Week 1 以后:

Madison:
Wow this was a busy week! I love my job, especially my coworkers. I'm basically just helping people with random projects or watching them do things in Indesign that I don't know how to do yet. We usually go together for veggie-pork dumplings at noon at sit in this homey, sweaty, noisy- typical chinese-fanguanr. I love asking people what brought them to Shanghai. I'm amazed at the number of people that have been here 4 years + without making any attempts to learn the language apart from nihao. People keep telling me the foreigners and the Chinese don't mix well in Shanghai. So far my experience has been that the social scene is very self-segregating, even at work. All the Chinese girls stay and eat some warmed up leftovers in front of their computers while we (the westerners) go out for lunch. The great thing about Eno is that they do a ton of research about pretty much everything relating to trends and Chinese youth culture. They're constantly altering and re-evaluating their approach. On Friday, a Improv/Stand-up Comedy group from Chicago called Chopsticks came in and led a company workshop in the Chang le lu store. I'm learning a lot just watching about what working for a start up in China might be like.

In other news, the Yale Club of Shanghai is really great. Their coordinator, Deanna has been organizing lots of activities around the city to keep us busy. Andi and woke up bright and early for a tour about the Jews of Shanghai. Basically, Shanghai saved more Jews than any other city in the world because there was no immigration quota; it was the only metropolis where you didn't need a visa to enter. Russian and Iraqi Jews were in the city even earlier than that (1850s) and helped build Nanjing rd. and started a bunch of businesses. Everyone had to pick up quick and leave in 1949 with the Communist Revolution. Really interesting stuff.

Last night we met up with a group of alumni for some sushi and sake-bombing, true to New Haven style. It was all you can eat for 138 rmb so we went a little crazy. I'm not sure about the impression I left with my chopstick-walrus pictures.

Today, the bulldogs (girls and boys) are getting manicures and pedicures paid for by Yale. No joke.