they don't believe in learning on the job

so there are now three interns in my team. one of them is new (she only came in last week), and there's a beijing resident who's an undergrad from a canaian uni who's been here 6 weeks, and then there's myself, who's been here 5.

they're sending us for a 3-day training next week. like... what? they're sending me for training, after which i'll only have 3 weeks left with the company? it's hilarious :) big waste of their resources...

:)

China experience: day 37 of 70

wide open spaces and moisturizer

ok thought i'd put photos here tonight since it's been a little while since i last blogged :)



i had a nice walk down wangfujing some time last week. i like walking down wide open spaces - especially when it's breezey - and especially when the place is quirky haha



there's the foreign language bookstore. it has a small but nice selection of books. and it's a bit surreal to see beginner's spanish lessons... in chinese. and in the last 10mins of closing time, a really loud voice blasts on quick repeat that they're closing soon. quirky stuff. and i'm tempted to buy their whole collection of Dune... heh...



starfish, millipedes, pupa. not to mention other more gross stuff not in the picture. the funny part is watching the stall owners yell to caucasians that yes, they do have _________ (insert gross object) meat here!!!!!!



and for the first time in my life i'm taking moisturizer seriously...

China experience: day 23 of 70

poor neon things

i am running out of colourful neon post-its. bah. and they're supposed to be unavailable in this country.

in other words, probably ONLY bunch of colourful neon post-its in this country is about to be depleted. *grumbles*

and why won't photobucket work here? *double grumbles*

China experience: day {{man how may days has it been...}} of 70

a thought in the food court and korean dramas

today i noticed the sounds of the food court over lunch. it was a bustling, busy sound of hundreds of people talking, walking, eating... i got lost in it for a while, like a droplet falling into water. for a moment i felt that it would be so easy to lose myself in the hustle and bustle, so blend with the crowd, to merge into the scenery.

in fact, it's so easy to become the background, to detach myself from things and people and watch the ups and downs with the attitude that it no longer matters to me. but somehow i don't. somehow i'm here, in the midst, the one living this life, the one feeling the emotions, the once acting out the drama.

i am Prospero, needing to find strength. i am Dream, crafting my own death and denying that i am. i am Arwen, making the mortal decision. i am Death, learning about people as my apprentice ends the world. somehow we remain the protagonists of our little comedies and tragedies - ones usually made for an audience of one.

our lives really are like korean dramas. we can walk off the stage or stray from the plot anytime, but we choose to stay, acting out our little defeats and joys and victories and sorrows. perhaps this willingness to engage our emotions is what makes us human - things that laugh, cry, share, love, and hold.

bargaining and gnomes

ok so last weekend we visited Ya Show, a place supposedly famous for being a bargain haven :) i was very pleasantly surprised that it was not as crowded, noisy and stuffy as i thought it would be. in fact it was actually fun to walk around watching people bargain :)

i think i'll be a terrible bargainer... i mean these people really play with emotions. now i'm not someone who falls for the "please not so low, i need to make a profit" rubbish, but i get very affected when shop owners act hurt or angry. like omg is she *really* angry?? i better just buy it and be done with it!! haha...

and anyway i had a nice time at the place thinking of a game-theoretic approach to bargaining... maybe i'll write a book on it one day haha... and it can be my PhD thesis... The Art of Bargaining: A Game-Theoretic Approach to Making Profits by S.T. hahaha...

and in my free time i've been having a nice time fleshing out my long long "gnome" story. the (very long) history is done and, of course, full of the obligatory inconsistencies and logical fallacies of an initial draft :D i'm also been trying to write a portion of the story in dactylic hexameter (the meter of poetry used in the ancient greek epics)

pictures another time cos i'm at work now :)

China experience: day 17 of 70.

the language barrier and sizzler's

after talking to other interns today, i think the language barrier is not so much that my chinese is lousy, but that i happen to be placed in a department that uses chinese exclusively, including esoteric finance and accounting terms. there are other interns who are doing things involving english, which would be a lot easier for any SMU student...

anyway, on a happier note, we went to sizzler's with some of the other beijing interns!



and i really think i should have ordered the chicken...

China experience: day 13 of 70

thicker names and funny stuff

i've had the chance to look at a lot of names today cos i've been doing a lot of calling... and the english names are really hilarious. there's a lady called Conan (as in conan the barbarian), a really thin lady called Thicker, and someone else called Duckey. really funny. :)

also had a very funny experience today... that callig i'm doing is to get people to sign a declaration of interest form. this includes people from other teams. it may have been my pronounciation or something, but one guy from another team thought i meant that he was being drafted into this team, so he apparently rushed like crazy from the hospital to settle the matter. had a hilarious moment trying to explain to him that yes, you're only here to sign the form and blah blah

:)

China experience: day 12 of 70