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Chapter 2............Around the World in 14 Days

Friday, November 17, 2000

SFO to Beijing

 

Arrived at SFO and checked in at United and was told to get back on the bus to the new Int’l terminal. Arrived there and the place is not even open yet. They are doing a few flights out per day as a shakedown before opening for real in December. Had to walk back to the Domestic terminal to get a newspaper.

 

BTW, my suitcase (which was checked in) was 76 pounds. Packing for hot and cold, business and casual is a challenge but I’m sure a few more times doing this and I’ll get it right!

 

I have a huge incentive now to complete the business in India by Wednesday night as I can get on the Lufthansa flight to Paris two days early. Last night on the way to LAX I decided to have Jacqui come to Paris for the long weekend. (This world travel stuff is making me do impromptu, spontaneous things that would normally take months of planning.) Needless to say, I’m a star with my wife!

 

Saturday, November 18  

 

I’d forgotten how big the 747 is until I climbed upstairs to my seat. I guess it’s 30 feet up from my seat and racing down the runway to take off is always a thrill. How do they do it?

 

The service is great. International business and first class may be the last bastion of civilized society. The help is appropriately servile, the food is good and they pour never-ending amounts of wine, liqueurs, and port. Godiva chocolate and port as an after-dinner treat. Life, not just travel, should be this fine.

 

The flight has a number of American couples going over to adopt babies. One of our attorneys just returned last week from adopting a baby girl. I guess babies are a major export and part of the GDP.

 

Remember the line from the Rolling Stones? “You go running for the shelter of the Mother’s little helper, and it helps you through the night…..” Well, here’s to pharmacology! The sleeping pill got me to sleep the requisite amount of hours and I arrived without the cotton head I usually have when going eastbound to Europe. (Lesson: sleep 4-6 hours on the way over and stay up till “bedtime” the first night)

 

Shushan and two of the owner’s staff met me at the Beijing airport and quickly took photos and whisked me off in a BMW to the hotel.

 

The agenda for the evening called for “feast Larry”. I thought about it for a moment and remembered it was dogs, not people who were in danger of being served on the table so I happily went along.

 

Not surprisingly, after numerous meals in the Chinatowns of NY, LA, SF, and Hawaii this was the best Chinese food I’ve ever had. Duh! I wonder if I can get takeaway for the trip to India?

 

My Chinese hosts asked me to give them English names so I had dinner with Alan, Sheldon, Douglas, and Bill (for Gates since he is the rich guy who bought the franchise)

 

Sunday, November 19, 2000

 

Snow!

 

The trees outside my hotel are covered in snow. It’s quite striking given the colorlessness of Beijing.

 

I slept for10 hours with just an hour or so middle of the night when I awoke and couldn’t get back to sleep. Thank goodness for CNN. Basketball is very popular and there were two NBA games on as well.

 

What a day it’s been. We met at the ownership’s office (across the street from the hotel- if you make it alive crossing the street- NY was never this bad). First I discovered that the adapter my wife bought me specifically says, “don’t use on electronic equipment, e.g. computers. So they had to go find one to buy which took some time. Then my computer wouldn’t transmit on the projector they had bought. Then I copied my files to a disk and loaded it on their laptop only to discover that they don’t have PowerPoint. So finally they found an adaptor and my computer began working with the projector. Lesson # 1 – Make sure you have the right electrical adaptor! Ownership now has one but we better bring along another one.

 

The presentation went well and generated lots of conversation but a word of caution. The general use of English is poor. Mr. Q is very weak and is hesitant to embarrass himself so he stays quiet. Douglas is quite fluent and of course, Shushan speaks English better than I. Mr. Q is reluctant to hire an interpreter for the training but I’m working on this. If they don’t have a translator then be prepared to speak slowly and to use Douglas and Shushan for not quite simultaneous translation. That means you will not cover as much territory as you think.

 

Also, I made it a key point that they must hire a Director of Education and have that person in the office for the training but I do not think they will have that person on board. No one in the ownership group is an educator or a techie so they must get some expertise if they are to secure the kind of government work that is in abundance. We had dinner tonight with the Vice Director of the Ministry of Education- National Research Center for Computer Education and I suggested to Mr. Q that he hire her. He thought that was a novel idea and I told him it was a very American thing to do.

