Today was conference day 1. I'm not really that impressed with the conference setup or organization, and the hotel is smoke-filled and not quite up to snuff for me. But I've spent time with lovely coworkers from Shanghai, Calgary, San Rafael, and of course NH and MA. That coupled with the spreads of traditional Chinese food they have at every meal has made for a pleasant day.
This morning we started with breakfast. No Starbucks or muffins here, baby! The potstickers are amazing, and the other stuff is very tasty. Yum! The only thing I really missed was coffee.
We kicked off the day with morning sessions. They gave me a little simultaneous translator to have on my ear, but the reception was bad, so I gave up and Qiong helped translate some of it. Two of the speakers were in English and the Chinese speaker was mostly reporting on survey results, so I didn't miss much.
After the morning sessions we had a tasty lunch, and I just hung out with the crew and spent a long time in the banquet hall. And then, since I had woken up quite early, I went to take a nap. It was much needed!
The evening included some sessions followed by the big banquet, which featured many wondeful dishes. It was especially nice to have native people there to tell me what things were, though I certainly tried everything.
At lunch my first time food (or maybe I had a wee bit before) was beef tongue. It was part of a cold salad and I had several pieces and had finished my meal before Qiong mentioned what it was. That's just so funny to me, that I ate it and had no idea... Anyway, dinner's new items for me were jellyfish (oh my god, so good) and sea cucumber (good flavor but I didn't like the texture). Apparently much of our dinner meal was more Shanghainese food. *shrug*
And for the day and through dinner, the company was also great, with 'deskers all sitting together and having a good time. Also, because I'm a speaker, along with Xiaoyu and Qiong, I got a wonderful framed paper cutout. It's really beautiful!
So even though the smokey hotel is really getting to me and I haven't gotten much out of the courses so far today, I still have fun stories to tell. I think the Shanghai people (and Chinese living in the States) from my company are all impressed with my willingness to try everything and the fact that I love so much of the food. I can't help it, flavors are good and I love trying new ones!
I'm keeping a note to myself about other things that have struck me while being here, but I've been to tired to really put them together, so hopefully I'll get to it when we get to Shanghai. Or when I get back! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment