Another day another smile and nod

Woke up bright and early to head to work. My stomach wasn't feeling so hot from last nights dinner. I think the spices from the food are starting to get to me or the intestines I sampled...not sure.

Today was a productive day. I got assigned a specific area. I will be in charge of 4 restaurants in the media village. 2 of them have a bar that is open until 2 am. It is me and one other person in charge of the 4 areas. They are 24 hours and we were told there will be a day and night shift. I am not sure which I would prefer. The night shift might be preferable because I could go around during the day to see all the sites.

My "smile and nod" moment of the day. We were in the middle of cleaning up some areas getting them prepared for the soft opening. This one little Chinese woman, and when I say little, I am talking under 5 feet was just sitting there. For the past two days all she has done is sit on this little piece of wood and read the paper. We always walk by and can never figure out what she is doing. Today I decided I would try to communicate with her because I figured if she is there she should work. We had a large box that needed to be emptied so I spoke really loud and used hand motions to say "box needs to be emptied and put on shelf." She looks at me confused...I expected that. I repeat "box needs to be emptied and put on shelf." This little woman goes "shi shi" which means yes and then I get the classic "smile and nod." I thought everything was good so I walked away. 5 minutes later I come back and she is sitting on the box reading her paper!!! I wanted to kill her but instead I just laughed.

A little insight on some of the issues we are faced with due to being in China. All of our produce needs to come from the local farmers. A few months back people met with the farmers and told them what we need and they actually planted everything we asked for. They have all the produce but the process of getting it to the media village is crazy. Before the produce leaves the farm it needs to be inspected. If it passes it goes on to the wholesaler and if it doesn't we don't get it. Once at the wholesaler it is then inspected for the second time with the same rules. With that said it has been very difficult getting what we need because of the multiple inspections the produce needs to go through.

I am jumping around a bit but today for lunch we were told it would be provided for us from IBC. IBC stands for International Broadcast Center. It is right down the road and since their kitchens are up they made it and sent it over. We were starving and could not wait for the food to arrive. They bring the food out and it looks like something a dog would eat, not my dog because she is fancy, but another dog. Its 10 managers from America and maybe 15 Chinese employees sitting in the kitchen watching them bring the food. All of us look at each other and said "no way, lets get lunch." The lady who doesn't do any work and sits on her box...jumped right in not thinking twice. There were no plates but she managed to find one.

We decided to walk around the area to find something to eat. There was nothing but we saw a KFC. I never eat KFC but I was starving. We go in and try to order. We try the sign language thing and for about 5 minutes we all tried to order and could only come up with drinks. The worker then goes "oooooo amewica" and pulls out an English menu. It took her 5 minutes to realized we weren't Chinese??? Anyways, once the English menu is out it takes us two minutes to order and we ate. After I ate I needed to use the bathroom. The urinal was occupied so I go into the stall. Stalls in China are not the same thing as the states. More like a narrow little hole. I kid you not. Probably the grosses thing ever. The 300 bucks I spent on the shots, so worth it!

This whole jet lag thing is kind of killing me. At times I think I am over it but then I just get really tired and want to die. The heat has been crazy here and the humidity is worse then Florida. The smog is just like you read in the news. Woke up this morning and all you see is clouds. Its not like in San Diego where the clouds burn off by 11. The clouds are there all the time and sometimes you get lucky and the sun pops out. I am not sure how I will make it come August.

Tomorrow 200 employees arrive to the Media Village. Not one employee speaks English so I am guaranteed to have fantastic stories after tomorrows day of work.