Many Meetings…(the Opposite of Many Partings for those LOTR Fans Out There).

Well, it has been a crazy couple of days here in Beijing. I have had worse-than-usual jetlag, and have gotten maybe 4-5 hours of sleep each night, despite being so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open in the evening. Oh, and the rampant allergies haven’t helped either. Fortunately, I am lucky enough to be staying with a friend with an air purifier, and brought plenty of cough drops and eye drops!

But the real highlight of the week has been the many meetings. I had the interview I originally flew out for on Wednesday, which went OK, but I wish I had felt better about it. Then Thursday I ended up meeting with another company downtown right off Wanfujing (the main pedestrian shopping street, relatively close to Tiananmen Square). That meeting lasted about an hour and a half, and the two people I met with seemed like very interesting people. More importantly, it appeared as if they were interested in me, and began asking me leading questions about salary expectations and timeframes. I’m not sure if they are a firm I would want to work for as of yet, but it’s nice to know you made a good impression.

I thought that would be the end of my meetings for the time here (other than buying lunch for a great guy who has helped me immensely with advice and connections here). However, the universe had different ideas. I woke up this morning thinking I’d relax, maybe go shopping, maybe go to the gym and relax after a stressful couple of days. Instead, I got another call from the originally company (from Wednesday…I am avoiding using names on purpose here, not to confuse everyone!), asking me to come back in to meet with a couple of the senior managers. There was an inkling that this might happen, as one of the senior managers couldn’t make it on Wednesday due to client meetings, but it is a good sign that I didn’t totally flub my interview, despite the lack of preparedness and jetlag.

So here I am, biding my time until 2:30pm, when I have to get back into my suit and head back downtown. Here’s hoping it goes well and they don’t throw me for a loop on their questions again!

Oh, and tomorrow (Saturday), I head off to one of the cool Olympic venues to watch the first event ever to be held at the Bird’s Nest (where the Opening Ceremonies will be held)….and it’s gonna be….Race Walking! Hopefully they’ll let us take in cameras, and I’ll definitely post pictures of the festivities.