Preparing for Asia

I'm getting all prepared to leave for China bright and early Sunday morning. Scratch that. Dark and early: 4 a.m. I'll fly from Colorado Springs to Chicago to Hong Kong (15 and a half hours, thank you very much) to Guilin (pronounced "Gway-lin"). I'll arrive late Monday night to my destination.

The training will last Wednesday through Sunday. I have put all the finishing touches on my 101 PowerPoint slides. I will be presenting a writing workshop to our Asia communication peeps all Wednesday and Thursday morning. Then we'll move on to photography and videography. Can't wait!

Once it's over, we'll fly out Tuesday night to Beijing, where me and two coworkers will take some time to be tourists - Great Wall, Forbidden Palace, etc. Then I'll fly out at noon on Friday the 17th and arrive home in Colorado Springs on the 17th at 5. Weird, huh? It's apparently only 5 hours from Beijing to Colorado.

China blocks Facebook, but I'm hoping blogger isn't blocked. If it is, then I will upload photos to my Flickr page, so check there if you get lonely without me. If that is blocked too, I guess I'll just have to get over my cyber addiction.

And now on to some cultural observations from an email forward I recently received. As far as I've experienced, these are very true.

Differences between Westerners and Asians
Analysis and understanding between Asian culture and Western Logic.

Key: Blue: Westerners, Red: Asians

Opinions
Westerners: Talk to the point.
Asians: Talk around in circles, especially if opinions differ

Punctuality
Westerners: On time.
Asians: In time.

Anger
Westerners: Show that I am angry.
Asians: I am angry, but still smiling.

Queue when Waiting
Westerners: Queuing in an orderly manner.
Asians: Queuing? What's that?

Handling of Problems
Westerners: Take any steps to solve the problems.
Asians: Try to avoid conflicts, and if can, don't leave any trail.

The Boss
Westerners: The boss is part of the team.
Asians: The boss is a fierce God.

What's Trendy
Westerners: Eat healthy Asian cuisine.
Asians: Eat expensive Western cuisine.

Now for good measure, here's a funny video about the difference between Italy and the rest of Europe. (Italy being a "hot" culture and the rest of Europe being a "cold" culture. These differences are generally true of other hot (developing world, tropical) cultures and cold (Western) cultures.)