Congrats On Your New Job!

I have not posted in AGES. Partly the perks of doing the International Baccalaureate (I still cannot spell that) (yes I used spellcheck okay?) and partly because I'm Asian. And everyone knows while the rest of the world is living their lives up, Asians are in their rooms doing long division at two months old and calculus by the second grade.

So a few updates.
First, I finally got my hands on a copy of Tangled, by Carolyn Mackler (turns out books.com.tw isn't that bad at ordering books) and I have to say it was pretty darn awesome, like all her other books. The only complaint I'd have is that it's too short. And no I'm not trying to be all like "Aw man, why did it have to end it was so great!!", I mean it, it was kind of too short. I felt like the characters all went through 1 twenty-page "event" and suddenly their lives are different. Okay so maybe that happens in real life and all but I felt like I didn't really get a good enough chance to really immerse myself into the book and understand all the characters really well. I still liked The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things more, though Tangled is quite a cute novel as well. Maybe I still like believing in the outrageously ideal life and perfect situation where things always follow through after shit happens.
I can't say I don't want that though, given the situation I'm in now. Well, I've been praying on that to happen for a long time. I guess my 4.3 this semester was a nice touch to my half-slacking off (hey...I was studying for IB exams).


Second important update: I have a part time job now. It's been consuming most of my life so I don't really know why I'd refer to it as part time. It's eight hours a day at a restaurant (10AM-6PM). And when there are a lot of customers, it gets pretty hard to handle. I started out with a work schedule where I didn't have two consecutive days of work, but today is the second day of four consecutive days of work (only to be broken by a small event known to Americans as Independence Day and to me as My Birthday). Anyways, prior to joining the crew, I constantly hung out at the restaurant, because I had a small gig there with Scarlett during New Year's. It seemed like the coolest job ever, mixing drinks and serving those awesome drinks to customers you chat with all the time. And the boss--he's awesome! He's this chill guy sitting outside smoking or drinking a bottle of beer who looks after us like his own children and always has a friendly chat. Not to mention he's a great propaganda artist and a normal artist as well.

I had an internship at Starbucks last year, where I went through their employee training. Training for four things: History of Starbucks, Coffee Communication, Quality Customer Service, and Barista Classes. A manager of a store taught each of the classes, and every employee was required to go through these classes. I thought this was great because each and every employee has a good foundation about everything from how to describe the difference between coffee from Tanzania and coffee from Sumatra to why Howard even got this Eureka idea of "Starbucks" in the first place. And it gave us all something to appreciate about the store and all of us learned how to make drinks and everything.

Well, at the restaurant, none of that. I was given "training" by someone working there for half a year. And since I'm telling the Naked Story on this blog, she really needs to loosen up a bit. I mean if the chopsticks are slanted she complains. I don't know, I guess it's nice when the restaurant looks totally spick and span perfectly aligned, but I feel so uptight doing everything so perfectly and in my honest opinion it doesn't matter that much. I can't help but to think how the rigidity of work is what gets me down all day. And to pull through an entire day I have to constantly tell myself: Welcome to the Real World, kiddo. Or: It's only for two and a half months (two and a half months??!). Or: I'm doing it for the experience (yeah, what am I doing if I get paid 350NT an hour for tutoring services?).

I love some other people there though. I guess we just click better than other people when we're working. And I love my boss, he's really great. But there's just that rigidity there and the following month I have so many shifts it's intense (it's like five days a week now). I don't get to learn to make drinks because I'm new. I have to stay outside and do all the choresy stuff, while some other people are chillin' because it's "not their job to do the outside chorsey stuff" (why? well because they've been there longer. what?!)

I don't know. I'm just so pooped out I can hardly attend dance classes (and I love dance classes and have to finish forty classes before I leave for the states. So if anyone wants to join me, let me know (it's 150NT/class) I need some classes to be used up). I hate to admit it but it's just too true that I keep wondering what it'd be like if I applied for Starbucks. Then I keep thinking of my dad, who swears the secret to success anywhere is "Adapt to your environment, don't let the environment adapt to you". Then I feel guilty and start wondering what would my dad do or what would so-and-so do in this situation?

I guess I'm just too tired by the end of the day to think about how much fun I'm not having working. No one said money was easy to come by, but gee, the Naked Story is that tutoring an evil kid who hates learning is easier than this (yes, those kids who hate English that I tutor English to).

Anyways, I guess this post is getting too long again and I'm seriously extremely burned out for the day. The Naked Story is although I love the congrats on getting a job, I'm not having the greatest time of my life. So much is left unsaid that I feel like I'm being corkedscrewed down and once someone opens the champagne I will explode with inside emotion. My temper seems to inch up on me too often as well.

So I've decided to post on my blog at least once a week, though I'll try to more often than that, given people actually read all this. Think before you take a job is my advice of the post, and really imagine yourself in the position before you take the job too.

And god I want to open up my tutoring services again, cuz I miss them like crazy. I'm in Taipei, so if you want me to teach English (for conversation) or Spanish (as second language) I'd love to, given it fits in with my work schedule. (email me blaizexia@gmail.com, though I don't know why someone who is able to read my blog will need me for English conversation). Tutoring never took my by surprise.

"It's for the experience...it's for the experience..."
Says the one who's being burned out by the experience.


By the way, the food is great at the restaurant I work at. And yeah, two meals. Awesome. Come by if you have the chance. Also, I've been downing more black tea than I've drank in two years. Cuz it's free for me. Joy to the fattening fructose of the world.

So if I've gone MIA (yes, Geetu, I'm sorry) it's cuz I don't pick up my phone at work, and work is taking up so much of my time, so I'm hardly in contact with my own phone. (And the horrible battery for iPhone doesn't help much either).

Peace,
Blaize.