First day of work

I am in Beijing as part of an exchange program from UCLA with the Chinese Academy of Urban Planning. Four students form UCLA, including myself, are here as are a bunch of students form USC, one student form Sydney, Australia, and some students form Germany. Though it’s my understanding that all the German students have been sent to Shenzen. Kenetha, one of the UCLA students, arrived about a month ago and she has been great at helping us settle in. She’s given me tons of advice and useful tips.

I’ll be staying about 45 minutes walking distance from where I work. We took a cab to get to work this morning which took about 10 minutes, and cost 3 yuan each…(about $0.50). Pretty cheap, but I guess these small costs can add up, especially if I do it daily each way. I’ll be earning 100 Yuan a day, which seems plenty.

I was told I’d be working in the old building of the CAUP. The building has recently been refurbished and everyone has new furniture. The one problem with this new furniture is that they are off gassing, which spurred my new co-workers to remove about 7 wooden book cases from our office. Aside from that, the building is very nice. There is plenty of natural light from the large windows and you can they keep the air conditioning on, just a hair below comfortable, so sometimes you don’t realize its on until you step outside. No word yet on my actual work here. I was asked to prepare a presentation about myself, including my experience and interests and they would find a place for me after I’ve met the full team. We’ll see how it goes.