Fourth Day of Work

A pattern is forming; not only in the titles of my last three blog posts (which skips the third day. The Chinese consider 3 unlucky. ...No that's not true). My days are also beginning to resemble each other in a way which only a monotonous 40-hour week can inspire.

Diego and I wake up a little after 6 am, China time. He wakes up a little before me to go in and use the bathroom before I take my shower. I get out of bed grumpily, because our beds are very comfortable. I do some stuff in the bathroom for awhile and get dressed. When I get out of the bathroom, it's usually around 6:32 am, China time. Breakfast starts at 6:30, so we head down to the 3rd floor and bid the waitresses 'Nihao' before taking our seats. This is the best part of the day, because breakfast is awesome. I've been having a plateful of fruit (a banana, pineapple, watermelon, an apple), a plateful of breaded goods (banana bread, wheat bread, muffins) with butter, maybe some cereal (Chinese Cocoa Pebbles, Chinese Cheerios, Chinese Rice Crispies, etc.), and a plate of sausage, scrambled eggs 'German-style Potatos,' as the placard reads. Two to three glasses of orange juice.


We finish eating by 6:55 am China time and head for the door. We walk to our bus stop, standing behind the mini road on the sidewalk where all the bikes and mopeds ride. Our bus arrives, and we struggle to cross the sea of bikes and mopeds before the bus leaves. The bus leaves. We are on the bus. We leave with the bus. We ride the bus to our place of work. Diego puts his head down and tries to imagine he is not on the bus, because he gets carsick as the driver swerves and jerks the steering wheel to avoid hitting other buses. I read a book.


We arrive at work. We get off the bus. We walk to our office, which is behind the main office. But enough of that, it's lunchtime.

Diego and I meet up and walk to the cafeteria, which is all the way on the other side of the factory. We take our time. When we arrive at the 'canteen,' we see prototypes of the three meals offered for the day. It is Chinese food. Real Chinese food. At least one is grossly unappealing. The other two usually offer things we've seen before, such as rice or vegetables. They also offer smatterings of fish or duck. I had some duck today. A bone splinter nearly broke my tooth. We enter the lunchroom and proceed to the line appropriated to our particular meal choice. On our way we are intercepted by a lunchroom worker who forces cans of Coke Zero into our hands. We are honored guests, so we receive Coke Zero. Neither Diego nor I drink soda, so the cans remain unopened. But we accept the kind offering.

We eat our lunch, sometimes with friends in the company. We have made friends with two ladies, Eva and Lily. They are very kind. But today we ate alone. We try most of our meal, but stay away from some things. Everything is covered thickly with oil, though the meals have more vegetables than a typical American meal. We finish our meal and sit for awhile. Eventually we pick up our trays and carry them to the cleaners on the way back to work.

We walk back around the building, taking our time again. Many people stare at us. We are two of perhaps six Western faces at the factory of about one thousand workers. We get stared at everywhere we go by curious Chinese people. We go back to our respective desks. I work for four more hours on the important work I have been given. At 4:23 pm, I put my computer away and gather up my things to go home. I go downstairs and meet Diego, and we walk around the building and board the number 3 bus which will take us back downtown where we live. Diego sits with his head in his hands again. I read again. When we arrive at our stop, we get off and begin our adventure. It is 5:30 pm and we have four and one half hours before bedtime. But we need dinner. Our homesick selves have eaten dinner for three of the past four nights at an 'Italian' restaurant with a picture menu. They serve just about everything, and some of it tastes just like normal. Today I had two scoops of ice cream followed by deep-fried bananas served with another scoop of ice cream, followed by meat lasagna. Diego ate chicken drumsticks, a plate of pasta and deep-fried shrimp. Our food cost 98 yuan: about 13 dollars. This is our only expense for the day.



After dinner, we went to a music store I wanted to visit and played with the instruments for awhile. I want to buy one, but the one I want is 400 yuan, or about 57 dollars. It's a Chinese clarinet, sort of. They also have beautiful bamboo Chinese flutes, but I've never succeeded in making sound issue from a flute. I may buy one for the chance to try.

We walked to another music store to compare prices and look at their instruments, then we walked home. Diego exercised and I came down to join him just in time to accompany him back to the room. We tried for the fourth time to find the sauna, but the massage place in the basement, called Hot Springs, has been giving us the runaround. It is a very weird place. I think it must be a rampant sex massage parlor.

Now it's bedtime again. I'll probably read some more. I'm reading a book about Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and now I really really want to travel there. Hopefully we can get a week off of work or something. This weekend we're going to the Shanghai expo. We are paying 500 yuan for a bus trip there and back, three-day tickets to the expo, two dinners and two nights in a fancy hotel. The expo tickets alone cost 400 yuan, so the company is giving us a great deal. There is no doubt they are treating us well. But I know with certainty from my partial week of work that I do not want to work at a desk. My eyes hurt from staring at my computer, and my back hurts because the chair is awful, and I feel like an old man when I get up. Not a spry old man either.

We're both excited to see the Shanghai expo this weekend. I'll be sure to tell you all about it. Grandma Rosemary said I had to see it with the hundred dollars she gave me, and I'll be doing it with money to spare. Woohoo!