"My first week in China on this trip was dominated by Sara Ellyn and Sarah Elizabeth. The time we were able to spend together was very enjoyable. It is fun to see others discover China, and in a sense rediscover my initial reactions as I watch and listen to their experiences.
Sunday morning I got up and got ready for church. I invited the girls to join me, and they politely said no thanks. Oh well! It was nice to have Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Luana there with me. The folks at church are pretty simply down to earth folks. However, their testimonies are stirring and the spirit they share is wonderful. At one point Aunt Luana turned to me and said, `I really enjoy being here.' I responded how much I feel the same way. It is so sad to me that some of those I love most in life have not found this simple joy and most profound joy of life. Oh well! One of the highlights of the day was going to the Family History class during Sunday School with the Shakespeares. We were challenged to download the new PAF (Personal Ancestry File) software and start to enter our own data. Turns out I had the examples my cousin Neil Nelson helped me put together on my computer (../0435.html and ../0436.html). And on the night we stayed in Da Qing, I connected to the Internet, downloaded the PAF software, set it up, and started entering data. Since then, and one of the reasons I'm so far behind on the Thoughtlets, I have entered all of Andrea and my genealogy data back to our great-great grandparents parents. It has been a lot of fun, and I have pulled together all of the genealogy data we have so Andrea and I can start to regularly work on it. I figure the stuff I have in my mind putting together will be a nice Christmas present for you kids, hopefully this year.
Monday morning Jialin picked Dave and I up at 7:00 AM and we headed out to Ji Dong Oilfield. The boss was not there. We worked with some of the processing geophysicists who had provided us the data, and then gave a presentation to the female Vice-President we met a year ago. They had a very nice Chinese banquet for us for lunch. Then we went back and continued tieing well data to our seismic processing. It was really exciting. Wells that had production tied with where GDC's AVO processing said there should be production. Dry holes tied to where the processing said there should not be production. The Chinese really got into it also. They would spontaneously clap their hands when another well tied correctly. There were a couple that didn't tie very good, but we were 90% correct. I was using Open dTect to make some movies stepping through the offset seismic volumes. The Chinese brought in some KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) for dinner and we ate in one of the rooms off of the processing center. It tasted very good and I ate too much. The boss, Mr. Zhou, made a 3 1/2 hour drive back to meet with us. He arrived about 9:30 PM. The meeting with Mr. Zhou went extremely well. The day was definitely a home run. I was wiped out and fell asleep in the back seat as we drove back to Beijing. Dave sat in the front seat to keep Jialin awake. At one point Jialin missed a an exit on the freeway and just stopped in the middle of the freeway. I woke up to Dave telling him to get off of the freeway, and then going through the trauma of backing up to get to the exit ramp. I'm not sure Dave will ever let Jialin forget that drive.
Tuesday we did not have any meetings, and so I was able to go shopping with Sara Ellyn and Sarah Elizabeth and Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Luana. Of course, I also caught up with what all they had been doing. Jialin has a friend named Jackie who took time off work to act as a tour guide. She brought her friend Yo Yo with her. Jialin rented a SUV and so the for the first few days there was first class travel around Beijing. On Tuesday morning I went with the four others to the Pearl Market. It was the first time I had gone to the fourth floor to see the nice pearls. They are pretty, and too expensive for me. I bought some bookmarks, some little paintings of the seasons, a Christmas present for the three Grandsons, and a brief case. Sarah Elizabeth wanted to buy a little tiny pearl bracelet for her bridesmaid to be, and the two Sara(h)'s got stuck waiting for an elevator. The driver got perturbed, and I came across too strong, and Sara Ellyn just handed Uncle Lloyd's walkie-talkie to Sarah Elizabeth and said `I can't deal with this.' Oh well. In my mind this was about the only negative thing that happened during the trip. We went to a restaurant by Tianeman Square that had hot pots of boiling water that you dipped meat and vegetables and dough in to cook before eating it. It was a lot of fun. I left them after lunch and took a cab back to the hotel to work with Dave. That afternoon we had a meeting with leaders from the Xing Jiang Oilfield, which is where the folks I coordinated training for came from (0502.html, 0504.html, 0505.html, 0506.html, 0507.html, and 0508.html). For dinner I walked over to Dominoes and bought a Canadian bacon, pineapple, and shrimp pizza for me and Sara Ellyn and Sarah Elizabeth. It was really, really, really, really good.
Wednesday was kind of slow. Dave had me make some presentations, and I ate French Onion Soup and a Cobb Salad in our room for lunch. In the afternoon Jialin took Dave and I to meet with Xu Dakun. This was one of those surreal meetings that legends grow from. I had prepared a letter explaining our logic on the drilling companies we proposed Xu Da Kun purchase as President of China National Offshore Drilling Corporation. I never gave him the letter. He pointed out that when he took over the reigns of the company it was doing US$180 million per year, and now, some six years later, the company is doing US$1.6 billion per year. Mr. Xu asked if I still think about things out of the box. I told him I do, and described tensegrity cities (../0249.html and ../0312.html), thermal chimneys (../0332.html), condensation pyramids (../0036.html), and other things that came to mind. I thought I was going to loose Dave Johnson. Especially when Mr. Xu came back with some of his plans. He wants to build a new type of seismic acquisition system based on holographic lasers mounted from space. He intimated that he has several other ideas like this, and was very specific that he intends to retire from his current position within the next year and is looking for a place where he can take on some of these projects which interest him. As we left, Dave said to me, `I understand why you two like each other so much.' I spent the rest of the afternoon reading The Book of the Hopi, which I completed on this trip. I could go on and on and on about the parallels in this book and The Book of Mormon. I wish there was enough time to pursue all of the things which interest me and that I can see out there waiting to be explored. Oh well! Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Luana bought dinner for Yo Yo, Jackie, Jialin, Dave, and myself on Wednesday night. It was a very nice evening. They had beautiful Hopi vases and Indian gifts for everyone. Jialin was particularly touched by his gift, which was a very elegant wedding vase, with two spouts, one for the man and his wife to drink from together. In many ways, this evening was the highlight of my time with Sara Ellyn and Sarah Elizabeth.
