I got a new office!

The title says it all... I finally got moved into my new office at work, and even though it's only about 30 feet from my old one, it's worlds better! I still have my tiny elementary school desk but two new desks are coming in next week... for now I get the room all to myself, but in mid-October the new finance guy for Shanghai United Family Hospital will be joining me and in early November some girl named Jenny, who may or may not be another intern.

The Week in Review:

Monday dragged on as the worst day I have had at work yet, I went on an all day tour with my nemesis Jack of the hospitals in town. Looking back now that I've had a few days to cool off, it was kinda nice to discover that the "competition" actually sucks... which isn't so great for the expat community, but is great news for United Family Hospitals. Met up with Larry at Senses for what has become a nice Monday night tradition of 25RMB glasses of wine and the nightly special, tenderloin (which is amazing, by the way.)

Tuesday was another drag as I waited to hear what the decision would be on my moving me, I also thought I might have heard back from Susie, the head of HR about my new contract, but no, two weeks of working contract-less. Finally, around 4:00 Betsy stopped by and said the magic words, "Joel, you move across to Peying's office, ok?"

Wednesday I finished my move into the new office and, what a shocker, was really productive... funny how much more work I can get done when I don't have to constantly fight the urge to cause bodily harm to the guy that sat four feet away from me. Also met with Rex today... not 100% sure what his position is, he's sort of involved in all the aspects of the hospital as he prepares us for JCI accreditation. Anyway, he helped me out with the budget project and I'm starting to make some progress on calculating the service demand for all the departments... kinda sad that this stuff is really interesting compared to the marketing work, ah well, cest la vie.

Today, my second in my new office, was just as good, if not better than the first and I got more budget work done, wrote a little for my last couple med school applications that I've really been procrastinating on and got a lot more done on the market research summary report that I'm preparing to share the conclusions from the 177 surveys I collected over two months... the big news though, drum roll please... is that at 4:30 Violet dropped off my passport with my new, unlimited re-entry, F-visa good until March 24th, 2007!!! I know how concerned you all were, but it's cool now, so you can relax, I get to come back into the country after my trip to Boston on the 13th for my Tufts interview.

Just finished cleaning the apartment for what might be the last time if I get my housing allowance as part of the new contract, am in the process of doing many, many loads of laundry and at some point should start packing as I'm leaving tomorrow at 4:45 from HongQiao Airport. Probably won't be able to do a lot of updates from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam so take care, loyal readers, and I'll be back on October 8th.

And the wild ride continued all weekend... (Part 2)

After turning in my Rush Medical College application, I napped on and off all day Saturday until I realized it was 8:30 and I was supposed to meet Larry and head to the "School Disco" party at 9:00... not wanting to drink on an empty stomach, I changed into my sweet prep-school outfit, complete with plaid shorts, and agreed to meet him at the City Diner down the street from Studio 78 where the party was being held. We inhaled a plate of "Cowboy Steak and Eggs" each and then wandered down Tongren Lu and upstairs #78 to the party... Lots of dancing and rampant abuse of the open bar later we packed it in and moved the party to Malones where we ended up partying for the rest of the night (looking only slightly out of place in our school uniforms.) For a better idea of the party, check out the pictures at http://sterny.smugmug.com.

Sunday was designated a recovery day and I met Larry in XuJiaHui (a big park and shopping area downtown in the XuHui district) around noon. We struggled our way through brunch and then headed to a massage parlor that had been recommended to us... I've never been so loose and so sore at the same time. The 2 hour massage ran me 100 RMB (~$12.50) and included a scalp massage, body rub, deep tissue massage and a small asian girl walking on me; worth every penny. Feeling worlds better, Larry took me on a small tour of the area before we headed to A Future Perfect for Alice's going away dinner. I don't think I mentioned it before, but my tour guide in Shanghai is leaving for a new job in New York on the 27th of September... God help me if I need to interact with the locals again now that she's gone.