 

This afternoon we went to the Children’s Palace in west Beijing. It was unbelievable. Only the Chinese with their legacy of the group, devotion to children, and Communism could develop what we would call a community center. But what a community center!!! The collection of buildings is in a Huton or alley and the buildings are hundreds of years old. We met in a big hall where the Director greeted me and presented an overview of the Palace. I then spoke of the virtues of our program. I felt like Nixon in the great hall speech making.

 

In each of the buildings children were taking classes and performing a variety of arts programs; Calligraphy, Dance, music (an unbelievable “guitar” that the kids played wonderfully), a flute-type instrument that was developed over 5,000 years ago, sculpture, and Chinese Opera. It was just great! The kids performed for me and I took pictures with them. I invited the kids to visit us in LA when they tour the US next year.

 

The Director wants to add us to the Palace and has a lab set up but he wants the curriculum to add creativity to the work already done. This center will be the first “turnkey” operation! The price will be $2.50 per hour per student.

 

BTW, for lunch, we went “around the corner to the local joint”. It was the best Chinese food I ever had (did I say that about last night’s meal?) It’s gonna be hard to go back to the greasy spoon next to the office on my return. Every meal is a banquet in a private room.

 

For dinner, we went to a restaurant in a park that serves the Emperor and Empress’ food. That’s right, the recipes and foods are from the records of the Imperial past. The room was all golden (the Emperor’s color) and the wait staff was dressed in beautiful dresses. Of course, I am beginning to be challenged to drink alcohol at distressing rates of consumption but I keep telling them that John Wayne is dead and I ain’t his replacement. But, I am doing lots of toasts and drinking lots of wine. (https://www.beijing-visitor.com/beijing-culture/chinese-food/restaurant-reviews/fangshan-restaurant).

 

The ownership group is very nice and we are getting along well. There are four key staff, Mr. Q is the General Manager and he is the boss, he has an assistant who I named Sheldon, another assistant who is named Douglas and Mr. Ai is the general all-around guy who does everything from the drive the car to pay the bills. I named him Alan.

 

Tonight we were in total gridlock. The entire intersection was blocked with cars in every direction, more bikes than in all of Central Park on a Sunday, and of course pedestrians. Guess what? Not one horn, not one finger, not one swear word, and trust me everyone was this close to hitting everyone else. Very Chinese.

 

8:00 on Monday and it’s off to the suburbs for a private school visit.

 

Monday , November 20, 2000

 

We drove this morning to a private school set in the outskirts of town halfway to the Great Wall. They have 2,000 students. All the computers have the monitors built into the surface of the desk with a plexi-glass shield (the Director’s son said this will keep the radiation away-  I don’t think he’s an expert on ergonomics either!) It’s a beautiful school and once again I got a chance to give the company schpiel to the Director and his IT staff. We watched a lab in action and the lab teacher had control of each computer so he would demonstrate what he wanted to be done and then the kids would do the same thing. Do we have such a control device in the States? This facility will be a possible Train-the-Trainer facility.

 

After a non-dramatic lunch, we went to a public school where the Principal was concerned that we were a bit too much for her since we had just come from a private school. She thought we must be a bit too extravagant for her. We put her concerns to rest. The Chinese government has mandated computer training for high school by 2001 and K-8 in the next few years. Everyone is scurrying to get on board. There is no competition for us.

 

We returned to the office and I reviewed the Ops Manuals with them and we discussed the business plan. Denise’s template was a big success although I adapted it to my needs. I also showed them to Thailand business plan as an example of a very well-done plan.

 

I put up an org chart for them and reinforced the need for a Director or VP of Education. They say that recruitment for teachers has been hard since our brand is unknown, but I believe it is their lack of credibility as non-educators that is one problem. I suggested putting on a seminar for local influencers when David and Rick are here. This will further reinforce our image as professionals.

 

Their biggest concern they have is our inability to produce a comprehensive list of everything they will get from us. I have shown them the Forum library but we seem to be doing this in a hodge-podge kind of way and that is making them concerned.

 

Tonight we had dinner in a Mongolian restaurant. Ugh.

