A week in the life of... (warning, boring entry)

I go through life, and I forget. I forget the times when I did this or did that. After awhile, it becomes a 'I don't remember what it was like, but I think there was time when I woke up super early and piled into the car to go to a dusty, dirty, dingy, hot, stinky place where I had to wear steel toed shoes for 4 months straight'.

So I will document life at work now. A week life example.

A week in the life of cherry: approx one year after graduating from undergrad

Monday

It is Monday morning, and it is not the worse day of the week. I still do not realize that I am at work, and my mind is still turning around dazedly and without any aim, wondering what new happy thing will be in store for me (aka still in weekend mode). If I'm lucky, the fire breathing spider (aka boss, nicknamed inspired by first boss from Devil May Cry 1) would not have crawled its way into my office. Either way, I must be "immersed" in work as if I was actually awake.

Curing chronic sleepiness

Waking up in the morning is the worst part of my job, and I have not gotten used to it. Seems like being in the working world for more than 2 years is not going to help, if my sleepy boyfriend is any indicator. So I decided to try something drastic. I am going to turn myself into a chirping morning animal. The type who will annoy the heck out of the current me. After reading the first few articles that came up in a google search, I realized that it is simple in theory, but difficult to put into practice. The formula is basically ‘wake up every day at the same time but sleep at different times every day based on when you are able to sleep. Before sleeping, wind down and use melatonin pills if necessary for the first few nights’. Including Saturdays and Sundays. I’m going to be one grumpy animal, but I will do this for the sake of living like a normal human being on weekday mornings. I WILL KEEP YOU ALL POSTED ON HOW I DO!

Somehow I think it’s going to work. I was once on the edge of being sick one night (and I was overjoyed at the prospects of a potential sick leave the next day) but my mother stuffed me with drowsy cold medicine, which put me out, and I woke up healthier and less sleepy than normal the next day. I was so angry because I was looking forward to a sick leave. So it is not the amount of sleep I get (because I do get enough), but it is my internal sleep cycle. I’m a bit better around noon, but after lunch, I’m out again. In other words, I’m rarely using my brain to its fullest extent because I’m always half dead.

Monday mornings pass pretty quickly. Then, I start wondering what to eat, and questioning my friends on MSN when my colleagues start yelling that they are off for lunch right after 12. Most eat together, and go off in packs, like wolves.

Lunches with self

I love having lunches with myself. I’d avoid people during this time, and avoid even those farewell/birthday lunches. Cuz I'm antisocial like that!

Chinese class

After work, I am off to chinese class. Sometimes, when I am not dead tired, I go shopping, and all the salespeople approach me in mandarin, and when I look at them blankly, they go "oh sorry, just that there are too many mainlanders these days." It's true... soon my office will be full of them. I need to learn potonghua next.

Tuesdays

Tuesdays are the worse. Either I'm just in a plain bad mood due to the shock of being back at work (this time it hits me), or I am despairing at why it is still tuesday and that there is still a full 4 days left until weekend.

Exercise and Diet

Because I eat out too much, I am now motivated to do things that I’ve always wanted to do but did not have time/too lazy to in the past. Like go downstairs and swim. Or jog. Run up a hill. Go on salad diets. Order the cheapest things on the menu with the most vegetables. Or go belly dancing.

Belly dancing

I don't think it's normal to get toe cramps 7 out of 10 times. But I get them. And they hurt. But I cope each lesson.

Money

I am currently tutoring a colleague. His inability in language is my opportunity to capitalize, and so of course I took the liberty of offering my services to him. It's at the expense of one quiet lunch by myself per week, in which I am sitting across from a uni-browed balding man struggling to find the words.

Money is a good thing. I don’t know if it’s the HK effect or if it is growing up and realizing that everything costs money. But one day, I hope to spiritually mature enough to give it all away to causes in the world, and live a happy frugal abundant life.

Crocheting

And with more yarn and supplies than ever, because HK is just sooo good like that--I'm back at this hobby. I would love to say that I crochet on the bus to save time, but sad to say, I don't. Which brings me to my next topic.

Commuting (I typed transmuting by accident)

During my daily 1 hourish commutes, I just sleep or sit there half dazed.

Fridays

By this point in the week, I don't mind work so much. At 4:30 I am working hard after my post lunch slump. I am gungho, doing things at lightning speed and awake. But time to go! Clock strikes 5;45 and I skip happily to meet my friend to eat and then to go belly dancing together.

AND, congratulations to self, I have reached the WEEKEND! And hoping for lucky things like getting sick or typhoons the next following week.

Life at Mach Speed. Observations about puzzling HK patterns

O mouth Octopus, OMG!

I think I lost my ambition. That may be a good thing. This thought came to me on the minibus. Why minibus? Because drivers are crazy and thus inspiring.

