It is Tuesday morning and from inside it looks hazy and rainy....and I know it is muggy too....thank goodness for air conditioning!!!

Tim is working at home this morning. He finished his last conference call at 11:30pm yesterday and started his day with another conference call at 6:00am this morning. This is the life of an American executive in China. Work during normal "China" hours in the day and having conference calls in the very early morning and late evenings with the States. Our Saturdays are still Fridays in the US so often times Tim will also have conference calls on Saturday mornings. See how much fun he is having??? I listened to a speaker at the Community Center last Friday about the pressure and stress that working expats are experiencing. First they are brought to China to "turn things around", "build things up", or "start something completely new". They are perceived to be the "Messiah" by the local workers with the expectation that they are coming to "fix all their problems". They work long hours and try to balance "work and family" life. They worry about their families transition and feel responsible for any "issues" regarding unhappy kids and spouses. They feel enormous pressure to preform for the company because the corporations spend a lot of money to relocate the employee and their families. Then...they face the "cultural differences" and the much slower pace that things get done in China. Add too all of this some international travel and jet lag. Wow!!!! That is a lot to deal with. Good days and bad days are mixed together....they have a saying here....some days are Shang-hi's and some days are Shang-lows. I admire Tim's ability to deal with all of this and still be a nice person.

Last night Tucker taught Xiao Zhang to make beef strogenoff. It was fun to watch. Xiao Zhang talks to us in Chinese mostly with some broken English and often times we do not know the words that she is saying but some how we manage to communicate and understand the "basic" message. I have pictures but for some reason the Internet will not let me upload them right now.....so watch for those later.

With mixed results with the tailors at the fabric market we invited a tailor to our house this morning that makes "house calls". I want to have some shirts make and Tucker has designed two pairs of shorts for his ID portfolio. I will let you know how this works out.