one-month anniversary

hola! today jojo celebrates her one-month anniversary at the new company. already she is fully accustomed to the life of a cross-border commuter. she has mastered the art of maneuvering through the immigration lines. the 30-minute immigration process is the most competitive time of her day. instead of climbing the corporate ladder to get ahead (her old defintion of being competitive), now her new defintion of being competitive is to outrun the elderly, bypass the baby-carrying mothers and elbow the inexperience travelers to get to the front of the lines. the one-and-a-half-hour commute each way is starting to feel short (sometimes she barely finishes the morning papers before border is reached). she is getting used to eating RMB5 lunch at the company cafeteria (cheap and delicious, however). she is starting to understand not all people are obsessed with work and having 8 long hours dedicated to work is actually the norm and does not equal to laziness. in other words, she is living the reality and not the old banker land. when she had a blackberry, she used to think that people don't know what your hands are doing under the table during meetings but just as teachers see when students try to read comics in class, it is truly apparent to the people sitting in the room. today, coincidentally, she came across an article on the Financial Times mocking people who hate their high-paying jobs but cannot get out of it because of they have grown to enjoy their expensive lifestyle (which can only be supported by the high-paying job). here is an excerpt she likes: "the solution to your lifestyle problem is such that if widely known would result in the collapse of the financial services industry. it would prompt a mass exodus that would prove devastating to the [UK] economy. therefore it is not in the national interest that the solution be divulged." haha, how true! but as an ex-banker, she can tell you, life actually begins and does not end after your stop getting the handsome paychecks!