man of my word
so today being my second day of work, and me promising to post about my first day, here it is.

my cousin, hill, had shown me the route to get to work the day before, so following instructions was a breeze.

speaking of a breeze, i sure wish there was one. hong kong weather right now is like houston's worst x 10, if you can imagine it. the best part of this story is that i didn't know what i was supposed to wear. so, wanting to be professional on my first day, i wore a full suit.

it's about a 35 minute commute, and with about 5 minutes to go, i was sweating like a turkey before thanksgiving. i was walking like a stickman so my clothes wouldn't stick to me. you know, i had to find the perfect medium between not walking fast enough to make me sweat even more and not walking slow enough to make the trip last any longer than it had to.

at last i emerged from the subway station, only to see this.


as much fun as it looked, i didn't have time to join them. i went to the building, went up the elevator, and was greeted by a chinese man behind a counter. i couldn't decide whether to talk to him in cantonese or english or mandarin or spanish or pig latin, so i waited until he spoke first.

he asked me if i was there to work. i said yes. then he gave me a sign-in sheet and asked me to write my chinese name. i hesitated for a second, but i was clutch and able to pull through. there's 10+ years of chinese school for ya!

went into another room, met 3 other interns, and then watched an introduction video. and for anyone who might be wondering, every big 4 firm uses the same actor for the video.

after getting a computer and stuff like that, i had to move to another building, prince's building, WHICH HAS NO A/C!

just kidding. but wouldn't that be something.

after a quick tour, i'm told which audit i will be working on, and then i join the team. i meet a nice girl named irene who starts giving me my first assignment. she speaks very quickly, and then she starts pointing at some chinese characters. i give a face.

after a short conversation explaining why i can't read, i start my work. oh yeah, by the way, this entire time i have been running off of 2 hours of sleep because of jetlag and a stomachache the night before. the rest of the day was rather uneventful, and i somehow managed to stay awake thanks to two of my suddenly good friends, caffeine and adrenaline.

so there is my first day in a nutshell. oh and just in case you were wondering, today (my second day), i made a new friend on the bus. everyday i take a shuttle bus from my aunt/uncle's place to the MTR station. today's buddy was named sam, and he is in form 1. we chatted for a bit during the 8 minute ride, but right when we got to the station, sam went canton on me and jumped up off his seat to race off the bus. i thought i had scared him off, but then when i got off the bus, the kid was there waiting for me and we got to talk for a few minutes more on his way to school. 1 new friend yesterday, 1 new friend today -- what a pace! so begins my hk-changing mission.

oh also in today's news -- today i found out that i am working for peanuts. less than US minimum wage. i probably should have done the math earlier.