life is good

giz·zard    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (gzrd)
n.

1. A modified muscular pouch behind the stomach in the alimentary canal of birds, having a thick lining and often containing ingested grit that aids in the breakdown of seeds before digestion.
2. A similar digestive organ found in certain invertebrates, such as the earthworm.

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[Alteration of Middle English giser, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *gicrium, from Latin gigria, cooked entrails of poultry, probably from Persian jigar, liver. See yk^w in Indo-European Roots.]

okay the one child policy: basically you can only have one legal child. if you do have more than one child, you have to pay thousands of dollars per year until the kid is 18 for him to exist, or really to have citizenship and to be recognized as your kid. basically who ever has siblings, their parents are paying OUT OF THEIR ASSES for them to be theirs.

siblings are for the rich…soon to be in debt.

so that’s why people are so interested. it’s about status.

i feel like i learned all this in school many moons ago.

there are also ‘escorts’ for the weekends. girls if i want to go shopping, guys to help me get a cell phone. etc.

really it’s just the honesty of the situation that’s embarrassing. because of the whole Beirut situation, i arrived here late, with little more than 3 weeks to spend at this ‘internship’. this changed some things, ie: my living situation switched to a business hotel, and my ‘working’ here is even less meaningful than before.

however, even if i had been here a few weeks earlier, it would be the same thing. these people said yes to letting me ‘work’ here as a favor. i get to learn about the company, use a computer, and really just get shown around shanghai and helped to settle in. and eat. and walk.

the uncomfortable difference is that they’re not even pretending that i do anything useful for the company, whereas other places would have me file or do some dirty work to earn whatever resume reference or free lunch i got there.

well. i’ll show them. i’ll earn my free lunch. i’m going to do something productive for this company before i go. i have a few weeks to work on this one. it’ll happen.

this is ridiculous.

i do absolutely nothing at work. am not expected to even pretend to be doing anything. i get driven to and from the office. i get an escort if i want to walk somewhere, to make sure i don’t get lost. my hotel, my food, and everything except for ‘personal calls and laundry’ are paid for.

when Mr M said that i thought he was exaggerating.

i’m also pretty sure i’m dating a coworker.

we eat together. walk together. ‘work’ together. don’t speak much as he knows as much english as i do chinese. but i’m pretty sure that in most other situations this would be considered dating. he pays for everything and holds doors, etc.

in this case (THANK G-D) it is simply a case of hospitality and the fact that i’m pretty sure his bosses told him to do all of these things.

either way, spending this much time with someone and barely being able to speak is awkward. my job is to improve his english and his is to improve my chinese. boss told us to. instead, we choose good old akward silence.

 

ps i just panicked and ordered chicken gizzard for lunch.

 

so it looks like me and you blog, are going to have a lot of time together over the next 2 weeks.

it just occured to me that if my internship ends in 2 weeks, that school starts in 2 weeks. mildly upsetting. see also: exciting and intimidating.

So jet lag is great. I got up at 3:45am today. I’m at work now and have been awake for 6 hours. I did some yoga. I took a walk. I talked to locals (luckily a lot of people are up early). I watched the news. I watched a documentary on Thailand that I’ve seen 7 times. I took another walk. I made oatmeal. Read some of the dictionary. etc etc. It’s been a long day.

Really I’d like to: get a cell phone. Change money. Buy a coffee. Buy a tourism book. But they keep telling me that I can do that all in the office building and to wait and that P will help me. But there are communication issues.
For example: yesterday I wrote that ‘lunch’ would be with ‘the other young people’, as this is what I was told. What I didn’t know, was that ‘lunch’ is dinner. I’m not sure what lunch lunch is, but yesterday I ate dinner lunch with ‘the other young people’ after work.

It turns out Chinese ‘fast food’, is a social experience where you get together and share every dish. it also comes with fresh watermelon and miso soup. ‘fast food’ here gets its name literally for being fast. it’s doesn’t seem like the artery-clogging big mac and fries that is my home.

I hate being asked every time if I’m shocked that Chinese food here is soo amazingly different than in the States. I’m not. I’ve been eating the good stuff at E’s house since age 6. Thing is, the Chinese ‘fast food’ main dishes here, are pretty much the same as what’s served in the States. But I go along with things.

Between the awkwardness of first meetings and the langauge barriers on both sides, there have been a few uncomfortable situations. and I’m sure will be many more. The good-for-you kind of uncomfortable though.

I tried again with the ‘yea i have siblings. and you?’ and I got a yes. from a 26-year old. so I don’t understand how this one child policy works. A lot of ppl here have more than one child.. 

i know - SO MUCH less - than i thought i knew.

 

So. I get up. I get clean and look nice. I come in to the office. and I’m not sure what’s going on. I know I have to wait for the other intern to leave before I get a real desk/computer/etc, but i’m not positive I’ll be getting work then.. I really wish I could do something helpful here, but with such little time I understand it’s hardly worth the effort. Well, whatever it is that I will spend the next 8 hours doing here at the office, I will do it while looking very professional.

 

Ohhh I’m so excited to eat tonight. btw, I’m never travelling without at least a 2 week supply of Quaker oats. ever again.
other places it saves money. here food costs 25 cents, but at the hours i’m keeping - nothing’s open around me. All you need is hot water. frickin wonder food.

alright. plan: …..go to the restroom. then make some tea. then write characters over and over and read b/c i brought my workbook and a bunch of articles with me today. prepared for some free time.  

I know most internships that ppl get in college are spent on myspace, checking emails, chatting, looking out windows, etc., but if I’m not doing anything on Monday, I’m going to suggest a few jobs that I could do. If there’s still nothing, I’m going to start cleaning things. or something productive.
 
Yesterday I read a magazine - “Synthetic Fiber in China”. Fascinating things this company does. I also read about a project they have here making Ethanol. The slogan is “start with corn, end up with drinking grade ethanol!”. The article makes it sound so exciting. But then I look around the office and nobody looks that excited..

I’m not gonna lie, my last internship was a little bit more exciting. A bit less safe maybe, but i guess that’s a tradeoff.

Okay I’m gonna go now for real.
Shanghai is beautiful.