Day 4 - Oct 12

Today was suuuuuch a long day!

It started off terribly. My phone died during the night! and that is what I am using as my alarm clock!
I just happen to wake up 10 mins before I was suppose to meet Joanne and James for breakfast so I RUSHED and SCRAMBLED to get ready.
Joanne and James finally had to come get me, but luckily I was ready so we all had a quick breakfast before taking a shuttle over to the China Life Tower in the Chaoyang District.
When we got to the building there were a bunch of workers outside doing calisthenics.

First day of work

The whole Beijing STA team!

It was very nice to finally meet Melissa, Trisha, Claire, and all the Chaobei and APM managers.
They shared a lot of helpful information at the meeting. Especially the news that Gap is changing it's logo back to the old classic logo. They all seemed very happy about that decision and I couldn't agree more.
Also, Gary (the Chaobei GM) told us that the clothing they will carry will be 90% different than what we have back home! They will carry more of what the Japan stores carry.

I am most excited that I get to work with a merchant from the Japan Harajuku store. Apparently the VM team got to fly to Japan and train with them for a week(?). Which is very cool. I hope to learn a lot from them while I am here.
But most importantly they clued us in on the details of what has been going on and what should be going on in the next 2 months.
I especially found the Cultural Training part of the meeting interesting.

Some of the mgmt staff

They had us do an exercise where we drew a picture of a tattoo that represents us. Jim's was hands down my favorite. That's suppose to be him with his tap shoes on.

Fun fact #2: Jim has his minor in Art...I know right, he's good.

I also found out why I was the only one having to fly home early.
Apparently I was the only one that was not granted a 90 day visa so they had to get me two 30 day visas. The bad news is I am leaving 8 day earlier, but the good news is I am the only one who gets to fly to Hong Kong for a day.
I am hoping to make a weekend out of it. But I am also nervous to be out there completely alone with nothing to do :(

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After work we all headed over to a famous Beijing restaurant called Beijing Duck.

The food and decor were equally amazing.

Karen B, Karen C and Joanne
Joanne with Melissa

When we walked in you could see where the duck was being cooked.

They also had a HUGE crab on display that was still alive.

We had our own private dining room with a HUGE circle table in the center.
Dinner was family-style and there was so much food I can't even remember what all was there.

We had duck, scallops, fish, mushrooms, eggplant, greens, salad, soup, a bunch of little desserts, duck-bone soup + more.

By the time dinner was done so was I. We had been going since before 7 am and it was now 1o pm. The three of us could not wait to get back to our own rooms and just relax and go to bed.

Hlee called from Korea and we talked for a good while. I am pretty sure I almost fell asleep a couple of times during our conversation. :p

All-in-all, GREAT FIRST DAY!