I cleaned out my desk over the course of an afternoon, not because it took that long but because I wanted to re-read everything I had been holding on to before I got rid of it. Any souvenir or object we keep is essentially kept so we can re-live what it’s associated with sometime in the future, but I figured I’d get it out of the way and re-live it right then and there. Saves me some time.
Thursday we had my going-away lunch and Friday was my final meeting. My boss, Joe, had given me the homework about a month back to evaluate MoCA and present what I liked, disliked, and thought should be changed about it, then present it at this meeting. So I presented and discussed. Here are the bullet points of what we spent time on:
- The Chinese philosophy is not to plan everything to the minute, and there is no timeline like in the West (which was initially very frustrating for me). But still, everyone somehow knows when things will get done, and they always do. Joe described the way things work at MoCA as “like fireman waiting for a fire – when problems arise, we find solutions. That’s the best we can do.”
- The problem of having a “Chairman” who makes all the decisions without understanding the everyday work environment. Everyone agreed this was a problem, but an unavoidable one at such a small company.
- There isn’t much work if you only work within your department. Luckily, MoCA is small enough where I could dabble in all of the departments and stay pretty busy while learning about the entire museum operation.
- MoCA didn’t give me busy work, which I respect immensely considering that’s what most interns do
- Overall, MoCA had a unique family feeling to it, with Joe at the center. He took us out to lunch, allowed us to go see other museums during work, encouraged us to always be working together, and made sure I was learning something every day. This is something I’m not sure I would have found at an American internship.
Then it ended, and the next day so did my apartment stay and Shanghai life as we knew it. Will and most everyone else got on planes, and we left behind most of our prized pantry. I went to live in a dormitory near one of my co-workers (I somehow convinced the housekeeper there to let me stay for free for a couple of nights). Despite it being about eight thousand times less expensive, I love it – it’s a big room with a bed, desk, closets, TV, etc. and a bathroom. Just what I need, nothing more. And it's right next to the Expo, the last thing to cross off on my to-do list.
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