On elephants in traffic and decaf soy lattes...

As Michael elaborated in his China report on his blog, him and Morimitsu-san were in recently over in Beijing for several weeks and had to deal with all sorts of insane traffic (big culture shock to them I'm sure...over here, people don't even use their horns). No word of elephants and cows being part of the congestion though...we'll get to that once we start dealing with clients in India. Side note: one of the most impressive and obtrusive forms of promotion I have ever seen is elephants with advertising messages painted on them, stomping through Delhi rush hour traffic.

Moving along swiftly...a recent trip to Europe and the US took me to the West Coast somewhere along the way (can't really remember when, to many planes and transfers involved). A thorough biometric examination was followed by an interrogation centered around the fact that I have a German passport, but Japanese residence. Homeland Security Officer, eyeing me with a very suspicious look: "So you are REALLY just staying in the US for that wedding you mentioned?". PLEASE, guys! Are you crazy? Why would I want to spend an extended period of time in a country where polyphonic ringtones are THE NEW THING?

Anyway. The first bit of dialogue I overheard at one of the LAX Starbuck's was this, which made it instantly clear to me that I had arrived in California (that was the second thing, actually - the first thing had been airport staff constantly shouting "C'MON, KEEP IT MOVING, C'MON", which always makes me feel like being part of a herd of sheep, except shepherds to my knowledge don't shout):

Staff: "And how are YOU today?"

Customer: "GREAT! And you? Yes...I would like a decaf soy latte, please."

First I thought, "man, this is VERY much the States"...and the next thing that crossed my mind was, "if you don't actually feel like having a coffee, you may want to think about ordering a glass of water instead, right?"

The reason I mention this is the decaf soy latte thing has become somewhat of a running joke around the office these days whenever somebody (usually Michael E.) makes the Starbuck's run to get that desperately needed caffeine. At Navilab, decaf is most definitely not an option.

- Christopher B.