 

However, weeks ago I had mentioned to Shushan that today is my birthday and the guys had a cake and presented me with a beautiful plate as a gift. I’m really enjoying being with the group. They are quite friendly and it’s really a treat to discuss the two societies and cultures with them.

 

The concept of distance learning came up today (by me) and I believe that with a target population of 320 million students (that’s right, 320 million) we need to have other ways to reach this audience. Imagine a 10% share of the market. Even if we (they) only get $50/year per student it’s gonna be huge.

 

BTW, the kids are adorable. Sometimes I feel like Gulliver in the land of the Lilliputs, other times like John Dunbar in Dances With Wolves.

 

We also went to an expat school today and I met a bunch of Americans, one of whom was from NY and identified himself as a Greenwich Village beatnik from the Kerouac era. We talked Dylan and that was cool.

 

Tomorrow a kindergarten.

 

Tuesday, November 21, 2000

 

This morning we went to a decidedly lower-end part of town. It was like going back at least 100 years. Huts, brick abodes, laborers with shovels, street vendors. Then out of the blue, we turned into a complex with manicured lawns and a park-like environment. It’s a boarding school for 3-6-year-olds called a Kindergarten. It was created in 1946 as Mao was starting the revolution and it is like being in a bad movie of the communist era. A more structured group environment has never existed. Dr. Laura Schlesinger would have a heart attack. The parents (top government and business leaders) drop their youngsters off on Monday morning and they get picked up on Friday night. The Principal was a delightful woman with ties to the revolutionary past. The school extols the virtues of loving and teaching the children. The computer lab has old computers and windows 3.1. I said nothing so as to help the Principal “save Face”. Our curriculum will be very exciting for this school. I went into a classroom and the kids went nuts. “hello”, “ni ha”, “how are you?” “my name is” they shouted. One kid had a Snoopy shirt (they all did actually but don’t tell the copyright folks) and I said “Snoopy” and he smiled this huge smile and said “Snoopy”.

 

Long discussion at the office about the training system we have put together for them and lots of concern about our relative looseness about training. They keep expecting “connect the dots” kind of materials and training and we keep saying it’s all here and on the Forum and when the training team arrives everything will make sense. I’ve re-done the training system and advised Amy.

 

Dinner tonight with a VP of a government agency that does examinations. A very unsavory fellow and even worse food.

 

Word to the training team…..if you want to see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City stay over an extra day or two. There probably won’t be time during the week to go. Remember, you’ll be on their dime during the week for training.

 

BTW, remember this the next time you have cash problems…I inquired about the laborers we passed on the road, how much they make a month, ready? $60 per month.

Now that could cause serious lifestyle problems.

Wednesday, November 22, 2000

 

Each day has begun for me at 4:00 am or 4:30. I can’t explain it but my internal clock is just out of whack.

 

At 7:30, after more failed attempts to get online from my room, I met Mr. Xi (“I”) and Betty who have been assigned to me for sightseeing duty. Mr. Xi is delightful with a ready smile and a huge desire for me to have a positive impression of Beijing. Betty is 23 and just graduated from college where she majored in English Lit.

 

We headed out for Bandaling….the Great Wall. In less than two hours we were thrown back a few hundred years. Huts on the side of the road and rugged mountains and a fierce wind. We arrived before the crowds and I immediately was surrounded by a small army of women selling postcards, hats, and probably TVs if I was interested. It’s really a lot of fun being the only westerner. People (tourists from inland China) stared and I’m sure I was the first “round-eye” they’ve ever seen. Mr. Xi only had on a sweater and sports coat while I had a sweater and a parka. He kept refusing my offer to buy him a hat. I bought one for myself. Tres chic!

 

The wall itself is what you’ve seen in countless pictures but the scenery is awesome and what you don’t know from the pictures you’ve seen is the extreme height and incline of the pathway. The army guys who patrolled the wall in the distant past must have had great leg muscles and terrific aerobic capability. We climbed to the third level and by then I was using the handrail and puffing each step. Going down is treacherous. Plus the wind is trying to cut you in half. And this is not even really winter yet!

