Each day, Marshall will be sending update e-mails to us and we will post them here. Click the Read More button to the right to get the full adventure.
Marshall enjoys his lunch
Nihao-
It’s about 2:30 AM and I am awake. In Beijing, my body thinks it’s 12;30 in the afternoon. I slept well for about 4 hours, woke up, took another melatonin, and thought I’d write a brief account of my past couple of days while it takes effect.
I arrived in Beijing late Thursday night (my time) which was around 7:30 in the morning Madison time — I am now 14 hours into the future compared to most of you. I am here to work with 1-2 blind people who are interested in the BrainPort Vision Device www.wicab.com . and my stay in Beijing is for 8 days ( 5 work and 3 vacation).
After 3 uneventful flights via Delta (MSN to MSP, then to Narita (Tokyo) and on to Beijing) I arrived tired but OK and my luggage
Working!
was on the carousel. I also cleared immigration and customs — always a good thing.
I was met at the airport by representatives of the company that is interested in the device and they have made all the arrangements for my first 5 days. I am staying at the Jade Palace Hotel and I invite you to Google that, as well. After about 4 hours of sleep, I was up and preparing for my
first day of training. However, I needed breakfast and had been directed to the hotel “coffee shop” which has a buffet. It was enormous — much like what you’d find in a hotel restaurant for a Sunday brunch. However, most of the food was closer to what we would think of as dinner than breakfast. I had a noodle soup that was done the same way that the guys at the omelet stand make your omelets to order in the hotel restaurant. Sort of made to order ramen. I have no ideda what i put in it, but it was good.
The training day went well and I worked with my two “subjects” and demonstrated the product to a third blind person. This was all through an interpreter, of course. There were other people in the room — most connected with the company. We pretty much moved along at a pace similar to what we would
Lunch
have with two very capable people in Madison.
Lunch, from the hotel’s Japanese restaurant, was brought in by a parade of waitresses all wearing pink “uniforms’ — traditional Japanese looking dress. Sushi and other foods — I had what I think were coconut fried shrimp — on a huge platter of foods that i tried and ate, but am not sure what some were. the presentation was gorgeous.
I was exhausted by the end of the day — had a light supper at the hotel — from another huge buffet, and spent time recharging batteries, writing notes and preparing for the next day. Interesting note about the buffet: all foods containing pork are noted to be “non halal” signifying, I assume, a large Muslim presence either in the hotel or the city or both.
So far, this has been all work and no play — as expected. I plan to have more to write about in the latter category soon. I hope everyone has a good weekend — I’m already 3 hours into it and i can tell you it looks great.
I can feel the melatonin pulling me back toward sleep
Zai jian
Marshall
I am safely on the ground in Beijing. The flight was only 3.5 from tokyo instead of 4.5 as stated in the itinerary. yeah, Delta! Total travel time was 24 hours. I was met at the airport by Jennifer and Jason and brought to the Jade Palace Hotel — very nice — reminds me of a Chinese version of the Pfister.
It is midnite here and 10:00 AM in Wisconsin. I meet my hosts at 8:50 so I have a lot to do, including trying to sleep.
I’ll write more later Marshall
