The First Days...and Some Big News

Bending to popular demand, I've decided to keep a travel blog. And traveling is EXACTLY what I'll be doing.

So as I flew into China, the first thing I noticed was smog. O you Californians may complain about pollution, but as you sit there with blue skies I get to enjoy this off-grey substance that seems to qualify as air. A lung transplant may be in order.

BUT I'm still ready to travel this smog-filled land. Here's the sitch (yes, short for situation):
I'm working for this hotel chain called the GreenTree Inn (with 100 hotels currently, hoping to open another 50-100 this year) and we got to personally meet with the CEO, Alex Xu, who gave us a little pep talk and was extremely accommodating. He let us know that our work hours are from 9am-6pm Mondays through Fridays, but we get free breakfast in the hotel and we eat lunch in the cafeteria with other employees (so maybe free lunch?). He also gave us 1000 rmb (or $125) as a little gift for working with him :) We are also going to be traveling for this job, which is the best part! We're going to Beijing, Xian (terracotta soldiers!), and Changfeng (where the recent earthquake occured). So for the first month we are staying in Shanghai and working, and for the last month we are traveling and sightseeing with the company (all-expenses paid, I believe).

Then our supervisor, Shelley, introduced us to our workstation, which is a long row of cubicles just for us USC interns. It looks like we are going to be doing sales on the phone, or some sort of telemarketing, to online travel agencies.

O yes, the kicker is that the 6 of us working at GreenTree are getting free housing here at the hotel! We are in the Putuo District, which is a residential area just outside of the main city. It's been called the "third world" of Shanghai, but we've actually come to like it...mostly because we've found some amazing deals (aka a full lunch for 21 rmb or $3 each!).

So, we've just spent the last couple of days settling. With a little clubbing break, that is, at this club/bar called Windows. I went there for my spring break trip, and let's just say that USC OWNS that place. When we got there, no party. Then we took the floor...and the stage. And people took pictures of us. And we all partied.

Tomorrow's my first day of work, so we'll see how friendly the Chinese working world is to us itty-bitty college interns.

love

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