Hotels And The People Who Live In Them...

Since moving to China, our residence has varied from week to week. The one similarity between these locals, is that they are all hotels. Whenever I meet someone who like me, has been living in a hotel, I think of a line from the movie, "Two Weeks Notice". I can't recall it verbatim, but the gist of it is...I live in a hotel that I own, so my life is very much like Monopoly. I'm not sure why I think of this, but almost immediately after I do, I joke to myself, that me and these hotel residents are the unfortunate players who accidentally landed on Park Place . The worst part? We don't own the hotels...

Meeting people who live in hotels is like reading the teaser on the back of a New York Times Bestseller. Invariably, their lives are fascinating (though almost always in a superficial sense) and the introduction never ends with, "where are you from?" In fact, that is most likely the beginning of their story. In any case, the reason this is delightful for a socially incompetent person, such as myself, is that it is extremely easy to keep the conversation going. It is nearly impossible to run out of questions. Better yet, people like this are invaluable resources, because they have traveled the world 3 times over and know the insides and outs to ever city imaginable.

Tonight, as I mingled with the residents of our current hotel, it dawned upon me that I was definitely the most inexperienced person in the room. This came as quite a shock, because when compared to my peers, this is not generally how I feel. However, when the room is filled with company founders, successful commodity traders, etc who spend 300 days out of the year traveling and living in hotels, it is to be expected. Fortunately for me, expat communities (at least here in Shanghai), are generally a tight knit group. That is, when your resources are limited, you can't be too choosy, and from my vantage point, it is a good thing. >_<