I actually wrote a story to go with this picture to practice
my “writing skills”, but it was bad, so I trashed it. But this was totally
inspired from that one drunken night when I went back to Princeton and the
comic that Carol and I drunkenly made when we were pregaming Margaret?s party.
Something about a girl getting killed by a dog and doing a magical girl
transformation into a monster. Something like that.
Today I attended the opening ceremony of a new factory in
Shanghai for our company. At least, that’s the most succinct description for
it. A more accurate one would be a …
we-just-rented-this-place-and-our-board-executive-is-coming-ceremony. They had
a red carpet leading to a totally empty warehouse and a small room, where the
executives eventually had a meeting. Our department was bussed over there at
7:45 am (had to wake up extra early to get to work today), and we didn’t really
interact with them at all. The board executive merely came, had the meeting,
did a photo op with the other executives, and left. Although it was interesting
to see the factory, I’m not sure it was necessary for the entire department to
be there, other than for “face”. At least some people got souvenir power point
slide manipulators out of it…
Two of my fellow foreign interns recently left. To see one
of them off, we went to all you can eat teppanyaki place near people’s square,
quite a good deal for the quality of food. Even though buffets are usually a
losing proposition for me, I feel as if I got my money’s worth this time, since
they served pretty good sushi in addition to the beer and meat. I’m not sure if
I like fatty tuna more because it tastes good, or because it’s traditionally
associated as super expensive and prized. Either way, I ate quite a bit of it.
The other interesting part of the night was going to a super seedy expat club,
as it was “something we had to see.” At this point it was a Canadian, two
German guys, and one of their native girlfriends. We ended up going to Judy’s, featuring skimpy philipino
singers belting out classic tunes on a stage. I’m almost completely sure all
the girls in that club, except the one that came with us, were prostitutes. One
of the German guys mentioned that seeing all these seedy European middle-aged
men with “young-looking” girls really disgusted him. I have to agree, it was
one of the more pathetic sights I’ve seen. The club was packed with overweight
expats, and average looking middle-aged women with too much eye makeup and
tasteless skimpy clothing eyeing potentials like hawks. Not all of them were
even Chinese, but all of them had the same style of… prostitute.
Looking like a native Chinese allowed me to escape from
experiences my foreigner friends had, like middle aged ladies sidling up to
them and pressing themselves onto them without permission, or little girls
clinging to their legs until they buy something. It was an interesting
experience though, even if we didn’t stay long at all.
Later that weekend, I went with a Chinese friend to Da Pu
Qiao area. Lots of interesting souvenir shops there… I feel if I need to buy
gifts for friends in the U.S, it will either be here, or in that Japanese model
store (Aside: I want to get some sort of figurine or model, but there are a few
things stopping me. I don’t really follow any show with cool figurines in it,
therefore making the premium unjustifiable. The cheap ones are either shoddily
constructed or tasteless. The good ones are either expensive or lewd. In short,
I think I like the idea of having a figurine/model to look at, but don’t
actually want any specific one/think most are not worth it or embarrassing. One
day I should learn to make my own). China has so much nicer stationary than the
U.S, for a lot cheaper too. Unfortunately that day, I didn’t have any reason to
buy anything, so I didn’t… feel it would just be clutter. I also discovered a
Japanese food court area on the bottom of the mall, with mocha stores/really
good matcha stores/ramen restaurants. Very nice, will go there more often.
I mentioned to that girl that almost everything she wore
contained/was a shade of pink in the past, and this week she came in a navy
blue dress that she bought earlier that weekend. Coincidence?
Other than these activities, I visited grandparents and
shopped. A few things worth mentioning: I get an inordinate amount of
satisfaction shopping for cleaning supplies, and I really like the cheese green
tea drink from Happy Lemon. Maybe I should have tried the cheese milk tea at
Tea Era back in Cali…
I feel as if the older I get, the more stock I put in
people’s opinions about products and the less I put in people’s opinions about
general abstract ideas, like politics. Either that or I spend a bit too much
time reading opinion pieces on Google News.
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