Updates

• I quit my teaching job at E.nopi last December. I lasted 2 months. I just couldn't take the traveling anymore although I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to get another job where I can go to work whenever I want. It's so crazy. Last December, I went to work sometimes at 12 or 1 and then I left at 5. Omg. But that was bending the rules, of course.

• I'm going to start a new job on March 1st. I was really happy with this one because I didn't use any connections or anything. I applied by myself went to the interview and got the job as a result of my own hard work. It felt great. And the company is pretty cool too. It's market research/strategy/branding. I really hope that I get to work with the Creative team.

• As a result of my jobhopping, I now have so many business cards. But this one will be the coolest and it will say: Lesley Clemente Junior Consultant. Yay! I THINK this is the job I want. Maybe. I don't know.

• My progress in Chinese: 0

• My progress in German: 1

• And now I want to learn Spanish. I downloaded Spanishpod and Coffee Break Spanish from iTunes.

• Oh and now I'm this super Podhead. This iPod (which I got for Christmas) is brainwashing me to integrate it into every part of my life. Now I actually use an app with these womb sounds to help me sleep. And then while I'm sleeping, I'm using an app which measures my sleeping phases and then it wakes me up during my lightest sleep phase. It's so insane. I'm so insane. Besides this, I'm downloading all of these educational podcasts like The Naked Scientists, so that I will be in a continuous state of learning even while I'm doing laundry or while I'm on the subway.

• I'm going to move again in a few days. Augh. I move every 6 months. I have to pack everything up again and then bring all my stuff across the street. I try to get rid of as much stuff as possible but I kinda botched it when I went on a shopping spree in Zara and H&M. Too much time. Not that I'm complaining. I'm totally relaxed right now.

• I mighttt go to South Korea in February. But it's big might. I really hope I get the visa in time. Or else I stay in Manila for 3 weeks. I go home on Saturday!

• I also applied for a position in Singapore in a Solar Energy Research Institute. I don't know if I'm going to get that. And I'm also waiting for Airbus to tell me if they want me for their graduate program in Europe.... but I highly doubt it. Whatever happens... I think it's all good. But sometimes I wish I were still in University and that this was a year abroad thing. I think I rushed myself. Now that I will start working (for real I hope) I will have no time to travel and do all the other fun stuff. Anyway, nothing I can do about that.

Well things seem to be on the up and up. I hope this is a promise of more good things to come for 2010. I could swear that times flies faster when there are 4 seasons. It's like it was only beginning to get cold and now spring is around the corner already.

Does anyone know the prediction for rabbits this year? Although now it seems silly as I am living in China but apparently I live in a bubble.

Yay! I finally found some time to update my blog. It's been a month and a week since I started working (Yes, still the same job) and I go home everyday feeling somewhat exhausted. I can really see the difference between my old life and my new one. Basically, I've been living on a comfy pillow for the past 21 years and now my body is having a really hard time adapting to work mode. I'm sick every other week. It's so annoying. I suppose I haven't encountered this much stress in my life. And to think that I actually thought that high school was pretty tough...

Anyway, I'm pretty busy at work now. I have no time to watch Chuck or The Vampire Diaries during work hours. Now I'm like instructor cum marketing coordinator cum sales person. At first I was kind of excited about it because I never really planned on going into teaching so I wanted to go into other stuff, but now I realize that it's kind of unfair for me. My job description is basically just teaching. And that's what the boss and I agreed on. What he's making me do is extra work. It's bad enough that it's taking way too much of my time that I'm not able to see to my real duties, but what's worse is that I'm definitely not getting paid extra for it.

In happier news... according to my Adventskalendar (stress is on the vent and the len not like ad and ca like how we're used to in English), it's only 11 days until Christmas! It's quite difficult to feel any semblance Christmas spirit around here. (Not like this phenomenon is new to me seeing as my mom is basically the personification of Mr. Scrooge.) But it's just sadder that now, not only do I not feel the Christmas spirit but I don't even get to see the manifestations of other people's Christmas spirit either. And I have to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day if that isn't depressing enough. Where's the anti-discrimination and respect for all the denominations clause??

But the good thing is, I'm hanging around so many Germans and apparently, the Germans are great Christmas people. They definitely know how to do the whole Christmas thingy-majigy. Nowadays I'm just doing what they're doing, hence my title for today - Frohe Weihnachten a.k.a. Merry Christmas.

A few weeks ago, Mats bought some really yummy Christmas cookies called Spekulatius. It's so amazing. It's just flour with cinnamon and nutmeg and other spices but when you eat it, you get this warm fuzzy feeling inside. And then they come in four shapes: a windmill, a swan and... i forgot. But they're so cute!!

