It's been a month since my arrival to China

Hey.
Sorry for not writing more often. It was very busy month, lot of new stuff to discover at work, new communication skills to learn, business diners, meetings and so on...My days are quite full. I hope you can forgive me...
I know some are quite passionately waiting for this post, so I guess that I made you happy with this one.
Unfortunatly I didn't take my photocamera to every place I visited, so there is limited number of pictures. Shanghai is huge city, with wide roads, huge buildings and lots of people on streets. But after week or so, I haven't even noticed Chinese people on the streets anymore...city gives you a feeling like you are at any city in Europe. Except that you have lots of problems with comunicating on street. Nobody speaks English. So, if you want to buy something, you have to use all your skills in waving with your arms...on the other hand, sellers on fake market are very good English speakers. I was amazed how good they are...and now I finally know how to bargain...at the begining I had problems with start price, but now I already know what is the worth of good I want to buy. It is quite funny and I'm starting to enjoy doing this.
Clothes there are very cheap...I got my fake Mammut for only 17€...and material is real Scholer...unbelievable. You can also buy all well known brand of watches...from Rolex, to Porsche and Carrera...for almost nothing.
Traveling by road is bad during rush hours and when it is raining. Awful...in that case I rather stay at home or walk to the place I want to go (if it is not to far away). There is also subway, but it is better to use this one only for fast movement to another, far away location.

This is basicly all..I hope you got a feeling how it is to live out here. Just four pictures are here to be seen. Sorry. I hope I will do better in next days.
By the way, I'm coming home on Dec, 17th. Hope we can see eachother.

Shanghai when dark falls - picture made from our office

Chinese kid...

Workers are all over Shnaghai...

Shanghai is construction site...they are building lots of new buildings and skyscrapers...

I've placed my feet on the Chinese soil once again

Yesterday, it happened again. I'm at the oposite side of the world, more accurate, I'm at Shanghai, most developed and fastest growing city at China.

Approx. 1 month ago, director of the division where I used to work, called me to join him at his office. After few minutes of relaxing in really confortable chairs he has in his office, he shot out the question which I didn't expect at all. The question was: "Will you go to Shanghai office again and stay there for a month and try to adapt to the their style of livin'? We would very like you to work for us there even though you have been there before and at that time you said no to our request. We desperatly need someone with techincal knowleagde there and we think you are the best choice."
Of course I was supprised as hell but at the same time I started to play with the thought of working at China again. And after few discussions which I had with my friends Nina and Bojan I decided to do it again.
So, we decided (Gorenje and I) that I'm gonna stay here until 16th of December and at that time I will be sure if this is what I want. I hope I will like it and that my future boss and my future co-workers will be satisfied with me and my work as well.
So, yesterday I landed here and because I asked Gorenje China team not to wait me at the airport I had to arrange my transportation to the hotel by myself.
When still at home, I read on the internet about fast train called Maglev (well, actually Bojan informed me about it, he has visited China before), so I decided to use it when I was still at home. After landing (not really smooth one) and after authorities let me enter the country I searched the ticket selling office and found out that the ticket can't be paied by US dollars, so I had to find currency exchance office. The reality was that I had to walk almost to the oposite side of an Airport building to find one.
After that I bought the ticket (it costs ~5€ for economy class, one way), I sat on train to see it's magnificant ultimate velocity. Well, to be honest I was disappointed when I saw that our speed was only 301 km/h. I expected over 400 km/h according to the testimonians on the internet. Maybe they reduced the speed of the train because it was raining outside. However, this is the fastest ground velocity, I've ever traveled with.
After arrival to the final destination, I had to find a taxi to take me to the hotel where Gorenje had already booked my room. First taxi driver wanted me to pay him 35€ for the ride but that was to much of course. After few minutes of wainting, I noticed French couple with the same problems, so I made a contact with them and asked them if they want to share the taxi to reduce the price. They accepted given opportunity and after 1 minute of bargain we manage to reduce the price to 20€ for two different locations to be taken to.

There are also some other funny storries to tell you about but since this is quite ong column I wrote, I think those storries should be left for some other opportunity to share.

Some difficulties at China

After 8th days living and traveling across China I still have problems mainly with the technical communicating to the Chinese people. While we are on the visit at some factory I get so desperate that if there would be possibility I would take the first plane to go home. But when I am talking to the Filipine guy who is also traveling with me I have great feeling. We can talk almost about everything although sometimes I have some problems with expressing my opinion. But at most occasions he understand what I am trying to tell.
So, that is why I still have some second thoughts about my decision. That is why I will ask Andy (the head manager of Shanghai Representative Office) to give me some time to think about my final decision (to the end of this week I think I can find the right answer).
Otherwise, China is very interesting country. I have seen some many different places until now and I am really surprised by the size of the country. To get from one to another city you need to take a plane, otherwise we would spend to much time with traveling...for example, we were flying hour and a half and we crossed just 1/3 of the country. For me, unimaginable...
If somebody would ask me if I would like to go to travel across China, I would say ''Okey, why not'' in the same minute. It is really so many things to see here...for example, you just need to see how they drive. For example, we are not used to drive in opposite direction on a 4 lane road and similar stuff...
Unfortunately I dont have any pictures to show you in this moment, because I dont have my photo camera with myself. It would be strange for employees in factories we are visiting if I would take pictures with ''BIG'' camera. Sorry for that.
Oooo by the way, I can not visit my blog here at China. I dont know why, I just cant. Today I only manage to get to the setting page of my blog so I can write this post.
Have fun,
I will write something more about my trip as soon as I get home at 4th of July in the evening.

