As promised here are photos of Inner Mongolia. I have found it very interesting that as I have communicated with everyone about where I am at these days, many people have assumed that I am in Mongolia. Well, I am very close but not quite, Inner Mongolia is just south of Mongolia but it is still part of China. I would guess that at one point they were about the same in terms of culture, it is hard for me to say now because I have never been to Mongolia, but I would imagine this area is a bit more Chinese like. There still is a locally practiced religion where they worship using some piles of stones and it is more nature based. I don't know that much about it I just asked about the stone piles which are here and there.

Kicking it in Inner Mongolia

I am realizing that as I learn more and more about the wind farm and the wind turbines that I really don't know much at all and there is so much more to understand. I don't know if a month and a half is really enough. It is really just an introduction I think. I am also finding that I need to be proactive to learn about things, and find a way of integrating what needs to be done with the international market into what I am doing here. That sounds easy until you realize that it is a little bit hard to define exactly what needs to be done for the international market. I have learned from interviewing some of the local guys who have worked with foreign companies locally that because of our quality we will need to approach customer service in a different way. Foreign companies are able to put their turbines and leave after testing them. I think that we will have to stay a bit longer, otherwise develop a very good training program, but then how we train all depends on what contries we go to too, whether or not they are already familiar with the wind industry or not. I hope that you enjoy the pictures.

Now that it has been two months, I am back to posting. For those readers who still visit here is a brief update of what I have been up to over the past two months. For Chinese new year I was visiting with many friends in Macau, I have two new co-workers from Holland, I have a new Chinese 'mom' who lives across the street and when I am in Urumqi I visit every week. These days life has taken a slightly different turn. I am working on the wind farm in Inner Mongolia. Inner Mongolia is still a part of China and I am five hours north of Beijing by bus. The farm is at 6000ft, so climbing up the turbines is a little be slower compared to back in Urumqi. I experience my first snow thunderstorm just the other day too. I am lucky because at work they would like me to become an international project manager, and I was feeling rather overwhelmed with that for a long time, now I have a partner in crime, who is one of the more experience guys in customer service and speaks very good English. So, part of my training process is having techincal classes in English right now I am working on learning how to read the electrical control drawings. That serves two purposes, one I actually get to learn the material and the other is that my coworker gets to practice his English. I feel like a sponge I am learning so much, I also feel like a marshmallow when I have to wear the padded winter clothing because it is still a bit cold up here.

The conditions are much more than I expected, because I am one of the only girls (the only one who goes out to work on the turbines) I have my own room and bathroom. The food is also very clean and they make sure that as a vegetarian I have something to eat. I haven't been able to ride a horse yet, but I am looking forward to the opportunity. That's all for now, I will post pictures shortly.

Peace out.