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Could it be? Employment? Me? Ca-ca-ca-crazy. I know, I know, you want to know all the details. Well I’ll tell you what I know. Friday night I met Hayley’s friend Jon Hakim, AKA ‘The Great Hakim’ because the man knows just about everyone in this small town. He introduced me to James Fan, who is the General Manager/ founder of a company called Jowin Communications, they deal in healthcare marketing. I am going to work with them for a couple months, as an intern, so my hours will be flexible, my pay small [5,000 RMB, or about $625 a month, which is pretty livable in this country and already 2,000 RMB more than Wu Xia makes!] and the dress casual. There are only about five people in the office, and we can all smoke as many cigarettes as we want [thank god, second hand smoking was one of my job requirements].

They work with local brands in a bunch of areas [advertising, product development, etc], but I will be working with a company that they do business with in England called Nicholas Hall- http://www.nicholashall.com/ who deals with complete consumer healthcare marketing support service [yes I just took that from their website]. I will help coordinate a training session where Nicholas will come to China in May or June. James just gave me about 12 issues of “Insight,” Nicholas Hall’s industry magazine, to read through on this lovely grey afternoon. Fun fun fun. James is very excited to be hiring his first foreigner! I will no doubt rapidly improve my Chinese as James is the only staff who speaks English. He is from Jinan something Province, his wife [who works next door in another company that James owns, dealing with representing a French brand of eye lens/surgery/product something] is from Beijing.

So I’m excited that I have a job, a salary, somewhere to go everyday [it took me a quick 45 minutes to get there by bus, I think I may purchase a bicycle!] and the job actually sounds pretty interesting. I think the healthcare marketing field could be a good field to get into, OTC [my first vocab, over the counter] drugs certainly aren’t going anywhere.

What else? I may consider moving from April’s sofa, getting my own place, hopefully with roommates similar to Jack, Janet and Chrissy. I can rent a room for about $150.

I just bought some snacks, or little food as it translates in Chinese. Some sesame bread and caramelized crab apples on a stick, the man first said this costs 1.6, then his boss shouted, 2.6! Inflation right before my eyes. As if 12 cents really makes that much of a difference to me. I guess on my $625/month salary I should start thinking like a Chinese.

Well I am off to read about drugs, drugs, and more drugs. Could be a fun evening!

PS My birthday is next Tuesday, March 8th, and I expect e-cards from everyone. www.bluemountain.com