Nearing the End!

It has been a long and fun week! A blink of an eye and I am already saying goodbyes this week as David and Grace take off for their U.S. trip tomorrow. That means, my goodbye party and all that good stuff happened this week too. I have three days left of work and On the 4th I will be boarding the plane for home .It is bittersweet. Here is a timeline of events that have happened that deserve pictures!

Saturday 7/21
The weather has been surprisingly nice this entire week so Saturday afternoon, my roommates Joe, Tyler and I went to the fake beach on the south end of the bund. Yes, this is a spot full of foreigners of all kinds, but being Minnesotan and missing our summer sun we took advantage of the perfect weather to lay on some sand and hang out in the rays. It was my first tan of the summer (and it is gone already). Anyways after we got enough sun, we took the ferry across the river to the Pudong Area and walked around all the tall skyscrapers along the river. It was a perfect night to do this and we went to the Pearl Tower area and found a big mall where I picked up a couple shirts in. Then we got back to our apartment around nine and then headed out for some drinks in the Changsho road area where Tyler, Joe and I just hung out and chatted. It was one of my favorite days in Shanghai. We got to see a lot and so much was happening the entire day.

watching the sunset on our quick ferry ride

right in front of the pearl tower

Tuesday evening after work, my company had a farewell dinner for me and they also invited my roommates along too. We ate a new restaurant and enjoyed lots of delicious Chinese food along with lots of beer. We did the traditional cheers everybody at the dinner and they cheers you back and that got us prepared for the second part of the night which was a trip to the KTV. KTV is Chinese karaoke but they do it a little differently here .It is a big building filled with rooms with TV's and sound systems and you have a private room to sing and hang out in with your group you are with, there aren't any bar stages here! It was a lot of fun and my boss dedicated a song to me and we danced and sang songs and played the dice game til late. It was so much fun and I will always remember that night. My co-workers treat me so well here and it makes me want to work here longer!

the beginning of dinner

my boss David singing it up at KTV

me and Tyler singing a song

my co workers Ivan (L) and Hugo (R)

Wednesday morning I took the subway to the train station instead of work because I went on a visit to our Jinhua factory with Ivy which is a three hour train ride away. When we arrive in Jinhua, the first thing we did was eat lunch a local restaurant. They are regulars there because people were waving to them outside the building. the food was very good. I enjoyed the fried fish the best and the weirdest thing I tried was sparrow. It was a good experience to see a Chinese factory and I actually got to see the products we sell being made in action. There was a lot of welding going on because we visiting the cargo carrier factory. Nick is the General Manager at the factory and he introduced me to his team and gave me a tour. Ivy came with me from the company and I sat on their meeting with the customer that came along from his company in Shanghai for the meeting. His name was Harry and his colleague was Devin. They both spoke a little English so I was able to have a conversation with them. This trip will be a very good experience for my career and it was nice to get out of Shanghai for a day. 

me with the two customers on th left and Nic (r), the manager of the factory

That leaves me with company pictures before Grace and David leave for the U.S 3 week trip where I will be joining them in MN for their vendor conference at Northern Tools. We took a company picture and it reminded me of getting my own family picture taken with all of the people. Once we took the group photo, everyone wanted an individual shot with me. I have had the best people to work with during my time here and will remember it always!

the company minus frank and Derek!

The General manager Vincent and CEO David (l)

More pictures to come and this last week is going to be bittersweet!

Time Flies!

Wow, the time has flown by so fast! I only have 13 days left in China before I head home back to Minnesota. These past two weeks have been the busiest at work and I have gotten a lot accomplished. The meat processing project was completed after working two days overtime. I also was assigned to give some internal training to all the staff so I presented to them how to create effective powerpoints american businesses approve. I also had a verb refresher course for them to brush up on their grammar. Mr. Thiem would be so proud of me. My biggest project yet was pitching the e-commerce business proposal for my CEO David. I just completed that project yesterday and received good results and feedback so I am very excited and relieved! That was the project that was assigned to me before I arrived in China and it took a lot of researching and time spent here to successfully drive the company in the correct direction for future e-commerce. This has been a very interesting industry to work in and learn about.  I will be able to apply all that I have learned to many other industries as well.
Other happenings in the past days I will share a photo and a quick story!

