Tuesday things felt really good at work. I got there right on time, including a stop at the little store at the base of my building to buy breakfast. My Swattie friends made a good point to me the other night, which is that it's not actually much cheaper to try to buy in bulk from grocery stores - it actually makes sense to eat every meal out here, if you go to the right places. And since I can get some yogurt or a muffin for, like, 50 cents right below work, that seems like the right place.
I spent the day at work doing some email correspondence with Bella and Rose about the Memory Books, and assembling a list of venues in the city that could possibly be used for various events this summer. Not sure if the list will end up being really useful or not, but I certainly honed both my web-searching and spreadsheet-making skills. Also met a guy who is the chair of the charity department of some Caribbean Association in Shanghai, and was there to learn about Chi Heng. He was Caribbean-American I think, went to William and Mary, and had heard of Swarthmore (which astonished Simon). Exchanged business cards and told him I'd let him know how the internship was going. His Chinese was pretty good; his Chinglish, fluent. :)
Although I'm not spending all of my time with them, I'm certainly meeting a fair number of Americans and other foreigners around, and I do think it would be pretty easy to live here as an expat. (I spent a lot of time on sites for expats when doing my venue research.) I still find the concept very strange, though, and I'm not sure I would want to do it - it seems to defeat the purpose of living in a foreign country if you are able to exist autonomous from everything foreign. Then again, no matter where you live, you're going to have certain favorite places to eat and hang out and you're going to spend time with other people like yourself. Maybe doing that in a place where there are endless business opportunities isn't such a bad idea.
Seems like going out to lunch with people from the neighboring office is pretty much a routine. I like them - they're very friendly and fun - and the more of a routine I have the more comfortable I am and the less I have to focus on, like, newness. It makes me very happy.
Barely missed a bus home and had to wait for the next one...got back and turned right around to go eat dumplings. Delicious, but I sometimes wish I could just sit down at my mom's dinner table or pop into Sharples at the end of a long day. Ah well, now I can relax.
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5 comments:
How good it must feel to become more comfortable with your job and co-workers! And how convenient to have breakfast available right there in your building. I know how important breakfast is to you!
Your Mom will be delighted to know that you miss sitting down to her dinner table! Perhaps we haven't lost you to China after all!
I feel like I'm kind of stalking you, what with emails and AIM and posting comments here...
Nothing much to say. Miss you, is all.
How nice that you are getting comfortably settled in at work. It’s fun that you eat lunch with people in other offices—and that you can get a good breakfast for 50 cents so conveniently. I, too, wish you could just sit down at dinner here at home tonight. However, we would ask you so many questions about everything that you’d never get to eat anyway. Guess we’ll have to wait until August.
I made chili ala Mom tonight and wanted to send some to you.
you are not allowed to be an expat (sound so sophisticated and fitzgeraldy) because i would miss you too much
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