I think I have the BLACK lung

LISA

So I'm officially done with day one of work!

It was alright as first days go. There was a relatively large luncheon event today with a bunch of Italians who came as guests of an Italian Tour guide company, and I was basically instructed to just stand and watch. I was introduced to the staff, most of which doesn't speak great english, and shown the basic layout of the restaurant. (The website gives you a pretty awesome virtual tour of the place www.kathleens5.com).

It's crazy, most of the waiters are younger than me, have graduated high school, though it's very likely that the majority of them are not going to go into college... I had many uncomfortable moments... and this happens to me a lot every time i come to China because I realize just how good I, and almost everyone at Yale has it... simply the fact that I get to go to college, not to mention one known for being the best in the world, is unbelievable to the waiters and hostesses who have never even thought of the possibility of affording even a semester off of work.

There's also the follow-up uncomfortable conversation: "Where are you staying?"

"ummm.. [insert street name]"

"oh! I'm looking for an apartment, are there any available rooms?"

"Oh yea, I don't know, we're living in a hotel"

".... [silence]... a hotel?... isn't that REALLY expensive?"

"Well, yea... I guess."

"Wow..."

I guess I don't really have a real reason to feel bad, but it still makes me feel uncomfortable especially when I start to realize just how big of a disparity there is.

In unrelated news. I have the black lung. My voice is all low and raspy. It was actually pretty cool at first to have my voice randomly crack and sound like I had smokers lung, but now it's starting to get annoying especially when the raspiness starts to interfere with my ability to talk at very fast speeds (suuuper annoying)/talk at all. Moreover, the voice situation made it much harder to be charming hostess, as all went downhill the moment I opened my mouth.

Anyway, I'm ridiculously tired now, despite not having done too much intensive labor. But that's what sooo nice about summer, (and I guess life w/o school), is that you can go to work, and go home, and have NOTHING you actually need to do work-wise. You can just veg out (which is what I did), and eat, and do WHATEVER until the next day. I don't even work tomorrow until 2pm (till 10:30 pm) because there's an evening event with Royal Canine Dog Foods (don't be fooled, they have a shit ton of money). It's some big corporate event with fancy corporate men, open bar, and jazz band, and my boss wanted me to see the logistics of putting on a bigger event at the restaurant.

So yea, basically we once again made dinner. (See pic below!) Have already started the wine collection going among the group (YES!). Also, during the end of work today, I definitely googled "Does alcohol make sore throat worse?" And apparently it works as a type of cough suppressant, and can kill the bacteria that are giving me the Black Lung! ok, awesome. Let's leave it at that. The evidence speaks for itself. Cheers.

As of right now, and for the rest of the night, the plan is: Eat. Sit. Eat. Wine. Wine. Wine. Eat. Wine. Sleep.

Will hopefully run tomorrow. Let's see how that goes.