Getting Antsy
i've actually had a bunch of things to do recently at work. it's as if suddenly people realized that i can read Chinese and everyone is asking me to do translations of documents, and on top of that is this literature review although that seems to be on hold until someone can get me access to full-text articles rather than just abstracts. so i've actually been busy at work. busier than my busy busy boss, who these days is studying for an English exam, and since we sit in a room together I am learning to drown out the noise and get my work done amidst the online translation computer voice saying "vomiting vomiting vomiting vomiting vomiting vomiting vomiting" and "ecstasy ecstasy ecstasy ecstasy ecstasy ecstasy ecstasy" and questions from boss like "first person says 'thank you so much for your help and for seeing me off. i really appreciate it.' so the second person should say a) 'you are always welcome,' b) 'the pleasure is all mine,' or c) 'it was my pleasure, have a safe flight home.' ?? and "what do the sayings 'carrying coals to Newcastle' and 'all my eye' mean?" and enduring scolding about my English not being good enough when I tell him that in all honesty, I have no idea. They don't require native English speakers to know things like that.
I've also learned a couple of other new things this past week. The first being that it's ok to keep pets at work. I guess I should have known this already, since we do have an office cat, which my boss has dubbed "咱们办公室最幸福的人," or "the most prosperous person in our whole office" given its habit of sprawling across the whole doorway with its belly to the sun. But I thought maybe, you know, it must be that we must draw the line at cats, because who wouldn't choose adopting a stray cat over having some tropical fish or something? Then I was in the room across the hall, and I was sitting for the moment at a colleagues desk because she was out of town, and I noticed this little jar, about the size of one of those little green Erguotou bottles, corked and full of green gel and decorated with Hello Kitty or something along those lines. I thought at first that it was maybe an air freshener...or a Chinese snack, something like that. But it didn't take me long to notice two big black ants (unfortunately not army ants) crawling around in the centimeter or so of open space at the top of the bottle. Ew! She should really get rid of that, I thought. That's kind of gross. I showed it to another co-worker and she says, "Cute, huh?" Apparently what I was looking at was a Chinese ant-farm. The ants eat the green gel. So if all else fails, I can always bring in some ants to keep me company.
The other discovery I made is that we have a shower room. I stepped across the hallway to use the bathroom and when I came out I heard water running, and I went back to check and make sure that the "toilet" wasn't stuck on flush, or something like that, and when I saw that it wasn't, I followed my ears another 5 feet to a door that I had always thought went into a storage closet. And I smoothed out the tattered label on the door and sure enough it read "洗澡间", "shower room." I peeked in later and was not surprised to find that it was a grimy little room with mildewed floors and walls. What I was surprised to find was that as the day went on, I noticed that almost everyone in our department had a little shower caddy at or under their desk, complete with a loofah, and body wash. How funny, and how Chinese, that people have been showering here this whole time and I didn't know!...if I had known earlier I coulda saved myself some on the water bill, I suppose. and now I know where to run to if those ants ever get loose and come after me.
Beijing life is, to put it in the famous words of a good friend of mine, never eventful...but ALWAYS interesting.
I've also learned a couple of other new things this past week. The first being that it's ok to keep pets at work. I guess I should have known this already, since we do have an office cat, which my boss has dubbed "咱们办公室最幸福的人," or "the most prosperous person in our whole office" given its habit of sprawling across the whole doorway with its belly to the sun. But I thought maybe, you know, it must be that we must draw the line at cats, because who wouldn't choose adopting a stray cat over having some tropical fish or something? Then I was in the room across the hall, and I was sitting for the moment at a colleagues desk because she was out of town, and I noticed this little jar, about the size of one of those little green Erguotou bottles, corked and full of green gel and decorated with Hello Kitty or something along those lines. I thought at first that it was maybe an air freshener...or a Chinese snack, something like that. But it didn't take me long to notice two big black ants (unfortunately not army ants) crawling around in the centimeter or so of open space at the top of the bottle. Ew! She should really get rid of that, I thought. That's kind of gross. I showed it to another co-worker and she says, "Cute, huh?" Apparently what I was looking at was a Chinese ant-farm. The ants eat the green gel. So if all else fails, I can always bring in some ants to keep me company.
The other discovery I made is that we have a shower room. I stepped across the hallway to use the bathroom and when I came out I heard water running, and I went back to check and make sure that the "toilet" wasn't stuck on flush, or something like that, and when I saw that it wasn't, I followed my ears another 5 feet to a door that I had always thought went into a storage closet. And I smoothed out the tattered label on the door and sure enough it read "洗澡间", "shower room." I peeked in later and was not surprised to find that it was a grimy little room with mildewed floors and walls. What I was surprised to find was that as the day went on, I noticed that almost everyone in our department had a little shower caddy at or under their desk, complete with a loofah, and body wash. How funny, and how Chinese, that people have been showering here this whole time and I didn't know!...if I had known earlier I coulda saved myself some on the water bill, I suppose. and now I know where to run to if those ants ever get loose and come after me.
Beijing life is, to put it in the famous words of a good friend of mine, never eventful...but ALWAYS interesting.
posted by Mandie at 2:59 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home