Well the clouds have once more descended back on Shanghai, though the rain gods were kind enough to allow me dry passage to and from work, the rest of the day it rained. At work we finalized the design for the data sheet, it was already pretty much set but we just change some minor presentation things (this shouldn’t be italicized, let’s get this picture of a phone to be facing the same way as all the others, change the font here, etc). Other than that the day was consumed by my research into global transit markets.
Fun stuff, but man is it tough to find information on how many people use a bus system. For example there are 20 independent bus companies that run Shanghai. Finding a public figure on how many total passengers they have all combined would require me to contact every single one of them, or finding the elusive Chinese department that magically runs the show, though whether they even know is questionable. I then have over 30 cities on my list; each one is in a near similar situation… super.
I did have an interesting discussion with Niko (my boss) on current events in the US, Google redirecting their Chinese page to Hong Kong hence getting around Chinese law, the local situations in China, odd traffic things here, etc. The average driver has had their licenses for about 5 years… I don’t think you get it yet, well over 3 million drivers on the road with ONLY 5 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE! On the flip side it makes walking around so much more interesting, and drivers pay a lot more attention to what they’re doing. You hardly ever see anyone driving that isn’t fully focused on the road, no texting, no cell phones, no messing with the baby in the back, FULL ATTENTION. Kind of a nice change, now if only they cared that there was a pedestrian in front of them… I guess nothings perfect.
On the way home I tried to find the Hookah (or Shisha as they call it) Shop but by the time I got there they had closed, luckily there seems to be another one on the way to the electronics’ mall where I’m going to take my MP3 player anyways, so maybe I’ll have better luck then. When I got back I met up with the Frenchies for dinner. Sandra seems to be doing better, though I think she’s hanging on by the morphine. Anyways they wanted to go out tonight, and I had originally planned on going with them but as I sat there listening to their French I just started getting more and more tired. In the end I just went back to my room and chilled for the evening. I might even watch a movie after I post this, I know, just going crazy wild in Shanghai.
O well skipping one party isn’t going to kill me, and it’s not like saving the money hurts either. They tend to want to take a taxi every time to the club/bar, while I prefer to take the subway (at least while it’s open). Of course the girls have to worry about high heels, and I have yet to adopt that fashion accessory. I’m just cheap I guess.
I need to start branching out a little bit as far as my friends go, there are two Korean girls that we went to the club with who seem super nice maybe I’ll ask them if they want to go with me tomorrow. I also have a Chinese friend who I need to go out to lunch with. I’ll have to put that on my too do list.
O ya my cough is pretty much gone, but I’m still drinking tea like nobodies business.
I feel bad I hadn't put up as many funny pictures as I had promised I would. So in recognition of Obama's victory I'll just lay that this one out there. Beck, Hanity, Palin, have derailed and pushed the Republican party off the deep end; step up and say no to extremism.
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