Chengdu-de!

So on the plus side, after about 8 months in China, I finally got out of Shanghai to another part of the country. On the down side, I was so busy during the 4 days in Chengdu, I didn’t get a chance to really see much of the city (Apart from the 100 foot statue of Mao hailing a Taxi). Guess I’ll just give you all a recap of what I actually did do in Chengdu.
The reason that I went to Chengdu was because of work. Every year there is this HUGE festival called the Sugar and Spirits fair. And basically any company that has even the slightest connection to food and beverage is there trying to promote their product. The reason I went to this fair was because my Chinese distribution company, Summergate Inc, had a booth there and wanted a representative of Concha Y Toro to help them meet and sign new wholesalers, wine shop owners, and other retailers.

Some of the highlights of the fair included…

1. The Press Conference- I never thought I would be important enough to be a part of a press conference. I was in a large room with about 30-40 members of Chinese TV stations, wine magazines, and newspapers, as well as about 100-150 people of the general public. I talked about the history of Concha Y Toro, CYT’s partnership with China, and how the earthquake in Chile is going to affect CYT in the future. I even had to answer some questions! Fortunately I had a translator, so I didn’t have to fumble through trying to answer in Chinese. (even though I can now…fumble being the key word).
2. Dinner with the Wholesalers-One of the nights we had a big dinner at the Shangri-la with the hopeful new wholesalers. It felt like speed dating. Between every course, the wine representatives, including myself, had to stand up, move to a new table, and meet about 20 new people. Unlike speed dating however, I didn’t get any numbers, and most of my dates were old Chinese men. (So I guess I should be grateful I didn’t get any numbers)
3. TV Interview- At one point during the festival, one of the news stations from Chengdu TV came up to the Summergate stand. They asked me to open a bottle of wine, pour three glasses, and toast the camera; all while telling the legend of our most famous wine Casillero Del Diablo. I’ve never been so nervous in my life!!! But I told the story, poured the wine, toasted the camera, and controlled my bladder. Later, I found out it ended up being a commercial that promoted the Sugar and Spirit fair on pretty much every Chengdu TV station. Awesome.
   

Now, if that wasn’t enough to make me feel like a celebrity, then simply being in Chengdu accomplished that. I don’t know what it was, but they must have a serious shortage of white guys in Chengdu, or tall ones at least. As I walked around the hundreds of thousands of people at the festival, I must have had my picture taken with at minimum, 500 Chinese people. I eventually ended up just carrying a bottle of my wine around for free publicity for our company. All in all, an amazing experience.

Things Ezra has learned…

1. Chileans type out laughing “jajajaja” Just typing that makes me laugh…hahaha. Sorry, jajaja
2. I’ve been working with non-USA people too long. I actually said “Ciao” and didn’t think twice about it. I never realized how many people outside of the US use that word.
3. I officially have a Chinese metabolism. I drank the tap water and didn’t get sick.
4. I’m the equivalent of Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Hugh Jackman, and a pair of stilts when I go to Chengdu. That city is one huge ego boost for me.
5. Never tell a Chengdu restaurant owner you want his hottest dish….I couldn’t feel my lips for about 4 hours and I think I lost a little hearing in my left ear….
6. Domestic flights in China are horrible if you’re over 5 ½ feet tall. My knees were up by my chin.
7. It’s official, I’m moving to Singapore in 3 weeks. Singapore is basically a clean, western, and more boring version of China….from what I’ve heard. Anywhoo, I’m excited!

Until Sometime soon!

Love,
Ezra

My Earth Shattering Chilean Experience…

February 24th: Arrive in Chile for a once in a lifetime opportunity to train with the number three wine company in the world, taste wines with 3rd generation wine growers, and accompany my Japanese clients on a cruise up and down the Chilean coast line.
February 26th: Experience a once in a century earthquake that topples buildings, destroys bridges and roads, causes tsunamis around the world, obliterates vineyards, and ruins Ezra’s plans to do all of the things previously mentioned.
So I got to experience my very first earthquake last week, and this will probably be the strongest earthquake I’ll ever experience. Not only did it ruin my trip, but it also ruined every other earthquake for me because I know none of them will be as good as my first…. That sounded less weird in my head….
Anyway, before I talk about my Chilean experience devoid of earthquake, let me first describe what an 8.8 behemoth feels like, for those of you who have never had the pleasure. It was 3:30 am and I was sleeping in my amazingly soft, not-rock-hard-Chinese bed. When all of the sudden, I was woken up by my bed vibrating. Now, I consider myself a pretty smart guy, but I had never experienced something that would cause my bed to shake spontaneously in the middle of the night. So I deduced what anyone would deduce when they’re sleeping in a strange hotel bed….it’s a plug-in vibrating bed. I wish I was joking, but after a few seconds of looking for the cord, I realized that the whole room was undulating. It wasn’t too bad as I was on the ninth floor, right at the center of the building’s height; the perfect distance from the ground to reduce vibrations but not high enough where the building would sway a significant amount like the Gilligan’s boat on a three hour tour.