 

On the way back Mr. Xi offered to stop at the Ming Tombs and I jumped at the offer. Too bad it’s not the tombs I thought they were. I was hoping for the terra cotta figures but that’s a 1,000-mile trip. These tombs were pretty tame. The Chinese have a way of creating a sameness that sucks the life out of everything. The Great Wall is great but it is still someone’s grand vision of a brick pathway across China (that “someone” was the great emperor Chen). Architecturally it’s not really interesting but that doesn’t minimize its grandness. Similarly, the tombs are Spartan and really just a collection of bare buildings.

 

We returned to Beijing for a meeting at the American embassy. The commercial officer and his assistant met with us and asked us to help him respond to some State Department questions about educational technology transfer to China. They will be helpful if we want to pursue a joint venture in China with a hardware company to get the schools some infrastructure and training.

 

Late afternoon shopping. Let’s put it this way, Beijing ain’t Rome, Paris, Florence, or New York.

 

This evening I met Mr. Q’s partner Mr. W who flew in for the dinner. He’s very nice and very smart. Joining us for the evening was the Dean of IT for Normal University who brought along his expert on distance learning. We had an interesting discussion about the need for his college to produce more IT-capable teachers and how he expects to complete a partnership with Mr. Q to use the PD curriculum.

 

We also discussed the US election and that was great. Imagine being with nine Chinese Socialists (Communists in sheep’s clothing) and talking about voting problems in Florida. They were quite conversant and knew the details of what is happening. I sort of lectured them on the merits of a country that can go through this and not end up having tanks in the street to maintain order (a not-so-subtle dig at 1989 Tiananmen Square).

 

During one charming conversation, Mr. W. made a reference to the fact that someday everyone will use chopsticks to which I nodded politely. Later I made a reference about how hard it is to learn Chinese and that he could learn English better and faster than I could learn Chinese. I offered to trade everyone in the world using chopsticks if everyone in the world would speak English. I think he understood that if everyone used English that the American culture, not the Chinese will be the world’s standard. Game, set, match.

 

BTW, the dinner was at a restaurant that is world-renowned for Peking duck. Now it can be said, me and Chou-en-lai (the late great) eat at the same places. Everything was duck, from the appetizers to the dessert. Needless to say, it was great. The waitress honored me by preparing slices of duck on a tiny bun with all the trimmings and saying, “Duck hamburger”.

 

Thursday, November 23, 2000

 

Another early start, we are going to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square before I depart.

 

It takes forever to get to the literal heart of China. The cars, bikes, and people continuously increase as we cross the many ring roads to the core.

 

I didn’t know this but Tiananmen Square is just in front of Forbidden City. The square is enormous. On every side of the square are huge ugly buildings, one of which has a similarly huge picture of Chairman Mao. The square had many older folks hanging out dressed in what looked to me as Mao outfits. I may have misread it but as the only round-eye around I got some strange stares, like “what are doing here?, this is the real Communist turf and you don’t belong here”. The loudspeakers blare stirring orchestra music and everyone is taking photos. Mao is actually “buried” (more precisely preserved) in a mausoleum in the square. My hosts didn’t seem to want me to go there and frankly I wasn’t really so eager to go. After all, Roy Roger’s horse Trigger is preserved too and I haven’t seen him!

 

The Forbidden City (FC) is just beyond the square. If you’ve seen the film, The Last Emperor maybe you can understand how exciting it was to see it live. Like all things Chinese, it is massive, built in the 1400’s (before America was discovered I pointed out to my hosts -who had never heard of Christopher Columbus I might add)

 

Here again, the Chinese do it again…..you enter into a massive square surrounded by beautiful buildings so… why not repeat the pattern a dozen times. By the time you’ve walked the FC, you’ve passed five or six squares. The two biggest would each hold the Yankee Stadium playing field.

 

So, we are walking through the FC and I stop to take a picture of some detail on a building and that’s when I realize that the building contains- are you ready- Starbucks! I almost fell over with convulsive laughter. Here Mr. W is thinking the world will someday be eating with chopsticks as a sign of Chinese superiority and we’ve already got a Starbucks in the Forbidden City, the soul of China! Too funny.

