Nice Weather for Ducks

I lied folks, the most exciting thing about being back is the unbelievably nice (and unexpected) weather.  The humidity is low for southern China, and it's managed to keep below 85.  This of course means that we have spent several afternoons getting work done outside.  Outside is too vague though, because we have had the luxury of doing this work over at the Intercontinental Hotel, at their pool, which is less hotel pool and more family vacation resort theme park.  The corporation responsible for hotel dumped more than $1 billion USD into the project and while it has yet to see anything but red, we do get to enjoy their sprawling campus of a complex.  It is themed to resemble a Patagonian ranch, but really is more of a summer getaway spot to pamper executives from Office Depot and similar companies.  It also sports a full size replica of both the Pinta and the Santa Maria, which I am happy to report have finally found their way East.  

I apologize for not having pictures yet.  It seems that since I no longer have to procrastinate school assignments, I had to find something to put off for as long as possible, and a digital camera purchase fits that bill nicely.  It will be soon though, and the pictures will be award winning, and by award winning I mean, I will actually take some.   

Tuesday's Back and Bi's

Short of some exciting business news, there is little to report in the last few days here over in China.  Applications for our program continue to come in, and we finally have a Western looking payment process thanks to the fine folks over at PayPal.  Still waiting on those first transfers to roll in, but with a payment deadline of June 1st, we're going to have to wait a bit longer.   

Much to my lazier half's chagrin, I have finally joined a gym over here.  There are two types of gyms over here it seems: the glitzy glam well-air conditioned ones with TV's and Chinese nationals not doing much of anything, and the prison-gym-looking spots in apartment complexes where the floors are questionable at best and the equipment seems borrowed from a Rocky set.  Given the less-than-favorable financial statements lately, the latter was the only real option, but it does have the benefit of being frequented by several other expats, one of whom is a southern boy from Virginia with a savvy for lifting.   I have found a bit of comfort in the fact that I am far from the weakest, but my American dietary habits make me a bit of an oddity around here (something I aim to fix in the next few months).    

The concept of the gym here is pretty interesting.  The first type I mentioned cost in the thousands of RMB per year, some as much as $1200 USD even, and are allegedly worth it.  They sport swank decor, newer machines, and abundant eye-candy.  The problem is that they are less gym and more of a place where membership is all that really matters.  Men will roll in, saddle up to the lounge and watch TV, draped in rather expensive workout attire, as if to imitate their favorite Italian TV mobster, or Long Island native.  They are there because they can afford to do so, and perhaps to admire a pretty young thing walking the hours away on a treadmill.  These gyms are status symbols, and truth be told, a hell of a business model.  It was a concept we had flirted with but decided against due to the high startup capital required.

The gym I plan on frequenting is the other end of the spectrum, contains the basics, and is full of locals ranging from some Olympiad caliber physiques to the spindly stereotype working out in a button down and navy slacks and black shoes.  It is nothing short of amusing, and well worth the 800RMB membership.  And the music, oh the music is not what you want while working out, but it really just ties the package in so well that you cannot help but smile and laugh a bit.   I've been told if it's not super busy you can toss them a CD or iPod and they'll play it for you, and this gets me into my slight supervillain cackle as a imagine the reaction to various tunes pulled from the bowels of my music library.  

It will be an interesting next few weeks folks.  Hopefully more so than this last one has been.

Google is scary

Greetings again from China.  I am back after a 10 day stint in the US, and thoroughly exhausted from a nice little roadtrip up and down the Northeast corridor.  Thank you to everyone who let me crash on their couches and futons, it was a great time seeing everyone if only for a couple nights.  

Everything has been moving fast over here, and after a quick debriefing I was back in Hong Kong the morning after I arrived.  I soon found myself in a chair at HSBC, reviewing requisite forms and putting my overly practiced John Hancock on said pieces of paper.  I must admit, there is something very romantic about signing off on your first business account and getting those little plastic cards put into your hand.  I need to constantly remind myself that I have yet to receive a single cent, and that none of this is real until that first check is made out to us.  But I lapsed for a few minutes to enjoy the feeling, and as a group, we felt that was completely appropriate.  

 The boys on the ground have been busy with our web marketing and our classes are already filling up with potential students.  Interest from the alma mater is less than stellar but after some very productive meetings with Trinity's administration, next summer holds some real exciting potential.  I look forward to continue the dialogue with Career Services and the International Programs department and make some real progress in advancing both my program and helping students get a worthwhile experience.  

Back to the web marketing and technology side:  Google Tracker is amazing, and perhaps our newest time wasting tool.  Much like Facebook and all the gossip websites keep people busy looking up obscure nonsense and random trivia on old friends, Google Tracker for our website has given us a glorious wealth of information on those people visiting our website.  This afternoon we managed to spend over an hour digging through not only how many hits we're getting but what states/countries/regions they are coming from, how long visitors are staying on the page, and which pages they're looking at.  Sounds creepy?  It sure is, and it makes you wonder how much Google really knows.  It is such a powerful entity on the web, and is so valuable because of its ability to track this kind of information.  This stuff is the gold to marketers, and it really sets you in perspective when you think of how hard people are pushing to get into Facebook.  The information on Facebook is perhaps the holy grail for marketers.  I'll go into length on that statement when it seems more appropriate (when it gets really boring here for a couple days)