My feet took me onto the last piece of transportation that would take me home. (side note: I must talk about the poor feet later, maybe in a future post with diagrams of my shoes and the unique types of pain they inflict).

Everything flared to life. The door was slammed shut, the engines roared, and we desperately tried to escape from a giant alien that was obviously out to get us (think Cloverfield. think The Mist).

As we grazed people walking across the street, I came up with the following list of HK societal patterns that I do not wish to be a part of, and theoretically should be able to avoid, having been 'chilled' in Canada (haha, get it? being chill in Canada... okay okay fine. a very bad pun...):

1. Mach Speed Society!

HK is all about adrenaline. Go Go Go! It's like Super Mario Speed runs (btw, there was once a time when I finished Super Mario World in 18 minutes) It's not only acceptable to be deathly fast and dangerous (ie minibuses) but celebrated. The intercom in the subway goes "we apologize for the delay" when there is like, a 2 minute interval between the door opening and closing. -__-'' Really.

I get shoulder checked as people worm their way around me in extreme hurry. It really amazes me how fast tiny old women can go, and how sharp their bags and umbrella spokes and elbows are.

2. Work Insane Hours in the Mindless Pursuit of Money!

HK is all about working yourself to death and squeezing life out of your days. It's about making your ass wider from sitting in a chair all day long.

Because. People love money very much.

Material, we're living in a material world.

But I don't want to be a material girl.

Living. In a material world. Living. In a material world. (-terial -terial!)

3. Geeky Boys who cannot socialize and their counterparts: smart savvy stylish and stuck up women

There is an epidemic of unmarried people. We have slang to describe them. "HK women" and "poisonous males". HK women have very picky tastes in everything, including hand bags, food, facial parlours and unfortunately for the male population, men. Thus, they are unmarried. There is also a growing population of males who grow up under the financial shelter of their parents, and don't go out enough.

4. Fanatical Consumerism!
In addition to filopinos and cell phones, malls and its variants are ubiquitous in HK. Maybe this could explain the Mindless Pursuit of Money.

5. Super Intelligent and Demanding Babies!
It's a combination of hovering helicopter parents and filopinos who dote upon them

6. Pervertedness.
One day I shall upload a snippet of the MTR station, and you help me count how many half naked women are there.

The point is, I don't want to be part of any of the above. People can compete all they want for their success and excessive money and stuff. I'll just try to find medium ground and stay happy where I am. God is right. Proverbs 30:8-9: “... give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. {9} Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”



Did I upload this crocheted heart yet? I don't remember so here it is.


So many Godiva chocolates in one setting...

Scared of salespeople

My mom bought me a $600 handbag. I went to thank her, as it was very nice (as one would hope for $600 HKD), but she demanded that I pay her back in cash. I said "in that case, can I opt out of taking the bag?" since I felt rather broke at the moment, but seems like it wasn't an option.

The wet summer months have arrived, which reminds me of some of the things I don't like about HK:

1. umbrella spokes in eye. Many people in HK are vertically challenged. Mind you, I'm not very tall, but when I wear heels (which I usually do on rainy days), the spokes are at eye level.

2. layers of sweat that form due to multiple entry-exits from excessively air conditioned indoors into the dirty sauna that is outdoors

3. vulture like salespeople. I like to look at things for no reason...and take ages to make a decision about what to buy. salespeople fly over and start explaining whatever I happen to be looking at, and the every other related product.

4. perverted men on the subway. especially when it's crowded.

5. clipping of nails on public transport.

6. Milk beverage. what the heck is "milk beverage"???

7. Hello Kitty, with alternate spellings.

8. Very young couples arguing in broad daylight. Actually, this could be kinda entertaining.

9. Food dipped in oil. They are prevalent.

10. TV on buses. They blare weight loss ads non-stop. I hate the weight loss ads at the MTR station too actually. They all feature a half naked woman, and somehow I don't think it's healthy for society. I will rant about this in detail in a future post (refer to point 4).

More student-artwork, all over his piano book (they're all drawings of a creature called 'cherry' whom he's clearly a fan of)

Bad english. To quote some highlights from the below:

Please prevent clothes from being infected by powder gel liner.

Do not use if skin has hurt or eczema

Please prevent other occasion of using it besides drawing powder gel liner

Crocheted draw-ribbon bag (salvaged a failed beanie):
Surprise!
Hanging next to the dirty wall of the lab (my office)
I did my nails again.

Ultra Sleepy. Dead Fish. Zombie. No Coffee. Snoozing Inside.

I noticed that every work morning, my msn name reads some uncreative variation of "I'm sleepy"....

Since it is in fact morning, there will be little text in this entry because I'm incoherent.

