And the Journey Begins..

This blog begins a little bit late in my adventure. This is my fourth week here in Beijing, China, but that just means I have more exciting things to talk about, so it's okay.

I've been working at Microsoft in the Advanced Technology Center for a group that tests the programs that are written for cell phones that run Windows- basically all those fancy phones that can check your email and browse the internet but that happen to be neither the iPhone nor the Blackberry. My project is to help the teams here start doing usability testing, which is testing that involves bringing in non engineers to play around with the cell phones and make sure the design is actually usable by normal human beings. :) It's definitely been interesting, especially since the Chinese people who work here seem to be set on sticking with automated testing (teaching computers to just run tests on programs without having a real person touch them). Also, the language barrier causes some confusion at times.

They can all speak English fairly well, but I do tend to get a few dazed looks every now and then. Chinese people have a really hard time saying V's, so when it comes to talking about Vista and Vendors, I often have to remind myself what "Wista" and "Wendors" are.

In times when I'm waiting for replies from

people and can't really move forward with my testing project, I've been maintaining a website that handles the "device library." Basically, Microsoft buys all the cool cell phones that are out there and has them in a library for people to 'check out' and use for a while so we know what our product is like and what other products are like. The person who made this website initially was a Chinese intern, who claims he wrote it in five days, and I think I believe him, because almost any button you press pops up a dialog box that says "are you sure to delete?" which catches you off guard when you thought you pressed "Check in." Anyhow, I've been combing through it and correcting the english and little things like that.

I joined a gym in the basement of the Microsoft building called "Zero Handicap."

It's very nice, but I do get a good lecture every day from the lady who cleans the locker room about how I shouldn't wear make up and should dry my hair because girls catch colds more easily.

As for life outside the office, I live with a good friend from my language program that I did in the fall in Beijing. Her name is Lauren and she goes to Rice and is here working in a Law firm, which is unfortunately all the way across the city. She has to ride the subway for over an hour every day, and although it is miserable, she brings back some interesting stories. We live in a very nice apartment that my Dad found, which happens to be about a block away from the Microsoft building. My Mother was kind enough to inform us that the name of the seizure giving color on the walls is "Chartreuse," which is a charming kind of tennis ball color. We each get our own room, and the apartment is fairly new and clean. We have only had one cockroach encounter, which is not too bad and hopefully it will not get worse.

The weather has been kind of cool, which is apparently odd for this time of year. We had a huge rain storm over the weekend where the streets nearly flooded and the cab drivers all went to hide to avoid the traffic. We've heard rumors that the government is shooting down rain clouds over the city to keep it cool for the olympics, but who knows.

There's a Walmart across the street from our apartment that is really interesting. The whole bottom floor is a grocery store with hanging roasted ducks, all varieties of Chinese buns, strange looking fruits, and even turtles, which they will immediately pull out of the water and gut for you if you ask them to. It's funny how Walmart can be so familiar and so different.

Aside from Lauren, my friend Jaimie from high school just came in this last weekend, so I've gotten to see her a lot lately. She's working for Microsoft in PR and lives really close to us. Also, my friend Nick, who I met when we were both studying abroad here in Beijing in the fall is back along with his friend, Ben, from home (Idaho) and my friend Erin's boyfriend, Vinod. It's been really fun to see them, and we try to hang out often even though they live as far as you can possibly get from our apartment.

As far as Beijing goes, it's gotten noticeably more polluted since the last time I was here, BUT they have been much better about lining up! I have seen a minimal amount of public loogie hawking, and nose picking, which is also an improvement. I find it interesting also that, when I came in high school people automatically assumed I was caucasian and even used to say I had "yellow hair", but now I've even had a few people mistake me for a Chinese person. I guess they are getting more used to seeing foreigners around. Through all these changes though, it still is a really cool city with a lot of character. It takes some getting used to, but living here becomes kind of addictive after a while. Everything is just always accessible, there are cool people from all over the world here for completely different and random reasons, and just being able to see how vastly two cultures can differ is kind of shocking and eye opening. It definitely makes you think some of our American expectations are silly, but also makes you appreciate others that you never would have noticed.

Anyway, now that I've blabbed on for a bit too long probably, I'll post a "funny chinglish" picture of the day. This one I found in a menu when trying to order one of my favorite mushroom dishes. Please don't be offended, I'm sure they have no idea what that means. Most likely they just didn't know how to translate it and typed random words.

I'll write more often from now on so keep checking! I'd love to see comments and hear what everyone has been up to this summer!

Love, Emily