Last week, after weeks of interviewing, we expanded our China office team from 5 til 9. By October, we would have 10 or 11.

Here we have from left to right: Charles Tsi, Joyce Zhao, Kong Xiangmei and Leo Ma.

They are sitting on our brand new couch that we got from Ikea since I moved the old one down to my apartment. Charles, Joyce and Kongxiangmei are the new Nuffies while Leo (Mashili) is our new and first ever Churpie in China! Leo has about 2 years of experience in another social media agency and knows the ins and outs of social media platforms in China pretty well. We’re excited that Churpchurp might come to play soon!

So instead of our small little work space previously, we’ve bought more furniture for everyone to be a little more comfortable. Friends tell me, after looking at pictures, that it’s still a bit too cramped, but I say, hey, it lets us bond a little bit better!

I think we did quite a good job at selecting our new Nuffies as they all seem to blend in pretty well. We always try to select new colleagues that we think would fit in with the “family”. Here we have Julia pouring herself a glass of wine:

Rachel, of course, ain’t working well without some too:

Great team. it’s just the beginning now, time for us to achieve big things!

Nuffnang and Churpchurp China team Sept 2011

This post is mighty late. It was 2 weekends ago – my bday that is. It fell on a Saturday and I kinda remembered it that week itself. I had a busy week that week and I guess pretty much every past week so didn’t really think much about it. Montse, a friend here was telling me about how she was going to celebrate her bday on the 24th of the month, and how crazy it was going to be and invited a bunch of people to be there, so I guess I was thinking more about her bday than my own.

On Wednesday Sept 7 , Wangyan, our ex-Nuffnang China colleague called me out for dinner on Thursday which I said i couldn’t make it because I had a dinner with some bloggers, and then she coudln’t make it on Friday so she asked if Saturday was ok, so I said sure I got nothing on then. She said to call everyone from the office as well so I asked Julia, Rachel, Eric, and Jane to come along. Eric was able to make it, Julia couldn’t as she had some school friend’s gathering, Jane wasn’t sure yet, and Rachel had to go to some Aquarium and would try to get back in time for it.

So I was like ok cool. Wangyan said she’ll let me know about the place to eat on Thursday, but only told me on Friday. Friday night I went to Xiu and got a birthday call from Huiwen, and Juinyi right smack at midnight (well Juinyi cheated and called 5 min before just to be ahead of anyone else haha). It was nice of both of them to call! Then since I was there I got a bottle of champagne for the friends who have always been inviting me there to chill, nice bunch of people.

Saturday came about and I went about doing my own thing, waking up late, going to the gym, then going home to change and get ready for 7pm dinner with Wangyan. Eric texted me earlier to say that he might be late as he needed to pick his gf up, and Rachel said she was going to be late too, and asked us to text her to address when we got there. Janice I texted her to say to meet 7pm at 3.3 which is where we were supposed to meet Wangyan because she didn’t know where exactly the restaurant was.

So I arrived at Sanlitun 3.3 at 7pm and called Janice but she didn’t pick up. Wangyan said she was across the street and asked me to cross over there since the restaurant was over that side. I texted Janice and she said she’s on her way ask us to go first. So I went to meet Wangyan and walked to the restaurant. Told her that everyone will be late so we went to the restaurant first.

Went to Doyle Danger’s Pub or something like that next to Gongti, which is a pub I’ve seen a lot of people go to but just never went to myself. We went upstairs as she said she already made reservations. When we arrived upstairs, we saw a few tables setup together and a cake with candles lit on the table. I was like, hhmmm, someone else doing a birthday thing too eh. Then just as I was turning around to ask Wangyan, so where’s our table? WWHOOOSHHH!! EVERYONE JUMPED OUT FROM BEHIND A SMALL WALL! I was like wwhhhaaaAAAA???????

Bunch of people that I actually knew all just jumped out!!! But I was so confused, I spotted Julia and was wondering, eh didn’t she have a school mate’s gathering to go to? and Eric said he was going to be late because he had to pick his gf up and he’s here? Rachel said to text her the address when we’re there so how come she’s there before us?? and Janice, who didn’t pick up, was there too?? Then Nora? Lucie? Julia’s roomate, and one of our bloggers Xiaohui. I was like aaaahh???? Took me a while to realize it was a surprise! haha. Oh gosh they did it well. I was still thinking how they all told me that they were at different places but all ended up there before me!

Well we all settled down later and they told me how they planned the whole thing and was so afraid that I would find out. They were stalking my Facebook, Twitter, Weibo, and very casually slipping in questions here and there to find out my plans for my birthday, which I thought only Rachel and Julia knew since they were the 2 that texted me at 12midnight on my bday. They got Wangyan to do the invitation, and apparently Rachel and Eric were the master planners.

It was a great surprise birthday party. I totally did not expect anything at all and was just thinking it was a simple dinner with Rachel, Eric and Wangyan but turned out to be an awesome event! I guess things are best when you least expect anything!

And of course, when they make you think you are 18 all over again:

Everyone waiting eagerly for the cake. They were waiting since 6pm!

Janice Zhao that works on the 2nd floor of our building. She sells ad space on CCTV channels:

Nora Foo, introduced by Teycindy, came all the way from Wudaokou, fellow Malaysian here studying Chinese:

Julia, her friend Ruolan, and blogger Xiaohui:

Rachel and the bf, Paul:

Eric, who beat me at pool that day:

Wangyan, who worked with us for 7 days but we still all like her!:

Helen, our accountant, and Lucie, who was one of the first few interviewees at Nuffnang China:

Thanks guys for celebrating my birthday with me. It was totally unexpected, and I really appreciate it!

This is the core Nuffnang China team thus far. We are in the process of doubling the team by the end of the month. This is a picture of us taken in Shanghai 3 weeks ago.

Who says we can’t be serious?