(This is a two
part post-read part one for the full story)
As you already read in the first part of this story, I
arrived in Shanghai just fine. Upon
locating my room and filling up on a massive bowl of soup, I immediately went
to sleep with a full day of work ahead of me…
Friday, September 7:
I woke up Friday morning feeling refreshed and a bit
anxious since my first day of work loomed ahead of me.
I got ready with coverage of the Democratic
National Convention as background noise (the television in my hotel room has
CNN). After a couple of outfit changes,
I managed to find something professional, yet chic, then I made my way to the
hotel lobby to wait for my ride to company headquarters. I was
surprised to find that there were many other people eagerly and anxiously
waiting their first day. My fellow
co-workers hailed from various parts of the U.S. and the U.K. and all of us
exchanged our Shanghai arrival stories.
Our transportation finally arrived and I managed to secure a window seat
of the van. I looked out the window in sheer amazement at all of the people,
noise, traffic and large buildings that whizzed by me that Shanghai morning.
After pulling up into company headquarters, we were
immediately escorted to the Bank of China to open up bank accounts. The bank was clean, modern looking, and
very efficient. After filling out some paperwork,
I went to a teller who instructed me to choose a six digit pin
number (much different from the U.S. four digit pin) and after signing my name
on several documents, I received a bank card on the spot for future use. Once everyone completed the same
process, it was back to headquarters for training.
Training went pretty smoothly that morning. The morning consisted of housing matters,
money matters, contract and workplace matters and even a Chinese lesson on how
to order food (we were expected to order our lunch in Chinese). After several hours it was time for lunch
and upon exiting the training area, I noticed that the sky was incredibly dark
with not a ray of sunshine in sight. Once I got
downstairs, I noticed that it was raining hurricane style and people were
running all around the street trying to duck and dodge the downpour. The
trainers managed to find us some umbrellas and they were anxiously on the phone
arranging taxi cabs. Upon exiting the
building and making my way to one of the available taxi cabs, I noticed that
there were puddles of water as high as my ankles! I managed to stay somewhat dry and after a
ten minute ride, we pulled up to the restaurant.
The restaurant was very busy with lots of shouting,
patrons, and waiters running around (which means it had to be good!). Due to time constraints, we were unable to
order our meals in Chinese; however, we were escorted to a back room full of food dim sum style. There
were a variety of dishes that were set up on rotating table. I dug into all the selections without
hesitation (okay I was not going to try the squid), and to my delight,
everything tasted delicious. The conversation flowed and I spoke to the
trainers about life in Shanghai and anything else noteworthy. Lunch came to an end and then it was back to
headquarters for part two of training.
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| So Much Food!!! |
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| The near empty subway...at the end of the line |
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| Exiting the Metro |
We finally arrived to the center which was located very close to the
metro. Another major plus location wise was it was located inside a new and modern shopping center. I was excited to see that there were some of
my favorite international stores such as H&M, Marks & Spencer’s
and Carrefour. I was given the tour of
my center and all of the local teachers and students were pleased to meet me. I tried to make small talk with some of the
foreign teachers but I was given an icy welcome and dismissive responses in
return. I settled into more paperwork
and training for several hours then it was the end of my day.
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| I'm Working next door to a soon to be Weight Watchers...must be a sign... |
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| Just some of the awesome shops in my shopping mall...bye bye paycheck! |
I had a one hour commute ahead of me back to the hotel
and later that night, I had dinner with some of my new co-workers. We decided on an Indian restaurant and it was
very delicious. Laughter and more
stories were exchanged as we shared our meals.
The idea of going out came up, but I was much too tired to commit to a
full night of going out and I assured them that maybe I would be up to it
tomorrow.
Thus concludes my first 48 hours in China. Keep up for my upcoming posts in the future!
