No More Isolation!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

In my first couple of weeks here, I felt so isolated. Big cities like Shanghai can be incredibly lonely. I’ve never actually lived in a city before, and it was weird to walk around and never see a familiar face.
Now that I moved in with Panpan, things have improved tremendously. It’s still rare to see people I know unless we have prior plans (I can’t say never anymore, because I did randomly run into a friend from school once…), but now I know that when I go home I’ll at least have a friend there. (This just affirms my resolution not to live alone!)
I’ve gotten a good handle on the social side of my time here, now, but work is an ongoing struggle. I simply don’t feel very fulfilled with my internship. I don’t have enough work to keep me busy, which I’ve expressed to my supervisors, but unfortunately it seems that they just don’t have more that I can do, since you need a lots of background knowledge for a lot of what they do. Even when I do have work, oftentimes it’s not work that requires critical thinking or creativity. Hearing about what some of my friends are doing at their internships just increases my frustration. Although I’m so happy for those of them who are having great experiences with their internships (like Alisha and Marina), it definitely makes me jealous!!! I wish I felt that I was learning more and contributing more.