1:20 3/25/10 (again posted on the 24th for record keeping)
Sometimes writing a daily blog is kind of… pain, writing after spending most of the day working, out exploring Shanghai, a long dinner, and several hours at a bar is one of those times. But I do it for the fans… ok so maybe that consists of like three people, but I digress.
I do have an announcement though: my epic quest for a hookah/shisha is finally OVER!!!! But that’s at the end of the blog.
Until then I’ll tell you about my epic failure as an intern.
So today I turned in the first phase of my market research and come to find out my search wasn’t broad enough. I interpreted there instructions as “give us a list of large transit markets that also use stored value smart cards” (which included extra data such as daily ridership, card name, etc) what they really wanted was “give us a list of ALL global transit systems that use stored value smart cards and if you don’t include a transit system then please have a written and documented reason why”.
The list I created had about 35 cities on them, but the list they’re looking for is probably closer to 75-100. Whoops. And quite honestly it’s my fault, I originally heard from the CEO that he wanted a general list of some markets to possibly move into that have over five million residing in the metroplex. My boss on the other had over road this at three times by asking for various other things. Looking back on it I think I had just already framed the assignment in my head and I was reluctant to move away from that.
Lessoned learned, I need to adjust to how they do business and I can’t let this happen again.
After that failure I went with Nathan to go replace my MP3 player and look for a hookah. Come to find out the electronic district was his old stomping grounds last time he went to school in Shanghai so he was really happy when he realized where we were. And they replaced my MP3 player with no problem, and in fact they found a problem with it (something to do with the screen) that I hadn’t even seen which was good cause we were having a hard time communicating to them that the hard drive was corrupted, and o ya I had tried to reformat it but it got half way through and would complete the reformat… whoops.
Then we began our journey for the hookah. Google maps was kind enough to give me the exact location but when I clicked on the “print” button it then decided to move our marker about 4km away… so we decided to check the first location which was pretty close from the stop and then we would just try again some other time if it was the one that was far away. Well once the first spot was a bust we just hailed a cab and decided to go for the other location as well.
We wound up at a pharmacy. Which I guess was good for Nathan cause he scored some cough syrup (that kind of tasted like a robotusen with the consistency of honey) and condoms. I seriously thought about holding his hand as he asked for the condoms but just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
At this point we’re like 8km from any given train stop, which meant there weren’t any foreigners in sight, we were in the “real” part of Shanghai. Which I must say was a much more realistic picture of Shanghai then the expat glamour of other parts of the city. It wasn’t like scary or anything but it felt much more like “people live and work here” as oppose to people just “being” here. I know that’s kind of a weird distinction, but it’s the best I can do. I really want to go back cause there looked like there was some good exploring needing to be done in the area. Clement said he wanted to go exploring on Saturday so maybe we’ll try to find a similar place on Saturday.
We did stop in a local grocery store where I got pick up an epic plunger for my toilet (water pressure sucks here) and some tea, which I have yet to be able to make a good batch of but it’s loose leaf so I fell at least a little bit more authentic when I buy it.
Once we got back the group decided it was dinner time and we were soon off to an all you can eat Chinese buffet which costs 58RMB, not too bad. We had fun and they really enjoyed the all you could drink beer (I’m not a beer person so I just had their odd tasting Pepsi). I did learn something about Chinese behavior. When the manager comes and asks how you liked the food, and whether you enjoyed the beer, the past tense he’s using is their way of saying “get the hell out we’re trying to close.” Duly noted.
Afterwards we headed out to some expat bar which I don’t remember the name of. It was pretty typical, the drinks were overpriced (though not as bad as some places) and there were nothing but expats, old expats in fact. BUT THEY HAD HOOKAHS!! O finally a night where I could just chill have a little something to drink and just relax…. What? That’s exactly what I did. Though I got on the bar and danced at the end of the night just to appease my friends, thank you lesbians who were making out next to me, you made the night a little sexier.
But wait we were leaving and what’s this, they were selling hookahs outside!! Well I kind of dismissed this, selling anything outside of place full of white people means the prices will be on the far side of outrageous. But hey it was the first place we’ve found so Nathan went ahead and asked the price. In the end I walked away with a nice size hookah, plastic tops, two boxes of good tobacco, and charcoal for 350 RMB. That’s $51 and in America the Hookah alone would cost you anywhere from 60-80, even if I could have haggled it down a bit I’m perfectly happy with that price. Now we’ll just see if it actually works…
Something strange happened afterwards though. So I’m walking away with my purchase and we come around this other shop (the bar was kind of tucked away in this gated area and this shop was located next to it right before you exited the area and got back onto the street), and suddenly three guys with the classic body guard ear pieces started questioning about where I got what I was carrying, did I have a recipe and o we need to go talk to the guys you bought it from. Who was the puzzled little white kid? O that would be me. In the end everything checked out but the whole situation was just really strange. In the end we had no problems getting home, and now I’ve just tried to make another batch of tea and I’m heading to bed.
Night everyone, mission has been accomplished, but I need to do better at work.
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