Well it's my fifth day here in Shanghai and the first day that it hasn't been raining!  It seems I brought a little of the weather with me from back home, although it's much more like a warm shower over here.  

I arrived on Saturday and after leaving my fellow China IBMer, Dougie, at the airport I took a taxi to the apartment.  My first sighting of Shanghai was impressive, we drove over the elevated expressway into the city and I was greeted with the sight of the World Expo 2010.  The pavillions are amazing, some of them quite literally art.  My taxi driver was kind enough to slow down and let me take photos out of the window, even though other vehicles were whizzing by at incredible speeds!  I will definietly be spending one of my free weekends at the Expo.  

My apartment is just on the outskirts of the French Concession district, an area that's home to many museums and markets, as well as gardens, sports centres and shopping streets.  It's buzzing at all times of the day and lights up the whole sky at night.  I took a walk into the centre and more tourist areas, such as the Bund, on Sunday.  Shanghai is much more than I was expecting, it has huge skyscrapers, a very modern metro system and bus service, and one of the busiest shopping streets in the world, Nanjing Road, which rivals New York for the sheer choice and number of stores. 

I started my placement with IBM on Monday.  I visited the medical centre first for a chest x-ray (a requirement for all foreign nationals working in China) and then took the metro out to the office.  I was rather impressed when I managed to make the right connections and change trains twice without getting lost.  At the office I was greeted by Daisy, my mentor, and introduced to my team leader (David) and the rest of the team I'll be working beside.  Everyone was very friendly and inviting and I was surprised  but pleased to find that I am one of two interns from Scotland working with the team.  Bruce (from Strathclyde) has also secured an internship for the summer.  I was taken to the staff canteen for lunch and used chopsticks for the first time since arriving in China.  The rest of the day was taken up with the usual new start tasks, acquiring a badge/swipe card, a laptop, a phone and a desk and once my computer id had been set up, requesting access for the relevant files and databases I will be working from.  I was also given the office manual, a guide to the policies and practices for procurement within IBM, and taken through the department's role by one of my colleagues, Persephone.  The department is responsible for the checking of purchase orders to ensure that the policies and practices concerning source selection and fair value have been followed.    As the office is quite a bit outside of the city, IBM provide shuttle buses for their staff.  Another of my colleagues, Amanda, very kindly found someone (Katrine) from another department who lives in the same area as me and asked her to accompany me to the bus and point out the pick up stop for the next morning.  Its a rather long commute, just over 90mins, but the drive takes us right through the centre of Shanghai, under the river and past the Pu Dong business area.  So I think of it rather more like a tour bus.

Tuesday saw me up at 6.30am to get to the shuttle bus stop for 8am.  I discovered that most people sleep on the bus on the way to work, so I decided to start a journal and use the bus journey to write it.  At work my computer ID's and email facilities had been set up but I was still waiting for access to be processed before I could begin work (the department that deals with this is in Hungary, so with the time difference it takes a little longer).  In the meantime I completed the online education modules for new starts and continued reading the manual.  Another intern, Helen, (a Chinese student studying in USA) took me through the specific details of the job I will be doing.  She has been completing the task for the past 2 months but will be leaving on Friday and I'm to take over.  My main task is to check PO's to ensure that developing suppliers have been included in the procurement process.  This involves checking a lot of databases for the relevant files and contacting the buyers direct if the file is not listed.   Lunch was a litle different today.  Instead of going to the canteen some of the other workers, order from one of the local eateries and then elect one person to go and collect it.  I'm not sure entirely what it was that I ordered (I asked Helen for help in deciding so I know that it was pork with rice and not too spicy and had a bolied egg on the side) but it tasted very nice, and again I got to show off my skills with chopsticks.

Today I started work on the task, sitting with Helen and carrying out the processes whilst she watched and answered any questions that I had.  As she's only here until Friday, I plan on asking about everything until I understand it inside and out!   Lunch today is from a different restaurant and I've ordered chicken Kung Po. 

Until next time,

Lindsay