Recovery

After many days of sleeping until 2 in the afternoon, coughing until my right rib hurt, drinking fluid like no tomorrow and sweating profusely...I managed to finally recover from my aching pains and wounds.
I was feeling a lot better by my 3rd day of rest but then I managed to hit another speed bump in the middle of the day and catch another 38 C (101 F) fever, (Yes I have managed to understand the Centigrate system and metric system because everyone else in the world is using it....hmm what does that tell you?)

I was miserable, unable to even fathom the idea of making something to eat or the concept of leaving my bed after 12 hours of sleep. Finally after a call with Aunt Dora, she decided (out of worrying her head off) to call my Aunt Cheng Dong in Shanghai (who lives in Jingan district....about 25 minutes from Pudong) and tell her of the news. Aunt Dong also saw me at the ER around midnight and now she picked me up from my apartment to take care of me. Well I didn't get better even staying at my Aunt's house (our home away from home) sadly to tell you. Luckily I sweated off my fever, barely slept since I was coughing myself awake though. The next morning: couldn't even stomach food and even function like a real person. What the hell is wrong with me?
Out of my constant guilty conscience, I decided to leave my Aunt's house. Why? Well Aunt Dong suffers from poor health/asthma and I didn't want to be another nuisance and plus my nyquil was at my apartment. hehehe the power of western medicine. But, I'm really thankful my Aunt Dong drugged me up with Chinese medicine (NO BITTER ELIXIR REMEDIES); sweet tasty cough syrup and little bottles of sweet liquids that are supposed to suppress my cough.
Because I wanted to leave, my Aunt was worried I had pneumonia and threatened to take me to the ER again (the Chinese one and not the expensive American hospital....but I trust Dr. Lee at United Family!)
Thank god i didn't have pneumonia, my symptoms didn't seem serious so I decided not to visit another hospital. Sadly I found another student ambassador friend of mine was hospitalized for pneumonia and was in the hospital for a week! Her mother even came to check on her from the states, which is really nice. I'm glad Selina is okay because I WANT EVERYONE TO BE DISEASE FREE!!!!

Finally after a week of suffering, I managed to gather up the energy to meet my fellow Student Ambassadors for dinner at Blue Frog for buy one get one free burgers and drinks. It was really refreshing to feel fully functional and have energy to chat with friends (though I coughed a bit).
Sami, Ashley and I got to discuss a full spectrum of life; boys, boyfriends,and traveling after the expo.

"Have something to drink Susan"

"i'm not sure, i don't want to irritate my throat with anything *HACKS a lung"

"don't worry, alcohol can cure everything "

Three mojitos/2 hours later, my throat wasn't feeling so irritated and my bouts of coughing were not constant. Thank you guys! Plus my chicken burger was sensationally good!!!!! along with the sweet potato fries...and the brownie ala mode which took 40 minutes to serve. Service was a little on the FAIL SIDE. I started practice my accents and by the end of acting like a mad Australian, my co workers have decided I can pass for a northern Australian.

When the storm outside died down, Ashley and I decided to stay in for the night rather than go partying in Puxi with several others. What to do then if we were being losers? Well first of all, were not losers and we can have a pretty awesome time without the loud speakers, alcohol and strobe lights. We discovered that 1) we both love the NBC show "community" 2) Susan has it on her computer and 3) Family Mart convenience store also has cheap cold beers and another tasty snacks (By the way, every single Student Ambassador takes advantage of our neighborhood convenience store that is conveniently located in the expo prison, I mean Expo Village.

"Community" , vegging out on the bed with a cool refreshing beverage was my way of concluding my night without letting my immune system freak out (say if I were to go out clubbing, which would be stupid of me as well)

More soon my dear faithful readers. Shanghai is amazing and I do have cool stories about work soon, but sleep is also needed :-D

PROVINCIAL PAVILIONS

This morning, Yi-Xian (my roommate) and I got to go on a CEO tour of the provincial pavilions at the expo. A CEO tour is basically having some student ambassadors accompany Martin, our CEO of the USAP and go around the pavilions, make conversation and also get a very special VIP tour of the pavilions.
Many people make the mistake of only visiting the large country pavilions, for example Germany, France etc etc, but sometimes size really doesn't matter. A lot of the small countries, the provincial pavilions have put in a lot of energy, creativity and pride into their pavilions. Also they provide a very detailed tour of each pavilion. That is why our CEO really enjoys the provincial pavilions, they're very helpful, accommodating and really enjoy the USAP's outreach. Because of this relationship, we have managed to have several "pavilion exchanges" where two employees from said pavilion come work at our pavilion for a shift and vice versa. So far we've had students go to Jiangsu (which sadly I missed!!), Inner Mongolia and the Sichuan pavilion. I think Ali and Lawrence got to participate in a traditional Shaanxi wedding ceremony and were married on spot.