And the wild ride continued all weekend... (Part 1)

Before I begin this installment I must apologize for an egregious lapse in my narrative... on Wednesday night I met up with Vihn, Larry, Justin, Nellie, Alice, Ling, etc (15 people in all) at Tairyo Teppanyaki for the "150 RMB All-you-can-eat, All-you-can-drink" dinner special. Teppanyaki is basically one of those restaurants where the cook stands behind a huge flat iron grill and cooks your food in front of you to order... except this place also had fresh sashimi, plum wine, saki, and a really extensive menu... all for less than $20 a person. It was awesome.

Now back to the crazy weekend...

After the visa adventures on Friday I was really excited about the weekend plans to relax by day and head to some college-esque theme parties at night. Things started out according to plan as I met up with a large group of Brits, Aussies, Kiwis and "people from other countries with accents that basically sound the same to me, but who get offended when I can't correctly identify their exact hometown in the North of Ireland from their tone and inflection." Anyway, I'd feel worse about it if I had the first clue about what the f*ck the Scottish guys were saying to me after they've had a couple beers and regressed into some obscure highland dialect. But I digress. We all met up at Blue Frog, had a couple of happy hour drinks and headed off to Keith's sweet apartment out near the Bund for his (roughly) monthly bar-b-que.

After enjoying some free booze and Thai/Indian food I grabbed a cab and headed for I Love Shanghai... at which point I realized that I no longer was in possession of my keys! Yeah, it was as bad as you're imagining. Long story short, I ended up sleeping on a couch at the bar until 4:45 am when Jeff closed the place down and we headed to the City Diner for some super late night eats (and to watch guys get picked up by hookers that definitely didn't make the A, B or C teams.) Around 6:30 I finally got back to my building armed with a note written in Chinese for me by Chrissy explaining that I had lost my keys and needed to be let into my apartment. The note and my broken Chinese produced blank looks and furrowed eyebrows, respectively, but in no way conveyed my current dilemma. Fortunately, Jeff hadn't gone to sleep yet and about 20 minutes of passing my cell phone back and forth to the guards with Jeff translating got them to call the landlord for me at 7:30 am. I finally got back into my apartment around 8:00 am and managed to get my Rush Medical College application in before the noon deadline, at which point I promptly passed out on my couch.

(continued in Part 2)

What a wild ride...

The past few days feel like I've been stuck in stop and go traffic, except when it goes, it hits 90 mph, and then stops suddenly... either way, no good for the system. After the initial excitement about my upcoming triumphant return to my native soil for an interview at the Tufts University School of Medicine, I realized that there might be a small hiccup with my visa situation... that hiccup being that if I left China for my interview on October 13th, with my current passport and visa, I would be unable to return, which would clearly cause some minor issues with my current employment situation. After managing to convey my concerns and the time constraints I was facing to the new assistant in Human Resources, Violet, I was set up with a letter written in Chinese that I was supposed to give to my property manager when I got home after work on Thursday, which I did. I can't imagine why it didn't go smoothly, or why I wasn't at least a little concerned when I realized the letter I had been given consisted of only one sentence... which I couldn't read. A few phone calls to some of my Chinese-speaking friends and I finally got the lady behind the desk downstairs to hand over what I thought was an "official" letter from the company stating that I did, in fact, currently reside in Room 1001 of Building 5 on Lane 188 off of Shuangliu Road. That last sentence is what we, in the blogging community, call foreshadowing... the letter was not, in fact, "official" at all, and not what I needed to take with me to the police station the next morning to get my temporary residency papers. These papers I speak of are necessary to receive a special extended temporary residence F-visa, good for 6 months and unlimited entry and exits from the People's Republic of China.

I spent Thursday night in and finished off a batch of essays for the last of my med school applications but ended up passing out on the couch without setting an alarm. Miraculously, I awoke at 7:45 am without an alarm, showered and headed to the police station, confident that I had in my possession a golden ticket to legal residency in Shanghai. Nothing like a cultural and language barriers to dispel any false sense of security I might have had walking into the police station; the only words the lady behind the desk could get across to me were "You get big fine, too late, 500 RMB!" It was time to call in some backup.

