Seasons Greetings '09

... y prometo que pronto escribiré una actualización... En serio!

En Madrid

Llevamos ya casi dos días en Madrid, y sinceramente... cómo mola! La zona de la plaza Mayor, que hasta huele a plaza de pueblo, con todos los puestos de belenes y cosas navideñas, los bares de calamares, el mercado de San Miguel - a-lu-ci-nan-te la operación revamp que le han hecho! Si es que hasta hacer la compra es más barato que en China! (hacer la compra de productos españoles, claro. La col china y las ranas siguen estando más baratas en Shanghai...)

 

Puedo entrar en Facebook, puedo ver videos de Youtube, puedo usar Spotify, entiendo la tele, puedo ver Se Lo Que Hicisteis, Qué Vida Más Triste, El Intermedio!

 

Lo malo es que hemos olvidado el cable para bajar las fotos del móvil al ordenador, ya subiré cuando llegue a China (ay! pero allí no puedo entrar a mi blog!) Hoy he grabado en videoa los gemelos corriendo detrás de las palomas en la plaza Mayor, y partiéndose de risa. Qué monos!

 

El mayo problema es la falta de movilidad; con los dos niños y sin coche, se hace duro desplazarse a cualquier sitio. Ayer ya pasamos todo el día en casa de los abuelos, pero hoy suficiente ha sido bajar un rato a la plaza. Que aún no han instalado el ascensor en casa y son 4 pisos...

Sobre las hijas de ZP

Llevo unos días flipando con la absurda polémica de las hijas de Zapatero. No sé, puede que sea solo mi criterio, pero siempre he considerado que todo aquel que se desmarca de la moda mainstream (lo tradicionalmente considerado "pijo") es digo de todo mi respeto. Pero aún más, en el caso de dos adolescentes, hijas del presidente del Gobierno, y que en su visita al tío más influyente del mundo mundial, imponen su criterio al de cualquier jefe de protocolo. Chapeau! Y chapeau también a ZP y a Sonsoles, que como padres tolerantes, dejan que sus hijas vistan como quieran. Estoy convencido de que Obama y Michelle, si son tan abiertos como parecen, habrán sentido la misma admiración por estos padres y por el estilo de sus hijas.

Cuando mis hijos crezcan, probablemente sentiré más orgullo si se desmarcan de la moda convencional, que si con 16 años me vienen vistiendo dockers y camisita por dentro del pantalón. Siempre admiré a Richard Branson, no tanto por lo alto que llegó, sino por su máxima de nunca vestir corbata.

Claro que yo a los 16 años vestía estética mod, y una larga melena. Tengo que agradecer a mis padres que me dejaran expresarme a través de mi look (la melena empezó como protesta por no querer comprarme una vespino, y me duró hasta los 30 años). Y eso en una época en la que quien no llevaba 501 o jersey privata de colores pastel, no era nadie...

Y básicamente me parece absurdo el buzz que corre por internet, porque muchos de los amigos que se han burlado de las niñas, son aquellos que con más de 30 tacos siguen vistiendo en plan "jevi". Me lo expliquen...

Una ilustración en un blog que encontré por internet, y que ilustra bastante bien la idea:

e-R.I.P.

All my resources to fool the Great Firewall have failed already. I can't access Youtube, Facebook or my blog anymore (I am publishing this post by email). I give up trying, my cyber-ego is dead, long live the flesh-and-bone Julio.

 

This sucks.

Un día en la playa de Shanghai

Tras más de cuatro años aquí, ya iba siendo hora de conocer de primera mano la playa de Shanghai! Aprovechando un día de cielo azul y no demasiado calor, cogimos el coche y nos cruzamos todo Pudong, hasta más allá del aeropuerto internacional, para plantarnos en Sanjiagang, la playita de Shanghai.

Una playa de aprox. 400 metros de largo, artificial y delimitada por un istmo artificial, construida en la desembocadura del Yangtzé, con lo cual el agua no es salada, sino *ejem* dulce, con el color marrón característico de un río que arrastra un tercio de los residuos de toda China... Bueno, si no nos paramos mucho a pensar en este tipo de detalles, incluso se puede disfrutar de un día en la playa que siempre soñó Georgie Dann!...

