Chickens and Pig Feet (7-14)

It’s been a long time coming, but I was finally able to sleep in. I didn’t have enough time to run so I just did the P90X Ab Ripper workout quickly before breakfast.

The downside to the morning was that Matthias woke up not feeling well. He decided to give it a try and come to the office, and even managed to get there without it getting worse. Most of the driving here isn’t conducive to those with a weak stomach. Fortunately, after resting a bit when got to the office, he bounced back and was looking and feeling like himself again.

Given that ever since we got here I have been eating way too much food, when Katherine offered to order in food, we all jumped at the idea. We got a generous portion of food, delivered for about $2 apiece. I had a really nice sweet and sour pork and rice dish.

Given that it was just the five of us (Matthias, Maria, Katherine, Zoey, and I), we just hung out in the office and chatted for a bit. And that worked out really well because it’s very common for workers to take a nap after eating. So in the room where we were working, most of the team was napping. We had a fun chat about cars, how lucky or unlucky we were, and a bunch of other random things. Katherine also came up with a zinger using “sour grapes.”

From a work perspective, I’ve still been creating the consolidated Design Thinking deck to guide us through that the next two weeks. We also ran another other interview which provided some insight into their hiring practices and challenges. For example, we learned that the salary paid in the development zone are lower than in the city, so it’s harder to get people to go out there.

After work, the three of us went over to Carrefour to get some goodies to snack on. Even ordering in what we thought was going to be lighter fare, we were still stuffed. So I just ended up eating an apple and some yogurt for dinner.

Walking around foreign grocery stores is always interesting to me. Carrefour is no exception. They have all sorts of weird pre-prepared foods. Some look pretty interesting, but still a bit sketchy, so I don’t know that I’ll get up the nerve to try them. Here’s a picture of some of the new interesting things I found today like full chickens (head and feet included) and whole pig feet.

Since I didn’t go running in the morning, I ventured out for a run in the evening. Maria joined me for it, and running with someone always makes it go much faster. It’s been a really nice surprise to find out how many of the other CSC people like to stay active. Between the various walks and runs, I’ve now been out for a walk or run with nearly everyone for one thing or another. Everyone’s differing schedule has actually turned out to be a positive.