*warning. this post is very long cos i wrote it over two days. fell asleep on the first day. maybe you'd fall asleep and read it over two days too*
It's Like Having Two Families..
"so, how's it like going back to singapore?"
"it was fun! had a good time catching up with everyone"
"bet it was hard coming back to alabama wasn't it"
"well...not really. Both places have their good points. It's like...having two families. Two homes."
----------------------------------------
been blogging an awful lot lately.
well it's been an awfully good week,
so even though i'm awfully tired i'll blog some.
customer left today.
it's been a whirlwind week getting all the stuff ready
but he's a nice guy, so it was cool.
we were happy working with him, he left happy, we were left happy
so it's a good day.
"why are you here so early?"
"i drove the customer here"
"did she just say she drove the customer to work?"
"yes...and i tried my best not to kill him."
"yeah you better not we need their business! did he know you just learnt to drive?"
"i think he found out pretty quick."
felt very connected and at home today.
knew where to go, where to hunt for stuff, whom to look for help
everyone was helpful, everyone was friendly
what a grand day
GB told the customer they'd hire me if singapore didn't want me
and FJ added with a wink, "she'll be back."
--------------------------------------------
was trying to get a power supply to work today
i needed over 50 V of power and i didn't want to blow anything up
so i went to get Waite for help
He came over, sat down, "let's see...", and promptly jabbed the probe into the ground pin.
*PIAK*
A huge spark almost blew the probe out of his hands.
"Whoa!" we both jumped back...."ok so that's not where it should go."
we spent the next 10 minutes figuring it out, with him still jabbing the probes into any hole he can find.
"Waite you're making me nervous jabbing the probes everywhere"
"you're making me nervous turning the voltage knob so quickly!"
after more minutes of creating sparks
"see if i do this, there's a spark. oh oh did i just blow the supply up?"
"Waite! More fireworks and they'll assign us to the shipping department"
and using the multimeter with mysterious power
"Waite the meter is not even plugged up."
"it has power. you're fooling me."
"no look! this is the power cord."
"look! it has power!"
(after 15 minutes)
"we're not getting the readings we need. Then again we're using a multimeter that is unplugged"
in the end we decided the resolution we needed was too fine for the supply.
high voltages and sparks make me nervous.
-------------------------------------------
perhaps the only downer of today was one of our fellow workers got into trouble (and a warning only i hope) and she was in tears when she left
I hate it when pple at the lower end of the hierachy (i hate the condescending connotation but it's prob the most concise description) get in trouble/tears
it's like they're so powerless
at the mercy of bureaucracy
it makes me feel sad
over here, for the same position, they are much more enpowered than in singapore
a lot more
the negative side is you have to deal with a lot of whining and complaining
"this doesn't work! i want this! i want that!"
"these are the only choices we have..."
"well then throw this into the garbage! send it back and ask them to fix it!"
"no CC, we can't really do that"
"it belongs to the garbage! i dun want this!"
the positive side is everyone has an opinion to voice so it's sometimes easier to solve things.
at times anyway. :)
someone walked past with a newbie the other day and i overheard her say
"i dunno who told you that junk my dear. This company does not believe in hierachy"
and that's pretty much true in alabama.
there is still an invisible line you don't (want to) cross, but nothing like what we see in asia.
here you can march into the CEO's office and show him your birthday present and he'll wish you a good one
or you can be like CC and complain all the way to the CEO's office and he'll tell him to get the hell out of his office but that's abt it.
it's more like even though you're the manager it just means you perform a different role and get paid more, but it doesn't mean you're the almighty boss.
it's quite refreshing.
anyway i'm just sad she was in tears.
cos she's a friend.
and before that she was in such high spirits telling everyone "if you see shorty, can you grab her and throw her over to me cos i've been hunting everywhere for her"
"hey, it's good to be short. no one can see me walk around. whereas like FJ, you can see his bald head from the other end of the room"
---------------------------------------------
3 customers from india are also with us right now.
i don't work directly with them, but one sits next to me so we talk.
turns out they don't drive so they're pretty much stuck, like me when i started out.
i offered to give them a lift whenever they needed one
and to bring them around
(i'm just hesistant cos my driving is......)
i'm not sure if i would be so hospitable if i was at home
but being here, having been in the same boat and being on the receiving end of so much kindness
i feel so obligated to return the kindness to somebody who needs it
and it does feel good to do nice things
there may be karma after all
----------------------------------------------------
didn't want to go home after such a nice day
couldn't think of anywhere to go
thought i'd drop by the chinese restaurant and then go to the bookstore
left the restaurant at midnight (again)
one of the regular customers asked if i am married
i said no.
he quickly added he was single too.
the chinese bosses were laughing their heads off.