La playa es un resort de pago: para acceder hay que abonar 50 RMB por persona, y 38 RMB por niño. Como expertos regateadores, conseguimos que los dos gemelos entraran por el precio de uno :)

En esos 400 metros de playa se concentran todos los entretenimientos imaginables de cualquier playa, en alquiler: patines acuáticos, bicicletas de agua, flotadores gigantes, boogies, kite surfing... Es complicado darse un baño relajante, cuando corres el riesgo de ser golpeado por un patín o una rueda hinchable gigante con tres tíos dentro.

Pero si lo que pretendes es tumbarte al sol y descansar, con un poco de lectura por ejemplo, el karaoke gigante con escenario y bafles estridentes pondrá la banda sonora ideal para tu descanso: canciones melódicas chinas cantadas por chulos de playa chinos a grito pelado, o un grupito de 4 chinitas muy monas mostrando su peculiar coreografía del Dragostea Din tei (también conocido como "Marica Tú") de O-zone, en su versión china.

Este festival de los sentidos no estaría completo sin los constantes olores a fritanga, ya que todos los chinos aprovechan el día de playa para llevarte sus barbacoas estilo uigur (musulmanes del Noroeste de China, para los no iniciados) y darse un festín de choricitos parrilleros - o sus versiones chinas.

Pero así y todo, la experiencia fue muy positiva. Los niños disfrutaron como nunca - y eso era lo fundamental, y yo también disfruté por supuesto, qué más se puede pedir que un día de playa en familia? Terminamos todos bastante bronceaditos, y con ganas de volver a repetir - aunque parece que justo ahora comienza a refrescar...

Todas las fotos de la jornada se pueden encontrar aquí: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=116053&id=556215527&l=53d1ebb139

The trip to San Francisco

I promised a post about San Francisco - but now having passed already almost two weeks, I feel lazy to write about it. It was certainly a great experience, and it helped knocking down my absurd prejudices towards the American culture. I fell in love with San Francisco, with its rhythms, colours and tastes, even though the group that I was travelling with (14 Chinese + 1 Chinese guide) didn't try anything other than Chinese food during the whole week there. I had not much time to discover the city, apart from two group tours arranged for my Chinese colleagues that took us through the streets of SF, Fisherman's Wharf, a boat tour by the Bay (incl. Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge), and a funny safari-style bus tour through the streets with homeless people and the popular Gay quarter, Castro. You should've seen all my fellow Chinese in the bus, taking pictures of homeless, and of couples of friends walking by @ Castro...).

I wouldn't mind at all to be sent to open business there in CA. The weather is much milder than in this (Chinese) East Coast, and the availability of Western stuff is amazing -duh! it's America!- But seriously, coming from China and almost being used to this place, where you get used to not having bookstores with a wide choice of reading material in English, not having Facebook, Youtube or even this Blog! (I am updating it via email, but I cannot access it), where everybody smokes everywhere, even elevators... then San Francisco looks like heaven - can you believe that at the airport you can only smoke outside, at least 20 feet away from the doors? Any public place, restaurant or bar explicitly bans smoking, and then you have this explosion of art and creativity, with music on the street (Union Square, Fisherman's Wharf), Art Galleries with political criticism, 4 story bookstores filled with books that I can understand, and that haven't been filtered by any Bureau of People's Information... Prices for most stuff are ridiculous, even compared to Chinese prices (I am talking about the real stuff now, not the fake of course...). Then' there's a sales tax of 9.5% that brings down the compulsive shopping enthusiasm a bit, but still there are great deals almost everywhere.

The only flaw that I saw compared to China, is the security. As far as I was told, the city has a high crime rate and I was even warned to keep on the main streets and not dare into side streets - I am a pretty big guy with no explicit signs on my vestment that uncovers my "touristness", so this shocked me, moreover when taking into account that the governor of the state is Terminator...

The hotel was near the airport, but I found my way there so that I could be freed from the Chinese guide and minibus - my colleagues didn't dare even once to go for a walk after the trade show (the Moscone center is just a couple of minutes walking from Union Square and the show ended at 17h). So after the show and a city walk, I arrived at the hotel, where I enjoyed a jacuzzi and swimming pool before going to sleep with the TV on (in China I only switch on the TV to watch F1, if ever).