Mass at St. Ignatius Cathedral in Xu Jia Hui,

Two Sundays ago, I headed out early to find this cathedral because I enjoy seeing the catholic church in other parts of the world. After getting off the subway station and taking very lucky guesses as to which direction I should be walking, I found the church crosses peaking out of the sky around a corner. I went to walk in and found out that the English mass was starting in 5 minutes so I was able to attend mass as well. It was a nice mass and great way to start my week in China. You couldn't take pictures inside but it was very beautiful and reminded me of S.S.P.P church back at home in Mankato.

Chef Vincent cooks home made Chinese food for us at our apartment

This past Sunday, my boss came over to our apartment and brought 6 Chinese dishes cooked at his home for us to eat. We had a large group of me and my roommates Tyler and Joe, along with Michael and my landlord Janee. We got our apartment ready for all the guests, purchased a cake for dessert, watermelon for a snack and even made egg drop soup from scratch to pitch in. Vincent was also sure to bring some bijou and wine for us to try. The food was very good and we enjoyed afternoon that turned into an evening of conversation and great food and drinks. This will be one of my favorite memories from China.

Shopping and Ladies Night with Janee
Janee our landlord is so friendly and has been so great to us during our time spent in China, it is not very often that a Chinese landlord will let you live in their space for only 2 months. She has taken us out for dinner and helped us with whatever we needed. On Wednesday this week, me and her met up for some shopping a good dinner on a famous shopping street and then we headed over to Brown Sugar a bar for ladies night. In Shanghai, almost everywhere on Wednesday's is ladies night where girls drink free. What a treat! There was a live band at Brown Sugar and we had a great night of dancing and listening along to the music! It was a really fun night and I hope to have a couple more ladies nights with her before I leave!

I have a lot to accomplish in these last 13 days left here.  . I am also looking forward to my farewell dinner that my company will be throwing for me, we are going to a new Chinese restaurant that has just opened up followed by some good ole traditional Chinese KTV (American karaoke). I better start practicing a song! On Wednesday I will be travelling on a train to Qingdao to visit one of our company's factories with my co-worker Ivy.

Stay tuned for the end of my trip!

Tourist Time

This post is dedicated to post pictures of all the touristy sites in Shanghai , they may be crowded but they are worth seeing!

Yu Gardens
This is a very busy place and full of tourist traps (ahemm tea scammers). It is located on the Line 10 metro stop. It is full of modern shops housed in old Chinese architecture. The gardens are a bunch of little lakes full of fish and the famous tea house. It is a great place to bargain for souvenirs and other trinkets at all of the bazaars. When I was in the gardens, I was asked to take a picture with multiple Chinese people. When one person asks then all of the others around want a picture too. It's pretty funny. This is a great place to people watch.

The Huxingting Teahouse

The colorful fish in the water!

A street in the Yu Garden's Bazaar

Jing'an Temple
This is one of the cities most revered places for worship. It was closed during the cultural revolution, but was rebuilt and has been open since 2006. There are a lot of worship places and buddha statues everywhere. I was able to go on a weekday so it was not crowded and I could easily see everything.

Looking out from the top of the steps

Chinese sashes

In Jing'an Temple with the skyscrapers in the background

Big Buddha!