Traveling to China

Well, today is the day when I will exchange my home country Slovenia for China for 14 days. I have a flight to Frankfurt from Brnik at 12.15 and from Frankfurt I will fly directly to Shanghai.
I have 2 suitcases...one is for business porpuses and the other one is for my clothes. The sizes of both cases are almost the same...:)
That means that I have a lot goals to fulfil for a company and I hope I will be successful.
So, wish me luck, have your fingers crossed for me or something like that... :)

I get home in the evening at 4th of July. Since then I wont accept phone calls but I will be reachable for an SMSes. So, please send some to me :) I will be very happy about it and ofcourse, I WILL reply!

Have fun here at Slovenia! For me too...
Ow, I will try to write some posts on a blog while living there!

Last Saturday and Sunday before China

Since I am going to travel to China this Wednesday, this weekend is the last one before it. So I tried to fulfil it as much as possible with the stuff I like to do.
Fot the Saturday I was planning to go on a hike to one of the Rinka's summits with Litija Mountaineering Club. But when I woke up at 4 o'clock in the morning, rain was falling from the sky and nearby hill was totally surrounded with a fog. That is why I just sent SMS to Maja, that I am not coming to the prearranged meeting spot. But after few hours, Maja called me to tell me that at the Kamniška Bistrica the weather was perfect. This was a moment when I just sit in my car and I pushed throttle to the bottom to be there as soon as possible.
If Maja wouldnt called me, I would went to visit Nina, Jana and Primoz to the Primorska province. But when she called me and told me that the weather is perfect overthere, I just couldnt resist to go to check it out.
After finding right path (the path I needed to use to get to the Bivak pod Skuto to meet others from Maja's group is not marked, so I was counting on my map and my sense for orientation to find that bivouac), I ascended more than 1000m higher as the point where I started walking is. I spent 3 hours for that. Because the map I was using is not really the best one, I almost hit Bivak pod Skuto because of a fog which was sorrounding it.
But when I wanted to take a photo of a little bivouac under Skuta's peak, I found out that I forgot to insert CF card into my photo camera, so carrieng whole photo gear with me was useless :( That is why I can not show you pictures from the trip.
Today...I was on a picnic at my aunt's place. After that I went to Velenje to see competition of horse carriages and horse gallops. It was hot and sunny, so pictures are not very good due to the strong brightness and very sharp light...

Horsie eating chopped wood?

That is better...horsie eating hay

Girl on the picture is my niece. Her name is Loti.

Run, run, run...

I am at the front...can you catch me?

Horse hairstayle for special occasions...

4 legs...how many horses do you see?

Dady, buy me a horsie like that... :)

I am watching you...

I have a need, a need to tell you this

Are you asking yourself, what is that I need to tell you?
Hehehe, well, this is mybe the best success that I have had since I have my photo camera.
Last October I sent this picture to the editor of Planinski Vestnik (short PV) magazine and to be honest, my hopes that he will use that picture in one of next issues of PV faded out until now.
But...there is always but...2 days ago I got a call from Bojan and he told me that there is my picture at the front page of PV...I was so suprised that I almost forgot to speak and to express my enthusiasm, so there was a few seconds of silence...:) And in next minute I run downstairs to get my own issue of PV( I am a subscriber of PV too but nobody told me that it came home with a post that day) to see it...
And...here it is:

That is all.

Owww, by the way...next Wednesday I have a flight to China :S Have your fingers crossed for me please...I need all the luck in the world to do the best I can!

P.S.: Does anybody need something from there? I accept orders now :) Until this moment I have got so much orders that I would have to rent a shipping container to get everthing (if I will find all ordered stuff) to Slovenia....hehehe, I am joking a little bit :P

Shanghai...

Shanghai…

This post is written in English because of a theme I am talking about.
Last week my boss told me that company where I am working is searching a man to go to Shanghai for at least 2 years. He said that he proposed me because I am a perpective employee.
They offered me a really good job where I would contact China local companies and try to get a deal that they would work for us. They would produce low cost components for Gorenje's house machines which we are producing over here at Slovenia.
I would work in a small team. In this team there are already 5 persons (boss, 2 Slovenian girls that translate our language to Chinese language, 1 Filippine guy who is responsible for colecting, getting and sending test samples to Slovenia and one Chinese girl whos job is translation from English to Chinese language). My job would be very dinamic, I would travel a lot across China to visit those companies that are good enough and that are prepared to work for us.
They also offered me quite big amount of money if I would go over there and they also promised they would give me better job than I have now when I would get back from China, that is after 2 years of living and working there.
But…
There is always but…I have worries about my knowledge of English. It is true that I don't speak much English because I dont have much possibilities to do that…but in the other hand I can write good english and I also understand english if I am speaking with somene who speaks only English. That is why I am not so self-confident in my speaking English like I am in my technical skills. So, I guess I would improve my talking English if I would be pushed to situation where other languages are not understood.
And because of that reason I dont know what decision I will make.
Tomorrow I have final interview and to test myself I will ask my interviewers if we can talk in English to test me if my English skills are good enough. It they will say YES, YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH I will accept their opinion and I will go. But if my English wont be good enough they will say themselfs that I cant go over there to China.

So, please, have your fingers crossed and wish me luck tomorrow.
If I will do okey, I will be the happiest person on the world.

Have a great time.

Picture of Shanghai from the Web