Tianjin - day 11

I'll apologize up front that there aren't any China pictures today. Sorry, but there was nothing exciting to see. This morning I went to the conference and then I skipped this afternoon to pick up some more gifts for the kids. Nothing too exciting there either. It's all the same junk. After that I ran another three miles, swam a few laps and then went to dinner. Dinner was exciting, at least for me. On this trip we really wanted to have technical discussions with five companies, Sanyo, BAK, Lishen, BYD and A123. Sanyo bailed on us in Japan (and gave us a free day in Osaka) but they met with us here at the conference. BYD and Lishen went as planned and we met with BAK here at the conference as planned. The failure was A123, they were non-responsive and the sales guy I know said he would be here but he didn't show up. The founder of the company was supposed to present a paper but his wife had a baby so some grad student from MIT presented it and so we had given up on them. Tonight Tim and I went to have dinner and when we pick where to sit we always try and sit by people we don't know so we can get to know them better. Well the table we picked today was with some researchers from A123. How fortunate for us. Even better was that I sat by a guy who was willing to talk. So it wasn't as thorough a discussion as it could have been but it was a very good conversation. I guess I did have some excitement this morning. I felt a bit sick last night when I went to bed and worse this morning. I ate a small breakfast and then during the conference I got a major case of the runs. I told Tim that I had the runs and he goes "what??". It is funny because there are still a few English expressions that confuse him. I still have the runs and the worst part is that I've got to be VERY careful if I think I need to pass gas.

Since I don't have any China pictures I thought I would include some Sarah pictures. Lisa entered her in this big race in town and I missed it while I was here. Poor Sarah gets so nervous at these races that she makes herself sick. I think that is why Lisa entered her in some more races, so that she can get used to them. I guess Sarah was doing well and was coming into the finish line at the front of the pack and then just a few dozen yards from the end she holds her belly, stops, pukes and then runs on, stops, pukes again and runs some more. She finally crossed the finish line and came in third in her category. How cool is that? Now if we can keep from puking maybe she can win. Tomorrow is the last day of the conference and then they are actually providing us with a free tour as part of the conference. We could choose from three of them so I'm taking tour #2. It includes the great wall and some tombs. I'm looking forward to it.