I have worked for a whole week. I met another employee from a
different department at lunch the other day. She was talking about how
the many phone calls and email had kept her busy the entire morning.
Then I told her that I didn't have a single phone call and had only
one reply from someone I emailed earlier in the morning with a
question. She said, "Don't worry." Then she continued, "The first
three months will be your vacation! Then after that, people start to
realize your existence and that fact that you can answer their
questions. Just enjoy your vacation and you will miss it when you
start to receive phone calls and email asking all different kinds of
questions." So maybe I should have said at the beginning of this
paragraph "I just completed my first week of vacation", instead.

My "vacation" is about what I'd expect. I had been learning the
procedures and rules about how tasks should be finished at work. The
learning involved many details. It appears to be critical to stay
organized, patient, and persistent.

I am very happy with the people I work with. They certainly are not
like people I used to work with in graduate school where I felt like I
have been spending time with my family. However, I have chatted with
people a lot at lunch. There are usually some interesting topics each
day. On Friday, a few of my Chinese co-workers were exchanging ideas
on why their kids were not studying hard. One of them said that he had
a talk with his son the other day urging him to study hard after his
son proudly announced that he had won the highest honor upon finishing
high school. The other co-worker was annoyed by that fact that his
daughter is reluctant to go to some advanced extra-curricular classes
in the summer but is more willing to join a soccer camp instead. Then
he explained that his daughter would lose her privilege to watching TV
and playing games whenever her grade falls below 95 points; and she
had lost only one point in all state-level tests ever since
first-grade (now she is in fourth-grade). I couldn't help but told my
co-workers that I thought that they were a little crazy.

I will have an assistant soon. The first candidate will be interviewed
next week. Now I have to remember what questions I have been asked
when I was interviewed and prepare some questions for the
candidate(s). Should be interesting.