Never a dull moment

Lately I've been thinking about how strange it is to not know what is going on around me a lot of the time here. I'll see a hundreds of people waiting outside of a kiosk and wonder "are they waiting to get concert tickets?" "is it a great sale?" "could they be playing the lotto and it's a big jackpot?" Literally, I have no clue and it makes me laugh sometimes.

For example, this morning I arrived at the office to see mobs of people holding signs written in Chinese, police on the curb, a crowd of people watching, and about twenty men in military fatigues guarding the entrance to my office. I had no idea what was going on. So, I whipped out my camera and starting to try to take a few pictures. You can see the man at the right of the shot above.... he then started taking pictures of me! I very quickly put the camera away and went inside the office a bit bewildered. Later I found out that it was a group of people protesting the fact that they had not been paid for work they had done. These labor disputes are quite common in China. It definitely made for good AM theater for me on my way into the office.

Following the warm Military welcome this morning, I entered my office to find a new addition (see above photo)! Each year prior to Chinese New Year, the Saatchi Guangzhou office meets with their Feng Shui consultant. Apparently the consultant said that my side of the office building needed some Feng Shui help, so he prescribed putting a water/light fixture into a few offices. So, throughout the day this water/light fixture changes color and enhances the Feng Shui of the office. I'm quite enjoying it actually....

Above: Phoebe Liu

Finally, to round out my day I met up with Patty Tsang (P&G design) and Phoebe Lu (LPK Guangzhou) for dinner. Patty and I met last summer at P&G in Cincinnati, so she has been helpful to me as I prepared for my switch. Phoebe is a friend of Patty's and works at one of our partner agencies. She is originally from Guangzhou, so she knows a lot of the local spots. She took us to her favorite very local (yet "very clean" as she said) Chinese food spot. We had a lot of traditional Cantonese food which is apparently light on spices and known for really letting the flavors of the food shine through. Once Phoebe ordered, the waitress arrived at the table with a small dish and presented it to Phoebe like one would present a bottle of wine. Well, the thing on the plate MOVED. It was a live crab that the woman was presenting to us before she cooked it. A bit shocking. She ordered a whole spread of food including soup, bean curd (a little like tofu) and green veggies, a whole fish, squid with garlic sauce, and rice with salty egg yolk. The food was a bit scary at first, but I really enjoyed most of it.

Above: Patty Tsang

Outside of the restaurant where we had dinner tonight.

There you have it: there is never a dull moment here. Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend back in the States!