Is it fall?

The first week of work is finished. Just in time too. Next week is October Holiday or "Golden Week" as the locals call it. Having a real job is going to put a crimp in my vacation style. The past 2 years yielded me a great deal of free time. This year, I will not be travelling over October Holiday because businesses only get 3 days during the week - 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of OCT. Workers can take a whole week but they actually make it up during one of the weekends surrounding the holiday. So, I will go in on Monday and Tuesday and take my 3 days of holidays. And since it is the end of the fiscal quarter, I will probably end up going in on Sat and Sun of next week to catch up the work. If I knew more about how to do the work at the office, I might be a little more efficient. Don't get me wrong, 1 week at work has certainly increased my knowledge and experience but I have a long long way to go. A long way to go.

Anyway, when I first go to Shanghai, I realized this might actually be a hotter and more humid place than Yichang. I walk to work every morning and it is a terrible 7 min walk. The whole time I am freaking out about how bad I am sweating. Let me tell you, showing up the first day drenched in sweat was a nightmare...but it soon dissipated when I realized everyone else sweats on the way to work too. Luckily, we have A/C all day. Half way through the week it stopped raining everyday and was suddenly breezy and chilly. I wonder, could this be fall? It reminds me of that scene from Harry Potter where the weeping willow just drops all its leaves in a flash signaling the change of a season. It is amazing outside. My clothes and sheets are drying in hours and retain a soft and breezy quality. So much better than that crunchy-ness associated with washing things in hard water and having no dryer.

Well, it is the weekend and so I am going to continue relaxing. Here are some pictures of the area near my apartment. No building is over 7 floors because it is near the airport...and by near I mean 25 mins away. It is a really nice area. If I haven't mentioned it before my apartment is a in a city block with my office on the city block on the north side, the hospital on the block on the east side, and a fabulous shopping mall on the west side. You will see a picture of a wall with a lot of names. Among them are: Starbucks, Dairy Queen, Papa John's, KFC, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Subway, and Paris Baguette. And the grocery store sells cheese and TWIX! I hope I can control myself.


Here is a pic of a hotel that you might stay at if you come to visit and you don't want to sleep on the floor at my place.

Suburbia is nicer than downtown.

Maybe one day I will live in one of these.

Here is the hospital. It is amazingly busy and very good. Mother, you can rest at ease. Not like the experience in Yichang.

And here is the mall.