Our Bubble World: China

Doug happens to be in China on a job right now. Don't get me started about it cause I'm not real happy with the situation. He has missed Thanksgiving and if the weather doesn't cooperate he could miss Christmas. Now that I'm done with the small venting episode, I'll share a story he sent me and some pictures he took.

Thefood is good, but the smoke (from fires and people) is bad. Right after work, the project manager took about 15 of us to dinner. We didn't have a choice because our transportation is provided by the plant, and he directed them to drive us to the place where we ate. I am so glad I do not drink alcohol. I said I do not drink, and after a few attempts to get me to accept some beer and then rice wine, the project manager said it was good of me to not drink and that it makes me strong. And sober, I would add. We all sat around a large round table with a large lazy suzan in the middle filled with dishes that were kept spinning around the table. There was a sauce on the lazy suzan that looked good, so I tried it before anyone else. I dipped a chunk of my steamed bread in it and popped it in my mouth. Wow. It was some sort of distilled wasabi fire soy sauce. I have had heat, but this was intense, especially for the small amount I took. After about 20 seconds of pain, it eased and allowed me to stop crying. Of course my next goal was to get Mike to try it. After warning him it was hot, I gave him a piece of bread to dip. He took less than me and then put it in his mouth. He chewed for about 5 seconds with no visible reaction, and I thought I was a wimp. He later admitted he was trying not to react. Suddenly his eyes widened and he had to reach for his glass of tea or beer. His eyes tried to leave his head, his face got red, and he said afterward that his biggest fear was how long the pain was going to last. We were laughing pretty hard by now in our corner, and our translator asked what was up. We had her try a bit of the sauce. She had just a speck of it on some bread. She chewed for less than three seconds before getting a terrible face, bending over her plate, and spitting it out. By now we were rolling, and our ultimate goal was to get Frank to try it. He said he had already had it, that he had it in large amounts, and it was no big deal. We dared him to try again, and to prove his manliness, he took a huge amount compared to us. He popped it into his mouth and started chewing. He then realized it was not the sauce he had tried, though he did well for about 5 seconds of not showing the pain. Suddenly, his eyes started crossing, literally, and his neck convulsed, and his whole body shook. He started shaking his head and twitching. Mike and I were gasping for air and trying not to spit food out. After about a minute, Frank was able to breathe and speak, and he managed to smile weakly and lie that it was "good stuff".
We had tubeworm, sea cucumber, and about 20 completely unrecognizable dishes on the table.

Inside shot of the bathroom "stalls"