Alice came to my rescue in record time and an hour, and repeated calls to the human resources department at the hospital later, we left the police department with a small, yellow carbon-copy of a "Form for Temporary Residency in Shanghai." By falling back on the trusty "He's white and doesn't understand." card also allowed Alice to get me out of the hefty fine I should have gotten for not registering with the police within 24 hours of my arrival... oops, I was only 68 days late!

Meanwhile, work has been going at the same unpredictable pace... I'm drawing some decent conclusions and wrapping up my report on the marketing survey of health care demand by foreigners in Shanghai, which is nice... but I'm still stuck at my special olympics desk in the marketing department so I'm not allowed to work on the budget project (the budgets contain complete salary data for every employee in the hospital, an incredibly sensitive and confidential topic in United Family Hospitals and Clinics.)

Susie Wang, the head of HR has said she'll be getting back to me with a new contract Monday or Tuesday of next week and Violet currently has my passport (which makes me a little nervous) and should have my new visa for me by Thursday in time for me to leave on Friday afternoon for Vietnam and the sunny beaches of Nha Troung and Hoi An. More updates to come, enjoy the weekend and happy holidays to my Jewish readers.

Happy Hump Day...

I am sad to report that as I type this, I am still sitting at my tiny desk in the middle of the marketing department. But even the snail's pace that the administration here functions at can't put a damper on my good mood... Tuesday morning I received my first invitation for a medical school interview at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. I'll be flying back to the states on Friday, October 13th (ooo, creepy... and also $600 cheaper than any other day around it) and will be in Boston until Wednesday morning when I hop back on a plane, hopefully with a new work visa in hand, and arrive back in Shanghai on Thursday. Had a great dinner last night too at a restaurant in XinTianDi called KABB, that serves a mix of American + a variety of cuisine fusion dishes. Taking it easy tonight in preparation for what should be a really fun weekend, with bar-b-ques on Friday and Saturday night and a "School Disco" Party on Saturday. Now back to trying to communicate with a brick wall...

Somebody's got a case of the "Mon-days"

After a fun bar-b-que at Justin and Nellie's apartment on Saturday night for Justin's birthday I bowed out when the group decided to head to Party World for a marathon session of Karaoke. At the same time, I remembered that Malcolm was hosting a "Glam Party" at Senses Wine Lounge that night so I grabbed a taxi and headed over to the fiesta around 10:30. When I arrived, there was no fiesta... I often forget that Shanghai is a late partying crowd, especially compared to your average Wisconsinite. I caught up with Malcolm, Dan and Anthony and hung out for a while as people slowly trickled in until all of a sudden it was 12:30 and the place was packed. Ended up partying pretty late and grabbing some awesome flour-less chocolate decadence cake at City Diner (I highly recommend it.) Sunday was nice and relaxing and oddly enough, full of American fare as I ate a late breakfast at Moon River Diner (an American diner) and dinner at Cotton's.

The nice reprieve from stress ended abruptly this morning when I returned to work at the hospital and realized that I am, in fact, living and working in the Chinese version of the movie "Office Space." Much of today has been spent listening to phone's ring unanswered and watching the HR department truly struggle with the concept of moving my desk to a new location, even after a series of emails from the CFO, General Manager and eventually the head of human resources in Beijing. Stunning. My buddy Larry apparently had a similarly frustrating day so we're meeting tonight to share our misery over tenderloins and 25 RMB glasses of wine back at Senses. Raise your glass...cheers to me having a new office tomorrow.

Friday Night Lights (as in Corona Lights)

Damn, another post about alcohol... just kidding, actually that's just the headline. This one goes out to my boy Miguel from Bean-town, as I attempt, mildly intoxicated, to watch the entire fourth season of Scrubs tonight.

Even though I haven't gotten to hammer out the details of my new contract, the stability that comes from knowing I'll be here at least 6 months and probably through next Summer has been incredibly liberating and is what I needed to get over my "one foot in China, one foot back in the states, straddling the pacific" lack of commitment to enjoying Shanghai. Helped Laurie celebrate his three month anniversary of being here tonight (actually, just his excuse to send out an email on Monday giving everyone we know a reason to be excited for Friday drinking.) Tomorrow's a big day as I may actually have the end of med school applications (round 2) in sight... it was no easy feat, but I managed to write answers to four completely different essay questions that are all paraphrases of "I'm awesome." Night night.