Yi-Xian and I met up with Bessie and Rune (Martin's assistants) at the VIP entrance, (Okay sadly I don't have any photos of this party)

1) Sichuan Pavilion
our first stop was at the Sichuan pavilion, where they treated us like royalty. Every story has its beggining, so the Director of Sichuan pavilion showed us Sichuan's beginning with a sculpture very similar to Mayan culture, but no one knows what happened to the tribe or people who made these (just like the Mayans....freaky!) and then they took us into a "typical street scene", a bronze statue of two people sipping tea at a tea house.
Then we were shown this giant screen that displayed a glowing heart. If you touch the screen a smaller heart is taken out and you can sign your name on the touch screen monitor below. This is to show a small amount of love and sympathy to those who were victims of the 5.12.08 Sichuan earthquake. Then they have a display of the progress/aid and what is being done to help those who lost their homes, lives, and loved ones. There has been so much humanitarian aid poured into this area and it does show a tremendous amount of hope, optimism and team work. I was surprised and happy to see the amount of effort and donations going towards Sichuan from people within the country (Beijing, Shanghai, Xinjiang, the list goes on!). It's optimistic to see that people are always willing to help their fellow neighbor.
Afterward, Martin signed their guest book and each one of us received an adorable Sichuan pin that had a cuddly little panda on it! Happy Days!

(During this whole tour, Yixian went to every pavilion possible to get her passport stamped, I found it amusing :-D)

2) Hunan Pavilion (Mao's hometown!)
On this reddish whitish loop you see below is actually a loop made out of recycled bamboo. Projected onto this loop is a 3-D movie showcasing the beauties and achievements that occured in Hunan (tea, temples, Chairman Mao, poets, spicy chili....), The girls who work at the Hunan pavilion were so kind to us, and I was brave enough to continue talking to them and we exchanged business cards!!
"I'm so glad, I like friends!" Amy said. Well hopefully Yi Xian and I will see Amy hopefully soon.



3) Dance at the Xinjiang pavilion
Just like at the Sichuan , we got the VIP treatment, we headed up to their VIP lounge, Martin made some conversation and then we go to see their show, which depending on the day showcases a different folk dance. Today from what I saw, they performed a story about a beautiful girl and four boys who want to court her, but only if she agrees! They have to woo her! (I think I deleted my video.....grrrrr)
When the dancing was over, the Xinjiang media rushed in to grab an interview with Martin and we all received colorful Uighur hats (I wish I knew the proper name!)


Conclusion: CEO tour was indeed quite fun, even though I had to hold all the presents we got from each pavilion! They were very informative, kind, and so hospitable that I felt overwhelmed at times from their sincere efforts to make us enjoy touring around their pavilions. Hope to see you soon!

So far I've been a pill pusher and have knocked myself up with lovely doses of nyquil.
Though 13 hours of sleep have proved to be a pain the back. Too much sleep hurts. My new bed is not as comfortable as my old apartments and my blanket is too thin to cuddle up with. My old blanket was fluffy and amazing.

So far I've managed to cough out my lungs and hurt my throat to the point it feels like someone is shaving my throat with a cheese grater. Life is so much fun.

But to pass the time I have managed to finish some epic films such as Braveheart, What about Bob, The Prestige and 40 year old Virgin (though I've seen that countless times) oh and finish writing 80 million postcards. Sadly I have no energy to take them to the post office down the street. Plus all my Chinese dollars were spent on my hospital bill. Thank you so much.

life sucks

i wish i was the bearer of good news but after last night its a boatload of bad news.
I'm guessing the 12 hour days really killed my body and soul, because last night and the previous night, Susan had a lot of chest pain. chest congestion? Yes. What did Susan do? She drank tons of fluids, tea and honey, and finally in desperate times she took some cough drops and Tylenol congestion medicine.

Shouldn't that help? Why yes it should, but no. Chest pain and back pain returned. What am I 40 years old? While I was working overture I realized, 'okay I have a fever.'
38.5 C aka 101 F, thank you nurse. And thank you for the Tylenol. The fever immediately ceased. She recommended I head to the ER.

