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.