Entry #4 - The first day in the office

Now that our first day in the office is nearly over, I thought I would get another blog entry posted...
At 11am Frank stopped by to say we are going out for lunch. We got out side and they split us up into two groups. My group arrived at a very nice looking seafood restaurant. We walked upstairs in a grand stairway lined with marble and glass. Many friendly Chinese waitresses - some in a oriental red outfit, and others in more contemporary waitress clothing greeted us at every turn. We proceeded down a fancy hallway with an attendant outside of every one. Inside each room was a single table that seats about 12 people. We turned into our room and they presented me a special seat and they all politely sat down after me. They turned on the large flat screen to watch a live Milwaukee Bucks game (see Lisa - it was good practice for me to always be watching TV while we eat). They talked to our attendants and 3 of us got up to go downstairs and pick out our seafood lunch. We went into a room where an amazing variety of live seafood was available in separate tanks - crab, flounder, shrimp, lobster, oysters, gooey ducts, and many others. another part of the room had many prebuilt fancy dishes of vegetables, fish, etc all covered individually but sitting ina large open cooler display. The variety was simply amazing. They asked me what I like and I told them that I like everything and they could pick whatever they would like. They picked out our meal (Dalian Crab) and we returned upstairs to our table.
Very soon the food started to arrive, one plate after another - placed in the large central lazy susan. Meats, bamboo shoots, spicy cabbage, and more soon filled up the center area. It was all very delicious - I can see that my small food fears are not warranted, as an adventurous eater like myself absolutely cherishes this opportunity to try new food. I cannot speak enough as to the quality and flavor of the no doubt very fresh food - it is really making me want to abandon all of the processed American food - there is simply no comparison. I suppose that it the tradeoff for time and convenience - so I better enjoy this week here.
We talked about many subjects including computer games (they like Counter-Strike), basketball, and American TV shows - it turns out that they really like "Prison Break" - when I returned from lunch, Mike told me his group talked about that show as well. They also stated that they watch "24" but seemed confused when I demanded to know the whereabouts of Jack Bauer's imprisonment - oh well. At about 1pm we returned to the office where our work day continues. I am feeling suprizingly good, but wondering if the bottom will fall out later in the day (it is 2:40pm right now). We took a brief walk to the break room where I got a free can of Chinese Coke - tastes just the same. Anyway, back to work...
Brief final note: Looks like they are organizing a city tour of sightseeing and shopping for Mike and I tomorrow - can't wait!