"huh?? ta yao zhui ni?????????"
we also chatted about nose rings and whether they hurt.
lady boss showed me her eyes lined with eyeliner and said nothing can compare to that.
i think nose rings hurt a lot more but agreed that eyeliners are very uncomfortable to draw.
after a while i came to realise that i misunderstood her
those were not drawn on eyeliners
those were tattooed on!!!!!
WHAT!!! *cringe*
imagine tattooing along the eyelid! oohh yyyiiiii owwwww
"isn't it popular in singapore? it's very popular in china"
"i've never seen or heard someone do that. We do have pple that tattoo on their butt cracks...but eyelids? oohhhh yiii owwwwww"
"did them when i was young. my mom disapproved of course. so i went with my fren and we both hid in her room for 3 days."
"damn pain right?"
"not really. but the eyes swelled for 3 days. really like panda."
"so you and your friend just locked yourselves in her room and walked around with panda eyes for 3 days...."
"ya lor. as though we became guo jia zhi bao (national treasures) overnight. cannot show face"
we just kept chit chatting even after they were closed for the day.
the boss has been robbed at gunpoint twice when he worked elsewhere.
he has had friends working in new york who were killed. he knows pple who killed.
according to him, in new york, when you empty the shop trash at night they need someone to guard the door with a gun.
the restaurant he used to work in has rows of guns at the back of the kitchen and he'll play with them when he's free.
they feel that americans discriminate chinese pple like them
even though i disagree and said it could just be a lack of communication
(they said i'm different cos i have a "western" education so i fit in better)
anyway, even though i always knew we were from different white/blue collar social strata
(and i enjoy the differences in perspectives they bring)
it only just hit me yesterday abt sub-concious discrimination
listening to their stories of hardship and fighting and slugging things out and discrimination
it dawned on me that they could be america's equivalent of our local foreign workers
our indian construction workers...our indonesian "housekeepers"....
this is going to be politcally incorrect
but i know i'll prob never really be friends and get to know these pple
i'm not explicitly biased, they are pple after all
but sub-conciously i know i see them in a different way
a different group, a different bunch
the biasness from society has infiltrated in whether we like it or not
the point is
me being new to america
i come in with a clean slate
my vision is not tainted by forms of discrimination moulded while growing up
so i see pple as they are
and get to know them as they are
i can't discriminate because i don't know the rules of discrimination
i dun know what's a junk college and what's a good one
everyone has nice houses so what is normal and what is rich and what is poor
i didn't know and i didn't care
unfortunately i've been here for a while so i'm starting to find out as i interact more with others
it just dawned on me yesterday what was happening
a sudden realisation
i got to know the chinese bosses and many more pple cos i just like them for who they were
there are probably also many foreign workers in singapore that are as nice and have many interesting stories to tell
but i will never get to know them well and hear these stories
because my eyes are tainted and my mind too eager to categorize,
whether i like it or not
sometimes it is better to start afresh
---------------------------------------------------------
GB was telling us she's been married for 20 over years and have no children
they all looked at me and remarked that i'm just abt the age of her daughter if she had one
see suddenly i feel that i'm so young at 24
really just a Little Bit running around.
we met the son of the founder of the company over lunch the other day.
he's some tua liap in the company but everyone eats with everyone.
he said his dad (the founder) sent him to singapore when he was 27 to start the singapore branch.
"i have many nice memories of singapore. i was 27 and living alone in a tropical country! Many nice pple there. One of my vice presidents kept rubbing medicated oil on his head during our meetings.
at that time the toilet cleaner washed the toilet by hosing water everywhere, so the toilet paper was always wet. most of us will keep toilet rolls carefully locked up in our drawers. That fella will, in the middle of our meeting, slowly unlock his drawer, take out his toilet roll carefully, tenderly roll out the length of paper he needs, and then say 'excuse me, i have business to attend'. it was so funny."
that tua liap was a very funny jovial guy himself. very exuberant.
the conversation veered to one of the managers who was blind in one eye after an accident
"i'll let him know you're here and tell him to keep an eye out for you." *wink* *guffaws*
and then there was another manager with only one arm, so more jokes there.
"haha...you guys are so mean!"
"no no we're all very good friends. and they joke abt it themselves. so it's cool"
the other day i saw one of the supervisors wheel in a "small fry" employee in a wheelchair
that employee was wheelchair bound and the supervisor will push her in everyday
Little things like these make the heart warm.
-------------------------------------------------
I just found a clown club in this town!
Saw a stack of mag for casual reading in the chinese restaurant and asked the bosses why in the world would they put magazines abt cancer institutes in their restaurant.
"oh it's abt cancer? i dunno, the stack came free. we found it at the doorstep one day"
so i flipped through it for fun and there was an article abt a clown club here!
practising the philosophy of Patch Adams that laughter is the best mediciane
sometimes you wonder whether there is some strange power
manipulating coincidences and fate
i'll give them a call one day
hopefully my Fish will finally have friends!
