My first night and day

Well it took me a while to fall asleep because my mattress is like a rock. It isn't just mine, everyone said their beds were horrible.

We woke up at 7am and met downstairs to head to the health center for our exams. There were 40 of us who piled into a bus. We walked into the health center and it felt like Grand Central Station with a funky smell. It was chaotic and everyone was just pushing each other. We went into the first room where they took a picture of us. Then we waited in a long line for them to draw blood. Once the blood was drawn we waited in another long line for a chest xray. After the chest xray was what they called the "male inspection." Pretty much this old lady nurse checked our heart beat and poked at our stomach. The final stage was the stool sample. You had to give your sample and they tested it and you were done.

Being at this health center made me appreciate the states so much more. I would rather wait in a waiting room for 20 minutes then have to do what I did today. It was not very sanitary and just didn't seem right. The old lady nurse told me to go around the curtain to hand in my stool sample. I walked around the curtain to find a small Chinese boy with his pants down and the doctor taking a sample. I couldn't stop laughing because I was so shocked. The person behind me told me that's what happens if you don't provide a sample...it was horrible. The place was really gross.

After the nasty health center I got dropped off at the Media Village. The village is huge. They built everything from scratch. There are 4 towers where all the media will live along with all the places for them to eat. Everything is brand new which is always nice. They are having a few issues with the gas lines at the moment. In the states you can tell the client you have an issue and they fix it. In Beijing the land owner is in charge so things take much longer. The Media Village has its soft opening July 11th and then the grand opening is July 18th.

Today was just a day to get acclimated to the village. We took a tour and did minimal work. While taking the tour everyone noticed there were cardboard cut outs with pillows behind equipment and were somewhat confused. We were told that some of the workers sleep there. In one closet I opened there was a mattress and clothing hanging on a clothes line. It was really strange to see. The village is open 24 hours a day but I still do not know my hours. There are roughly 5-6 operation managers on site.

My lunch was amazing. Of course I didn't know what something was and ended up eating a duck foot....barf! I thought it was chicken and that is what they told me. Besides the duck foot I had amazing noodles and this awesome beef dish

We left work around 4 and jumped in a cab to get back to the condo. The cab driver had no idea where he was going and we had no idea how to tell him where to go. We had the address of the condo but that did not help at all. 45 minutes later we made it back. By the way, they don't use the AC in the cabs...miserable!

Due to my bed being like a rock I needed to get a mattress pad. Some other people who were stuck in the 3rd bedroom needed one as well so we headed out to a store that is similar to a Wal Mart. Imagine me and a million Chinese people in a giant store. All I wanted was a egg crate and it took me forever to even find the bedding area. I tried asked people and they just smiled and nodded...I told you that would happen often. I didn't find an egg crate but something similar..it was 8 American dollars. They had an electronic section where plasmas were about 500 US dollars.

On our way back we got really lost and ended up in an area what seemed to be their electronic district. People were walking around with Dell laptops all over the place. People were exchanging money right on the street for laptops. It was crazy.

Another thing I noticed while being lost is that the construction workers doing everything manually. Unlike the states where we use a machine to break up cement, they just take a pick and hammer and smash it up. They use no machinery which is surprising.

Today was a good first day. It was pretty overwhelming and I wish I knew what type of hours I would be working but I guess I have to be patient. This city is gigantic and getting around is impossible due to everyone driving a car. There are a million cars and a million bikes and nobody yields for anything.

Time to test my taste buds. Until next time.