Then a few days later, he surprised me and Kenny with Adventskalendars. It's like a countdown to Christmas day. Everyday starting December 1st, you find the window with the date on it, punch in the perforated cardboard, open the window and surprise! there's a little piece of chocolate waiting to be eaten. I find it so creative. What a good way of making people enjoy their waiting time. I mean who thinks of these extremely fun things? I would've enjoyed Christmas 10x more if I had these as a kid. It's like the best countdown ever. Usually, you're supposed to eat the bon bons in the morning but I eat them during the evenings so I have something nice to look forward to after a tedious day at work.

Then last week we went to the Christkindlmarkt! Basically, it's just a bazaar of overpriced goodies. There was a stall selling a teddy bear for like 200 RMB. Wtf. Well it was for charity I think. But still!! The point is to sell stuff, not to scare everyone away. But some of the Germans and I went there to get some yummy, albeit overpriced, Glühwein. It's a warm and herby red wine drink. Drinking a lot in one gulp overwhelmed me a bit at first, but when I sipped it little by little, it was good. It actually felt very comforting to hold a cup of glühwein on a cold winter's night. I could imagine myself sitting in front of a warm and cozy fireplace as the snowflakes were falling from the sky.




One of the best surprises I got was when I awoke on the morning of the 6th. I went out of my bedroom into the living room and I found lots and lots of chocolate in my boots!! Being the terrible Catholic that I am, I didn't know that it was St. Nikolaus' Day and traditionally in Germany, the kids get candy in their boots... for being good? I'm not exactly sure. But I was like "Mats! You did this noh?" But he has maintained that it was St. Nik and up to this day, still hasn't admitted that it was he who was the candy giver.

I have eaten so much chocolate in the past two weeks. My St. Nikolaus stash is almost gone. This morning I just finished off the huge chocolate Santa. Unfortunately, I feel myself regaining all the weight that I lost when I started my job. NOOO! But in truth, I really don't mind. I mean I've celebrated Christmas more than I've ever had in my whole life. I suppose being disillusioned earlier in life had been good for me... but experiencing the Christmas magic is even better.

Actually, I should be doing something more productive right now. According to my Things To Do list, I should either be studying Chinese (Omg my Chinese sucks ASS. I can't believe it. I swear I have a mind block. I'm subconsciously trying to not master it because of all the negativity I've attributed to it since I was 5.) or studying German or applying to Airbus and to two other Market Research companies. But I've been meaning to write this post for a while now. It started out as Funny Things that have Happened while Finding Work, but now it's just going to be a thoughtdump. If I don't write everything down right now, maybe next week it's going to be a thoughtnovella.

Since I've delayed posting for a week or so, now the Funny Things that have Happened while Finding Work don't seem so funny anymore. Haha. It's just that the language centers that I've applied to have asked me to lie outright to their customers. During the interview, they told me that I wasn't from the Philippines, so where was I from? And then I was like uhhhh the States? Which city? San Francisco. (Sorry Lav, I kind of stole a part of your life. Your SF self is actually one of my alter egos. Hahaha) In another language center, I told them that I was from the Philippines but I spent time abroad blah blah blah (not true) and then I said a lot of other stuff and ended up with USA, Australia and Canada. And all the interviewer got from it was, "So where are you from in Canada?" What I would give for these lies to actually be true.

And the other thing was when I applied to this French company. This flirty French Moroccan guy was reading my resume and then he saw the name of my university. Oh, De La Salle University... sounds very French. Actually in my resume, it says De La Salle University - Manila. But because of this incident, I got the idea of omitting "- Manila" to trick some HR person into thinking that I was from some foreign university up until he reaches the next page where there's a vague reference to me being from the Philippines. After many revisions, my resume is now designed to resist deletion up until the point of no return when they can't not call me because I have gotten and sustained their interest.

Now I've been on dozens of interviews for different companies in different industries, and actually... I don't know how it got so complicated. When I was a little kid, all I ever wanted to do was to write books and to go to Europe. Well, generally I wanted to travel but I was very specific about needing to go to Europe. I even wanted to take up European Studies in university. I've always been the liberal artsy type. Except for astronomy, my interests have always gravitated towards literature, linguistics, history and the arts. Then my teeth and jaw got fucked up and I was sick from some kind of respiratory disease every other month that I became interested, if not slightly obsessed, with medicine. Then I wanted to make money to get out of the Philippines so I wanted to go into business.

Sometimes, I think I should just go home and be some kind of doctor. I've never shown any special aptitude in science but I find that I may have the skills and the personality which are highly suited for the medical profession. But then again, it was never my dream and I still want to go out there and live in the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.