Happy Days... I found Pepperidge Farm cookies

A bunch of other cool stuff happened too, but I'm really excited that City Shop carries Brussels and Chessmen, which share a solid "bronze" position behind Oreos (Gold) and Girl Scout Cookies (Silver.) Still in a great mood from the news that I'm moving out of marketing, I was more productive than usual this morning and in the afternoon I met with the CFO, a guy named Bart Daniels, and got some more information on my new job in finance. Good thing I have a really positive outlook on things right now or I might describe my new job as daunting, horrifyingly complicated, or way, way beyond my capability; but I do have a nice optimistic outlook right now and so I think writing a budget for an entire hospital will be a great learning experience and really push me to learn new skills. Who am I kidding? The excel file for the service demand profiles alone is just under 8 megabytes (which is an f-ing HUGE excel file)... why, oh why, couldn't they use a relational database like normal people?

Staying positive... tomorrow is a big party for my New Zealand (kiwi) friend, Laurie, who has also offered to let me move into his huge three bedroom place if I can get the hospital to give me in cash whatever my apartment is costing now, which seems reasonable... right? Finalized some more details for my trip to Vietnam over the October holiday which is exciting... our hotel on the beach is 160,000 Dong a night (which may sound like a lot, but is actually only $10... gotta love that exchange rate.) It definitely looks like I'm going to be here long term, so anyone who was toying with the idea of coming out to China... now's your big chance to visit Shanghai and have a tour guide if you come before July 2007!

Ups and Downs

The last few days have seen some real highs and lows, but to quell any fears while reading this, things turned out fine and are going great for me now. Had to recognize some definite home-sickness this weekend seeing pictures from the first Wisconsin home game of the season (especially since the game ended up not being televised in Mike and Beth's area so I couldn't watch it live like I planned.) On Monday, I finally finished up surveying and the final total is 177 surveys, which I will now enter into a database and provide some basic analysis in a presentation to the hospital administration, which is cool, and I'm really glad to be done roaming the streets with a clipboard. Unfortunately, I thought the completion of the surveying meant I would be spending all my time in the office at my special-needs desk and around the constantly mounting tension between the marketing staff and the thoroughly incompetent marketing manager, Jack. This would be one of the lows I mentioned... this guy constantly tries to get me to do his work for him (ie. write the strategic marketing plan) even though I am in no way connected to him other than the fact that my desk happens to be in the marketing office. Normally this kind of guy wouldn't bother me so much, but I actually like the hospital and he is absolutely a detriment to the organization.

I discovered Tuesday morning that when it rains in Shanghai, you have to push old people to the curb and develop a really effective "evil eye" if you want any chance at scoring a taxi. As you might guess, I learned this the hard way; by "hard way" I mean "50 minutes in pouring rain making me 30 minutes late for work and soaking through water resistant slacks." So I wasn't in the best mood yesterday when Jack informed me that I would have to go with him and Dr. Moreton to the other side of the city for a new expat "welcome to Shanghai" event... which ran until 9:30 pm, not only did I not do anything there, like I told him, but unlike everyone else, my stipend doesn't allow for overtime pay. Whatever, it ended up working out because I got dropped off at I Love Shanghai on the drive back and met up with Jeff (the owner) to start planning our January trip to Thailand. Immediately I was in a better mood and then on top of that I was chatting with one of the other regulars and it turns out he was a Sigma Chi at Butler in Indiana and has been living here since he graduated in 2004. Small world.

