As the days go by...

It’s been an interesting week. Work was a bit tedious and actually kind of boring. But got to bond more with the other interns, so that’s always fun. On Tuesday, I got to participate in a student panel, basically answering questions that Chinese students asked (they are going to the U.S. to study). I got to work with public affairs on that. I participated in 2 meetings, the all American (most of the heads of the consulate) meeting and just the all-staff meeting where my supervisor actually made it sound like I’m doing a lot more than I really am..ahah. The meeting was pretty interesting, gave me a glance at what meetings would be like later on. I really like the head of FCS. He’s funny and really nice, hope I get to talk to him more so I can ask him more about how he enjoys his job, etc , etc. We met the daughter of the FDA guy on Friday and had dinner with her- it was so nice hanging out with a girl again! Too bad she’s leaving on Monday (today) though back to the U.S.. Anyways that night we went to play badminton and it was so much fun! I don’t know why I never played that much before. Time to start playing in Berkeley.

I got Friday of for the 4^th of July 3 day weekendJ. Yes, I do get it off b/c I work for the U.S. govt. Anyways, I just mooched around at home-slept in soo late and then didn’t really do much the rest of the day. On the 4^th , I went to the interns who actually got housing’s place and we had dinner and just chilled at their place. Their place is super nice! I’m so jealous haha. We played this drinking game (Kings), and it was brutal-this one guy (who I kinda have a crush on ahah) got owned…hahaha and it was pretty bad for me too. Luckily I think I know my limit so I was able to stop drinking in time-before I really made a fool out of myself.

Sunday was ridiculoouuussssly crazy. My Uncle’s family was moving to their new house (where I get my own room!) and starting from like 6am-6pm was just moving and getting everything set up in the new place. Epic craziness I’m telling you. They had sooo much stuff and the new place is actually pretty far from my work (like an hour away)-which means if I do go hangout, I probably can’t hang out super late or if I do I have to crash at one of the other intern’s place.

So since I’m now ridiculously far from my work place, I left my house at 7:15 and didn’t get to work until 9!! The subway stop was ridiculous, once I got out, I was in a swarm of Asians and we couldn’t even go up the stairs b/c there were that many people. I was at a stand still for at least 15 minutes before I could move. It was one of the worst experiences of my life…Rush hour traffic in one of the most populous cities in the world is definitely not fun.

 

This week should be more exciting: get to go on a trade show, another student panel, plus some random intern briefing.

p.s. probably won't update/webcam for a while, I believe no internet for 2 weeks at home:( updating from the office now..dunno if it's allowed-_-

 

 

 

 

 

I haven't posted because of sheer exhaustion. Work is interesting, sometimes boring, and extremeley exhausting (getting up at 6am every day). On a brighter note, it's been a fun week. Last wednesday we were invited to the consolate general's house (mansion more like-paid for by u.s. tax payers of course) for dinner(their white wine was delicious!). We met 3 other interns from the dept of state ( they get their own housing too! and its NICE ), strange thing was they were guys as well. It really is strange being the only girl. 

Anyways, that was a really fun dinner, getting to know the consulate general and other FSOs and hearing about the job in general. Apparently marines on embassy tours get it good. We then got invited to a marine party on friday night (some marines were leaving in a week or something). Of course, not having anything to do on friday, I went with 2 other interns. The thing was one of the other interns was having a reunion with some of his grad school mates and invited us to the bar with them for a while, so me and the two others went, but it was kind of awkward in the beginning until the alcohol started kicking in(just a note: Carlesberg Beer is probably the best beer ever). By 9pm we decided it would be best to check out the marine party, which was WAY more fun. And not as awkward, so I got to bond with the other interns from state, and that was fun b/c now we have lunch together during the week. I also met this super cute Belgium(european!) guy with a super cute accent-even though he said he was trying to hide it (but he left kinda early and I regret not getting his number) , long story on why he was there, but in the end it was really fun. By the end of the night, I've proudly managed not to get myself drunk, though clearly getting there(the asian glow was made fun of on several occasions) and back home safely. .  I now know the limitations of my alcohol tolerance-sadly, it's not that high-my dad actually told me this is when I'll get to build that tolerance. Two of the other interns decided to go to another bar after that party, I left b/c I was so tired and did not want to make a fool out of myself around people I just met. 

I wanted to do something saturday, but it was pouring (monsoon season) from like 11am-3pm, so I decided to stay at home and chill with my cousin. After the rain, we went out to have a late lunch and then went mostly window shopping. I found this really nice REAL 100% leather wallet (which i bought b/c I needed a new wallet), and totally fell in love with it. That was my big purchase of the day, even though I was really looking for bags and shoes. Afterwards, that night my cousin and I had some serious discussions on politics and China and America in general-that was a really insightful conversation and I'm glad I had it. 

Sunday I went to my grandma's place with my cousin. My other Uncle was there and we all had lunch. They made me stuff myself:/ I'm getting fat here, so unfair! My grandma cracks me up, she reminds me so much of my mom, it's kind of scary. I wonder if I'll be like that when I'm at that age. After good family bonding time, my uncle drags me to my aunts families place, of which I have no connection to, and I proceeded to have one of the most awkward nights of my life. I was under-dressed for the occassion b/c my uncle never told me we were going, and they other relatives are super rich (one is involved in shanghai politics) and treated us all out at this really expensive high-class restauarant. Of course everyone else was business casual, and I was just...shorts and a tank. On top of that, I didn't know any of them and I was not really able to hold any conversations with them, and they were super cautious around me. All in all, it was not a fun night- they even made me eat escargot....grossssssssss. Perhaps the one bright spot of the night was that I had the best fillet mignon of my life at that restaurant. It was SO SO SO SO SO GOOOOD. 

Well that's been all the exciting things that have happened, work today was bad-I was nodding off at my desk! So now it's around 10pm and I'm thoroughly exhausted. Time to sleeep and wake up bright and early. Oh joy. 

Probably won't update until the next exciting thing happens- 4th of July pahtay pahtay:) 

It's also late for me and pictures take a long time to upload so next time I'll have some pics up. 

I'm not quite sure how the U.S. protects its armored trucks full of money (the ones taken from the banks), but I'm pretty sure U.S. security guards do not walk around with machine guns. In China however, the guards have machine guns @_@. This is in a country where it's illegal for citizens to even own guns. I just thought it was hilarious, passed by it while riding on the bus today, should have taken a picture:/.