So conclusion time. I've decided to go into applied psychology -> market research. A few weeks ago I regretted majoring in Psychology, but now I'm so happy that I didn't have to go through the drudgery of studying business. Originally, I wanted to get into market research so I can gain some experience and then I can get into market research for renewables. I thought market research was just calling people to ask them what they thought about something. As it turns out, they also do qualitative and quantitative research, ethnography and even biometrics - stuff which I'm interested in and hey! finally! something which I'm actually qualified to do. These companies are actually looking for people who majored in the social sciences. It's nice to be wanted for a change. And I don't know, somehow it seems kind of interesting. I was looking for a job where I can use my interest in layout design skills and a job where I have different projects because i know that I get bored so fast.

More on this soon. Now I'm sleepy

OMG!!! It's snowing!!!

It's actually only snowing a little little bit. But still. It's my first time to actually see the process of snowing AND as I've been told, usually, it doesn't snow in Shanghai. Wow. O.O

But now I'm sick because it's too cold. ;( 3 degrees AGAIN today or maybe even less because AccuWeather isn't Accu at all. My super duvet couldn't do it for me anymore. It was only good for sleeping and when I got out of bed... bazinga! Instant ice cube-ness.

At least now reading Snow White in German becomes useful and I can use the only snow-related phrase I know...

Schneeflocken wie Federn von Himmel herab
Snowflakes like feathers falling from the sky

It's so fulfilling to be able to finally use something self taught. ;)

It's Christmas even if it doesn't feel like it!

Yay! Last Halloween we had a party over at our house.

Okay, it wasn't my idea. It was Kenny's idea and I wasn't supportive nor was I especially participative in the planning process. But I eventually got into the party mood and helped out with the decorations.

OMG! I can't take it anymore. Being in front of the computer in a little box is driving me BATTY. Tomorrow I quit!

I need a face to talk to.

For the first time in my life I'm going to say thank GOD I took up Psychology and dropped Management. Turns out it was right for me. Atfter 5 years of doubt, now I've finally confirmed that it was a right decision.

Wow this was kind of shorter than expected.

I am no longer a deadbeat.

Yesterday Dragon Sourcing called me back and told me that I got the internship. Yay! Well it only pays 2200 RMB (and I'm so sure that if a French national walked in, he would've gotten much more), so I am still unable to support myself... and it's what I would've gotten as starting pay if I'd chosen to work in the Philippines. ;((( I think that I will be doing extremely cheap labor but then no one else would hire me because I have the wrong degree with the wrong experience from the wrong country.

For some strange reason, I have a good gut feeling about this job. And that is so extremely strange. Well for one thing, their office sucks and I am someone who is very visual and ideally, I want my environment to be beautiful and stimulating to the senses. So that's a super negative for me. But then... this kind of career has its advantages. If I choose to go back home, I can start my own business. If I choose to go abroad to the white people countries, I can work for companies there (well it would be difficult but certainly theoretically feasible). And then it's a job that deals with foreigners and I've always wanted a job like that. I've been thinking of doing a Master's degree in another seemingly useless thing called Intercultural Communication and I think this job is somewhat related.

Anyway, it's a French sourcing company and I will intern as a buying analyst. I suppose my duties would include calling the suppliers or sitting in meetings with the clients who want to buy cheaper raw materials or finished products from China. The good thing is I'll be forced to improve my Chinese fast because apparently, according to the people at the company, my Chinese is merely passable.

So now on top of my internship, I just enrolled myself in dance school and then on other days I go play badminton with friends. Then I'm starting to look for an English teaching job. Every Monday I need to go to Chinese Grammar class and then I want to look for a Chinese tutor to improve my horrible speaking skills. I have a friend who wants me to help her with English and in exchange she helps me with Japanese. Oh and I'm also studying German.

Unfortunately, I have to say goodbye to one of my favorite things in the world: 睡懒觉 (sleeping in). On the 17th, I start being an oompa loompa like everyone else. Waking up at an ungodly hour, hopping on the subway, going off to work and coming home when it's dark out. I really don't see the appeal of this kind of lifestyle, but since I've been so fickle about deciding which path to take in life, I really have no choice but to settle for any job. 

In the back of my head, I always hear a little voice telling me: Oh my God. You. I know you. You are not going to survive. I bet you'll quit in oh hmm 10 days. Hmm... well, let's see, right? The only way to find out is to try.

[Out of the bubble and into the real world progress: a whole fricking lot.]

Finally!!

After months of bloglessness, I discovered yesterday (and by accident no less) that I have once again regained access to LiveJournal. YAY! All I have to say is... This blog has been way overdue. 

And now I'm off to dinner! First post (of my what.. 5th? blog now? haha)! Cheers!