When I saw the pictures in the e-mail, I couldn't believe
it. Sun Island 2013 Summer Party for
hundreds of staff and teachers? Golf
course, go-karts, "carnival", pottery, horseback riding...and the
best part, in my opinion, was a wave pool and "beach". The whole thing--buffet, drinks,
entertainment, was being paid for by my employer. Was this for real?
The only other company picnics I remember were those that
RAHCO had back in Spokane when I was a kid.
When the old boss was still in charge, he'd wear a beer helmet and talk
to all the employees' kids, who were hopped up on free-flow lemonade and soda. Everyone had big grins. Everyone brought food--pies, salads, rolls of
every kind, brownies, jell-o salads, cole slaw...All of the drinks, and
anything that went on the grill, came out of the boss' generous pockets. As the sun started its downward coast toward
the horizon, the adults would play tug-o-war or take turns driving a speedboat
around the lake, towing the older kids on giant inner tubes. Mothers and young children chatted and dozed
on blankets under the pine trees.
When I was a kid, the RAHCO picnic was one of the highlights
of summer.
Fast-forward to 2013 and this summer party. It was as if all of my childhood dreams had
come true.
I'd had a bit of a night out the evening before, so the
90-minute bus ride was a little painful at times. I wish I'd inherited my grandfather's cast
iron stomach, but I hadn't, so I contented myself with sipping sweetened green
tea out of a red can and nibbling on Pringles, taking deep breaths. The closer we got to Sun Island, the better I
felt, but it took about an hour before the skyscrapers were behind us. Yes, Shanghai is one of the world's most populous
cities. The flat landscape lends itself
to millions of high rises. It seems
impossible that they could go on for so long, but they did.
But all things end, and eventually we could see more
greenery, more sky. Blue sky! Before we took the final turn, I even saw a
cow, and exclaimed out loud--I hadn't seen a cow in over two months, and the
farmland and livestock made me feel happy and relaxed.
Our bus passed the corral first. The horses seemed small, saddled and tied up
to their posts, heads down in the mid-day heat, looking weary and sad. They weren't even flicking their tails at the
flies. I could imagine their
smell--horse sweat smelled like petunias to me--and I imagined the smell of
leather, the way it sounded creaking in the sun. I felt guilty--I'd always been horse-crazy as
a girl, and I hadn't ridden in nearly 20 years.
I thought Maybe, just maybe...But
the bus passed the corral, and by the time we reached our destination, the
horses were at least a 10 minute bus ride behind us.
Bus after bus of teachers and staff spewed into the lobby of
the largest building. Our site at
Wujiaochang alone had 50 people attending.
It seemed hard to believe that we'd traveled 90 minutes out of Shanghai,
and it still felt like the middle of rush hour.
We stampeded toward the free Singaporean buffet lunch, and after a soda,
we started in on the semi-frozen bottles of Tsingtao. A couple of my co-workers were on a mission
to get stumbling drunk, but I didn't feel completely comfortable with
that. For one thing, I was tired from
last night; for another, all of my co-workers, including my boss and her bosses, were in attendance. Free alcohol was nice, but I had no desire to
act the fool in front of these people.
After a bit, a few of us took the shuttle to the wave pool,
where the site vs. site tug-o-wars would be held. I couldn't believe that I hadn't been
swimming all season--swimming is one of my favorite summer activities, but with
preparations for coming to Shanghai and settling in here, I simply hadn't had
the time. I didn't care that the
"beach" was fake, with obviously manufactured sand, or that there was
no alcohol being served. I put on a
small layer of sunscreen and laid out on my complimentary navy blue company
towel. My co-worker and I took turns
swimming (the water was the perfect temperature) or going down the water slides
while the other stayed behind to keep an eye on our gear. Some bikini-clad girls from other sites soon
plunked down next to us, and we had a nice little chat, albeit a gossipy one.
One of my trips down the slide was with a male co-worker, a
Chinese man who usually looked very serious and even moody. But as we climbed the stairs together (me for
the first time, he for the third), we couldn't stop talking and giggling like
kids. It was great to see each other
outside of work, just having a good time.
When I saw him the next day at work, we gave each other big grins, and
it felt like the whole trip had been worth it.
After a couple hours we made our way back to the main
building, where the staff performances were being held. Luckily, WJC was up first, because the
conference room was PACKED. The chairs
and tables had been removed. Most people
were sitting on the carpet, like kids at a school pep rally, and everyone else
crowded on along the edges in the dark, standing body to body with familiar and
unfamiliar folk alike. Colored disco
lights and spotlights colored the room, licking the tops of our heads and
making them sparkle like gems.
At one point, a handsome American guy I'd seen at the pool
in a Speed-o came in--still barefoot and in his Speed-o, obviously tipsy,
pushing his way in, his nearly naked butt centimeters from the faces of shy
Chinese girls who'd spent hours making themselves pretty for the event
today. I cringed. Ah, here was the example of an American, the
example famous everywhere around the world.
The good-looking, entitled, loud American Example. The Example said, rather loudly: "Hey, a talent show! How can I get in on that? My buddy can beat-box and I'll rap." I wanted to glare at him. Some of the staff had been rehearsing for
months. After WJC finished (to great
applause and my loud cheering), I pushed my way out of the crowd. I didn't want to know whether this guy had
made it to the stage or not, but I didn't want to watch.
I sipped my way through a cocktail, somewhat
reluctantly. I was getting really
hungry, and I knew if I had another drink after this, it wouldn't be a good
scenario. After the buffet lunch, the
food had been picked up. There was no
snack bar or any place to buy food that I could see. I thought it was great that my employer had
done all this for us, but I thought it was a little irresponsible of them to
provide an unrestricted flow of beer and liquor without even some chips to help
soak it up. Ah, well.
A co-worker and I caught one of the first busses back to
Shanghai. We had a great conversation,
and it felt like a good ending to a good day.
For more photos and information on Sun Island, check out their
website: http://www.sunislandclub.com/en/
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