Gah! Two weeks since the last post?!

I've gotten VERY bad about blogging. Obviously. And I am very sorry to keep you waiting! I have a couple of blogs in the wings, which I have yet to finish. Let me give you a brief run down of life since Beijing (which has it's own special blog).

I arrived back from Beijing late Monday (Oct. 20th) night and went straight to bed. Yes, I was able to take Monday off under the condition that I made up the time, essentially by working the reminder of the week from 7:15 a.m clock in and 7:20 p.m. clock out. I'm not sure why the director wouldn't allow me to simply take a pay cut that week, but I agreed and this meant straight to bed for the 6:45 a.m. bus!

I made the bus and came into work only to sit for the first 30 mins of my day... as usual. Then, one of my Korean managers, Mr. Shin, told me that morning exercises were now held outside and that he was heading down if I wanted to join. Sure, I've got nothing better to do with my morning... After 114 steps we were down and outside with the other Koreans and a few brave Chinese, preforming the same morning routine I had done when I first arrived. To me, these aren't really exercises. The most aerobic thing we do is jumping jacks, and climb the 114 steps back to the office. If nothing else, it does get people up and moving.

I get back upstairs and start compiling more data for climate conditions. Since I can't seem to find any *free* sites that provide information on regional, seasonal, humidity and temps, I painstakingly average all 50 states, then find what region they belong to and average those together. Lots of number crunching, which I'm sure there was an easier way to do or a site that I didn't find, but I got it finished by the end of the week... or so I thought.

That Wednesday I was informed that my group would have a presentation for the director but that I didn't need to come. Well, I would need to come only if the director wanted me to present my survey findings, but I would get a call if I needed to come down. The meeting was at 2:00 p.m. and sure enough, come 2:15, I get a call: both on my cell phone from Mr. Shin, and from a nearby co-worker since I never pick up the land line.
I go and present my findings, which in my opinion are helpful but compiled poorly and lacking a proper sampling size from surveyors across the States, but the director was extremely pleased with all the information I gathered. He even clapped, lol. (Thank you to everyone who took the survey! As poorly put together as it was... THANK YOU!) After I finished I returned to my desk and continued with the data search. Not too long afterward Mr. Shin stopped by and to say that the director was very pleased with my findings. Then he added, almost as if an after thought, that the dirctor is always pleased with my projects. Again, I don't think this caliber of work would fly in the U.S., but because I am presenting completely new information, in this case directly from the consumer, I can't go wrong! Plus, I received a grade on my last project report on windows and walls (I guess they all get graded) and earned one of the highest grades of the reports (they also send all the scores together so we can see how everyone else did... mine happened to be the first of the attachment. Not sure what that means, if anything, but overall, good way to start off the week.
Nothing extremely exciting happened the rest of the week... Anna and Samuel came back from Hong Kong Tuesday night and had to wait to get all of their belongings out from my room since LG made them pack everything up and check out so LG didn't pay 300 yuan a night (for a week) for a room that wasn't being used. I felt kinda bad, but they didn't have to wait too long. Also found out that at some point during the internship we all started being charged for anything over 20 yuan worth of laundry. Originally laundry was free. Pants alone are 14 yuan so anything more than that we had to pay. We didn't find out we were being until Anna and Samuel checked out and had to pay 900 yuan for their laundry bill. Seems a little extravagant, but unless we send one item down everyday, instead of save up all of our laundry til the end of the week, like we normally do in the U.S. and also here, we all have some kind of bill coming. I have yet to see what mine is, but at least I know to expect one.
I don't remember what I taught for class on Monday and Tuesday, but on Wednesday I taught Business Etiquette. Needless to say they were all glad to learn it, but very overwhelmed at all of rules and behaviors. Wednesday night I thought Samuel would be taking the late bus home with me as we usually does, but he never showed. I kept my cell phone out just in case he would call to tell me he was on his way and I should hold the bus, but no such call came. Got back to the hotel, which is where he was, but when I went to look for my cell phone on Thursday, I no longer had it. I have never lost my cell phone so I figured I just left it in my pants pocket, and when it wasn't there, left it at the office, but I believe I have offically lost it. I still need to check with the desk, but I don't have a good feeling about it. Probably pawned off by now.
Anyways, I didn't fully realize that I had lost my phone until the following Monday morning. Backing up to Wednesday after the presentation, my co-worker Vivian told me that I may or may not get invited to dinner with the director and the group leaders for their monthly dinner out. Since I hadn't actually been invited, I didn't put too much energy into it. I didn't have much of that in me and what I had I needed to conserve for class and the rest of the week. I did however, think it strange that I, the intern, was being invited out with the group leaders-no Korean managers- the director and his secretary. He was interested in my education and how I was able to produce such good work so consistantly, but I wasn't sure that I had gained all my know-how through school. Regardless, I figured I'd wait to see what happened.
By the time I got home Wednesday night, I was beat. There would be no way that I would have the energy to teach class and do dinner Thursday. I decided that I would politely decline any possible invitation, which I was pretty sure was coming, saying I did not want to miss two classes in one week, and perhaps attend the next group leader meeting. When the invite was extended and the director heard my reply, I received his response (via secretary, to Vivian, to me) saying that the group wouldn't leave until 6:30 so it was still possible to have class and just cut it a little short. Since he seemed insistant that I go, I agreed to a shortened class and dinner. Not sure how I was going to hold up being exhausted, oh and I forgot to mention, sick since Monday on top of that, but I was going to try. I sent out an email to my advanced class saying it would be a shortened class period, without specifying a length, and low and behold, no one came. The one night no one shows up for my class I have to wait to go out to dinner.
We left for dinner around 6:30 p.m. and had a meal which I've been meaning to try called Hot Pot. Basically, boiling broth in the center of the table over an open flame, and you choose what to cook. Order however many items you like, add cook and eat them one or two at a time, then let the broth boil again and start the process over with a different batch of ingredients. It was really tasty! The first half of dinner was everyone speaking in Chinese about this that or the other thing, of course I could never tell if they were on this, that or the other thing, but the second half was spoken primarily in English and geared towards me. Not so much about my schooling, but what I did growing up? Did you sell anything when you were little? You are very strong. Moving to Malaysia?! What about this family business? What percentage of women don't work?
I'm still not completely sure what all these questions were geared towards, if more than finding out about me, but it was still a very relaxing, pleasant dinner nonetheless.
Again, home and crash, and Friday was spent completely brain dead and staring at my computer screen for far too many hours.

As for now, I'm going to take my cold and put it to rest... well bed. Me along with it. I decided to take the day off today to try to beat this thing since it started to move from my nose to my chest and maybe even create a little fever this morning. Probably a good thing I decided to take today off because I received a phone call from my group leader asking me how I was, if I was coming into work tomorrow, and that I would need to be at work by 8:00 because I was going to present my survey findings to the president tomorrow. Lol! Presenting with a cold. Sweet! I guess I should be honored to be presenting to the president again. I just wish I had a better presentation to give. Then again, maybe I have everything they are looking for and I just don't know it!
I'll try to get you more soon. Love you all!