first day of work

First day of work went really well. After a one yuan breakfast of su baozi, I took the metro (which is very clean and much nicer than the T and New York metro). Given that it was the first very clean thing I have seen in China, it was a great beginning to my day. Liren, Katie and I got off at Nanjing Road West, only to walk for about half an hour to our workplaces. The area the offices are in is great! It's a very central part of the financial district and has a plethora of name brand stores -- it looks very much like New York.

I work on the 22nd floor of a building that was built last year. It is gorgeous and has a great view, albeit a bit smoggy. There is constantly a dense yellow cloud outside the window; darkness set in around 3 PM (smog accumulation from the morning commute?). I don't believe I ever saw the sun.

Nevertheless, the inside of the office is very nice (no surprise since it's new). I enjoyed meeting my new coworkers (memorable names were Fish, Harrison, and Huxley, the manager of the Shanghai office). Joe (the other Harvard student I'm working with) and I came in on a special day because we were present for the bimonthly lunch video conference call with the Beijing, Hong Kong, and Schenzen offices. A new consulting product was presented while we ate pizza (yum!); this was followed by cake to celebrate June birthdays (including the most senior manager's who rules over all the Chinese branches). All in all, it was a very Western experience (who else eats pizza and cake?).

Actual labor consisted of editing powerpoint slides, though we will receive more work later.

It was a very positive day and I am looking forward to continuing to work there. It seems as if the company is genuinely excited to have us there and to teach us through new experiences. Moreover, this would mean spending as less time as possible in the inn I'm staying at. It's not completely horrible, but the design is rather strange. My room is mostly taken up by the bed and stick figure fish decorate a part of my wall. This inn also continues on the theme of glass doors for the bathroom. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, though, because apparently one is allowed to rent rooms for four hours in this hotel..hm. I guess the one redeeming quality of this inn is the lounge on the second floor with foosball tables, a pool table, and an area to watch a huge flat screen TV on comfortable couches.

Today was exhausting. I am sad that I saw no sun and I miss using forks. However, I am very happy about the pizza for lunch because that was just what I needed after this past week of HCF bootcamp.

Plans for the week include going to the Shanghai International Film Festival! I'm really looking forward to that, especially because we might be joined by the other students living in a different part of Shanghai. Perhaps, there will also be more trips to the Chinese Wal-Mart (which can only be compared to an amusement park).