Finally Settling In

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Day 17

Finally starting to settle into a groove here. I have fully recovered from the sickness that plagued me last week and I'm ready to really get down to business!

On Sunday, the only day off, as there is a 6 day work-week here, I decided that my nightly trips to the convenience store around the corner were not going to provide me with enough nutritious food options so I ventured out to the local "western style" supermarket. Now, I was somewhat prepared, since I had frequented one of these stores in Shanghai several years ago, but this place was a ZOO. My first mistake was to grab a cart. There is absolutely no chance that anyone can navigate a shopping cart through this place as there were crowds of people in every aisle, at every corner, and at every tasting booth. Each aisle had a sampling booth of some kind, and these poor girls that manned them each have a microphone and speakers so that they can grab the attention of the shoppers passing by. So, the store has about 60 food aisles, which made for a VERY loud experience of walking around. Considering my general anxiety when in a crowd, I just grabbed some pasta and sauce and raced out of there as quickly as possible. Not a completely failed mission, but I didn't remotely acquire what I was hoping to.

Monday consisted of relieving someone of their status as "employed". It was the first time I've ever done that, and definitely wasn't fun. I'm only SLIGHTLY concerned with the fact that it only took me about 10 minutes to move on and be back to business as usual. What kind of person does that make me? Ventured out to buy my first Chinese street food lunch. Delicious and fabulous, and only $1 (including drink).

Took a train to Changzhou yesterday on the new high speed trains. It takes a total of 2 hours to finally get to my destination (fabrication shop), of which only 10 minutes was on the train. 310 km/h allows you to cover a lot of ground pretty quickly. As I was passing down the aisle, I noticed that the washrooms on these trains are of the "two feet, no seat" variety. Hmmmm how on earth does one pee going at these speeds if you have to squat 3" off the floor and you are trying your hardest not to touch ANYTHING?

Of course once I got to Changzhou, the person I was there to meet was mysteriously missing for the second week in a row (I think he's hiding from me... He has good reason to...). I did manage to spend some time with the new inspection team that has set up shop there. One has been working in China for a decade, the other is a summer student who had never been on an airplane before. His eyes are wide. I think he'll grow up a lot this summer. Enthusiasm is high though, which is good. As good a job as the recently departed team has done, they were exhausted, which makes staying motivated extremely difficult.

Back in the office today, and as lunch time approached, I asked one of our employees if there was somewhere nearby that he could recommend for lunch. He said "have you been to the supermarket that is in the basement? There is a Subway, a bakery, a coffee shop etc..." I replied NO! I have not been to this magical place that is OH SO CLOSE!

I raced down to the basement and discovered Nirvana! A completely uncrowded and organized grocery store that has absolutely everything you could imagine and it is so utterly convenient! I realize, dear readers, that you are probably not as excited as I am about these things, however, a person does need to eat, and I hate eating in restaurants all the time, so the acquisition of food is critical to my well being.

Funny thing is, I was so awestruck by the fabulousness of this place, that I left without buying anything.

I am definitely blond sometimes.

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