It's been nothing but positive since I got to work today... I am officially done with the marketing department and I met with the CFO and head of HR today about "the dead weight that is the marketing manager" (don't worry, it was pried out of me reluctantly, but, no big surprise, I found out I wasn't the first, second, or third person they had gotten serious complaints from. In the same meeting, they tore up my old contract and brought me on board the finance team to help with the annual budget and financial projections. I'm meeting with them again tomorrow and should have more details on the project, but from what they described it sounds like a really interesting, unique opportunity to analyze the entire financial foundation (sweet alliteration, I know) of a hospital. Plus, because of the confidential nature of the data I will be working with, I'm moving out of the third circle of hell (I forgot to mention the passive-aggressive fighting over the thermostat that has resulted in an ambient tempature of just over 80 degrees) and getting a big kid desk of my own to work at!

Staying in tonight and hopefully getting through the last of my med school essays.

Ummm.... WOW

I am truly amazed sometimes at the extremes the human body can bounce back from. Feeling a little under the weather still from a lingering cold I did the responsible thing and stayed in Friday night, working on the last of my med school applications and watching the end of Season 3 of Scrubs. I then undid any progress my body may have made on Friday by going out Saturday. The term "going out" is about as inaccurate a descriptor as saying "Viruses are bad." It's a spectrum, with the common cold on one end and say, the Ebola Virus on the other. Well, Saturday night, I had an "Ebola" experience "going out."

The night started out pretty tame as I met Justin, Nellie and Ling for dinner and drinks at a restaurant called Indalo that none of us had ever tried but that came highly recommended and claimed to serve "Authentic Portuguese and Spanish Tapas." The food was outstanding (if overpriced) and as far as I could tell, fairly authentic. The higher than normal price for the food was offset by very reasonable prices across the board for bottles of wine and we shared two with dinner. Vihn met up with us as we were leaving for I Love Shanghai, and "100 RMB All You Can Drink" Saturday night. It also happened to be the welcome home party for one of Jeff's friends, Clem, and the birthday of two others... which were, oddly enough, celebrated sequentially. Long story short, around 6:00 am I was woken up from a very brief nap (my last picture was time-stamped 5:35 am) by Mike calling me and asking if I could pick up his friend at the Marriot on my way to the tailgate party for the NotreDame-Penn and Texas-Ohio State games. Unfortunately, the owner, Jeff, was also out cold and the gate was down, blocking the front door. Shaking and yelling proved ineffective, but the tried and true "cold water splashed on the face" did the trick and I grabbed an rough, early morning taxi ride back from the Bund to my apartment.

After pausing to stare longingly at my bed, I grabbed the Mr. and Mrs. T's Bloody Mary Mix that I had scored at the City Shop (last bottle in stock) earlier last week and left to pick up Danny, another Purdue alumni who was visiting Mike and Beth while he was here on business. We eventually showed up at their apartment at 7:30, just in time to see Penn state slaughtered, and mix up a bloody mary before the Ohio State game started live. A pretty impressive crowd ended up arriving by 9:00 am and before I took a short nap at half time we collectively realized that we had alumni from 9 of the 11 Big Ten schools present (missing only Iowa and Northwestern.) The rest of the afternoon and evening yesterday were spent nursing a mean hangover between naps.

Seriously though, Mom, and other concerned relatives, I don't drink that much, and I promise to start writing more about my cultural experiences and less about my (infrequent) bar adventures.

It really is a small world...

After my post yesterday, the marketing department was informed that Dr. Moreton would be moving into our office to open up his old room to be converted for use by patients. There was some serious Tetris-inspired moving of desks and seating and I somehow ended up getting stuck with the smallest desk ever right in the middle of the room (which now has six people in, literally, an 18'x25' space.)

To make up for it, Dr. Moreton offered to take me out for dinner again at the Moon River Diner, but when we got there we ran into an Emergency Department doctor I hadn't met yet named Serge. We sat down with him and started chatting... turns out 40 years ago he was a Sigma Chi at Columbia University, went to medical school at Georgetown, moved to Germantown, MD and practiced in the DC area for 32 years before coming out to Shanghai. Crazy stuff.

After dinner I made it, fashionably late, to Senses for what turned out to be a really enjoyable wine tasting event for the Kingston label from Australia. Met some interesting new people including a guy named Dan Brady, the owner of a huge restaurant/bar called "Bubba's Bar-B-Que" which isn't that far from my place and has a sweet (semi-legal) Direct TV/Tivo/SlingBox setup connected to a big screen. He also happens to be a huge Texas fan and will be throwing a tailgate party and playing the much hyped "Ohio State vs. Texas Rematch" on Sunday morning.

