From Ashley

Blog 6.

Work this week was…well work. Monday I was sick due to either chicken
on a stick or spaghetti that I had for dinner on Sat. Alyssa and I
both had each, and we both were sick. The irony of it…we’d had chicken
on a stick before (sure from a different street vendor…so it’s
entirely different) but Dmitri totally was playing the safe card and
seeing how chicken on a stick made us feel the first time…we totally
were fine…but he was still in debate. Then second go around we got
sick…naturally he thought this was hilarious.

But so Tuesday, Miwi needed my computer (the only Mac in the office)
for her project so I was asked to switch with her. After work I met
Alyssa in Sanlitun for dinner (it’s the embassy area). We had Chinese
versions of American food…and I got a blue cheese hamburger and it
could have been the best burger I’ve ever had in my life. Then somehow
I lost my phone somewhere (my Chinese one that had no reception
anywhere…so not that devastated.)

View from Miwi's desk

So Wednesday was more of Miwi’s office area. She sits at the window
and has a lovely view…however it was HOT. The wall of her desk just
totally blocks the air. I was in shorts and a tank top just sweating
sitting down. Keep in mind they ACTUALLY had the air-conditioning on,
but as the norm, the window was open. I said I was hot, and Miwi was
like “well it helps if the window is closed.” So later I decided to
shut it…the problem is Lucy went right behind me and opened it. So
about 2 hours later Lucy asked me if I was hot…I said yes, and she
advised me to open the door to the private office next to me, and turn
on that air conditioner, again with the window open and the other one
on. This is not a great method of cooling down an area, but sure I’ll
go along. The part that hit me the hardest however was that I had just
read an article about how Shanghai is having to close businesses and
shopping areas on top of factories during the summer to reduce the
power usage and reroute it to homes. Clearly, we were wasting energy,
but what can you do? On a happier note…we all got cacti!

Miwi's cactus is on the left, and mine is on the right

The new intern (Moni…I think) she’s from Hong Kong and looks so
young…she’s an undergraduate for sure and I think she’s really like
18…but she started this week. And because it was Cathy’s and Driver’s
(I don’t know his name…we nod and non-verbally communicate mostly)
birthday we got cake! So it was happy birthday and welcome cake. We
sang happy birthday and proceeded to listen to Josh Grobin and the
Fray for a while. Later in the afternoon my first shipment of Chinese
print catalogs to museums and universities went out. NYU, AU, and the
Freer Sackler were the biggies in the batch. Hopefully they’ll decide
to take some art!



Thursday started off like any normal workday…except for one reason or
another everyone was out of the office except for Cathy, Moni, and me.
Lunch was a surprise though. Meat is not eaten here at all like it is
in America, so I was trying to find a piece and kept looking at it.
Finally they asked me if I knew what it was. I said well clearly it’s
meat, and they all laughed. We had pigs feet for lunch…Later, I
realized I was having a hard time seeing (around like 3pm) so I had to
turn on the light (the lights-all but one—typically stay off. Within
the next hour it started massively thundering and lightening and a
huge downpour started. Of course it was the ONE-day the entire week
I’d actually dressed up for work. Thankfully I had my umbrella and
they gave me a poncho…and then Lucy dropped Moni and me at the metro.
It’s been strange here weather wise. Beijing does not get that much
rain, but due to the massively flooding in the southern region it’s
been raining here a lot more.

Chinese Birthday Cake