What a week it has been folks - I left Sydney in 30C degrees with sun, sand and beaches.....I thought "How cold can it be?" (you never really get that appreciation till you hit the ground)
Cold....very cold!!! Now I've been skiing many times, but this was just something else.
It caused Beijing to be blanketed in snow and very beautiful - What a fantastic place!!! Definitely a come back place - just nothing like what I expected.
The people so friendly, helpful and always with purpose in their eyes. The food is some of the freshest I've eaten and such healthy diets (steamed cabbage, mushrooms etc etc) - nothing like the 'Western Chinese Resturants' back home :)
On to the reason why I was there - Training
I had approx 50 students coming to hear my Chinese English (which I must say is much better than me listening to them speaking Mandarin) and we covered in-depth BizTalk 2009 agenda
We covered some great material looking into Governance and ESB 2.0 due to hit around the same time as BTS2009 (June-ish I believe, earlier I'm told)
We actually communicated quite well - I played many games and brought over a bunch of Aussie gifts for them (which consequently we found out were made in China!)
The usual areas of BizTalk were little used previous by students - SSO, Rule and BAM. For so little effort there's so much mileage in these guys.
Training Results
For the training the average mark I received was 8.5/10 across nearly 50 students, which for my first time in China I was very happy with. The most important thing for me though is not the marks, but what the students walk away having learnt!
Not all work Play Time
As luck would have it I had an extra day to play on my trip this time - so in negative degree temps I went to the Center of Beijing and put on my tourist hat and went to the Forbidden City (& surrounds).
Lastly I learnt many things from my students this week with
1. KFC is a 'top class' resturant in Beijing
2. Starbucks is a 'romantic' place (where couples go for dates)
If we were on Mythbusters right now....... compared to Sydney - these are Busted!