Elevator Etiquette

Not much to say this week. We've been working at the long and tedious task of putting our tickets in order by date, then by sport, then by section, then by row, then by seat number. It's fairly mindless, but by the end of the day we're fried. We've been working 10 hour days to hopefully finish this task by tomorrow. It's going to happen. So my nights have been uneventful. We did have 3 new staff join us this week in the department: Lisa, Miriam, and Francesca. They are American, Italian, and Slovenian respectively, but are all currently living in Italy. And they all worked for the Ticketing Department of the Torino Organizing Committee. They're very fun, and I've been able to pipe up in Italian here and there. Lisa is a musician as well, so we've enjoyed putting my iTunes on Party Shuffle and listening to whatever comes on...jazz, classical, showtunes. She cringed when 'Lil Mama came on today, though. She hates rap.

So Beijingers don't have very good elevator etiquette. The office building is a nightmare in the morning and afternoon, because everyone is trying to use the elevator at the same time. They will cram 13 people where Americans would put 7, and then when they reach their floor, they push their way out without saying "dwe bu chi" or "excuse me." (This is the same on the subway.) They also push their way onto an elevator without waiting for people to get off, so you have to fight your way out. Last week, some of the Chinese in the elevator were saying amongst themselves "lowai, lowai," which is something akin to "dirty foreigners."