So coming back home with chest pain and, difficulty breathing, no doubt I was heading to the ER. I was dreading forking over American prices, but no offense to third world countries. I have more faith in the international and American hospitals. Better safe than sorry. Quit being a miser Susan.

An EKG, blood sample (it's hard to find my blood vein), and the doctor pressing hard on my stomach "does it hurt? does it hurt here?" YES YES YES IT HURTS LIKE A BITCH. OW!
Well after the blood test and the EKG, my heart looks okay and there is no infection in my lungs....so the verdict is a VIRAL INFECTION!!!!

Total cost: 400 USD$

At least it's not pneumonia.

Let the 12 hour shifts begin!

In return for people covering my shifts last week since Tim was in town, I now have the honor of returning the favor of covering people's shifts,which started today. 12 hours of non-stop fun at the expo. I was really worried that by the end of the day that I would be exonerated, but today was an exciting fun filled adventure.
Starting from the early hour of 8 am, we begin my day in Act III, which our mission in life is to market this Johnson and Johnson campaign. Basically it's a interactive game via text messages and when you text, a cute little animal appears on the monitor. You receive a text and get a free little "Stevie" is what they are called.




During my shift at Act III, we get on chairs, try and attract the crowds who just left Act II to play the game. When they hear it's free, they go crazy.

But I want to mention that my afternoon shift got even more interesting, with the incident in lane 3 or 4....
basically a fight erupted between two people and it got ugly. The next thing I see when I head right into turnstiles was screaming, shouting and then I see people hitting eachother with chairs. Everyone was scrambling, the Wujing came and they were totally useless. They couldn't hop over the queue lines because their PANTS WERE TOO TIGHT. NOT VERY UTILIZING IF YOU ARE A NATIONAL GUARDSMEN. EPIC FAIL. And ironically the police on duty was taking his lunch break. AHHHHHH.

Working days

For some reason I keep screwing up my rotation time patterns. It's 45 minutes and then we rotate to our new location around the USA pavilion. I don't understand why it's taking me so long to break into the pattern and relieving people on time so they can head to their new location. The days have been starting to blend in together as I work shifts under the draining humid heat. Coming from a dry climate and being thrown into a world where everyday I am slowly being inserted or drowning into a pool of heat and moisture. It's as if one is suffocating in jello. After a day out in the heat ocean, you can see streaks of sweat salt residue. That's pretty gross don't you think?

Every day is a new adventure at the USAP. The first few days had the ups and downs.
I've already lost my cool a few times and it's only been two weeks on the job. I feel terrible, but I will try to remember the mantra "deescalate". It's hard to control your patience when visitors can wear it out thin after 8 hours in ops. People push, people run, people cut in line, yell at you when the turnstiles lock up (after X amount of people get in, our machine counts how many people pass), get even more pissed off when you catch them jumping turnstiles, and ABOVE ALL SOME PEOPLE LOSE THEIR MINDS when they realize the USAP does not issue anymore expo passport 'stamps'.

Let me tell you about the stamp craze (in addition to the pin craze)
When the Expo began, the expo produced massive amounts of "Expo passports", which a visitor can get a stamp from a pavilion worker. They stamp your passport and you are good to go. Sounds like a fun time right? A good portion of national pavilions decided to stamp expo passports. However, this plan decided to backfire due to one very big factor. That factor is people. This expo passport sounds like a very great way to understand every country's pavilion but with the amount of Chinese visitors swarming into the pavilions just to get a stamp on their passport became severely overwhelming. Many pavilions shut down for a period of time, some have decided to limit the times when expo stamps will be issued, but for us at the USAP, we have decided to SUSPEND ALL EXPO STAMPING.

There is a sign, posted on every entrance lane in Chinese that reads "the USAP has cancelled passport stamping, We apologize for the inconvenience."
Upon reading this notice, people are shocked, kids whine, people complain, people come up to me asking for stamps. As if I carry the rubber stamp on me at all times like a train conductor and his ticket machine. No I don't have the stamp and no we don't have stamps anymore. Why you ask?
1) People swarm in to get in on stamping action and this results in a massive stampeded in Act IV. Not fun
2) With massive stampeding, the Student Ambassadors could not handle the utterly insane amount of people shoving passports into our faces, as if there were no tomorrow.
3) So with reason #2, we just decided to let people to stamp their passports themselves. That ensued in chaos. people starting fighting for the rubber stamps, this ensued in altercations and we had to call security several times. So in the end, it got ugly so our supervisors decided "NO MORE NO MORE!!"

