Jetlag kicks in hard core.

Wednesday we woke up around 3am and couldn’t get back to sleep. By the time the 4:45 wakeup call arrived, both of us were showered and dressed for the day. Karl had a management review meeting that he needed to run with the folks back in the US at 5am local time. Lila headed into the office for another 8am start (and 9 straight hours of meetings). Two teams are being combined for her new group. One is predominantly engineering and product development. The other one is more focused on marketing, ethnographic research, and product definition. The majority of the team is split between the US and Shanghai, with some others in Brazil, India, and Egypt. While in Shanghai, Lila finished meeting everyone on her direct staff, a few peers, and also had some 1:1s with other very experienced people in her team. Although the job doesn’t officially start until December 6, she has a lot of responsibilities as the new general manager of the team. Karl spent the day around the hotel area to work out of the Shanghai Mart sales and marketing office. He had lunch with a friend’s co-worker, and the local site manager of the sales and marketing office. Everyone is extremely willing to help answer questions and start introductions that should allow Karl to find a new role for himself.
Wednesday evening, Karl arranged to have dinner with two other Intel expats. We headed back to the French Concession for a great Dim Sum dinner and another round of ‘ask for moving tips’ from the current expats. It’s amazing how different everyone thinks you should arrange the ideal transition. Caroline was in the minimalist mode – sell everything and move over with a suitcase. Our new friends on Wednesday said, “Move everything you own since you don’t know what you will need until you get here.” We will have to decide what strategy will work best when we head home on Saturday and start to digest everything we’ve learned. We’re looking forward to Thursday & Friday’s preview trip with the relocation company to settle on which neighborhood we want to live in. According to Karl’s friends, the most critical things to bring from the US are 2 high-end air filters for our new house and 1 for the car. According to them, the air quality is so bad that the government refuses to publish indicator reports. Even with all of the pollution and 2nd hand smoke, it’s supposed to still be better than Hong Kong. We wonder if oxygen tanks are also in our future!?!(ps. Excuse typos, still fighting jetlag --- writing this between frequent 5 minute naps)