Thursday was another day of preparation and building movies and Powerpoint presentations. Dave, Jialin, Frank, and I took an overnight train to Da Qing Thursday evening. It was 1,400 km (870 miles) over 14 hours, or an average of 100 km/hour (62 miles/hour). We arrived at Da Qing first thing in the morning and proceeded to stumble around. The first hotel did not have any rooms. The cab had already left. We walked until we saw another cab. The second hotel had rooms, and also had access to the Internet. Then we went to meet with the geophysicists at the Oilfield. Turns out there is a PetroChina and a CNPC portion of the Da Qing Oilfield. We got our data from CNPC, and our meetings were with PetroChina. They did not have the line we had. We could not do any correlations like we did at Ji Dong. It was very frustrating. We ended up giving a presentation to the Chief Geophysicist from 7-9:30 PM. He had most of the top technical people there to participate. The presentation went very well. At one point, Dave turned to me and said `We have them hooked.' He is a fisherman, and the analogy was very appropriate. I had made some puzzles with their data, and it was a very nice close to the meeting. It was the only place the puzzles really worked like I imagined they would. And they did work there. We are in ongoing discussions on some big projects with Da Qing Oilfield. When we got back to the room, I logged on to the web, downloaded the PAF software, and started entering our genealogy. I came up with color codes for posting the different family lines on the Internet:
When I got back to Houston, I found out that on Thursday, April 19th I had received the following e-mail:
Vic and I have sent a couple of e-mail's back and forth
since this initial contact. He is very bright, and it has
been fun to renew acquaintances. When we make it out
to see Ben and Sarah and Ethan, Vic says he wants to fly
down from San Francisco to spend some time with me. This
was a very nice reconnection, even if what he was really
after was an investment, and I have no money to invest.
Friday morning they were having some pre-May Day Festival activities, and so there was no one to meet with us in Da Qing. We took a cab to Harbin City, and flew back to Beijing. We got back to Beijing late in the evening and very tired. Sarah Elizabeth was tired of visiting old monuments, and I think Friday was the day she rested. Everyone was getting a little tired. About a week seems to be a good amount of time to be a tourist in Beijing.
Saturday was Melanie's 10 km run, which I had wanted to go and watch, since I've stopped running because of my ankle. Oh well! Beijing is a long way from Texas, and so I missed it. My notes are sparse. I believe this was the day we gave a presentation to the Chief Geologist of Sinopec and two of his associates. Saturday evening I took Sara Ellyn, Sarah Elizabeth, and Luana to the Dazhaimen Restaurant of Family Bai. Uncle Lloyd was worn out and not feeling very chipper. It was a nice evening, and we got along pretty good ordering from photos of the food. It was the first time I have had a rose and other flower salad since I was last in India.
Sunday it was nice to again meet with the Saints. I was able to show off all of the genealogy work I had accomplished during the week. I kind of stole some thunder from the teacher. Oh well! The BYU Young Ambassadors were visiting in a few weeks and the new Family History Center was going to have an open house. They wanted a photo of a family, and then a photo of someone missing from the family. After some discussion with the Warners and the Shakespeares I took the photo from Andrea and my wedding and edited out Heather. It makes for a striking statement. These photos were used for the open house, and one of my friends called and told me it was very effective. When I sent the photos and when my friend called, I stressed that we daily pray that the current separation is temporary. There was a nice lesson on Testimony in Priesthood meeting. After church Lloyd, Luana, and I went to the Shakespeares for lunch. Sara Ellyn and Sarah Elizabeth were shopping and missed lunch. However, I took them over to the Shakespeares later in the afternoon so they could meet them. When we came back to the hotel the girls once again said they didn't know how to say thanks for the trip. I had been thinking about this a lot since they first said it. My response was to quote scripture spoken by our Savior: `If you love me, keep my commandments' (John 14:15). Sunday evening I took Sara Ellyn and Sarah Elizabeth to see the acrobatics. Amazing stuff. We bought the cheapest tickets and they still put us on the very front row. I took digital photos and movies of most of the acts. It was a lot of fun. Sara Ellyn especially liked it because of her gymnastics. The photos are on-line at http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/07_Sara/0504_China_Trip.
Monday morning everyone got packed up. The girls and I had breakfast with Dave Johnson. I went out to the airport to make sure everyone got off OK. It cost 145 Yuan to go to the airport and 55 Yuan to come back. Oh well! While there I also changed my ticket to go back to Houston a few days early because of the May Day celebrations and holidays and Audrey and Joshua's wedding. I felt good about the trip, about having Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Luana join us, and my time in Beijing with Sara Ellyn and Sarah Elizabeth."