Today was my first day in the S&S Guangzhou office. I got dropped off in my taxi and promptly heard someone calling my name - YES! It was JC, the head of the Olay account here. He took me to Starbucks (YES! Never thought I would say that) and then up to the office to meet the team. We had our first team status meeting which was a nice overview to all of the work that is going on in China. After that meeting, the team organized a welcome lunch of dim sum for me - see above! We had a private room in a restaurant near the office. They ordered 20+ dishes and we all shared on the big wheel you see in the center of the table. You can see there is one bright green dish above that seemed like steamed broccoli (sp?) stems and I had a lot of that and fried rice. But, they wouldn't let me get away without trying a few more adventurous things.... so, I sampled a bit of chicken (but not the chicken feet - they insisted it is rich in collagen and good for the skin. I just couldn't...See the top picture, the dish on the left), some shrimp dumpling, and a dessert dish that was like a round cake ball filled with custard (top picture, the dish on the right). So far, my stomach still seems fine!!! The team also introduced me to a Chinese delicacy known as "birds nest." Now, I thought this was a metaphor (as in "this looks like a birds nest but it's really skinny noodles...") but it was not. Apparently, these rather innocent looking tarts had a small dollop of "birds nest" on top. This delicacy is actually obtained by someone going into a bird cave and taking out a part of the nest that the bird makes with its own saliva. YES. This also has a very significant health benefit that I can't recall, but I just couldn't do it (see picture of three cute yellow tarts above.... innocent looking, right?).
Then, the rest of the day was filled with an internal creative review meeting for Natural White (a skin whitening cream here in China), a meeting to discuss new concepts for AquaHydration (a moisturizer here in China), and then some follow-up on a couple of NY projects. The day went by quickly!
At the end of the day, a co-worker who works in the S&S Hong Kong office who has spent a lot of time with our team in NY (Matt Harrison for the S&S people) took me to a nice, simple, familiar-looking pasta dinner at the Westin Hotel. It sort of felt like the easy way out, but I was all too happy to have a glass of California Pinot Noir and a bit of ravioli. It's nice to know that if I am craving any American-like food, I can walk to the Westin and have it.
So, a successful first day in the office. I miss everyone and love getting the emails, so please keep them coming!
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