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So we've been here in Beijing with our new host
families since Wednesday night, June 9th. Get comfortable, because
this entry is really long; we have a lot to talk about now that
we're pretty much settled in with our host families and our job.
This past Thursday and Friday were our first days at NCR. Those two
days were orientation days for us. We sat in a conference room and
the head of each department in NCR came in one by one and gave us
hour-long presentations about their field. It was actually very
interesting; each presentation was very well done, and we learned a
lot about how the NCR company is run along with the general
structure of a business. Friday afternoon we met with Michael
Zhang, the manager of the production line in the ATM factory at NCR.
He told us that he would be giving us an assignment to work on for
the next week, but nobody yet knew what it would be. We headed home
at 5 PM with our host families for the weekend.
Our first weekend here was pretty relaxing. Our host families
organized an outing to "Agrilandia," the "Italian" farm, where we
picked apricots (well, most of us did, except Charles, who threw
them at Liz) and we sat at picnic tables in the shade and played
with our host family's kids. Liz did get a little upset when she
sat on some yellow tree sap near the basketball court and got her
pink shorts dirty. In addition to a basketball court, ping pong
tables, an apricot orchard, and picnic tables, there was also an
Italian restaurant that served…pizza and spaghetti! We couldn't
decide what felt better -- eating cheese for the first time in three
weeks, or feeling the comforting weight of a fork in our hand --
also for the first time in almost a month.
After we had eaten, we were shocked to find a reggae band playing in
the bar area of the restaurant. It was shocking because a) they
were a reggae band in China, where techno is the dominant musical
medium and b) the two lead singers of the band were Jamaican, and
were singing in Chinese. The drummer was a Chinese woman and the
bassist and guitarist were both Chinese guys. We took pictures, of
course, because we take pictures of everything. At this point, we
all said goodbye and headed home with our respective host families.
We each had different experiences from the rest of the weekend to
share with each other at work on Monday. Charles went to a Karaoke
bar; Liz played Ping-Pong at the neighborhood club and went grocery
shopping at a Chinese supermarket; Joelle went to a piano recital.
Charles says there was an Elvis impersonator at the bar, Liz has
decided her Ping-Pong skills have improved, and Joelle says that
after sitting through three hours of a primary school piano
performance, she never wants to hear "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"
ever again.
Monday was our first "official" day at work. First thing in the
morning, we met with Michael Zhang again, and he explained our
project for the week. We are making a display explaining/promoting
this new concept they are adopting in their factory called "Lean
Manufacturing." The Lean system is a way of reorganizing the
production line to be more efficient, and thus achieve higher
productivity. It was originally used by Toyota in Japan, and has
since gained worldwide respect. We were introduced to Lean
Manufacturing during our orientation, but we realized perhaps we
should have asked more questions, since now we would have to
research it in depth. We spent almost all of Monday reading through
the English versions of course notes, manuals, and glossaries. Some
of the material was a little too detailed for our purposes, but we
managed (we hope) to glean the major concepts from what we were
given.
For the past three days (today is Wednesday) we have been creating
our layout for the giant display that is to be finished on Friday,
and printed over the weekend. We have surprised our "boss," we
think, with how much we have accomplished in these few short days.
On Tuesday morning, for example, when we were meeting with Michael
Zhang again (as per our request) he was astonished at our apparent
motivation and work ethic. We had already begun the layouts for our
boards, and were quick to ask questions about what to do next. That
left us on Wednesday with some free time, as we waited for the
translations to be finished (Ms. Lee is a fabulous teacher, but our
Chinese lessons neglected to teach such phrases as "transforming
transactions into relationships" and "value-stream mapping"). As
such, we spent Wednesday writing this journal entry and umm…getting
a little bored. For your viewing pleasure, we have included a
visual representation of that boredom. And just to prove we're not
entirely idle, we shall also include a sneak preview of our final
product.
Every day, we eat lunch in the company cafeteria, which is really
not bad. Some days are better than others, however. They prepare
lots of different Chinese dishes, and, as usual, serve you much more
than you could ever eat. Also, there is a person who's only job is
to stand at the beginning of the line and hand each person a stick
of gum. I guess they don't like garlic breath any more than we do.
One day, we went down the street to a Chinese restaurant, with Andy
Song and one of her friends. They get sick of the cafeteria food,
apparently. The meal proved, once again, our theory that in China,
if you don't like something, just wait a little while, because the
more dishes that are brought out, the better they taste. We had
these nifty little dumplings that were made from different rices/grains,
so they were different colors. Plus, they gave us a whole plate of
icy cold grape tomatoes and watermelon that tasted a little bit like
freedom.
In the evenings, we all have slightly different routines, but they
are all relaxed. Charles usually joins Andy, Andy's husband, and a
bunch of their friends for dinner/karaoke (Andy doesn't have any
children), while Liz typically spends the evening at home, hanging
out with Michael, the coolest four-year-old in China. Joelle's
evenings vary from going for walks in the parks with Helen and her
daughter, to going out to dinner with Koreans, to watching DVD's in
her room. Our families are all more than gracious hosts, and any
worries we may have had about being comfortable in their houses have
completely disappeared. They really go out of their way to make us
comfortable -- once Joelle's family even gave her a McDonald's
hamburger for breakfast. She wasn't thrilled at the thought of
grease in the morning, but was extremely touched by the thought that
they would have gone to so much trouble for her.
To be honest, we are counting down the days until we get back to
America (11), but every day we discuss how valuable this experience
has been/is going to be, and how lucky we are to have the
opportunity. Plus, we can't get over how important we feel, with
our NCR badges round our necks and our cups of coffee in our hands.
Much love to our all friends and families. Please drop us a line or
three, because until the translation is finished (and now that this
journal entry is over), we will just be sitting here pressing the
send/receive button on our inboxes, despite the fact that we know it
is the middle of the night back in good old NC.
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