or whatever.
continuing with the summer of spoiled stephanie, i am now working in an office in shanghai, china. i have a ‘driver’. and amazing food.
getting picked up at the airport was an experience. after 24 hours of travel and about 3 days without sleep, i was feeling mildly cracked out to say the least. a girl holding a sign for “miss stephanie” met me at the exit and then called the driver to meet us. thankfully i sat in the back to give the girl, ‘emily’, a secretary for the company the front seat. i later realized that when you have a driver, no one sits in the front seat.
emily asks me the usual questions and when we get to ‘do you have brothers or sisters’ i answer ‘one older sister. what about you?’. china has a one child policy. the answer to this question, which everyone from guy on plane to president of company will ask me, is going to be ‘no’. followed up with an explanation containing the words ‘birth control’.
i’m not sure when they started enforcing this law though, but even if the older generations have siblings, i don’t care enough to risk asking. i’ve never understood that question in any language, except as an absolute last resort in small talk. just above ‘do you have any pets’ but far below anything important slash interesting.
the people here as far as i have seen are spectacular. the language barrier strips away most politeness, which people use on instict anyway, and you’re left with: “aren’t you impressed by the view from my office?” ”you probably don’t fit into the clothes here” and other blunt remarks or questions that, if translated to chinese would be perfectly polite and modest.
like any other ‘internships’ and a lot of jobs that i’ve had, i am unsure of what i’m actually doing here. i don’t get a real computer/desk until monday, and perhaps that’s when i get work as well. i was looking at weeks of filing and other just as exciting ‘administratve tasks’, but the boss sat me down with a copy of company policies and a computer saying, ‘read this. and you can talk to your friends or whatever on that’.
i follow orders. especially on day one. and so i chose ‘or whatever’ and decided to update my lonely blog.
having a computer to do ‘whatever’ on is a luxury. the internship in beirut did not give good vibes about doing ‘whatever’ on their computers. you could have msn and email windows open and get away with it, but you’d better be writing and researching like crazy with most of your time. when i did write personal emails or read things completely unrelated to work, ie health articles - one of my more time-consuming vices, i’d use the computer in the conference room.
the conference room computer was slow. the mouse sucked. and the AC was either nonexistant or set on freezing. but it was privacy. some peace in an office full of frenzy, gossip, shouting, story-stealing, deadlines, stress, and usually food.
the only problem was that most days there were meetings. this was good because i never missed a meeting (minus meeting #1), and bad because i’d be emailing and whatnot when 3 editors walked in.
anyway. so here i guess i feel less obligated to hide my idle time on the computer. which is nice. also because the only internet access within walking distance to where i’m staying is a sketchy sketchy joint. it has 2 computers and from what i can tell about 20 employees. it’s constantly blasting michael jackson classics and everyone stares at you while you check your email. it’s a sweaty sweaty place. not to mention i’m not even sure that it’s an ‘internet cafe’ at all - i just saw ‘welcome’ on the door, computers in the corner, and made myself at home.
when i go to pay..idk who, a group of people look at each other and say numbers in chinese. one finally looks to me and repeats one of those numbers, this time ‘er yuan’ which is two, and i hand him some money and leave.
this translates to 25 cents. which is what most of the china i’ll be seeing should be like. the places that my hosts/bosses are recommending are a lot more expensive. and since i’m staying in a business hotel, most of the places immediately surrounding me have higher prices. luckily the internet place is a 20 minute walk away.
i ate lunch today at the restaurant down the road from my hotel, where Yang Xiansheng told me to go. I got an absolutely amazing meal of Japanese mushrooms, pear soup, undetermined reddish dish, and bai cai - which is possibly my favorite food, for what would be considered cheap in the states. with this, i got jasmine green tea and fresh carrot juice - all for about $7. While this is cheap by US standards, it’s not something that i could do everyday in any country.
by the internet place there’re some restaurants that are a whole lot cheaper. i’m mildly worried for my fragile fragile digestive system, but figure destroying it once again is inevitable, and as soon as it recovers from haiti i’m eating there. until then i’m covered, as i brought oatmeal - yes, quaker oatmeal, for breakfasts, will be eating with the ‘other young people’ for lunch at the office, and with Yang Xiansheng and wife in the evening. i’m not sure if this is going to be a regular thing or what will end up happening, but i’m covered for the majority of the next 2 weeks anyway.
oh food. i am SO EXCITED to eat. for the next 6 months. and when my stomach rejects all this eating, i will return to my diet of quaker oats and bananas until recovered.
so i’m unsure of a lot of things right now because of the language barriers. - i understood a surprising amount at the restaurant - which i owe half to ev and family for food names, and half to NC public education for grammar. and i get to use my chinese there which is great. i can also tell when people are talking about me and most of what they’re saying. also great. and as for that problem where everyone wants to practice english with you - haven’t encountered that one yet. once people find out i know any bits of chinese at all, they’re speaking to me as if i’m native. at school we used to complain when laoshi#4 spoke way too quickly, but now i realize he was taking it easy on us. ev’s family never spoke this fast..but they always shout what they’re saying so maybe that slows them down.
anyway.
so i thought that my time in shanghai would be a lonely time. but it’s day 2 and i’ve met so many people. from guy on plane to secretary with fake name - there are people all over around my age who have made an effort to get to know me slash get my number. which in this case is an email address.
alright well i have some whatever to do on the computer and an employee manual to read.
