new communication

thursday the entire office went out to lunch. we weren’t sure what the occasion was, and no one mentioned anything, so we just followed orders and let our chinese coworkers lead us to the cabs and order the food. the food was shanghainese, and in my opinion, not as good as the stuff we had before. that could have been the whole fishes that kept showing up on the table, the anise flavored tofu (anus, anyone?), the mushroom medley placed before me, the cross sections of chicken, or the melon and apples covered in mayonnaise that tainted my view. but this time the meal was more of an effort than I had hoped. we did manage to talk to one of the australian creative teams for a bit and get some inside scoop on things to do, which was nice. later that day, we realized that the whole purpose of the lunch was to celebrate their last day in the office, as well as another team’s. evidently, we aren’t on the shanghai office email list (an item of business that has since been rectified).

thursday night was ladies' night at barbarossa (http://www.smartshanghai.com/venue/860/Barbarossa_Lounge). barbarossa is a hip and happening place, especially for expats. I strangely kept thinking I should run into someone I know. anyway, the place has pretty good food, albeit a bit expensive. (so much for my dumpling dinner plan.) the new plan was for lis and I to make up for it by taking advantage of the free drinks. we told jason, our co-worker, that he could use the change from our bill to buy his, since he’s not easily mistaken as a lady. unfortunately, both drinks offered for ladies’ night were bailey’s irish cream drinks. who wants to drink bailey’s when it’s 100 degrees outside? so a few rounds, silly photos and sob stories later, we closed down the bar. and friday morning, well, we took a taxi to work.

lis and I hit “stabucks” on the way home from the office. they are incredibly friendly to us at the one near the office and this time proved no different; a smallish girl who looked like she was being bossed around by the other two baristas marched up to us while we waited for lis's drink. “so, where you from?” as she crossed her arms. lis's drink came shortly after our answer was repeated back to us, but not before we could wonder if the next question might have been “where you going?” followed by “can I come?” I think she decided to hell with the bossy barista gang, I’m going to show off my english and make me some new friends. ordinarily, the entire crew at “stabucks” bids us goodbye individually, loudly and repeatedly. this time lis started the whole chorus. “BYE BYE!!!” I had to laugh, and she admitted that she had done it without thinking, though she might just start doing it every time, just for fun.

we had been invited to go out and meet the austrailians to see some famous canadian DJ spin at a club here, but we felt like perhaps we should lay low after thursday’s excursion. so dinner was dumplings and nip/tuck. about 5 or 6 episodes. we’re so lame.