Tuesday at The Office

So work has finally picked up and I now have multiple projects to spend my time on... fortunately two of them, surveying the expat population of Shanghai and advertising the new Sports Medicine clinic, involve me getting out of the office and traveling around the city. Most of the new work was handed my way yesterday but we had an impromptu "Internal Marketing Training" session with the new boss which lasted all afternoon and then finished up this morning when we got into work. All told it was about 5 hours of basic marketing knowledge, or the worst part of Marketing 300, delivered in broken English. That kind of thing has a tendency to make a person want to take a power drill to his head... fortunately my tools are all back in Maryland, so instead I headed to happy hour at Senses instead. Senses is a new bar (opened in October, 2004) owned and operated by a pair of British guys that has become known for its wine selection and has great appetizers. Mondays at Senses, glasses of wine are only 25 RMB (about $3.00) which is a steal given the unexpectedly high cost of vino in China.

Around 10:00pm I started yawning and the owner, Mat, who we were talking to, and Ed, one of the guys who runs ShanghaiExpat.com, called me out and gave me a "wake up" shot called Rough Stuff. Turns out it's Finlandia Vodka that has had chili peppers marinating in it for a while and it tastes great at first, but then heats up everything it touches on the way down... better than any caffeine or energy drink I've ever had. Well, I'm off to my Chinese lesson and then everyone from the marketing department is headed to one of our co-worker's house for home-made dumplings and other various Chinese foods; I'll let everyone know what was on the menu and my first impressions of "The Bund" (the bar area by the big river in the center of Shanghai) next time.