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!