Shanghai Museum
This Museum in located by People's Square. I went there early on a Saturday morning and waitrd in line to get in for a good half hour. The lines are so long because admission is free and you have to go through a security check before getting in. The museum displays a number of galleries including calligraphy, landscape, jade, pottery and cultural clothing. My favorite thing to look at was the calligraphy and paintings on scrolls.

inside, the building has a main level and three floors

The Shanghai Museum in People's Square

one of the paintings diplayed on scrolls

The Bund and People's Square

The rainy nightime skyline

Still crowded even with the rain

People Square is located in the heart of Shanghai. It is the definition of a shopper's dream. There are stores, resturaurants, boutiques, theatres and street performers all down and around the well known Nanjing Rd. There are always crowds of people day and night and I love coming here just to soak up China. This Bund is signature landmark of Shanghai. I visited here in a thunderstorm in the pouring rain on a Friday night and during the day and it is fascinating whatever weather or time you are seeing it. I really enjoy walking along the riverside, it is also a good place for walking and people watching for an entertaining afternoon or evening.


That's all for now! I will be posting again soon with new updates!

Life at Forcome

During the product video shoot

Work Work Work!I have been keeping very busy in the office. I am finishing up one big project which included a business proposal with Masterbuilt and Sporting Good Stores in the U.S. Their CEO John McLemore was in China for the week and was visiting our company to see the new product line. I made a lot of product spreadsheets comparing our products, prepared catalog and packaging descriptions for the products, and helped set up the showroom for display. This week, John came and proposed that we recorded a video to pitch our line to potential buyers so we got that ready and started shooting today. I am thankful that I took a media aesthetics class last semester because I am able to help alot with the shot types and storyboard for the video. This has been a very exciting and rewarding project.

held the script just right!

My next big project is preparing for the Northern Tool National Vendor Conference that will be held in Minnesota. I will be flying home and attending the fair with David Wang, the president and Grace Lee, the senior sales manager the second week in August.  Me and Grace are responsible for preparing our booth layout, products that we will be displaying there including cargo carriers and LED work lights as well as prepare all of the promotional pieces such as banners, gifts, and flyers. I have been sending many e-mails back to the U.S. contacting people for registration and preparing our booth setup. We have a long to do list but everything is ahead of schedule and running smoothly. I am excited for the conference to be able to  pitch our products to the buyers.

When I am not working on those products there is always other work to be doing like contract reviews, catalog edits, website editing, promotional flyers for new products, translation, my e-commerce proposal and I will also be teaching the sales department more about social media and giving them some grammar refreshers! I am really gaining experience in all departments and more and more about international trading and manufacturing. Everything from logistics to marketing to product development, I have been able to help with it all.  I love all of the people at my company, even though some of them can't speak English, they all make me laugh. I especially enjoy playing Foosball after lunch, they are REALLY good. They really enjoy hearing all my American slang words when I'm playing like "Shoot!" or "Oh man!".


Company Dinner

On June 29th, our entire company along with the factory managers when out to dinner to celebrate the half year report, which was good. A traditional Chinese business consists of a private reserved room with big round tables holding a large lazy susan that spins all the dishes around. Laura and Ada went to order all the delicious food. The weirdest thing I ate was pork tail and I ate a pea size. Honestly, the only reason I ate that much is because everyone was watching me and wanted me to eat it! My favorite was the spicy noodles and eggplant. My Boss David and Vincent told me at the beginning of the dinner there was only one rule "No drunk, no go home". That is what the Chinese businesspeople do. You have to "cheers" with everyone at the table and they have to cheers you back. The factory managers made sure to "cheers" more than once with me. It was a fun night hanging out with everyone and there was a lot of delicious food. At the end of dinner, Vincent told me we were going to go get foot massages with his wife. I can't say no to that. It was a very nice place and the foot massage that included a back massage lasted 2 hours. It was amazing. I hope to go to one more of those before I leave here. My feet were happy campers in the morning, you walk a lot in China.

The fancy dinnerware

ONE of the delicious dishes of food

The whole gang!

My feet's favorite place in Shanghai

In the month I have been here, I have so many stories and experiences already! I am a lucky girl. Stay tuned in a couple days to see pictures from work!I think a day trip is in order for the weekend, not sure where.