Here Comes the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

My not-so-Eastern Chinese breakfast

The next morning I woke up early and headed out to forage for breakfast, which took the form of some odd variation on the theme of topped toast and what I came to know as 'cloud cake', the softest edible material on this good green (not so green in Shanghai) earth. Oh, and I got a bottle of coke to seal the deal...The West Prevails!

Cloud cake!

After breakfast it was time for another hair raising trip in Jake Chai's death buggy. To distract me from the millimetres between us and other cars I decided to have a chat with Jake and stretch my Mandarin legs a bit. I managed to get that he was called Jake Chai, he thought the English were cool and that we were now friends. What more do you need?

On arriving at head office we enjoyed free dumplings and yoghurt before going over all the fiddly contract stuff and doing warmers and 'get to know you' activities. Turned out one of the group could do pushups on his wrists. If someone says they can do pushups on their wrists, don't ask for a demonstration...it's unpleasant to behold.

I got edited from behind. How embarrassing.

We headed out en masse post contract stuff and had a wander around Shanghai a bit, finishing up on the Bund, the area on the river where you can see the big impressive office buildings in Pudong (the other side of the river).

The Onboarding group - courtesy of Mo. Yes, I am stroking my beard...get over it!

From the grandeur of the Bund, I headed to the Metro and was amused to find that it was the perfect place for folks to have a good stare. Particularly the kids; one young boy stared at us (I was with Ben, the guy doing the boyband-style crouch in the picture above) open-mouthed for about 5 stops. We said hello in Chinese and his parents were saying something along the lines of "Say hello to the foreigners." but the kid was catatonic. It was hilarious. The staring was to become a theme while here in Shanghai. The city might not always be new to me but it seems I'm still new to it.