sick to my soul

Appropriate titles: written the night of an experience that will never happen again.

1. "Be in the world but not of the world"

2. "Job hazard!? More like Relationship Hazzard"

3. "Like a mormon in a w**re house (pardon my mandarin)"

4. "It's as innocent or as corrupt as you want to make it."

5. "When cultures collide"

6. "A really bad day at the office"

I suddenly found myself with my supervisor (thank goodness he was there to dance around like an idiot to act like he was having fun) with our China business associates in a dark room with a karaoke screen and, when the door opened again, I soon relized that THIS karaoke is NOT that same in China as in the US. To make a long TORTUOUS and ear-peircing story short, I found myself hurriedly grabbing my digital camera- not to take pictures of course, mind you, but to rather show to the evening-gown-clad women, the pictures of my wife and explaining "This is my wife, Amy, so no 'funny business' (with my fingers making quote marks in the air)". They were nice, understanding even, complimentary of how beautiful my wife was and they got the message and were hopefully, for ONCE in their work-lives, treated respectfully by someone. Of course, they probably saw our defensive positions – hands clasped and elbows on knees with eyes straight ahead- and thought Joe and I were either prudes, or just plain gay (pardon). But that's fine with me.

Now I have mixed feelings- I hate the idea of what I saw [which was actually cleaner than a beer commercial, but still highly uncomfortable] - or rather the "strongly impled" potential that I saw. I don't know what goes on there and don't even want to think about it.

I often like to think of myself as adventurous and willing to try different culture's exotic foods and also as able to view other cultures while still keeping my distance and standards, but this is one sad thing that I just rather not know about or have every had to see or bear… on the other-hand I'm thankfully that Joe took me under his wing and assured me that, although we need to keep good relations with our vendors, that situation can be "as innocent or as corrupt as you make it [so we'll make it innocent]. Anyhow, I thankful that's over and now (after a few days together) that my China business associates understand my standards by (by observing and asking questions about my different behaviors) and we've become friendly and understanding of our differences, we can dismiss any more uncomfortable situations- THANKFULLY!

--
H. Allen Wilson IV
Industrial Designer & unicyclist
WAGIC Design