Nǐ hǎo (hello) from China

Hello from half way across the world!!! 

I arrived in Shanghai, China this morning and I will be here until Saturday afternoon.  As I was riding in the car from the airport to the hotel, I wanted to pinch myself to make sure that this was really happening to me.  I can't believe all of the incredible opportunities that I am getting through MoneyGram.  Who would have thought that this girl from Fond du Lac, WI would get a chance to go to Moscow, China and now I just found out that my next big spot is Cape Town, Africa (April).  CRAZY!  On top of that travel, I will most likely be spending time in the field with my teams in Frankfurt, Paris, Rome and Madrid during February.  The only thing that would make this traveling experience better is if Kevin could be here to experience it with me.  But somebody has to hold down the fort and keep it cleanJ

I concur with Kevin's thoughts regarding his experience working with all of these incredibly multi-cultured people.  The more exposure I get to our employees in the different cultures, the more my mind opens and observes new traditions and behaviors that I never knew existed.  Tonight we had a traditional Chinese dinner with the Shanghai team.  For those of you who love chinese food in the States, I must tell you that you are not actually eating chinese cuisine.  The funniest part of this dining experience is that I was surrounded by professional chopstick eaters, eager to watch me eat the different dishes. As soon as I sat down and realized there were no utensils, I knew I was going to make a fool of myself.  As my husband knows, I have no skills when it comes to chopsticks.  I told the table that I would try to use the sticks but before our first dish was finished, they already had asked the staff for a fork and knife for me.   The dining experience was interesting.  We sat around a table with a lazy-susanne in the middle full of dishes.  Lots of vegetables (no rice at all) and pork and fish products.  There were 8 of us at our table and we probably started with 6 dishes but before the night was over they probably brought out 12-15 dishes in total.  The dishes almost seemed more like starters so I couldn't tell if at some point we would have a main dish.  Then they brought out soup so I was expecting the main dish next but to my surprise they brought out another sweet soup and that was the end of our meal.  There was plenty of food but rather than filling up your plate up like we do in the States, we all took small servings so I probably didn't eat that much.  Then dessert was watermelon.  I can now see why the Chinese people are so thin!!!!  Specifically when I compare the chinese dessert to the dessert place (Ottolenghi - http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/) that Kevin and I found around the corner from our flat this last weekend.  It was so good; we went on Saturday AND Sunday to get goodies.  I can promise all of our future visitors, we will be taking you there.  On Sunday, Kevin said to me (like any true Berenz statement), "this might be the BEST dessert place in the world".

At dinner tonight, the team asked me about my first impressions of China.  I told them that I was surprised that the airport was so quite.  I told them that my cab driver was crazy so I got a taste of traffic but I expected to see a lot more people on the streets.  They told me that I will experience the masses of people on Thursday when I go to a specific area in the city.  Shanghai has supposedly grown incredibly over the last 5-10 years.  Today, where my hotel is located it used to be farm land.  Coming from the airport there were very new, tall buildings mixed in with lower income (almost third world) housing.  It didn't appear that anybody had a dryer in their home because everyone had laundry flying from their windows and balconies.  The buildings surrounding me have very bold and bright lights just as I expected.  The Chinese New Year is just around the corner so there are still decorated Christmas trees around the city.

I hope everyone is well.  Even though Kevin said we got internet set up, we are still having issues and are unable to get connected.  We hope to get the issue solved shortly so we can post more often and get some good pics on the site as well.

 It’s 11:25 at night and I have to get to sleep…hopefully I won’t wake up in the middle of the night not able to fall back asleep.

Love,
Ann