I don't want the expo to sound like a nightmare, but I'll say it's more like a carnival. You see all kinds of crazy characters at the USAP.
Several memorable events happened this week and last week at USAP with .....
1) diarrhea kid in lane 6
2) Old people saying unmentionable phrases because I catch them sneaking into the pavilion
3) The countless amounts people confused by me and any other Asian American working at the USAP
4) Old people trying to charge their way into the pavilion like a buffalo
5) Several USAP members getting attacked by grannies and grandpa's with fans and the foldable chairs (I will discuss this culture of foldable chairs in the next segment)
6) People hurdling over the gates and turnstiles and I bark at them

Sweating buckets

The sensation of showering in my own salt and tears is gross. I feel this thin film of slime covering my entire body. If I wore cotton shorts, I think they would shrink and stick to my skin. Thankfully I just wear my comfy elastic gym shorts, so if I'm sweating buckets of salt water, it doesn't feel like torture.

Guess who is in Shanghai?

I think I was literally about to go # 2 in my pants when I realized that Tim was flying into Shanghai Pudong Int Airport around 6 in the evening. I've been preparing for the past two weeks for his arrival, doing some reconnaissance, looking up places to go, checking the weather, buying food and what not, and finally deciding that he would not be sleeping on the couch (being 6'..2? and the couch can barely squeeze in a 5'7 girl like me) So what do I do? Kelly and I decided to head to Ikea, which was quite the journey from Expo Village. We definitely got sucked in by Ikea. Ikea teased us for hours upon end with the insane amount of beautiful objects that we 'should' possess in our homes that we need to decorate.
"I want to have a family now, have a kid, have a beautiful husband that I can cook for in this kitchen, or sit in the living room" Kelly exclaimed.

"okay we need to leave Ikea now! We've been sucked into by the Ikea brainwashing!! NOOOOO!!" I cried as we breezed our way through section after section.

I finally found an Ikea mattress pad, which in Ikea language is called a "Jurgen Standft" I believe...I am probably wrong, but I found him something for him to sleep on. There are many types of pads, from blanket thin to firm, to fluffy and even fluffy+firm. The options are insane. I hope he'll be happy with the 399 RMB (50$USD)
The whole day was slightly on the hectic side when the afternoon decided to roll in. I carried that rolled up pad down into the subway avoiding knocking people left and ride with this grey rolled up pad. Kelly and I tried to grab our weekly paychecks before 5 pm and unfortunately the journey to get to the USAP from expo village turned into a semi-night mare. This resulted in sprinting, walking, then more sprinting and in the end I was sweating buckets. I wanted my paycheck before Tim came so then I could pay for any expenses we would encounter.

I couldn't believe I was heading to the airport to pick up Tim. Was this really happening? Is he really coming to Shanghai? I was a bit worried that I would be late, and thank god I took the maglev (and thank god for the existence of said maglev train) which GOT ME to Pudong Int Airport in 7 minutes. I checked the flight schedule, his plane came in 20 minutes ago????? Now I became anxious and the butterflies in my stomach were fluttering like crazy. No worries, he still has to go through customs, I should be okay. Okay ....I'm in domestic arrivals, no no great I have to run down another 100...200 m to get to International arrivals.

And there he was. I saw him from a distance. I knew it was him. So how could I make this embarassing? Rather than popping up and surprising him? I just yelled for his name. Easy as that. That was the first thing to come up in my mind.

I can't believe Tim is in China. This is blowing my mind. Let the adventures begin. I hope he has fun.

Steady as she goes

Slowly my rotations during my work schedule are easier to handle. I've been in charge of Fast Access or the VIP/Green lane for the past few shifts. One might think it's fun to let in these special VIPS, handicap people and strollers into the special VIP lane, but no it's slowly becoming a stressful nightmare.

One of my highlights of today's shift did not happen at Fast Access, it happened 10 ft away from me in Queue where Ali was in.
One minute I'm letting in people and the next thing I hear on my radio is "kid in lane 6 has diarrhea, it's all over the ground."

Of course my ears perk up and I realized that this 10 year or maybe 8 year old boy took a massive DUMP IN LANE 6..... DID I WANT TO SEE THE PILE ON THE GROUND?? NO I DIDN'T
I WANT TO SCREAM NOW.

First week in Shanghai

My first week comprised of several long days where our brains got stuffed with an enormous amount of information, we stripped down every detail, went over questions and concerns, found out SA's have been spat on, bitten, screamed at and expo visitors who have decided that it was alright for their children to use the carpet as a toilet. I love my job already! :-D I really hope I don't have to radio in "This is Susan, we have an uh-oh in overture copy"