Internship

I work at a very long table. It almost spans the entire lenghth of the office that is lined with computers and people on either side. This table holds about thirty people.
Sitting in such an arrangement means you get to know people pretty fast.

If I had a dollar for every time the man next to me burped I would be rich. Does this make you cringe? Thats just him adding his own melody into the melting pot of the background noise.

Speaking of noise, the lady opposite me is prone to use her vocal chords at maximum capacity multiple times a day. She makes a point of letting everyone know of her presence. This does my head in. She does not have a nice voice. The others, usually so quiet and well behaved in comparison, (always tapping away at their keyboards), respond to the loud lady's call by starting a comotion of their own.

The routine here happens like this: loud lady starts, everyone else gets fired up and makes themselves known too, at which point the czech director comes out of his office. Then, with him standing at the head of the table, you hear as many 'shoosh's' as it takes for everybody to be quiet.

....And there there is me. I dont understand chinese. I dont speak chinese. I dont know what is going on, ever. I frequently I wish I did, because they argue with such conviction, and always so publicy.

Then, all is quiet, except for the mobile phones. Constantly going off, it seems to be the 'in' thing to have a radio song for your ringtone rather than the standard ones that come with the phone. I hear new song remixes all the time, as everyone's phone rings simultaneously.

You may be asking about what the chinese business model is like.. . the rule is - there is no model. You do as you like. As far as im concerned, only the lady at the end of the table, two seats down from me, is actually doing work. Just looking around, everyone else's screens are showing MSN, blog sites, facebook...hows that for productivity?

Apparently here it is even acceptable to 'nap' whilst at work. The man next to me gets a second mention because yesterday he took about a half an hour nap on his keyboard, blissfully unaware that the boss was within a 5 metre radius of him the whole time. Absolutely nothing happened, and he wasnt woken by his boss, but rather his ringing phone -Mariah carey. Great taste.

Love me.


(in the time that I have been writing this he would have burped at least 20 times)

There is rain forecasted for every day until the end of this week. Rain mixed with pollution mixed with humidity makes the city smell - much much worse than it already smells. China you are so charming!