Readjusted My Attire

Today, will be the day.  I’m gonna do it.  I’ve only made it twice so far on this trip to the gym and I’m feeling it.  I saw that photo of me speaking that my colleague sent back to my wife.  What happened to the ab-development program I’d been so far along with back home.  All this fine Brazilian food had loosed me up quickly.  Standing by the elevator in my shorts and sneakers, I got the text:  "We’ll be there in fifteen minutes to pick you up."  Reluctantly, I returned to the room and readjusted my attire.

Yet another chance to talk about Chinese history and business this morning.  I’m uncertain if this is what anyone wants to hear.  Oddly there are clearly some Chinese people in the audience.  So I consider calibrating the novelty of mentioning who Zheng He or Hong Xiuquan were to people who were quite familiar.

The reception was wonderful, though one especially lovely young lady sitting in the front row got up and left early, which had me feeling that my diatribe was dragging.  Met one gentleman from San Francisco who’d spent the same amount of time in Brazil that I’d spent in China.  We traded observations and insights on spending that much time from the U.S. and he was effusive in suggesting what I’d discussed had helped him reframe his thinking on China and the nation's ambitions and capacity.  He asked if I had put one of my talks up on Youtube and I shyly answered “no.”  But it made me wonder about that. 

A second meeting and then a third and by the time we reached the fourth where I was to have given a talk I followed the counsel of my hosts and explained to the person we were meeting that I would need to leave shortly for my flight that was four and half hours from now.  Fortunately, one of colleagues was just as well suited to speak to these people and having missed my flight out to Brazil I was determined not to miss the one home. 

Indeed, the ride out to the airport takes a full two hours.  And my driver, who must have some sort of Waze app in the car was darting down one street and then over to another.  After a nice exchange with this young Paulista I soon became involved in a long, enervating phone call.  But outside I realized I was finally seeing the other side of Sao Paulo, impoverished, gritty, down at the heel and utterly fascinating it saturated my mind in overlaying the discussion on the phone and I mused that I was very glad it was this young guy who was driving here, and not me.

Thursday 3/28/19