The theme of the workshop was "Change Management". Our HR group kicked off the meeting with a very fun and educational "Who moved my cheese" skit. I had the opportunity to meet the Leadership group from Greater China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. We arrived on Wednesday and did a walk through and rehearsal. In the evening, we toured the Tunxi Ancient Street. The workshop went from Thursday to Saturday. For the first two days, the activities went from 8am to 9pm. On Saturday, we ended around 4pm, then took the bus back to Shanghai (5 hours). I almost caught myself drooling during my nap on the ride back. I was really afraid that I wouldn't be able to catch a taxi back to the apt. b/c it was raining. Fortunately, one of the HR girls gave me a ride! I was very, very thankful. Although she didn't think it was a big gesture, it was HUGE to me. The fear of being stranded in an unknown place with no way of getting back home in the middle of the night is ... scary! It's times like this when I realize how much I take for granted. 
I really like the HR team here. The group is really nice and extremely helpful, both at work and figuring out the 'mystery hot dish' during meals together. There's a lot of creativity in the practices and many idiosyncracies are very similar to the US and many that are very different. I feel very fortunate to be warmly welcomed into the group here. My mandarin is not good enough to speak at work, but it's fine for regular conversation. Everyone's English here is very good yet they sometimes may be shy to speak English because they don't think they're good. So wrong! If I can only speak mandarin as well as they can speak English. I regret not paying more attention at Chinese school every Saturday when I was in elementary school, but I am VERY thankful my Mom forced me to speak the language. Like a 'know it all', I use to tell my Mom, "I live in America, everyone here speaks English, I will never need to learn Chinese... "
Tunxi Ancient Street: 
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