Monday 6/11-Thursday 6/14

Monday was supposed to be the first day the interns begin work, and as I previously mention I was unable to go due to food poisoning; so my first day was Tuesday. The night before did not go too well, being that I was still feeling the effects of the illness. I didn’t get more than 2 hours of sleep through my severe abdominal pain. But I showered and got dressed none the less ready to start my interning experience. When I arrived at B&D Law one of my supervisors, Summer, greeted me with a very sincere hello and a cup of warm water (the Chinese prefer warm water over cold drinking water). I met my co-workers who, much to my relief, all spoke decent English. I was shown to my desk and given a few legal documents to proof read. While getting to work, I noticed that the entire off was dead silent. No one was speaking but rather glued to their computer screens. I was beginning to think nothing was getting done but then I remembered something I learned from Chinese business orientation. Almost all inter-office communication is done online through either Skype or MSN massager. Little by little all the members of the office started adding me on Skype and communicating via messages, which felt a little odd being they were sitting no more than 15 feet from me. This is very different from offices in the US where it is always loud and people usually yelling across the room. At lunch my co-workers were very friendly towards me; they asked me questions about my school work, any sports I like to play and watch, American culture. They even invited me to the gym after work to play some badminton and ping pong. Unfortunately, after lunch my symptoms started to kick in again full force and my supervisor recommended I go home and get rest. Over the next few hours I became even more ill, once again, so I was told to stay home the following two days to be well rested. So that’s what I did. The last two days have been pretty boring. Spent a good amount of time resting, talking to my girlfriend during the time frames we are both up, making up my own dialogue to Chinese TV, and watching movies online. It’s now Thursday night and I feel as if I have made a full recovery! Happy to say I can finally enjoy China once again and see my friends who have been so worried about me the past few days. Going to have to watch the foods I eat more closely now…