Crunch Time

We have 3 days until our soft opening. We have been working with our employees for a little while and they are doing alright. The language barrier is near impossible and at times we have so many kids and not enough work. Hopefully once the games start everything will iron out.

I found out the reason behind the squatters. PKL is the company that is in charge of all the equipment and they need people to watch it while the building is open and before it is turned over to Aramark. They hire people to sit and sleep in the building the whole time. I thought they were people who did not belong but it turns out they were people on the job. Either way we got rid of them because sleeping in the middle of a dinning room or in the middle of a kitchen doesn't help when you are trying to run an operation.

Tomorrow we are getting issued a uniform. I have tried to postpone this as long as possible but tomorrow is the day. Whoever picked out the uniform should be smacked. We will be sporting khaki polyester pants, a blue button down short sleeve shirt, a black baseball hat and a frickin fanny pack. I am going to look like my great grandfather in a short sleeve button down shirt. I can't even imagine how hot I will be. I will make sure to take a picture because I will probably look like a tourist.

I was talking to my sister and she was just asking about everyday things. The topic of dogs came up. I have been here for about 10 days now and in those 10 days I have seen about 5 dogs total. One of the dogs had its tail and ears died. The other dogs looked disgusting. When you walk around the states for 10 days you see a million dogs probably...not here. I'm not sure why there is a lack of dog, I will let you decide that one.

I recently discovered the hotel does a breakfast for 5 usd. It is a continental breakfast with both American and Chinese food. This morning they had buffalo wings which was a bit different. Lately my breakfast has consisted of a glass of juice, a piece of bread, and 3 flavored Tums. Tums has become my Trident of the trip. I carry tums and purell wherever I go.

We have finally been assigned a bus to take us to and from the village. Before the bus we took cabs to work. Everyday we would go a different route. I have never been on the same route since being here, we always seem to go a different way each time. The best part about it is we will have the door man tell the taxi where we want to go. He understands him very well but when we want the cab to stop we have issues. Someone told us the word "ting" means stop. We all tell the driver "ting" and he doesn't stop. Then we scream "ting ting ting" and he still doesn't stop. Finally the guy in the front just opens up his door and the cab goes " ooo ting?" It is amazing!!

My time here has been unreal. Some of the things I see are so hard to describe in words.. I am having a blast here despite the filth. I am meeting some pretty important people and have tried to take on as much responsibility as possible. We open up in 3 days and I can't wait to get into action.