And in addition to office time this week, there were lots of lunches, some fun dinners, and a week-ending karaoke session!
Sadly, once I got into my Saturday, intending to rest up a bit and get ready for Sunday touristing, I started to feel like I was getting a head cold. Sure enough I woke up this morning and felt less-than-grand. So.... no tales from this weekend. Except that my hotel's room service is insanely fast. And sweet and sour chicken/pork/etc here is 10000000 times better than at a typical American Chinese restaurant.
Anyway, I wanted to do a quick recap so that when I get to a few weeks from now I'll still remember what I did...
In the early part of the week I was still finishing getting over jet lag and getting settled into a bit of a routine. The holiday on Monday helped a bit with the jet lag part. My routine is a little later in timing than at home, but it involves getting up, heading down to the ridiculous buffet breakfast the hotel has, saying hello to all of the super-friendly staff, and deciding which of many types of food I feel like eating. After eating and getting ready, I'll head into the office on the Metro. The stop near my hotel is just across the street, and the stop by the office is at the foot of the driveway. It's only two stops so it's quite convenient! In between various meetings and work, often a group will go out to lunch. And typically people stay a little later than in the US, or, in the case of night meetings, grab dinner and head back to the office.
I felt pretty good by the time I got to Wednesday in terms of sleeping on schedule. That worked out well because I had made plans with a couple of other US-based folks: Bill, who is about halfway through his extended visit here, and Jim, who was here for the week. We went out to Xintiandi, a popular tourist area with a ton of restaurants. We grabbed some tasty tapas before going out to a bar where a pretty good cover band was playing. There was lots of great conversation and comparing of Shanghai notes, as Jim visits relatively frequently, and Bill's been here a while on this trip.
I didn't do many photos, but here we are (though Bill's a little fuzzy)
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| From Shanghai, Xintiandi, Sept 14, 2011 |
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| From Shanghai, Xintiandi, Sept 14, 2011 |
I think the other big excitement from that night was, after taking the taxi back, Bill and I realized that we got completely swindled on our taxi over to our meeting place from the hotel. It was 4x the cost, and when I had the hotel call to complain (as we picked up the taxi at the hotel), they said they weren't even aware of that taxi in their system. D'oh! Thankfully it wasn't a fortune in US dollars, but still... stick to the light green and yellow taxis, folks!
Thursday was a long one in the office, but Friday was modestly mellow. We did do a lunch out for Cantonese food where I finally took some food shots. I know these are some of the most popular photos that I take!
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| From Shanghai - Week 1 |
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| From Shanghai - Week 1 |
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| From Shanghai - Week 1 |
There's a number of other shots in my Week 1 photo album on Google+, which has a much nicer overview layout than where the pics actually are on Picasa.
Anyway, Friday after work, I went out for Japanese buffet with several colleagues and we had some great food. Buffet here is just a flat fee where they keep bringing out things, rather than you going up to get food. There were a few dishes unusual for the US Japanese restaurants, but most of it was familiar. There were also yummy crabs, and the strangest thing I ate was probably beef tongue, sliced very thin.
Here's a couple shots of the group:
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| From Shanghai - Week 1 |
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| From Shanghai - Week 1 |
From there we were pondering other things to do and ended up talking about karaoke. Despite the fact that my whole family sings at the drop of hat, I had never gone before so it was an adventure! Beebee made a reservation and when we got there it was a strange setting (in my mind). We entered a lobby that looked like something in a fancy hotel. Then we were led down a looooooooong bright hallway that had a ton of small rooms off of it. Each room had its own tv, microphone, and lounge couches set up. Once we got to our room, the group set about picking songs. Not only did I get to hear some popular Chinese songs, there was also a decent selection of English songs, too. I'm sticking to still photos and there's more in the album, but here are a few.
The group gets oriented
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| From Shanghai - Week 1 |
Vivienne and I tackle Gaga
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| From Shanghai - Week 1 |
Sam got in on the act, despite a cold
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| From Shanghai - Week 1 |
Beebee is a natural crooner
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| From Shanghai - Week 1 |
We had a grand time and I look forward to going again!
That about wraps up the tale of the week, but I thought you all should witness the selection of soy sauces in a typical grocery store:
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| From Shanghai - Week 1 |
Tomorrow week 2 will kick off and I'll start all over! But hopefully I won't get sick next weekend as I'm supposed to join some folks in going to Hangzhou.
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