"Hollywood Scary Foreign Bad-Guy English"

Today, for the first time since I arrived four or five days ago, the sky is blue. It's beautiful out, though quite hot. I must say that I am pleased to be able to see more than a quarter of a mile down the street without my vision being blocked by an ominous gray or tan haze.

Yeah, everyone (including myself) claimed that the pollution would be better before the Olympics, but so far it certainly seems worse than last year.

Until today, that is. Maybe the government just cut the power to all the factories surrounding the city? I will have to do some research and return to that point at a later date.

For now, I will simply enjoy the sunshine as much as I can, which will most likely be a lot since my job involves a lot of standing and walking around outside and in open courtyards.

I'll focus on my job now:

So far I have done very little work as transportation manager, but I think that is about to change because I just received a packet of information from OMEGA with details about the different cars at our disposal, etc.

What I have done, which honestly was extremely interesting and fun, was stand at the front entrance of the residence as security (basically a nicely dressed bouncer), checking people's passes and letting them into the facility. I hope I get to continue with that job from time to time, because whenever there is a break in people I spend time talking to the hostesses and other Chinese standing at the front entrance. Not only is that good practice for my language, but it also allows me to get a better glimpse of the culture.

Most of the hostesses and staff are from provinces outside of Beijing, with the majority coming from Henan province as far as I can tell so far. Henan is known for it's beautiful women/girls, so I suppose that is exciting for all of the Laowai guests at the residence.

The actual managers of the China Club are a mix of intimidating and humorous.... I don't really know how I came to feel that way, but that is the general feeling I get when around them. Writing an earlier entry, I said that the club is owned by someone outside of Beijing. Well, there is a couple, originally from Hong Kong, who manages every aspect of the facility and arranges from interaction with companies that want to use it as a venue, like OMEGA.

Anyway, they are both stern, serious people, especially the Mafia-esque husband who speaks what I will call "Hollywood Scary Foreign Bad-Guy English". A thick-set, square-jawed man, he walks around the facility surveying everything with his arms crossed, dressed in a black pin-striped suit. From time to time as he is walking by me he will let out a short quip in English and then walk away before I even have time to respond.

His wife, Kay, is similar: all business, little play. Her office is two stories below the residence in the dark, gloomy, and all-too spooky basement that for very much reminded me of the setting of the original Half-Life. I spent about half an hour moving boxes for her, navigating through the maze of dreary halls and fearing the many creatures that lurked around every corner. Where's Gordan Freeman when you need him?

Anyway, overall they are very nice people, just a little serious that's all.

My day was long yesterday, lasting from 9:30am until about 12:30am the next morning. Today's not bad at all however, with work starting at 4:00pm and ending at midnight.

A good portion of my free-time today will be taken up with a trip to the OMEGA office at the Peninsula Hotel, on Jinyu (Goldfish) Avenue, to pick up two extra polo shirts that I did not originally receive.

Oh yeah, I should talk about my uniform!

It's pretty simply honestly. Tailor-made beige pants with a white and red OMEGA polo shirt during the day, and black pants with black dress shirt during the evenings. Because we have to change outfits in the middle of shifts, the front office of the residence is a madhouse full of everyone's clothing strewn about everywhere.

I'm not going to lie: I like the black on black much more than the polo and trousers, but wearing black during the day would be body-temperature suicide.

There's more to say about my first day yesterday, but I am going to write a seperate post for it.

Oh yeah, my French is getting better because I'm surrounded by it a lot. I've started greeting people in French some.

Languages are fun.