The World New County Economic Forum

Over the course of my employment at Future 2, I've been involved in some... strange... extra activities that have close to nothing to do with what I was hired to do. From my "promotional" adventures, to correcting translations for business plans, things are never boring here. But yesterday was by far the strangest thing I was asked to do yet.

First some background. Future 2, the branch of Aston English that we work for is (as far as I know) the only Franchised school in Dalian. It is owned and run by our principal Michael, who is also a used car salesman. And he is also apparently involved in the Chinese Information Technologies world, as he is starting a Linux training school (and a Japanese Business school) in the back of our school.

Despite knowing this, it was quite the surprise to my coworkers and I when we were told that to make up some missing hours in our week we would be VIPs at a mysterious conference. Even though it has nothing to do with our job in any way imaginable, we didn't put up a fight because A - we were most assuredly under hours, B - these random things we're "asked" to do always lead to a great story, and C - We were told there was a banquet in the evening.

So off to the mystery conference we went.



I've long ago learned to not expect any coherent or straight explanations from Tommy, our school manager, but the conference really didn't have anything to do with IT, but rather the Chinese Economy. It was also completely in Chinese. Yeah. Exactly.

At least it was at one of the fanciest hotels in Dalian. And by fancy, I mean it puts the Waldorf to shame.

And really, it wasn't all bad. Not being able to understand anything gave us all the opportunity to revisit old doodle favorites such as Dots and M.A.S.H. Who would have thought if you send a bunch of teachers to a conference, they'd start playing the same games that middle schoolers play in class.

Leafing through the conference's program, I found out exactly why we were there. The pictures of all the foreign teachers were there, with the implication that we work for one of Michael's many other companies. I don't know... last I checked, I taught Chinese kids the difference between toes and a nose... pretty close to "A Warm Hearted Team for Conference Service"



Oh yeah, and they spelled Corey's name wrong. Twice.

I guess that's what happens when they don't run these things by you.

But none of this matters. Really, I don't mind being used as part of an elaborate lie to show that foreigners are doing things we most assuredly aren't. And why is that you may ask?

Because of the aforementioned banquette. It turned out to be a gourmet western buffet, that was an unimaginably delicious treat at the end of a long day of speeches in Chinese. I don't want to go on and on about the food, so suffice to say begin to end, it was a nonstop joyride for your pallet. Lasagna, cooked to order steaks, mexican potatoes, breads, curried everything, and fruits from near and far! They even had make your own sundays, gummies, and cakes galore for desert! Ok, I'm stopping myself.





All in all, it was a strange day, but what the hell, we got fed quite well... and everyone knows the best way to get foreigners to cooperate on a really strange con/scam/business endeavor, is through their stomaches.

I'm off to continue digesting!
- Shawn