looked like this:

800 warm up. Go as easy as you can but there were 50's with descending breaths. On the last one we got one breath for the entire 50.
Then it was Boot Camp
200 Swim - 1 minute of back stroke flutter kick - on the pool deck
4 X 75 as (25 + 10 pushups, 25 + 30 crunches, 25 + 20 lunges)
Repeat

Totals for the effort
Swim Distance: 2000 yards
Flutter Kick: 2 minutes
Push Ups: 80
Crunches: 240
Lunges: 160

There is a reason why there were only 8 of us doing this workout. It's not easy. Jump in the pool after 10 pushups and it doesn't seem that hard. Jump in after 80 and you can't feel your stroke at all. Good for the body, you bet, good for you mind, you bet.

It's a good life....
Dave

1 comment:

Herb said...

Check out http://nightmareraces.blogspot.com/ - I think you're in there.
-Herb Kimpel