 

Also, there are lots of soldiers within the structure and we walked past their staging area and there were two basketball courts. Everybody wants to be like Mike.

 

We arrive at the airport and young Betty tells me how excited she is. She has never been to the airport she says. I inquired, “oh, you’ve never been to this new terminal?”, “No” she says, she has never been to an airport! It was like watching an old movie when she came inside with me. Slackened jaw, eyes wide open, astonishment on her face. I’ll bet everyone reading this has kids or knows kids who have flown since they were youngsters.

 

A six-hour flight later I arrived on the equator in Singapore. Coming from drab, colorless Beijing this is paradise. This country was formed by a benevolent dictator who did some job (if you don’t mind a caning or two to keep everyone in line). Every car has a transponder on it and you are debited by scanners on the freeway for use. During rush hours the government raises the prices of various roads to divert flow away from crowded roads. To get a license to buy a car- just to have the right to go shopping- costs $30,000. Needless to say, not everyone has a car and the bus system is very good.

 

Friday, November 24, 2000

 

Just another day of meetings broken by a great lunch at the Ritz Carlton and a coffee break at- where else? Starbucks.

 

Coming from Beijing the experience of Singapore is startling. Big building, good-looking, well-dressed people, no bikes, nice cars. Everything is new, the people are smiling, there are US-styled shopping centers and the Christmas decorations are up and the shopping season has begun here too. I don’t think they do Chanukah though.

 

Carl, our franchisee, has spent a considerable amount of time in India and has added his name to the ever-growing list of people who say that I am in for a shock on arrival in Madras. Great. Can’t wait.

 

 

Saturday, November 25, 2000

 

A Larry kind of day. Catch up on e-mails in the morning, coffee and the NY Times crossword (I love the Herald Tribune), lunch at the pool, and a nap. I wonder if the company will let me stay?

 

Sunday, November 26, 2000

 

My friend Marta is a world re-known consultant to family businesses and she is in Singapore working for a client. I haven’t been able to see her since I started having an alternate life in Long Beach. It is ironic that the distance between Long Beach and Santa Monica is so great that it is easier to meet her in Singapore than in California! We had a nice breakfast at her hotel. Dennis, her husband, took a digital photo and e-mailed it to Jacqui. What a great world we live in.

 

This afternoon Jinsi, Carl’s partner was nice enough to call me and ask me to join him and his family as guests when they visit family friends. It reminded me of 1957 in Brooklyn as nuclear families gathered in this nice couple's apartment for Sunday afternoon dinner. The women sat around the kitchen table, the men gathered in the living room and the little kids romped throughout the apartment. I have the exact same memories from my childhood.

 

The flight to Chennai was terrific. Sing Air is really good.

 

Did I say Chennai? Oh yeah, India.

 

First impressions? I left the terminal and walked into a literal sea of people. Annamalai had arranged for a mere four people to meet me, one of whom totally befuddled me by appearing at the baggage carousel. How did he get there if this point is before the customs checkpoint?

 

The drive to the hotel was done in almost blackness as the overhead lights are dim and the car headlights dimmer.

 

The road to the city is lined with images I’m not articulate enough to express. Can people really live here? Isn’t there any concrete in this country or do they like unpaved streets? Why is every building incomplete or falling down? Why are people riding bikes at 11:30pm?

 

How can the Park Sheraton appear out of nowhere and be so astonishingly beautiful?

 

Monday, November 27, 2000

 

I have been assigned a driver and a butler. Mr. Kumar appears at my hotel door to take me for breakfast at the Palace.

 

The ride to Annamalai’s house is astonishing (did I use that word already? Well, nothing else will suffice) How can so many people be so tattered? How can there not be 100’s of auto accidents each hour? The centerline in the road must be a suggestion. Cars pass bikes, motor scooters and other cars as they like- horns blaring all the time.

 

There are “retail” shops lining the street but each is more horrific looking than the rest; people are eating and drinking at these stalls.

