Life is already moving fast and furious here in Beijing. The first project I had of researching the Spanish culture and important Spanish holidays is well on its way. I made up a list of the possible celebrations that we could use in order to showcase Spanish culture, but since I am not a Spanish native, I really couldn’t give the perspective that was necessary to create a top-end proposal (which we need to present on Wednesday and for which we need a summary on Monday). Hence, last night we were in a bind . . . so we got creative.
On the suggestion of my team leader, three other team members and I researched the dining and nightlife scene here in Beijing and found every Spanish place that we could. Then we conducted some “field research.” Basically this means that we went out, had dinner, had some drinks and struck up conversations with anybody who could be an actual Spaniard at these Spanish venues. We struck gold once. We met a very nice man who grew up in Madrid and was quite excited to have some drinks with us and discuss his formative years, Spanish culture and Spanish holidays. All together, we spent about 5 hours eating, bar-hopping, taking pictures of Spanish influence in Beijing, and chatting with expats. Basically it was a night on the town paid for by the company. How’s that for work?
So the up-side of the story is that the company will pay for my fun as long as work is also mixed in. The downside is that I had to summarize the findings on a Saturday. So today was a mixture of writing summaries, creating powerpoints, having meetings, making phone calls and coordinating so that we can have a decent amount of work finished by Monday. After that stuff, I moved into my new apartment! I live in an area of Beijing called Dongzhimen (pronounced Dong-djeh-mun) which is a popular place for young professionals to live . . . both domestic and foreign. It’s small 4-room apartment with a comb
ination bedroom/living room (photo below), a very small and narrow kitchen, a bathroom, and a very small dining room that has one wall that is entirely windows facing the garden-courtyard in the middle of the complex (also, in near picture). I was shown 4 places and picked this one because it was very clean, new and cozy. One place was simply massive, and though it would’ve been a very nice place to live, it actually felt too big for me to live there alone.The plan for the rest of the weekend is pretty straightforward. Dinner with Alex (the big boss) tonight; possibly heading out on the town with some of the other expats working at HighTeam later tonight; sleeping in tomorrow if at all possible; meeting with the team tomorrow to start to get the big-picture of the Spain project early tomorrow afternoon; and possibly touring Beijing in the afternoon with my co-worker Vivian after that (though I doubt I’ll have time for it). Then it’s back to work on Monday (more like back to the office, since I’ve been working outside of the office anyways :-P).
I’ll leave the descriptive part at that and move to a bit of miscellanea. China is just as strange as I remember. It’s the little things that I tend to notice. Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” (Chinese version) blasting out of a bar as I walked by. The theme song from Sex and the City as the ringer on a dude’s (yes, a middle-aged Chinese male’s) phone. Terrorizing rides down the wrong side of a 6-lane road in one of those covered tricycles in the rain, or driving diagonally through the middle of an intersection on it with cars whizzing by on both sides. Two guys on mopeds riding past in a bike lane: the man on the left moped drives about 2 feet behind the other guy and holds a big bundle of who-knows-what on the back of the other man’s moped with his right food (take a second to imagine the picture). The Chinese just have a different way of doing things. Seriously, it seems like whatever works tends to be good enough. It’s funny to see.
<----- My little, tiny kitchen
A view out my window -->
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