Presentation update

Presentation went very well. They liked what we had to show them. An interesting day. I would have had more time this evening, but it took me a couple hours just to recover. Tonight was the big welcome to China banquet. It felt a little like being in a movie scene. Much of the dining here is 'family' style. Tables will have a large glass surface that rotates on a central swivel covering most of it and then there is about a one foot rim around the edge for your own plates, glasses and utensils. The serving dishes are placed on the center surface and during the meal various people will rotate the center slab around to something they want. It will sit in one place for awhile, but when you get tired of what you can reach from there, you can move it yourself or someone else will and you can grab stuff as it goes by.

The table tonight was the biggest one of that style I have seen yet. Seated 16 (all full) and was about the size of our pool. They keep placing dishes on so that there is one every couple of feet, so must have been 30 things. Some are quite simple but some more involved. More on the food a different time.

The director of the Ministry (exact title, not sure?) was there and seating is pretty important. He sat first and then they had me and Jian sitting on either side of him. The next guy down in rank sat on the other side of me and then Carrie past him. We had three glasses, one for water, one was a wine glass and the third a little shot glass. The little glass was for some important Chinese liquor (tasted a little like Ouzo). They asked me if I wanted wine in the wine glass or more of the 'Chinese spirits' instead. The director was having spirits in both glasses and they seemed to be hoping I would too, so I did. And then came the toasting. It's been a long time since I drank shots of anything.

There was much toasting during the event. Some informal, others with more traditional meaning. None of it was 'quiet formal' though, more like a party atmosphere. It got fairly boisterous, actually. The director didn't speak much English, but he would raise his glass and toast in Chinese. Then the guy to my other side would translate. A lot about welcoming us on our first visit to China and thanking us for sharing our work and hopes for future visits and collaboration and international friendship and such. It was very nice and even though it felt a little like a staged event it also felt like the sentiment was very sincere. They really are very keen in connecting with the rest of the world. They are very proud of China's history as a major player on the world stage and are eager to catch back up to that position again. But not in a competitive aggressive way, they just want 'in' on the modern standard of living of the industrial west.

The toasting got more informal later as people got up and moved around the table and a lot of people wanted to specifically toast the Americans. I was getting a little woozy by the end.

I also did a little test post on the blog this evening. I discovered that if I connect to the Storm Lab VPN, then I can surf anywhere. With the VPN, browser requests are originating in Norman, not here. I checked with Jian to see if that would be okay and she just laughed. I get the impression that they are not worried about what enterprising tourists can figure out, in fact they want to learn from us. I think it's more of a nervousness as to how the masses will respond to the tide of modernization sweeping the country.