Expensive cute chocolate, instantly gobbled up, but didn't taste very good.

Giant pizza (24 inch). Everyone was full after one slice.
Passion world tour concert!!
My student's sticker "zoo". He later put letters next to each animal, and played it like a song on piano.
Dumplings!!! I made them from scratch : )

The wrapping process... filling includes: ground pork, chinese mushrooms, and bok choy; stir fried with egg and sesame oil.
I did my nails : D

Bloody Moogle

Last year December, I had wished for this year's May. I wanted to fast forward time, to days without having to trudge to lecture after work, to a moment where I wasn't on a learning curve and be so damn confused all the time at work, to when I feel more "established" in HK, having survived one year here with no issues.

My one year has come and passed. I'm now wishing for this December, when I would have passed the one year mark on my first job after graduation, and when I will be smarter and leaner.

I'm a sucker for progress.

I'm so happy to be done a semester of school. Because it gave me the chance to join a belly dancing class. It's all to offset the gifts of food I keep getting from my colleagues who come back from trips and such. When they present it to me, I go 'nononono let's share it with everyone in the office' I am surprised when they pull out another bag and say in poor English 'no... this one for everyone, this one just for you'. I reluctantly accept and if it is good, I eat it. If it is not, I secretly stick it into the 'arsenal' (a special drawer) where hungry guys will find and help consume.

I love my workplace. My colleague gave me "hand cream" and I looked at her quizzically when it felt really sticky. "It goes on white but will become clear as it absorbs." I thought I found a new breakthrough product since it smelled sooo nice like soap until I read the ingredients an hour later. 'Sodium Laureth Sulfate' was the second ingredient. We stuck our hands under the water and it foamed.

Other nice quotes:

"Im getting engaged! I'm in love, but I've never seen the guy before. My parents arranged it."

"Your english sucks."

"(insert name) is so good looking but he works with fecal coliforms. I'm not interested anymore."

"LA is horrible.... someone got shot in the restaurant where I was at and the cops surrounded me."

"Cherry is a Banana."

I also went hiking, which was supposed to be an easy trail but we went onto the wrong path and it became difficult. I was wearing really tight low cut jeans, carrying a heavy bag and was carrying hot tea in my bag. Never again.

There are honestly so many things that has happened this semester but for some reason, I can't recall anything right now and I'm too lazy to take out the agenda to check. I remember going to ocean park again but I already posted my first trip. I also watched a slew of movies including Robin Hood, Ip Man 2, Toy Story 1 3D Prince of Persia and Mist.

Cuteness overload. I will so make these one day.

People say this bunny looks like me... actually, I was the first to say that about myself as I was the one who bought it because I thought it looked like me. wow, talk about bad sentence.

This would be my newest creation, but because I haven't cut the yarn yet, it looks like it has a nose bleed.

Easter Weekend

The benefits of holidays are three-fold. One: time off, of course to do whatever I want. Two: a short work week. Three: everyone's in holiday mode so the pace at work slows down considerably. And I'm very much enjoying these benefits. I'm now back at work. But I might as well be sleeping because during the morning, I did nothing productive. And frankly, I don't blame myself.

This Easter, me and my family and my boyfriend's family went out to eat a buffet dim-sum lunch followed by a visit to the HK history museum to walk off the extra calories. The visit was quite enjoyable despite sounding mundane. I used to not like history that much but I think it was largely due to having to study Canadian history which were mostly about civil wars fought with pitchforks. I think I may have taken some sort of world history course but the details were fuzzy and I hardly remember anything other than bayonets which I thought were about the most barbaric and ugliest weapons ever. Kelvin thinks otherwise, and yesterday... like some sort of crazy war fan, had donned a green and brown print t-shirt with a helicopter on it...which he enthusiastically explained had an ingenious design, ignoring my -__- look. It was kind of cute actually. (I don't think he frequents this blog so I can talk about him here. mwuahaha)

Anyway, I hate war.

I also went to the fitness center and took one of those ad-hoc aerobics class they offer at fitness centers. I was very confused as to what I was supposed to do so I just flailed to the beat.

I'm considering Lasik eye laser surgery...

Collon... also comes in chocolate which makes it look even more like the body part that looks like the name of the snack.

I went to Shek O, located next to the water (a real beach!! not like the fake ones in canada!) for a BBQ. I told Kelvin to strike a cool pose so I can take a picture and ogle at him on my phone, but he just pointed at something going "waaaah people are so environmentally unfriendly!"
=__=

Me look sleepy, dazed and tired = default mode of living.
The most messed up periodic table ever.
Japanese snacks. Almost too cute to eat.
Vita soy packaging. Vita soy comes in ginger flavour!!! it's quite good. But the funny thing is, my Canadian friend told me about it (my HK friends didn't know about its existence).
The 55 kCal noodles I promised to show everyone from my last last blog entry.

