Our Cast of Characters

Thought I should give a brief description of the colleagues we are traveling with -- it will give you more context for all the stories.

Tony -- Tony works in Tommy's group, and recently did an 9-month tour of duty in Shanghai. He signed up for another one, and we are so happy that we've got him around. Tony is originally from Indonesia, speaks fluent Mandarin, and became an American citizen in October. We're trying to convince him to live near us, but he's also looking at the bright lights of Puxi.

Sergey -- Sergey is originally from the Ukraine. He emigrated to Canada and went to college in Toronto, and then took a job with NI in Austin, and is now moving to Shanghai. We tip our collective expat hats to him. He arrived about a week before we did, so the novelty is starting to wear off for him, especially since Sergey doesn't like spicy food. He's doing a great job learning the language, and will probably live near us in Pudong.

Herbert - Herbert works in a different group than Tommy, Tony, and Sergey. He's been here about a year, and has another year to go. He is from western Germany, and is about 6'3", short hair, and a long trench coat -- which is to say, he stands out. He speaks Mandarin very well and was our guide last night (Wed.) to the "secret" restaurant and bar in Puxi -- more on that later.

There are a handful of other NIC folks around here, but I haven't gotten to know them as well yet. I'm sure that will change. And the NI-SH teams could not be more helpful and thoughtful, taking us out each day to dinner and lunch, showing us around, and making us feel very welcome. We are very fortunate to be in such good hands.