Tekelec 6-20-07

Salutations,

Oh man Shanghai is one crazy place! The more I stay in this city, the more I love it. This really is the economic and neo-cultural trendsetting center of China. I liken it to NYC, it's the "big apple" of this part of the world. Everything is pretty new and modern and the city is growing at an astounding pace. It's nothing like the other cities in China. Everyone plays with their expensive cell phones while wearing their fashionable clothes as they pass fashion advertisements showing scantily clad western women. This is not the China I expected before I came here. There are more construction cranes here then I have ever seen in my whole life, I read somewhere that Shanghai supports a significantly large percentage of the world's heavy duty construction cranes. It's getting to the level of any western city or major modern Asian cities (Tokyo, Hong kong, etc.). Give it 10 or 20 more years and this place will definetly be a powerhouse in Asia.

Well I guess you'd like to know about my job. I'm working in the IT Department (Information Technology). My first project was to improve the efficiency of the IT website in finding the correct ethernet cable switches in the building and matching it with the correct slot on their router. Basically I took a map of the floor plans they had of the building and made a website that allowed them to click the seat of the ethernet port that they were looking at and give the slot and port information in a very handy way. I finished that 3 day project in 1 and a half and now I am playing with the Sun Solaris 10 operating system. I'm just doing preliminary testing seeing the advantages and disadvantages of the OS. It is a popular OS with a lot of programmers because it is open source and a free download, so it's a good way to stick it to Bill Gates and not use Windows. Its also more programmer oriented (uses Unix) as opposed to the more idiot proof but sometimes less functional (i guess) Windows. Windows is also attacked by hackers more often then Solaris because it is the most popular OS so the most damage occurs and also young hackers like to try to defeat Bill Gates, so Solaris is a bit safer. Solaris 10 is supposedly the most advanced operating system on the planet (which i sort of agree with because it is a b#$% to install and figure out, but I'm getting there slowly). Next week I switch to another dept., I'm not sure what I'll be doing there yet, but I'll keep you posted.

As far as my accomodations, I stayed the first week with the family of one of the senior managers here at Tekelec. They live in a three story house not too far from work (a fifteen minute taxi ride without traffic is considered pretty close, John has to commute an hour or more per day). They have two kids (a ten year old son, and a 4 year old daughter who is the cutest little girl I have ever seen). Luckily, my host family used to live in Texas so they all could speak fluent english except for the little girl. On the weekend, they brought John and I to SuZhou, a weekend vacation spot for the Shanghaiese that is famous for its traditional private gardens. They took us out for our first Pizza Hut in China, and let me tell you that after 3+ weeks without pizza, it was the best pizza me and John ever had. It tasted just like home. Plus, Pizza Hut was extremely clean and nice, just like a nice sit down resturant, and not like the more fast food versions we have back home. I love America. John keeps counting down the days until we get back. Being a world traveler is exciting and intense but there really is no place like home. We had a lot of fun in SuZhou, and on Sunday John's host family took us to a traditional Chinese banquet in celebration of John's host dad's boss's daughter's first birthday (well that's a mouthful). The boss lived in a country club outside of town, that was very similar to prestonwood except the houses were smaller and started at 3 million dollars each. The food at the party was very good. My host family took me to see some local stuff around Shanghai but mostly hung out at home and enjoyed the family life. I really love staying with them. I take a private taxi to work everyday. Next week I move to another engineer's residence, who is married with no kids. He lives on the other side of town (near where John lives) and I'll get to commute by subway, which will be an experience during rush hour.

Well that's about it for now,
Mark