2nd day in Shanghai - Dentist, table tennis and fish ball noodles

Yesterday I did not sleep well because my tooth did not feel so well. During lunch time, I went to see the dentist. It was the first time ever I visit a dentist in China. I was a bit scared, but I had no choice. I called up for an appointment, the nurses at the dentist clinic told me they have 2 sessions - the VIP and the normal one. VIP session has the more experienced dentist. VIP session charges RMB$50 for entry fees, and the other one charges only RMB$10. I will not task my life for RMB$40, definitely I toke the VIP one.

The clinic was in a house with colonial style. When I got to the clinic, I was a bit shocked by the torn wallpapers and stinky floor. Since the next clinic will be 20 mins away, I took the risk. The nurses led me to the inspection room. I was lying on the chair and taking around, the apparatus are pretty old. But the tools that the dentist used are all in sealed plastic bags, I guess that's what the premium of VIP for. Then the dentist came in, and did some inspection. She found that there was a little hole on one of the tooth and my gum at the back has a bit inflammation. So she helped me fix the delayed tooth and put some medicine on my gum. Surprisingly her skills are not bad. At last she suggested I should clean my tooth as well, so I did. But she sent a nurse to help clean my tooth, right after 10 mins, I stopped the nurse and got the dentist back since the skills of the nurse was so poor. The dentist finished the rest of the cleaning. After the treatment, I went back to the office as a clean & happy man.

My boss called me up in the afternoon, and said he needed to brief me on a project when he was back to the office. At 6pm, he arrived the office. The first thing he ask was not about the project, but whether I am good at table tennis or not. We played a game in the office (There is a table for table tennis right in front of my seat). After finishing the game, we started discussing the project until 8pm.

I was exhausted and asked around for dinner buddy. But Shanghaiese are so cold, no one want to have dinner with me. So I went to have a lonely dinner at a Cantonese Cafe. The food was awesome, I had a bowl of noodles with fish ball, and pineapple bun with butter. Of course I ordered an authentic Cantonese Milk Tea. Again I become a happy man. Then I took a cab to home. Start to write another presentation again.

I miss my buddies in Beijing, my dinner buddies & drinking buddies.

1st day in Shanghai

Today it is my first day of work in Shanghai. Though I traveled to the Shanghai office very often, today I still feel a bit nervous to get into the office.

Tim, the planning director at Shanghai, gave me a brief orientation on Ford and left me with tons of presentation to digest. I can see how my life will be stuck with data.

I sat at my new desk. Maybe the HR thought that I am already an old employee, I would know my way around. I did not get any new employee orientation. I needed to ask for the IT to set up my server, printer, Internet connection & email. I reminded my HR for giving me card key & stuff. Today I did not do much work, but chasing for this or that from different. The only achievement I have is to force the HR moving me from a budget hotel to a reasonable serviced apartment, I can't live with a stinky bed for 30 days.

In the afternoon, I did one briefing to Beijing Creative team via conference call. It is a huge challenge for me since my Mandarin pronunciation is known to be not clear. And my voice got distorted via the transmission, this made the creative very hard to understand my words. I needed to speak in extremely slow speed like a Grandma and open my mouth as wide as possible. But it is a good training for my Mandarin.

I come back to the hotel at 7pm, and start writing my award case studies. It will be a busy week, I can't wait to come back to Beijing for the long weekend.