An interesting thing about the factory is that they had inspirational sayings on banners hanging up all along the production floor, like "Work toward success together". One thing I found interesting is that they had a big white board with a timeline for every worker. Along the timeline, it lists how every worker spends their time. Time is divided into two categories: contributing to the process (assembling parts, attending meetings, fixing a machine) and taking away from the process (taking breaks, being late to work, machine failures). The workers are then assigned to different stations based on how they spend their time. All stations need to be balanced in contributions and take aways from the process. It was so interesting!
On the way home from the factory tour, we rode past some Olympic venues: the Bird's Nest (National Stadium) and the Water Cube (the swimming pool!!!!!!). It was very hazy and foggy around, so I didn't get very many good pictures, but the Bird's Nest was really awesome, and the pool was a bit of a let down. It looked kinda nasty, but I've heard that it is gorgeous at night when it lights up. I want to go back to the pool and touch it!
When we got back from the tour, I went on an adventure with Troy, David, Chris, Adrienne, Caroline, Hannah, and Thomas to Wal-Mart. I bought some peanut butter, crackers, cereal, some Chinese cookies that ended up tasting REALLY good, and a loaf of freshly baked coconut bread! YUM! After shopping, we joined Shayna, Michael, Noyoun, and Cicy for barbecue, but it wasn't American barbecue! There's hot coals in the middle of the table, and you order plates of raw meat and vegetables, and then you cook them over the coals. It was similar to Hot Pot in that respect, but I thought the meat was a lot tastier after being barbecued rather than being boiled in flavored sauces. I barbecued beef and mushrooms and had spicy fried rice on the side. It was yummy!
After dinner, Caroline and I rode our bikes around campus as an attempt to become more familiar with our surroundings, even though it was dark. The night air felt amazing though. It was so cool! What a nice change from the hot and humid Singapore weather 24/7. But... the air in Beijing may be cooler, but it's far too dirty. What a tradeoff. Anyway, we tried to find our way to the classroom building... we never found it, but we sure had a fun time trying!
I also learned a lot about the Olympics today! The slogan of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is "One World One Dream", reflecting the essence and the universal values of the Olympic spirit: unity, friendship, progress, harmony, participation, and dream. The Olympic mascots are five Fuwa, each borrowing one of the colors from the Olympic rings. The Fuwa mascots are Beibei the fish, Jingjing the panda, Huanhuan the Olympic Flame, Yingying the Tibetan antelope, and Nini the swallow. They are absolutely adorable, you should look them up online! When you put their names together- Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni- they say "Beijing welcomes you". How adorable! The Olympic Torch is in the shape of an ancient paper scroll as paper was one of the four great inventions of ancient China that was spread to the world via the Silk Road. The Olympic Medals have the standard design on one side (the Greek winged goddess Nike and Panathinaikos Arena). On the reverse side, the medals are inlaid with jade with the Beijing Games emblem engraved in a metal centerpiece. Try to find these online too! They are GORGEOUS! Also, to prepare for the games, Beijing is trying to lower their pollution levels by making it artificially rain (which could explain why it's so cloudy everyday) and cars with even-numbered license plates are only allowed to drive on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Cars with odd-numbered license plates can drive on the other days. Interesting.
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