Friday, July 10, 2009

Back to Work

(posted by Alan)

So it's been about 4.5 months since I've actually been employed. A very interesting and exciting time for sure. But today, I formally accepted a job here in The 'Hai. One of the main reasons we moved to Shanghai BEFORE finding work is that possibilities are endless in this city. You will find yourself in situations and with opportunities that you never might have dreamed of. My tentative plan was to come here and teach English, as teaching positions in Shanghai are plentiful and quite lucrative. But how often does life actually go as we plan it?



Anyway, I'm now the International Brand Manager for a Chinese digital media company called Wangfan Interactive. I will be in charge of developing overseas clients, dealing with all international presentations and working with the employees in teaching them english, running Team Building activities and counseling them. They're all young, fresh out of college and its a really, really cool, creative and casual atmosphere. The office is alot of fun and looks like a clubhouse. With the way the globalization is going these days and China's unique position, this should be invaluble experience, not to mention the quickest way I can think of to pick up my Chinese speaking skills. Should be quite the adventure.

Some random pictures from the past month:
Rachel, DZ and deep fried bananas; Me, Adrian and shades. (yes, shaved my head again. sorry mom); Doritos. 29.9RMB is about $4.15 USD. I love em, but not that much.


So, Facebook has been blocked out here. Nothing is untouchable I guess. A friend mentioned today that when living in America, we often take for granted all of the rights that we really have. Moving here, or to one of the MANY countries in the world that are run similarly, we're giving alot of them up. Its a sobering thought. I probably shouldnt talk about the reason why Facebook and Twitter and many other sites are currently blocked here, but you can look it up on any of your unblocked web browsers at home. Violence and discrimination know no boundaries. Its quite the extreme situation, so the block should only last until the situation is under control, but for the sake of the people involved and not for our facebook privileges, lets pr8y that it settles down soon.

Here we go CEMQ, let's sweep the summer tournament.

More random pictures:
With my cousin Nick and his gf Annie at XuJiaHui(aka The Xu); DZ and her favorite bubble tea from 85degrees.

DZ @ Taco Loco (awesome burritos and banana smoothies); Flavor of the Month at Baskin Robbins with my name on it; DZ and Happy Lemon


Response to comments:
Corey - Twitter seems cool. But I was on it only for a day before it got shut down over here. I'm thinking it'll be up in a week or so.
Mimi - Those Hawaiian outfits can be yours for an absurd 180RMB. Who in the world would actually BUY that?
Gary - I was in a bathhouse that is only suitable for mature men who are secure in their masculinity.

2 comments:

  1. you can use twitter on your phone updating your status through texts. If you have a pocket pc or something along those lines, you can surely find a app program that will allow you to long on to twitter and update through that and more..... It seems like Chin@ is all about control. Controlling what the media sees, what they know, and all that. Not cool. There's a C team now, Nick Chin's age, I believe they just lost today... by 15? First time playing together, so no one knows what to do. Sure they'll get better. Alrite man...... I need to get back to this accounting work.... Killing me this summer.

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  2. How come the bubble tea place is called 85 degrees? I can come up with clever reasons why, but I'm gonna stop myself from being corny, so you tell me why! How come Doritos are so expensive! Do the packaged items still have the ingredients and nutritional facts like in the states?

    Congrats on being international brand manager!

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