Reality sets in...

Survived the first day!  Met the "management staff" today (of which I am a part... go figure).  There are over 300+ of us and when you combine us with our local hosts, bus drivers and guides, we are an army of about 1,500 people.  

Boarded the van to the meeting and met a ton of new people... Now I have no idea what any of their names are anymore mind you.... but I have another 38 days to figure them out.  Then it was onto uniform sizing and outfitting... I have to say that I was one of the lucky ones that actually fit into the Chinese sizing (the treadmill must have worked a little bit in Vegas....).  There were definitely some ladies on the team that were none too impressed when they had to take mens XL and 2X clothing... In their defense, the sizing was MUCH smaller than we have at home.   Then it was off to another line to pick up my cell phone and laptop... yes, I have received the kiss of death on this program - a phone and a computer... they must actually expect me to do some work! Reality has begun to slap me in the face... how rude of reality.  Then the tidal wave of excessive information began....

After that it was a general session for 8 hours.  The amount of info passed onto us was incredible... once again, don't remember nearly enough (but I have 38 days left to figure things out....) There was not much to report (or at least not much that I will report on this blog... I am not one of those crazy people that discuss work on the internet!  I am not getting my butt sent back to Canada anytime soon!)

After work I headed back to the hotel as I was laden with goods and needed to charge several electronic devices.  Funny note about how attentive the staff is here at the hotel... I had my privacy sign on my door all day as I just collapsed last night and had crap everywhere that I need to sort out (It will be a project for me if I wake up tomorrow morning at 4am again) - well, when I entered my room, there were no less than 5 notices under my door saying that they tried to clean my room - and they were are time stamped (8:15am, 9:00am, 10:30am, 4pm, 5:30pm)!  I wouldn't have been surprised if they were banging down my door later on!

I then quickly freshened up and then it was back in a cab to go back to the Jet Set office to meet my friend David for dinner as we did not meet up yesterday.  I was so proud of myself because I was prepared!  I hopped in the cab armed with directions and numbers and more directions in English and Mandarin and off I went solo... and made it in one piece!  Not only that, but the cabbie shocked the crap out of me when he SIGNALED his intentions to change lanes... That just doesn't happen here people!  I didn't even think cars in China came with directionals!

More new friends joined us and 7 of us ended up going out for Thai food (I know... when in Rome.... but whatever - I am sure I will try skewered scorpion and silk worms before too long - remember, cultural exceptions!).  So David, Julia, Joey, Dave, Trevor, Ethan and myself had a great dinner together at Purple Haze.  Julia, Trevor and Myself are Canadian and David, Dave and Ethan are from the states.  I think there are over 10 countries (if not more) represented by our staff. 

It was great to chat and meet each other.  As it turns out, all of us are talking about extending in some form or another and we might do it together... but it is only day one, so we will have to find out if we are still on speaking terms in 38 days!  We want to tour Thailand, Vietnam, China and some of us will stay until the 23rd of September and some of us will leave when we feel like it. - A great piece of information that we found out today is that our accreditations act as multiple entry visas for China until the 23rd and we get priority line entrance at customs as we are considered "organizers of the Olympic Games" themselves as we are partnered with BOCOG (Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games).  Awesome! We are free to do what we want...at least as free as one can be in a communist country.   

We are trying to do what we can together now, as none of us are working on the same programs and may not see one another once the programs start.  Jet Set is so big that there are no less that 15 different clients.  I am an assistant program manager (fancy way of saying be-atch).  No idea what that means yet, but I am assured I will know a little bit more after tomorrow. 

Tomorrow is another crazy day of meetings but Thursday looks to be promising as we are doing a city tour of all the venues etc.  Sorry about the somewhat boring post, it was a straightforward work day - yes I do work when I go away, not just vacation! 

I will leave you with the word of the day for today; Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008.  It is in keeping with the dining out theme of today and toasting new friends and a the start of our adventure...

"ganbei!"

-Cheers!

Let round two begin!  

ps - feel free to comment on my posts as I like to pander to my audience whenever possible... just hit the 'comment' button and fire away!