 

All of a sudden a quick right turn and presto, hundreds of kids in uniform and beyond them two mansions on a river. When I was told I was going to the Palace I thought they were being cute but I’ve seen Georgian mansions in the English countryside and stayed in mansions in Ireland but this is a Palace. Annamalai appeared followed by a retinue of manservants. I got the quick tour and was interrupted by the arrival of Uncle in his Mercedes. I’m told he also has the only Rolls in Chennai. Ladies and gentlemen, this family is very rich. The family made their fortune in the late 19^thcentury and the grandfather donated the money and space to found Annamalai University then Annamalai’s mother started the schools which are on their property.

 

Breakfast was served by at least three people. If Annamalai raises his finger people jump, if I wanted pancakes I could have had Aunt Jemima herself make them. I had my favorite Indian food for breakfast- boiled eggs and toast. (I’m being very careful)

 

Mr. Kumar and the driver got me to the lawyer's office after another harrowing ride through the streets of Chennai. (I don’t recall seeing Oxen pulling carts in LA unless I’ve missed it) The building of our attorney looks fairly good but once inside I realize yet again that nothing is ever completed. In 1994 I walked through some buildings that had been earthquake damaged in the Northridge quake and guess what, there isn’t much difference between those buildings and this one.

 

Off to meet Annamalai at a school presentation. I arrive in time and remove my shoes- as everyone does in India- heck many people walk the streets barefoot. I take my shoes off and immediately step into bubble gum, which now ruins my socks. Annamalai sees my distress and within 2 minutes Mr. Kumar is standing next to me and holding a brand new pair of socks.

 

We complete the sales call and return to the office for lunch. Yup, another private chef and two waiters in a private room in the office building he owns.

 

Return to the lawyer's office to renegotiate the franchise contract. The ride back to the hotel has us stuck in rush hour traffic. The World Health Organization should do something about the pollution here. We’re in a closed car with a/c and I’m sure I took a few years off my life while we sat in gridlock next to a diesel-spewing bus.

 

My reservation to leave on Wednesday night at 1:50 am has been confirmed. Thank God.

From Chennai to Paris. I expect to sleep the entire 12 hours and wake up in the City of Lights. I will go straight to the Louvre to regain my sense of beauty and grace.

 

Tuesday, November 28, 2000

 

Another meeting with a franchisee and then off to a visit to St John’s School. A mere 20 kilometers or so but it felt like 2,000 kilometers. Once we passed the city limits of Chennai (which ain’t Beverly Hills, to begin with) we went back hundreds of years.

 

If, as the tour book on China said, that spitting is the national pastime in China, then horn blowing is the national obsession in India. Every 10 yards the driver blows his horn. The Indians have a distinctly different concept of spatial relationships. A guy on a bike is strolling in the middle of the road, we drive up behind him, the horn blares, the bike moves slightly left, the driver goes slightly right and passes within an inch of the bike and no one flinches.

 

I thought for sure I was gonna die on this trip. Imagine all manner of God’s creatures sprawled in one lane ahead of you….cars, three-wheel taxis, oversized trucks, bulls, cows, dogs, sheep, walkers, bikers and the driver just blows the horn veers right, and enters the on-coming traffic lane without any way to see what’s coming. Oh, a truck is coming, no problem, just ride the middle and straddle two lanes.

 

There is no one to host my visit and the Assistant Principal is quite uncomfortable. My Indian attendants either do not have social skills or were not told to host the meeting. I arrive in the Principals office and sit awkwardly while I wait for him to direct me in some way.

 

The lab tour is interesting but nothing special.

 

We arrive back in town at 2:30 and I’m spent. I just have had enough of the sheer number of people, animals, bikes, and horn blowing and must retreat to the sanctuary of my mildew-laced room. I try to rest but I’m quite wound up.

 

I have dinner with Annamalai at the hotel so as to not have to leave the building.

 

Wednesday, November 29, 2000/Thursday, November 30, 2000

 

This is priceless. A cyclone has just brushed past Chennai during the night and when I go to turn on the faucet for a shower it runs brown. I think of Moses turning the sea to blood and wonder which plague will be next. (I’ll bet no reader has ever showered while holding your breath so as to not let any water enter your system.)

 

Yet another franchisee meeting in the lawyer's office. I haven’t mentioned that the room has a strange odor like perhaps paint. I inquire what I’ve been breathing in for the past three days and I’m told it’s a spray to kill “bugs”. Jeez, between the diesel fumes, cigarette smoke, and the “bug” spray I’ve lost a few years of healthy life.

