Last night, my mom told me that the day I don't eat lobster because I couldn't figure out the chopsticks, is the day I need to hang up the chopsticks! Alas, today marks my last full day in Guangzhou. Tomorrow morning, I'll wake up, pack, and head to the airport... in effect, hanging up the chopsticks, at least for this go round.
Of course I am so excited to go home. It's been an incredible, mind blowing, fun, confusing, crazy, scary, lonely, interesting, funny, and amazing experience all wrapped in one. But, it's time to get home. I'm not sure when I will ever have such an incredible opportunity to be welcomed in as a visitor for 40 days to a foreign country and welcomed with such open arms. Tonight the team in Guangzhou took me out to a great celebratory dinner, so of course, a blog post wouldn't be complete without a few shots of what we ate. In addition to that and much more importantly, I'm including photos of some of the many people who have made my experience here so wonderful.
This is Jessy (left) and Sylvia (center). Both have been frequent lunch and dinner companions for me here in Guangzhou and just great friends to have in the office. Jessy is an avid traveler and a passionate fan of Japan, so we have been able to swap stories and chat about future trips back to that wonderful place! We work together often when I'm in NY, so we weren't really saying goodbye tonight.... just goodbye until our next 7am EST/8pm China time call! Sylvia is soft-spoken, but so great to chat with, and one of the nicest people I have ever met. She has been so helpful to me in my time here, and I can never thank her enough for bailing me out of the cab when I left my wallet at home!
Above: The same shrimp as last night - with the shell on, but this time even bigger!
Above: Winnie, the one with the biggest smile on the S&S Guangzhou team.
Above (clockwise from left): Kenny, Pain, Virginia, and Winnie. Virginia has been my go-to person in the office as she is my Switch partner's AE. She gets things done before I even think to ask for it! I can't thank her enough for all of her help these past 5 weeks!
Above is tonight's dessert. This is a Shanghai-style rice type dessert flavored with a type of Chinese wine. I've noticed that the Chinese are a lot less into sweet desserts compared to Americans. Actually, the desserts really aren't sweet at all. One night I ate red beans for dessert!!!
At dinner, they asked me to name the Chinese food I will miss the most. I admit, I struggled with that one. But tonight's dinner was absolutely delicious, so it would have to be something from tonight - the pork wrapped around the crunchy veggies with spicy sauce on top. Though I admit that I won't exactly miss the food, I will definitely miss the people in the Guangzhou office.
I can't thank the entire Olay Saatchi Guangzhou team (Queenie, Iris, Cathy, Sofia, Sarah, Winley, JC, and Karen who were not able to join us tonight) and my team at Saatchi New York enough for this experience. This is TRULY once in a lifetime. I know I will reflect on this more as I head home tomorrow and will likely not realize for days, weeks, years to come the full impact of an experience like this, but for now I know I will never regret saying "yes" to this opportunity. Thanks to my new friends in Guangzhou for all of your kindness, patience, and for not laughing at me when you really should have!!! It's been quite "a China Adventure." I hope to repay the hospitality to each of you one day in NYC.
Until next time....
Amy, you've done such an excellent job with the blog. I loved reading it all the way through, and you're going to love having it written down in the years to come. My favorite part was you saying how the little daily challenges are really what marked your experience. So true. Proud of you, lady! See you Tues.
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