It's Like Having Two Families..
"so, how's it like going back to singapore?"
"it was fun! had a good time catching up with everyone"
"bet it was hard coming back to alabama wasn't it"
"well...not really. Both places have their good points. It's like...having two families. Two homes."
----------------------------------------
been blogging an awful lot lately.
well it's been an awfully good week,
so even though i'm awfully tired i'll blog some.
customer left today.
it's been a whirlwind week getting all the stuff ready
but he's a nice guy, so it was cool.
we were happy working with him, he left happy, we were left happy
so it's a good day.
"why are you here so early?"
"i drove the customer here"
"did she just say she drove the customer to work?"
"yes...and i tried my best not to kill him."
"yeah you better not we need their business! did he know you just learnt to drive?"
"i think he found out pretty quick."
felt very connected and at home today.
knew where to go, where to hunt for stuff, whom to look for help
everyone was helpful, everyone was friendly
what a grand day
GB told the customer they'd hire me if singapore didn't want me
and FJ added with a wink, "she'll be back."
--------------------------------------------
was trying to get a power supply to work today
i needed over 50 V of power and i didn't want to blow anything up
so i went to get Waite for help
He came over, sat down, "let's see...", and promptly jabbed the probe into the ground pin.
*PIAK*
A huge spark almost blew the probe out of his hands.
"Whoa!" we both jumped back...."ok so that's not where it should go."
we spent the next 10 minutes figuring it out, with him still jabbing the probes into any hole he can find.
"Waite you're making me nervous jabbing the probes everywhere"
"you're making me nervous turning the voltage knob so quickly!"
after more minutes of creating sparks
"see if i do this, there's a spark. oh oh did i just blow the supply up?"
"Waite! More fireworks and they'll assign us to the shipping department"
and using the multimeter with mysterious power
"Waite the meter is not even plugged up."
"it has power. you're fooling me."
"no look! this is the power cord."
"look! it has power!"
(after 15 minutes)
"we're not getting the readings we need. Then again we're using a multimeter that is unplugged"
in the end we decided the resolution we needed was too fine for the supply.
high voltages and sparks make me nervous.
-------------------------------------------
perhaps the only downer of today was one of our fellow workers got into trouble (and a warning only i hope) and she was in tears when she left
I hate it when pple at the lower end of the hierachy (i hate the condescending connotation but it's prob the most concise description) get in trouble/tears
it's like they're so powerless
at the mercy of bureaucracy
it makes me feel sad
over here, for the same position, they are much more enpowered than in singapore
a lot more
the negative side is you have to deal with a lot of whining and complaining
"this doesn't work! i want this! i want that!"
"these are the only choices we have..."
"well then throw this into the garbage! send it back and ask them to fix it!"
"no CC, we can't really do that"
"it belongs to the garbage! i dun want this!"
the positive side is everyone has an opinion to voice so it's sometimes easier to solve things.
at times anyway. :)
someone walked past with a newbie the other day and i overheard her say
"i dunno who told you that junk my dear. This company does not believe in hierachy"
and that's pretty much true in alabama.
there is still an invisible line you don't (want to) cross, but nothing like what we see in asia.
here you can march into the CEO's office and show him your birthday present and he'll wish you a good one
or you can be like CC and complain all the way to the CEO's office and he'll tell him to get the hell out of his office but that's abt it.
it's more like even though you're the manager it just means you perform a different role and get paid more, but it doesn't mean you're the almighty boss.
it's quite refreshing.
anyway i'm just sad she was in tears.
cos she's a friend.
and before that she was in such high spirits telling everyone "if you see shorty, can you grab her and throw her over to me cos i've been hunting everywhere for her"
"hey, it's good to be short. no one can see me walk around. whereas like FJ, you can see his bald head from the other end of the room"
---------------------------------------------
3 customers from india are also with us right now.
i don't work directly with them, but one sits next to me so we talk.
turns out they don't drive so they're pretty much stuck, like me when i started out.
i offered to give them a lift whenever they needed one
and to bring them around
(i'm just hesistant cos my driving is......)
i'm not sure if i would be so hospitable if i was at home
but being here, having been in the same boat and being on the receiving end of so much kindness
i feel so obligated to return the kindness to somebody who needs it
and it does feel good to do nice things
there may be karma after all
----------------------------------------------------
didn't want to go home after such a nice day
couldn't think of anywhere to go
thought i'd drop by the chinese restaurant and then go to the bookstore
left the restaurant at midnight (again)
one of the regular customers asked if i am married
i said no.
he quickly added he was single too.
the chinese bosses were laughing their heads off.