Heading to an art gallery this evening to try and get a little culture back in my life but then heading to $1.25 Tequila Shot night at I Love Shanghai... which should wipe away any culture I accidentally pick up. The other highlight is watching the badger game live Saturday night/Sunday morning with Mike and Beth, I'll let everyone know how the big football weekend goes.

Hurdles...

Well, I got my hair cut for $7.50, and definitely should have paid more... it also would have helped if I had taken a native Chinese speaker with me; because I didn't, the communication between the "stylist" and myself consisted of him making the little "snip, snip" hand motion and me nodding. I also got back my first load of dry cleaning and it turned out great, and my washing-machine skills are getting significantly better.

On the other hand, I wasn't feeling so hot on Tuesday night, and when I woke up Wednesday morning my cough, sore throat and headache were all the hints I needed to accept that I was, in fact, finally sick. Some bed rest and forcing myself to drink a ton of fluids finally had me out of bed in the evening, which is when I ventured out to the Portman Ritz-Carlton Hotel to meet my mom's business associate, Sha Wang. Sha works with venture capitalists looking to invest in China. Had a great time at a local Chinese restaurant for dinner and then at Malone's for the Wednesday night expat mixer. Turned in relatively early and am feeling a lot better today... so much better that I'm not going to have to miss the Big Kingston Wine Tasting at Senses Wine Lounge tonight hosted by the company my Canadian friends work for, Summergate. Still really excited to catch up with Mike and Beth this Saturday for their big all-night football bash and watch the Badgers live at 2:30 am.

On the med school front, I finished off my applications to Tulane University, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Boston University and sent them on their way. Unfortunately, I also got an email from my parents letting me know that letters had arrived from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and the University of Wisconsin-Madison informing me that most of the spots in the med school class for 2007 are being reserved for in-state students. I guess dumping around $250,000 over five years at UW-Madison doesn't get me any special treatment... so, my chances of returning to the mid-west now lie with the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee... keep your fingers crossed.

Dry Cleaning, Hair Cut, and Laundry (my head-on collision with the language barrier:)

Those pesky little domestic tasks finally caught up with me... I've worn all my dress shirts, am at risk of developing a mullet, and need to stop postponing laundry by buying socks, tshirts and boxers (no matter how cheap they may be.) Unfortunately, I don't live in a high-density expatriate area and so the local services (like dry cleaners) are not staffed by bilingual individuals. You might not think the language barrier would be much of a problem with dry cleaning... you drop off the shirts, point out the stains, and get a receipt telling you when to pick up your clothes... not so. Things were going smoothly until I had finished pointing out the stains (and repeatedly used my recently learned Chinese word for Soy Sauce) and we came to the part of our customer-dry cleaner interaction where I would get a receipt and leave; the lady behind the counter apparently had a problem with this plan, which I discovered when she started yelling at me in rapid-fire Chinese. Long story short, I ended up writing down my address in Chinese (this means copying the symbols as best I can from a piece of paper that I've been carrying around with me for the last 7 weeks and isn't in the best condition to begin with) and leaving with the legitimate concern that I may have just "donated" my shirts.

Fortunately, yesterday, Alice agreed to stop by the dry cleaner with me after work, and as soon as she said "no receipt" they knew exactly who I was and presented me with my shirts, perfectly dry cleaned and pressed (7 shirts for $3.25!) This would prove to be the highlight of my cleaning experiences as I have yet to master the use of my tiny washing machine (all the instructions are in Chinese) and it turns out a Swiffer dust-trapping push broom doesn't cut it for long term cleaning of wood-laminate floors.

I'm off this afternoon to try and get a haircut, taking with me both of my Chinese translators and really hoping that they don't feel like messing with me...

There's a reason people don't go out drinking on Sundays...

Saturday was surprisingly productive and I did learn the basics of Rugby, but was confused thoroughly by a TV next to the one with the South Africa vs. New Zealand Rugby match that was playing this special olympics-style game called "Aussie-rules Football." The erratic play and the fact that it seemed like a lot of the rules were being made up on the field didn't help, but I think it was the monkey humping a coconut on the sideline that really threw me off believing that it was a real sport.

Anyway, Sunday was a little fuzzy as usual but I finally managed to pull myself together and make it over to Mike and Beth's apartment to watch some NCAA Football on Mike's SlingBox... an incredible invention that sends cable from the US over the internet to a computer which is then played through a TV, pure genius. Anyway, a plate of homemade spicy-chicken nachos (thanks Beth!) and a few beers later I headed to Senses to meet up with the elusive Malcolm, who it turned out had been in Hong Kong where, like most people, he was renewing his Visa. That little island is like a geographic loophole for immigration laws. At Senses Malcolm was buying so it was Jack Daniels on the rocks all night... not the best idea when you're a little light on food in the stomach. Fortunately my new friend Kylee took us to the restaurant she manages, 239, and we filled up on an amazing spread of appetizers (the highlights were the stir fried dumplings and the mini-hamburgers with wasabi-dill sauce.) We managed to remain upright until 11:30 and closed the place down, then after a quick stop at Kade Club (the DVD shop) to pick up Season 3 of Arrested Development, Malcolm and I headed to JZ club to listen to some live Jazz and, surprise, surprise, drink more Jack Daniels on the rocks. Needless to say, yesterday was kinda rough and surveying was a real struggle. On the other hand, I did get to go back to my new favorite restaurant near the hospital, a tiny little place that serves DongBei (North-East) cuisine, for lunch and dinner. Off to work soon to tag along with the senior medical advisor and the Chief of Medicine to watch them try to sell a big school on sending all their really sick kids to us exclusively.

Med School update: I sent off two more applications over the weekend, to Temple University School of Medicine in Pennsylvania (where my Grandfather went to med school) and Boston University in... ahh, figure it out on your own.

Nice little Saturday

In the end I never ended up going out last night. While 10 kuai ($1.25) Cuervo Tequila shots is a hell of a draw, I did the shockingly responsible thing and stayed in, finishing drafts of 16 of the 22 essays I have to do for this weeks nine secondary applications to medical school There were a few that were just variations on "what have you been doing since you graduated?", but I'm still impressed with myself and so I rewarded myself by opening a nice bottle of wine and watching the last 5 episodes of Season 2 of "Arrested Development" and then the movie "Rent." Both were good, but kinda opposite ends of the movie genre spectrum. Woke up pretty early this morning and cleaned up the apartment, spent some time online trying to figure out how to get a visa to travel to Vietnam as there are no Vietnamese consulates in Shanghai... the options are actually disturbingly slim, either travel to Beijing to get the visa, or take your chances with a letter of invitation made by a company here and try and apply for a temporary visa when you arrive in Ho Chi Min City.

Heading out soon to run some errands... drop off dry cleaning and buy food (I am now down to just two cans of tuna fish, rice that I can't figure out how to cook properly, a variety of condiments and peanut butter... oh and of course beer, a bottle of wine, and some Jim Beam, but only Keith Richards can live off of a pantry like that.) I am also heading to Malone's at 6 pm to watch my very first Rugby match and have it explained to me, I expect fairly colorfully, by a Brit and an Aussie. This could get messy.

Seriously, I'm going to start posting more often...

Man, the whole work thing, plus the med school apps, it's all really taking it out of me... or I may finally be getting sick. On the other hand, there was this little incident on Tuesday night after a particularly long day of work, involving my favorite bar, "I Love Shanghai", an Absinthe distributor, imported Absinthe from France, and me learning how to breath fireballs. One way or the other, I've been really fatigued and ended up passing out before 9:00 Wednesday and Thrusday night. I've made some decent progress on the medical school applications but, like last year, they're extremely stressful. Headed to the fabric market early tomorrow morning to get the rest of the materials for the suit I'm getting made here super cheap. More updates soon.