I uploaded some pictures of the trip to Facebook. You can check 'm out here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=107073&id=556215527&l=4328f31273

More update: Family and Friends

In the meantime, the twins have grown cheekteeth, they can't stop climbimg everywhere, and they are very cute. We've taken them to the swimming pool twice - Nicolas loves it, Julio not so much-, and you can see one of the pictures here:

When people ask me who is better, I don't know what to reply; they are both very funny, maybe Nicolas is the naughtier one lately, but this changes (he used to be very quiet). Now he is the dauntless one, climbing to the highest table until he realizes that he doesn't know how to come down. He's also keen on biting his brother, poor Julio has the marks of his bro's teeth all over. And at the same time, Julito is better when it comes to meals... On the other hand Nicolas is more obedient to my attempts to educate them not to open every drawer, or entering the kitchen, and so on. But these just remain attempts for the time being...

Jenny has got her driving license at her first try (here in order to obtain the license, one must take three tests: theory, small road -streets and so on, and big road -highways) but still doesn't dare to take the car, hopefully soon. I think I didn't mention that I had the visit of a very good old friend from high school, Ignacio Gil (with his friend Mar) whom I had lost contact with almost 20 years ago! Thanks to Facebook we re-connected again, and he promptly organized a visit to SH. It was a grat time, remembering those days and updating each other on our latest events. And through him I got in touch with Valeriano Palomino and Alfonso Guerrero, toma ya!) - apart from others that I found in FB as well, like José Luis Zabala, Germán Touriño or Ana Feduchi. Great tool this Facebook (when they don't block it!). Anyway, Ignacio seemed to have a great time here, they emptied the fake market out of watches and clothes, and probably soon enough will be coming back with the others.

More later!

New Job - New Industry

It's been a while, but as most of you know, the access to open opinion websites in China has been severely limited lately, with the result of the most popular Western social websites being blocked: Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, FlickR and my blog :) among others...

But taking advantage of my trip to San Francisco, for the Intersolar US trade show, I can update it a little... However it's 3am, I can't sleep due to the 15 hour time difference, and wouldn't want to start the trade show tomorrow with no sleep at all, therefore this won't be long. First I would like to give a brief update on the "recent" events since my last real post, in April...

Realizing that it was going to be almost impossible to find a decent job before summer, I laid back and decided to enjoy this time, but of course I couldn''t refuse any opportunity to earn some bucks. It seems that either my "agent" liked me, or that I was one of the very few laowais available for a full 15 hour shooting session on a weekday. So I had a series of four more shootings in a row (it became so dull that I didn't even ask for them to write down the title of the flicks -most of them were TV series productions). I have some good pics of it on Facebook: click on each picture to access the album)

I already have 4 or 5 movies / TV productions and 3 commercials on my CV - Should I list this together with my MBA?

At the same time, I was applying to positions that really appealed to me, as opposed to anything that came up as I used to do before. This way, I filter out most of the offers, and only sent my candidature to job offers in senior Marketing and management positions in "positive industries", such as renewable energy, the UN (in Nairobi!), or the WHO (in Manila).

The renewable energy ones were the most attractive, since the industry is really having a bright future, and there was this one position for a leading Chinese solar panal manufacturer, that when it came to take the interview, it happened to have its offices less than 20 minutes walking from home! This, in Shanghai distances, is like next block in Spanish, so to understand the importance of the fact. Also taking into account that I live in a residential area, with very few office buildings around, the chances were really small. Anyway I took the first interview with the Secretary of the Board, a very pretty girl, also MBA, with whom I connected right away - it is always to be interviewd by a lady :). I had prepared the interview quite well, thanks to my friends in the indsutry (Juan and Capi - Gracias!) and the next round would be a presentation from me to the Chairman, that I decided to do on Powerpoint.

Anyway, to put it short, I was hired :) As a Europe Sales and Marketing Manager, to develop the European market for the Photovoltaic ("PV") module market of Jinko Solar, a Chinese Solar wafer manufacturer that is vertically integrating all segments of the industry. I started on June 22th and after only three weeks I've already been sent to this fair in San Francisco, my first time ever on this other side of the Atlantic (and the Pacific!).

I will upload pictures of SF (typical Golden Gate one, etc) later in a different post... keep tuned!