The Sad Loss of a Weekend

It is Sunday night, and by the grace of God, I am home, having narrowly escaped another day of unadulterated concentrated stress.

This is not in my job description, but I ended up having to work from like 7 am to 12 am Friday and Saturday, and half a day Sunday (originally full day but I escaped), in order to entertain 6 Professors and their families (total of 15 people).

I think it's going to take pages if I explained in detail, so I'll just list out in point form some of the things that have happened. I suggest you skim over or pick and read, because it's going to be boring if you read it all.

Summary
Some people are amazing. Not amazing!-amazing, but outlandish-outrageous-amazing.


Friday : "Scrambling"

- I got a call at 11:15 am thurs night but I didn't pick up because I was on the phone with my boyfriend, which is perfectly normal. The next day, my boss exclaimed that he called me but I didn't pick up. Excuse me, but was that supposed to be a complaint? Like, was I supposed to be on standby 24/7? Did you TELL me to be available at all hours? (I later got made fun of, and was the scapegoat for everything that went wrong afterward in Mandarin...so I barely understood... but I won't get into that or it'll fill another page)

- one guest complained he had a hard time checking in (of course, all eyes turned to me but it is SO NOT my fault because I am 100% confident in the clarity of my instructions)

- setting up the guests computer for a presentation was a enormous frenzy of activity that I really don't want to get into .. anyway, the only thing you need to know is that two IT people and a person from the general office were in there helping

- "the table's too small!!!" ... "that's the biggest table we have." "that's ridiculous!!"

- the itinerary says "Free Time" on Sat, which begins in the afternoon. one guest exclaimed that he wants to go to macau, with me as tour guide. (Here are the problems with that: 1. I know nothing about macau. 2. I have no training in touring. 3. I am seriously prone to getting lost. 4. Ill be a girl alone with a man in another country. 5. It's going to encroach into my really really precious weekend.)


Saturday: "Harrowing Demands"
- before saturday, it was friday night and I was worried sick about one person who didn't contact me yet. I couldn't sleep. I finally got a text message from him that they were on their way from the airport, saying everything's ok. The next morning, turns out he had a difficult time getting in. (all eyes on me. -__- )

- they added a coach+driver to the itinerary, and changed the time again. the driver was understandably 7 minutes late due to last minute changes. (people seemed agitated and my boss was like "where's the bus??????????????????????" all eyes on me)

- at the security gate they wouldn't let us through since I haven't gotten a chance to register the above vehicle. 3 minute delay but the way they acted it seemed like 30 min.

- I was supposed to babysit some kids at the playground but they wanted to sleep. I went to play piano in the music room instead. Best part of the day.

- many many many sudden change of plans - will not get into that. Because Sunday is the epitome of "sudden change of plans"

- they discouraged the guy from going to macau.

- Went to eat dinner at boss' house. I impressed everyone with on piano ^__^ All of a sudden, a surge of interest in who I was and some respect.


Sunday: "I need to go pee"
- today was supposed to be ocean park for everyone. I bought everyone's tickets already, pre-ordered, being proactive.

- macau guy convinced 5 people to go with him. a waste of above tickets.

- the actual stopping route went like this, as per the barking of one lady (you can imagine what happened in between because I'm not going to type out the details, but let's just say I feel really really really sorry for the driver and I apologized and complimented him afterwards): HKUST visitor apartments (stop) -> entrance (stop) --> another apartment along the way to HKUST (stop) --> BACK to HKUST entrance (slow, not stop) --> going slowly along a minibus route (slow) --> minibus stop (stop) --> macau ferry terminal (stop) --> ocean park (final stop)

- the planned route is this: HKUST -> ocean park

- along the way to macau ferry terminal, one child wailed that she had to go pee REALLY REALLY REALLY badly. she finally went in a bag.

- the highlight of it all is the aforementioned barking lady said, "it's your weekend. you can go home. I can take care of them." I gladly passed all the information I had about the rest of the day to her.

- But anyway, even after I escaped to eat lunch with my boyfriend whom I haven't seen all weekend, I got 15 phone calls, made 10 phone calls, and 5 texts.

You know, I wish I could upload pictures here (including one fat boy clutching 2 DSs in one hand) , and put big fat arrows next to each head with descriptions, but I shall resist engaging in such indulgences.

Questionable if I get a day off to compensate. In all honesty I think I deserve about a week off. But like, REAL work at work is really busy too.



Speaking of fat boy, I saw a kid buying ice cream at seven eleven. He ran out of money on his octopus card, and starting ranting to himself when he was forced to put it back. It was for his own good....one less ice cream at a time.