 

We visit three schools. The computer labs have three kids per computer station. The kids present their projects for me and they are wonderful. One little kid about 8 steals my heart for his very unusual Indian demeanor when he smiles and programs the computer to play the piano for me.

 

For lunch, we go back to the office where the company chef and the waiters serve me a respectfully “not-spicy” meal. It was quite good. Annamalai’s great-grandfather must have been some guy. His picture and plaques are all over.

 

We race out to a news conference where they will announce two new winter camps: e-director and e-designer as well as show me off to the press. The camps are pretty interesting and I talked about my trip to China and how impressed I was with the level of creativity shown by the Indian kids this morning. The bit will run on the 8:00 news (where is Ted Koppel?) and we expect newspaper coverage as well.

 

Two more meetings follow and I sneak 20 minutes in to buy Jacqui a necklace and a sari.

 

The day started as most of my days on this trip have started at 4:00 am and it’s now 12:00 am on Thursday morning.

 

I am physically, emotionally, and mentally spent. My immune system must be quite rundown and I look forward to getting on board and sleeping the night. What a nice thought…you close your eyes and wake up in Paris. I don’t know what adventures await me in the city of lights but I’ll be very glad to be having them there.

 

Having completed the central business reason for my trip I am eager to see Jacqui and looking forward beyond that to seeing the kids.

 

Thursday, November 30, 2000

 

Did I say close my eyes and wake up in Paris? We arrive on time in Frankfurt but the Paris flight is delayed by 2.5 hours due to bad fog in Paris. But I slept six hours and that makes all the difference. I’d forgotten how far north you are in Europe. It’s still dark at 8:30 am

 

I’m the guy in the lounge without any winter clothes. At least my baggage should make the connection.

 

Jacqui’s plane arrived at the same time as mine and we met at the baggage carousel. Being in Paris is so familiar. We haven’t been here in a while but heck, one of its charms is that it doesn’t change. We had dinner and walked the neighborhood. It feels like the upper west side of NY to me. I’m quite at home here. We’re both exhausted.

Friday, December 01, 2000

 

It rained all day; it was a beautiful day.

 

I finally slept nine hours and didn’t see 4:00 am for the first time in weeks. How come the French breakfast is the same as I have at home but it’s much better in Paris?

 

We took the subway to the Hotel Invalides- it’s not a hotel- and spent the day browsing the many exhibits celebrating French military history. Napoleon’s tomb is a great site as is his original unmarked resting place moved from St. Helena to a garden outside the building.

 

The WWII exhibit has a chronology from 1939 to 1945. On the way here from Frankfurt I couldn’t shake the image of Hitler on the Champs D’Elysse and how 50 years later Germans can just take the commuter flight to Paris. The exhibit on D-Day was appropriately reverential to the US and it is quite moving. A world map recounts the dead from each country. Out of 50 million dead in the war, the US lost 540,000; Russia lost 16 million. No wonder they got the right to enter Berlin first!

 

BTW, one of the books I am reading on this trip is Hitler’s Pope, the story of how Pope Pius XII sold out the German Catholic political voice and in doing so ensured Hitler a moral vacuum and the clearance to conduct his Final Solution with impunity. (The fact that Pius XII is up for sainthood is an outrage). Anyway, I decided against having this on my “nightstand” on the flight to and from Frankfurt.

 

At the Invalides display on armor from China and Japan, I heard an American voice and said hello. They were from Sacramento and I of course advised them that our third Mydashi restaurant is going to open in January. They promised to stop in. You gotta be selling all the time if you’re gonna succeed.

 

One of the favorite movies in our house is Spaceballs by Mel Brooks. At the end of the film sirens are going off and Mel Brooks says, “where are we, Paris?”. Every time a police car goes by I laugh thinking of that line.

 

Saturday, December 2, 2000

 

It’s raining again. We head for the Musee D’Orsay. The Impressionist rooms would be worth a trip to Paris if there were nothing else to see in Paris. I realize that the Monet exhibit we saw in NY in 1978 was probably the only exhibit of his complete set of work that will happen in our lifetime.

