Business Trip??

My first day at work was interesting for sure. I arrived to the office for my first work day at an architecture firm in China to be told that I was going on a business trip to ZaoZhuang for an uncertain amount of time. This would have been an exciting event had it not been my first day at work and had I been giving the opportunity to go home to get a change of clothes but sadly that was not the case.

The city is located north of Shanghai in the ShanDong province. It is a city that is pretty much completely under construction (ALL of the projects in the office are located in ZaoZhuang). There is no English to be found unlike Shanghai. I believe I was the only western person in that city until my boss's friend from Australia showed up which was a much needed relief.

We, a few colleagues and I, were there to meet with clients, government officials, as well as do some site visits. I still don't know why I was there which was a total of 2 full days and 2 nights. All the meetings over the 2 days there were in Chinese with no one to translate for me and I had no knowledge of the projects that were being discussed. I was told by others that I was there to be the "white face" of the company to impress the clients and officials. Whether this is true or not, I did feel useless there.

The only good thing about being there was attending the big banquet lunch and dinners. Every lunch and dinner was a chance to discuss more business for my boss, however; I was there for the new foods. I had some really amazing food (don't ask me what I ate because I didn't ask, I just tired it all...lol). I did try something that I knew exactly what it was but I tried it anyway, that was a large INSECT with 6 legs and a crunchie outer shell (trust me it was crunchie). There was an entire plate of them sauteed for the table. I knew I had to try one to keep face and not be laughed at by everyone at the lunch. To my surprise, it wasn't that bad. I did just have only one though..lol.