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.