the first work week

this post is more about actual happenings, the next is more my thoughts in case you don't want to read a lot

So I've got about a week or work under my belt at this stage and things are getting going, kinda… Right now my work really comes and goes in spurts and varies drastically. Clearly the primary reason I was hired was because of my fluency in English. They like to improve their skills and use me for some technical translations or readings. However, it isn't always glamorous. Yesterday I spent about 15 minutes describing the differences between paper towels, napkins, tissues, and handkerchiefs. Its fun because I get to practice my Chinese and generally I get to learn the Chinese words for the English I'm teaching. I also do some grunt work like scanning and editing maps for an upcoming conference. However, I do get to do some real stuff like edit webpages and specialized product announcements for channel partners. So I'll get some real skills, and I figure if I can master software like Dreamweaver in a foreign language, I should be good in English. à insert aside #1 here- who names a program Dreamweaver? I mean really, that's not gonna go to my head or anything… hell, for that matter it means I can weave your dreams in multiple languages. And since when did jpgs, html, and pretty text become the things that dreams are made of? Silly macromedia and their naming's. Couldn't they just call it: "pretty website software" or something like that, or even better, "really sweet and simple website software, so great you can do it in a different language and be ok" (that one might not fit on the box)

That being said, although I do get to do some real work, today none of it really shows, because I don't have fully employ access yet, so I was longed on under Cheng Chen, which means I was a small Chinese women all day, because I posted about 6 things onto our company website as her. I did get the urge, but didn't post anything completely random or crude because she is very sweet. But they shouldn't just hand you that much power, that could get someone fired… trusting Americans, so silly. I guess since it was Cheng Chen and she has been doing most of my training, tasking she figured I wouldn't do anything. At this stage, I guess they figure I can't do that much harm and they are too busy to care. I showed up just in time to be in the mad rush for planning an international conference. However, not soon enough to get to go to the other part of China its in :-( this means that I am sort of on the back burner until the 18th, but whatever, I get to teach myself random skills. You'd be amazed what you learn when you are trying to look busy and stay relevant. I've discover google applications out the wazoo and all sorts of cool random stuff about my company's (advantech- 研华) products and related things. I get to research GPS and random shit all over hte place so I can be fully prepared for translations. Two things that I found that were interesting were: 1-google basically did its best to stomp out a site called Search King because it was gonna compete with business. go ahead and google it, i'll wait..... nothing unless you put in the full url- www.searchking.com, you want to know why, of course not, but i'm gonna tell you cause I thought it was interesting. Search king apparently wants to do online ads different and it might compete, so google gives it a score of zero on its search engines so it won't show, and since google is all powerful it knocks it out of the picture. weird to think of how that works, that companies would use google to find ways to advertise that might compete with google adwords, meh 2-Touch screens work for between 10-35 million touches in anyspot which means you could sit there and hit one every minute from 9-5 and basically never ruin a screen unless you poked really hard like Iris Irving.

Also, at work this week, I was the the first one from my team besides the boss which is weird cause I was just on time. Apparently, they kind of do what they want and they don't even wear the most businessy clothes. Its odd to think that if you pulled this at the X (my pool for you outsiders) you'd get in serious trouble, and if you were late 4 days in a row, possibly fired. Beijing isn't the strictest of places. I think it tells you something about the evolution of work culture. When you think about it, IT companies in the US often allow this, but the big companies are much stricter because they have this engrained in them for the last few decades. Some are slowly moving to more comfortable environments because they show more productivity. China skipped right to this with its jump in the technological world. This gives me hope for underdeveloped areas like Africa. If the jumps continue and new modern businesses evolve out of international norms, then they could have a warp jump past lots of the crap the rest of the world goes through. I mean they did it with war going straight to automatic rifles that slaughtered and skipping muskets and less destructive forms of civil war that Europe and the US dealt with. à aside #2. so really as bad as Darfur and all the unrest in Africa is, its not that bad compared to the US civil war, the war of the roses in England, or napoleon and the French revolution. The only difference is they get the benefit of AK-47's, rocket launchers, etc. that put too much power in every individuals hands. If that had existed 150 years ago, who knows what would have happened in the US and if we'd be two countries or still in turmoil. The moral of the story is that if you want to settle a rebellion, do it the old fashion way with pikes, muskets and other weapons that make the killing personal and create retreats and plans, not mass slaughter.

To me, the strangest part of working in a foreign office is the language, but not in the way you'd think. I often have trouble focusing because of the Chinese in the background. I'm at that level where I can catch some of what they say and get the gist if I really strain myself and get lucky. This puts me in a really odd place, that I'm sure some of you have been at. When you know a language, you can't just here it as noise, it's the way we're wired. Try it sometime, listen to someone speak English and just hear sound, not words, its friggin impossible. However, since we know the language well enough we can tune it out when we really want to. Me, I'm not at other of those stages yet, I'm smack dab in the middle. So I pick out some words and miss other things as noise. This is an issue because I can't really focus on my work at times. I go in and out and want to listen when I catch stuff and improve, yet other times its just a phrase hten too fast so I'm lost. When its going on, I lose all productivity, which means that I've been listening to music at work quite a bit of the time. I don't know what to do cause either I'm not learning Chinese or I'm not doing my job. Language is a really funny thing. It fucks with your mind, even sober.

Working out: since you can't run so much outside due to the huge crowds and not the best air and I haven't found a pool with lanes or a gym that is either close or affordable, i've started working out in my room. now this is no easy task because there is little room. So for weights I bought some 4.5 liter jugs of water with awesome handles for upper body which gives me up to 20 pounds for an arm. Although that isn't much to lift, holding it out straight for a minute will do some work on a lanky kid like me. on top of that i found some standing ab workouts on youtube. add in the 20+flights of stairs I take each day, the 3+ miles of walking with a 30 pound bookbag and i'm feeling good. its no SRC or Ram's head, but it does the trick with no cost and no space needed. BAM, i'll be ready for BCO when the time arrives.

on that note i've been looking for sports, but that is not easy in beijing. i've spent hours trying to find some water polo to no avail. there have been two teams here over the last few years, one is womens (dang!) and the other i heard they were playing close by last month... turns out, according to Talia, they were the national team. so no dice on polo, i nearly cried. Also, volleyball is hard to find but my coworkers promised to take me when they go, sounds like it won't be til oct/nov though :-( However, they have a thriving ultimate frisbee scene here, so thats where i'm headed. also they have an emerging lacrosse culture, but i have no gear...

oh, plus i was shown a hooka bar!!