 

Jacqui sees Hugh Grant and takes a few pictures of him.

 

Jacqui bought me an “idiot-proof” camera for this trip and now she informs me that it has a telescopic lens feature. (She should have gone beyond idiot-proof to Larry proof) Jeez, now I have to go back to Beijing and re-take the photos in the Forbidden City.

 

Lunch at a neighborhood bistro and a walk to Notre Dame on Ile d’Cite. It was raining hard so we entered yelling “sanctuary, sanctuary; s’il vous plait, sanctuary”. No, the hunchback wasn’t there but I knew you were thinking it.

 

Jacqui has returned again to Bon Marche and I crash so I take the subway back to our room. We have been lucky enough to have been to Paris in our 30s, 40s, and now 50s and we’ve never had a room on the left bank that is any bigger than one of our closets at home. As usual, our luggage fills all the floor space.

 

The young woman of France are so terrific. It’s not that they are physically beautiful, it’s their style and sense of fashion. After the days in China and India where there is a complete lack of sensuality, it is quite striking to be here and to see the scarves, hats, glasses, hairstyles, and clothing that help to adorn les femmes des France. It makes you wonder what’s wrong with our culture that it demands the extension from sensuality to sexuality in its women.

 

Another major difference between Paris and anywhere in the US is the complete absence of food chains. I couldn’t agree more with the French purists to keep the likes of Mcdonald's out of here. The charm of the city is the uniqueness of each place and therefore each neighborhood.

 

What a pleasure to see the young people going to school yesterday and not one dressed in what we would consider quasi-gang or “urban” influenced attire.

 

I keep looking at apartments and asking Jacqui whether she could live there but she’s not keen on learning French.

 

To be honest, though, I’m quite looking forward to going home and seeing the boys and our dog.

 

Sunday, December 03, 2000

 

This tourist stuff is exhausting. Even ten hours of sleep does not rest my legs and lower back but heck, it’s our last full day and there are still things we haven’t done. The drill sergeant I live with won’t let me lay around and read the NY Times on the web so off we go.

 

We opt to forego Le Louvre and assume that Mona Lisa won’t miss us. Instead, we head out via subway to Les Halles and the Marais. Our intent is the Picasso Museum and the Jewish Quarter. The Marais is wonderful. By mid-day, the streets are filled with shoppers and tourists. I wonder about the Hindu belief that one is reincarnated until their life is in balance as I have a very strong feeling that I am at home here. We took some photos of a school that was a round-up location for Jewish children who were surrendered by the infamous Vichy government of WWII France to the Germans and sent to Auschwitz. I read a book about the French position during the holocaust and this school was prominently discussed. We also took some photos of Goldenberg’s deli where, in 1982, a terrorist attack killed six people. I want my kids to know that history is real, not an abstraction; that it is too easy to live in the relative isolation of the US and not know that people have lived and died for what they believe in. I wonder what my thoughts would be if and when I can get to Jerusalem?

 

We have a brief tour of the Picasso museum which was a gift from the family to settle estate taxes. The building is an old mansion and is quite nice. It is the largest collection of his work in the world but of course, Guernica is not here. We saw Guernica in NY a while ago which was the last and I think the only time it has left Spain since it was returned there after Franco’s death.

 

A great lunch of hummus, tahini, chopped liver, and other “soul food”.

 

The sun actually comes out and we walk all the back to the hotel along the Seine. This is too nice, the sun, the people, the magnificent buildings, the great cityscapes, the many bridges crossing the Seine; the Eiffel Tower rising in the background; it’s perfect…….it’s not Disney, it’s real.

 

On this happy note, I’ll end this narrative and turn my thoughts to seeing my kids, who I have missed, and who I know were incredibly responsible for living on their own these past few days. (I wonder how much pizza has been consumed?)

 

It has been a remarkable two-plus weeks and I am fortunate to have had the experience. I am grateful to the company for the opportunity. When I was a kid growing up in the Bronx one dreamed of the Catskills, Miami was heaven if you could get there. I’ve gone around the world and seen things that were beyond my comprehension and as a result, my personal horizons have been expanded in ways that connect me in a new way to 10,000 years of human civilization.

 

Je suis content.