Office Life

Hey nobody,

I have started to fall into the rythm of the new life. Now, after 3 weeks in the new company I no longer feel like I have to be careful with every decision (better to not show my incompetence) nor careful with the content of every sentence (better to not alienate the people I will have to work with).

Now more or less the office stasis has won out finnally and I come in every day and do my job without much comment. My job, in case you are interested, is translating factory production demands and questions into Chinese, then getting the answer and putting it back into Spanish. Occasionally, English gets a use here and there, if only becuase I get tired of looking at all the possible characters that I could mean when I type "ji" (the answer is in the hundreds). Those who type Chinese know my pain, those who don't, well, be happy you don't.

The co-workers are more interesting, a bit. At first they were frosty and standoffish like Chileans like to be, after that they become more normal latinos. The workday is crazily long, from 9am to7pm. In reality this means no one (exept me perhaps) actually arrives anywhere near ontime and generally drift out a little after 7.

How does working work when you have such a long day? Well I am writing this blog at work, so that should tell you. Also our rythms have to do with the factories in China, which are on a whole other schedule. . . usually each day we work in two short bursts, right in the morning when it is still possible to get something done in china, then right before we leave when the Chinese are waking up.

As for the personalities of the officemates, I don't know yet. The big boss seems somwhat combustable, but he seems to save it mostly for recalcitrant factory owners. In general the atmosphere is pretty relaxed ... and it has to be. For anyone to maintain stamina over this period of time it's necessary to have rests and bursts of activity.

If I ever get to know any of these people I'll tell my audience of none all about it. Trust me.