October 13 – Hello Beijing

7:38 am Saturday morning finds me in my studio apartment hotel room here in Beijing.  The hotel/residences that will be my home for the next 29 days is nice and the size of a standard hotel room in nearly every US major chain hotel.  My compulsiveness means that I’ve completely unpacked 2 large suitcases and 1 carry on duffel bag to set up house.  It also means that I only slept fro 4-7 am since my circadian clock is off.  The flight from 1:45 pm ET Thursday to 2:45 Beijing local time on Friday was on time and successful.  Had the pleasure of meeting 2 of my 14 #ccschina42 colleagues:  Mike and Elaine at Detroit Metro Airport as they made their connection.  It was an unusual and heartwarming experience flying with other #ibmcsc colleagues that I’ve met in video conferences for 12 weeks prior to arriving in Beijing.  I’ve completed more than 50 hours of assignments and meetings in preparation for this assignment; covering everything from cultural adaptation, to design thinking to useful mobile apps.  I had great  preparation to become a @citizenIBM.  So imagine my surprise in finding out that I had to be fingerprinted, twice, to get through China Customs.  Wonder how that little nugget escaped documentation.  The second surprise came when checking into our hotel/residence and I had to surrender my Passport & Visa so that my travel could be registered with the police and other governmental agencies.  My Beijing arrival on Friday definitely testing my cultural adaptability training.  Let’s see what Day 2 brings…Hello Beijing!