"huh?? ta yao zhui ni?????????"
we also chatted about nose rings and whether they hurt.
lady boss showed me her eyes lined with eyeliner and said nothing can compare to that.
i think nose rings hurt a lot more but agreed that eyeliners are very uncomfortable to draw.
after a while i came to realise that i misunderstood her
those were not drawn on eyeliners
those were tattooed on!!!!!
WHAT!!! *cringe*
imagine tattooing along the eyelid! oohh yyyiiiii owwwww
"isn't it popular in singapore? it's very popular in china"
"i've never seen or heard someone do that. We do have pple that tattoo on their butt cracks...but eyelids? oohhhh yiii owwwwww"
"did them when i was young. my mom disapproved of course. so i went with my fren and we both hid in her room for 3 days."
"damn pain right?"
"not really. but the eyes swelled for 3 days. really like panda."
"so you and your friend just locked yourselves in her room and walked around with panda eyes for 3 days...."
"ya lor. as though we became guo jia zhi bao (national treasures) overnight. cannot show face"
we just kept chit chatting even after they were closed for the day.
the boss has been robbed at gunpoint twice when he worked elsewhere.
he has had friends working in new york who were killed. he knows pple who killed.
according to him, in new york, when you empty the shop trash at night they need someone to guard the door with a gun.
the restaurant he used to work in has rows of guns at the back of the kitchen and he'll play with them when he's free.
they feel that americans discriminate chinese pple like them
even though i disagree and said it could just be a lack of communication
(they said i'm different cos i have a "western" education so i fit in better)
anyway, even though i always knew we were from different white/blue collar social strata
(and i enjoy the differences in perspectives they bring)
it only just hit me yesterday abt sub-concious discrimination
listening to their stories of hardship and fighting and slugging things out and discrimination
it dawned on me that they could be america's equivalent of our local foreign workers
our indian construction workers...our indonesian "housekeepers"....
this is going to be politcally incorrect
but i know i'll prob never really be friends and get to know these pple
i'm not explicitly biased, they are pple after all
but sub-conciously i know i see them in a different way
a different group, a different bunch
the biasness from society has infiltrated in whether we like it or not
the point is
me being new to america
i come in with a clean slate
my vision is not tainted by forms of discrimination moulded while growing up
so i see pple as they are
and get to know them as they are
i can't discriminate because i don't know the rules of discrimination
i dun know what's a junk college and what's a good one
everyone has nice houses so what is normal and what is rich and what is poor
i didn't know and i didn't care
unfortunately i've been here for a while so i'm starting to find out as i interact more with others
it just dawned on me yesterday what was happening
a sudden realisation
i got to know the chinese bosses and many more pple cos i just like them for who they were
there are probably also many foreign workers in singapore that are as nice and have many interesting stories to tell
but i will never get to know them well and hear these stories
because my eyes are tainted and my mind too eager to categorize,
whether i like it or not
sometimes it is better to start afresh
---------------------------------------------------------
GB was telling us she's been married for 20 over years and have no children
they all looked at me and remarked that i'm just abt the age of her daughter if she had one
see suddenly i feel that i'm so young at 24
really just a Little Bit running around.
we met the son of the founder of the company over lunch the other day.
he's some tua liap in the company but everyone eats with everyone.
he said his dad (the founder) sent him to singapore when he was 27 to start the singapore branch.
"i have many nice memories of singapore. i was 27 and living alone in a tropical country! Many nice pple there. One of my vice presidents kept rubbing medicated oil on his head during our meetings.
at that time the toilet cleaner washed the toilet by hosing water everywhere, so the toilet paper was always wet. most of us will keep toilet rolls carefully locked up in our drawers. That fella will, in the middle of our meeting, slowly unlock his drawer, take out his toilet roll carefully, tenderly roll out the length of paper he needs, and then say 'excuse me, i have business to attend'. it was so funny."
that tua liap was a very funny jovial guy himself. very exuberant.
the conversation veered to one of the managers who was blind in one eye after an accident
"i'll let him know you're here and tell him to keep an eye out for you." *wink* *guffaws*
and then there was another manager with only one arm, so more jokes there.
"haha...you guys are so mean!"
"no no we're all very good friends. and they joke abt it themselves. so it's cool"
the other day i saw one of the supervisors wheel in a "small fry" employee in a wheelchair
that employee was wheelchair bound and the supervisor will push her in everyday
Little things like these make the heart warm.
-------------------------------------------------
I just found a clown club in this town!
Saw a stack of mag for casual reading in the chinese restaurant and asked the bosses why in the world would they put magazines abt cancer institutes in their restaurant.
"oh it's abt cancer? i dunno, the stack came free. we found it at the doorstep one day"
so i flipped through it for fun and there was an article abt a clown club here!
practising the philosophy of Patch Adams that laughter is the best mediciane
sometimes you wonder whether there is some strange power
manipulating coincidences and fate
i'll give them a call one day
hopefully my Fish will finally have friends!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home