Can’t believe how long it’s been since my last blog. I guess with John’s blog on the scene, I decided to sit back and read someone else’s for a bit. His is hosted through his mac account, and apparently the apple blogger software is quite the thing. He can embed pictures and all. Sorry readers, I lack that level of blogging sophistication– you’re gonna have to just suck it up and click over to Imagestation.

This has been another busy week. Thankfully, hurricane season is bringing all sorts of strong breezes to Shanghai. Some days are entirely rainy, but we are just relieved for the cooler weather. The summer was utterly unbearable.

I’m learning that September in China is kinda like New Year’s in the US. I mean, yeah the kids are back in school, but besides that, there’s this weird sort of New Year’s Resolution attitude about things. I’ve been responding to teaching/training ads all year, and suddenly, I’m getting lots of bites. Everyone wants to starting their English training–for real, this time. I had maybe three interviews last week. I’m still waiting to hear about the Citigroup gig— god, companies take FOREVER with these things. In the meantime, I asked Rainbow Consulting to send me their draft contract with me… I’m waiting on that too. You gotta get that kind of logistical shit on the table. Otherwise, they practically assume you’ve accepted without them even mentioning your pay. It’s a strange and tricky approach over here.

I got an email this morning… just picked up a new client– the director of a small HR company. Actually, the director interviewed me last week looking for a trainer for his staff. The company ended up picking someone else, but he wanted me to be his personal trainer. So whatever. I’m game. We start this week– 8am twice a week. No games.

Another interview last week was with the president of Cabot Chemical, a global chem company in Shanghai. The guy is super hardcore– wants to learn about food/wine, arts, American football, public speaking, PR… all kinds of high-powered stuff. I guess he meets regularly with CEOs and the like. So he printed out this confusing, fluffy Newsweek article (I know, uncharacteristic of Newsweek) about the King Lear play currently running in NYC and wanted to understand it. I was honest with him… I could teach him pronunciation (one of his goals) and higher level reading, but my experience with more of the business etiquette/cultural things is somewhat limited. I have no problem researching and presenting my findings to him, but really the only people I know who have this level of experience are people my parents’ age. I mean, these people are a different breed– they run in different circles. I’m thinking Mrs. Rubin, John’s co-workers… I just played in the landfill and met with solid waste operators while I was in the glorious world of consulting. Regardless, I offered to put together a proposal and we’ll go from there. Not sure what he thought of our interview. I was just myself, meaning I was articulate, but I wasn’t like a public speaker or anything. This guy has downloaded all the DNC speeches even! The project sounds really interesting and I would certainly learn a ton… but it will be a lot of work. Oh well, we’ll see how things go.

In other news, Wu Ayi taught John and me to make jiaozi’s (dumplings) today. That was a LOAD of work–chopping, slicing, peeling, squeezing… none of our gadgets could help us. 🙁

John has finally chosen his Chinese name: Li Qiang (or Qiang Li, as they would turn it in English–different sequencing of the first/last names). Li is a pretty common last name that is also easy to write. Qiang is sometimes used for John. There you have it. We’re going to have new business cards printed this week. I’ll take pictures when they’re done.

Ok. Time to prep for class. Hope you are having a good Labor Day holiday!