I decided to take my first of six allowed days off of work on Wednesday. It ended up being one of my favorite days in China.
Back home in the States, I have a great internship with Schmap, a web-based start-up. They have two offices: one in Carrboro, and the other, interestingly enough, in Beijing. The CEO, Paul Hallett, whom I have met a few times in Carrboro, has lived in Beijing for over 15 years and runs the company from that office. I e-mailed Paul, and that became my first stop on my day off!
I took the subway to the Schmap office, which was easy enough to find. Paul greeted me and showed me around the office. I met people that I had only worked with remotely for over two years – it was great to put faces to names. Next, Paul took me to get dumplings for lunch. They were delicious. We caught up on each other’s lives, what the company was planning for the future, and our thoughts on China.
The next meeting I had planned was with a woman named Annette Fuller who graduated from UNC and now works in Beijing with China Daily. This publication has a print and online edition and is distributed all over China. I wanted to check out the differences between China Daily and China.org and connect with a fellow Tar Heel. She was very welcoming and helpful in showing me around the large office building, introducing me to a colleague, and chatting about everything—UNC Greek life, working for the Daily Tar Heel, the cost of living in China, working for the Chinese media and blogging.
Both were great opportunities that I’m glad I took the time for.
I had some free time before I planned on meeting up with Annie and Sherry for dinner, so I decided to do some shopping. I had heard of a place by Yashow Market that sold DVDs for less than 10 kuai, so I had to check it out. I ended up buying more than I should have, but how can you beat owning a DVD for $1.50, some that haven’t even been released on DVD in the States? Let’s hope customs doesn’t mind… I also bought a knock-off designer wallet, because… who comes to China and doesn’t buy knock-off merch??
I walked from the market to Nanluogu Xiang to meet up with Annie and Sherry. We ate dinner at Taste, where I had egg-fried water chestnuts and walnuts and rice. ‘Twas yummy.
The main reason for being at Nanluogu Xiang was to surprise Keith for his 24th birthday at 12SQM. Ithzel had planned the whole thing, and it went really well! Everyone was there that we had met through Keith in the past few weeks. I wish that we could have stayed longer, but it was Sherry’s first time in a bar and she was tired by 11 p.m.
We took the bus home, where a man started talking to me in Chinese when he saw that I was looking in my Lonely Planet book. He took the book from me and pointed somewhere on one of the maps. I pretended to understand, but Sherry explained to me that he was showing me where we were, in case I didn’t know. Apparently he worked for a Chinese travel agency and wanted to give me a warm welcome. He was so friendly, and I liked him even though most of our words were "Lost in Translation."
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