But, the quake was strong enough to cause some lamps to fall over, my ceiling and wall’s plaster to crack and dump white molding on me, and cause an extremely loud rumbling sound for about 3 minutes. After it was over, the bellhop came to make sure I was ok, tested the power, and gave me the go ahead to go back to bed….so I did. It wasn’t until the next morning that I learned about the devastation throughout the whole country. So I hope you join me in keeping those less fortunate than I in your hearts and prayers. The aftershocks are still occurring noticeably 3-4 times a day for the last week and a half.
But, other than the Earthquake, CHILE IS AMAZING. The weather is gorgeous, the air is the cleanest I’ve ever breathed, the view of the Andes Mountains bordering the city is phenomenal, and the women aren’t too bad to look at either. ;-) Overall, there is so much culture and beauty here that I wish I could spend more time to travel around…but I go back to China this coming Friday. Oh well, guess this is just another place to visit when I become a millionaire.

Things Ezra has learned…

1. Skype phone calls are much cheaper then calling cards and usually even clearer
2. I don’t want to go back to China, but am going to instead stow away in Chile.
3. Chileans are the fastest Spanish speakers in the world as well as have the longest working hours.
4. Mullets are extremely trendy here. Everyone is business in the front, party in the back.
5. Pisco (Chile’s most famous drink)– Vodka distilled from grapes is delicious. Should have brought two suitcases.
6. Chileans are just as short as Chinese people, and stare just as much. Glad my height makes me stick out no matter what continent I’m on.

YEAR OF THE TIGER!!!!

Xin Nian Kuai Le (Happy New Year)

I had a real misconception about Chinese New Year. I always thought that is was similar to the Calendar New Year, except just a couple months off. You know, everyone stays up till midnight, lights a sparkler, gives a kiss, and goes to bed. Maybe a dragon-train thrown in there somewhere. Boy was I wrong! Chinese New Year is so huge that it takes a whole week to fit in all the festivities and fireworks.

Basically, it starts on February 14^th, so Valentines Day will always have its holiday-butt kicked by Chinese New Year. And the butt kicking doesn’t stop there, for the next seven days, it sounds like you’re in WWII. I wish I was exaggerating, but people set off fireworks everywhere for about 7 straight days. My favorite part is that no safety measures are taken. They’ll light them off in the streets between two skyscrapers. God forbid you’re on the 25^th floor with your window open because you’re going to have a shower of red sparks come flying into your bedroom. I actually saw a cab swerve around a bottle rocket going off.

My Fireworks Experience…

I lit off a bunch of other people’s fireworks, but unfortunately none of my own. Not that I didn’t try to go out and buy the ‘biggest and baddest’ Chinese fireworks I could find. My friend and I went down this really shady street (Not aware at the time you could buy them in the grocery store) to try and find some fireworks. We finally found this store with big ones, small ones, decorated ones, plain ones, and every sort of one you could imagine. I personally have been saving up for this and spent about $150.00 US dollars on merchandise. I mean, how many times do you get to legally set off fireworks in the country that actually invented them!?!? So I didn’t feel guilty at all. We bought ones ranging from about a foot in length to ones that were 5 feet tall. We were practically drooling with anticipation in the cab ride back to our apartment. So when we finally arrived, we made sure we had a safe perimeter (about 6 feet), took out our lighter, lid the biggest one, ran for cover, and……nothing. Well, not nothing, it was smoking a little bit. And you know the saying, where there's smoke, there's fire....works. Needless to say, we stayed crouched behind our trashcan for about 5 minutes because neither one of us wanted to approach it to see why it was only smoking. After a while we decided it was just defective. So we lit one of the smaller ones, and it too just kinda smoked a little. Turns out, I bought $150.00 dollars worth of PRAYERSTICKS!!!! You light these guys and they smoke for hours and hours and you prayers go up to heaven with the smoke. The bigger the prayer stick, the bigger your prayer. Now, I’m not saying I have anything against prayer sticks, it just would have been nice if my prayers went up in a shower of sparks followed by an loud explosion.

Things Ezra Has Learned…

1. Prayer sticks make great gifts for people back in the states.

2. Prayer sticks are quite handy in the bathroom after …….You know what.

3. Shop owners stop trying to rip you off during Chinese New Year and give you great deals

4. It is extremely unlucky to get married during the New Year

5. How to do Tai Chi thanks to some little old lady in the park

6. Chinese Muslim Shop owners have the best noodle restaurants in the city, I’ve tried three different places and they’re all amazing…

Until Chile....

Love,

Ezra

I'm Fine

Just letting everybody know, I was in Santiago, Chile when the 8.8 earthquake struck a couple days ago.

Fortunately I was in one of the nicer areas of the city where the buildings were properly built to withstand this sort of thing. We also still have water and electricity in my little corner of Santiago. Others aren't as lucky.

For the time being I am going to be staying here in Chile until we get things situated with our company but as far as I'm concerned, the sooner I'm back in China, the better.

I will blog about Chinese New Year very soon as well as my pre-earthquake experience in Chile. But right now, most of my time is being devoted to work and recovery.

Things Ezra has learned...

1. Earthquakes are not as much fun as I thought they would be....

Love,
Ezra