A Walk to Remember

Group photo near the suspension bridge (obviously)

A very good poster that I saw in Chinatown

The gorge behind me

Forest behind me

Big white rocks behind me

That's a chipmunk not a squirrel

Now that I have been in Vancouver for almost 3 weeks, I have come to know more people and visit more places. A week ago, I joined the International Club for a trip to Lynn Valley, a scenic park in the North Shore of the city. It’s most famous attraction was a suspension bridge spanning a massive gorge. That was the second time I went to Lynn Valley, the first time was with my residence mates but that trip wasn’t that fun because I didn’t really know anyone back then so it was quite boring for me. I didn’t actually sign up for the club on Club Day so it was by chance that I got their email telling people about the trip. I was supposed to meet them by the waterfront at half past twelve, but I underestimated the time needed to travel. Efficient as it is, Canada’s public transportation system was not on time, so I arrived about 10 minutes after the arranged time. I was really hoping that they would still be there as I had not informed anyone that I was coming and I also foolishly forgot to note down the contact numbers. Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one late, so the group was still there when I arrived. It was almost one when we finally left. On my last trip, we went directly to Lynn Valley by bus (rented school bus), but this time, we would take the Seabus to the North Shore then take the regular bus to Lynn Valley. The appropriately named Seabus was actually a ferry. The ride was fairly short, only about 20 minutes long. After that it was a short bus ride to Lynn Valley.

Upon arrival, Lyndon, our group leader suggested we head for the picnic area, so we could sit down and have lunch. The way he said it made me believe that it was merely a short walk, but it actually took almost 2 hours to get there. Along the way, we paused to take photographs and gawk at the plants and trees around us. I was surprised that there were not many birds in the park, considering that it was more of a natural reserve than a park (natural reserve meaning that animals like bears and cougars do live here). Eventually, we arrived at the picnic area where we had lunch. One of us, Lily, was a smoker but she forgot to bring matches for this trip, or that was what she thought at first. Eventually, she found 2 matches in her bag and we all got a chance to read her cigarette box. It was “Peter Jackson” flavor, and we all had fun trying to read the words on it in French. Xavier, another one of our party, was French so he showed us the proper way to pronounce them. We also discussed about the SFU Student Services, which was horrible compared to UBC (for the uninitiated, SFU stands for Simon Fraser University- my university, and UBC is the University of British Columbia- the other major university in Vancouver). We talked about how SFU overcharges students for certain services like orientation, how they try to make money out of anything possible and how their student services really suck when compared with UBC’s. Yup, I learned a lot of things that day. Lyndon used to do volunteer work for UBC, making his comments credible. He was also very displeased with SFU’s International Office because of their lack of activities for international students, which was probably his main drive to start the International Club.

As the day drew to a close, we decided to end our little hiking trip. We stopped by the Suspension Bridge for a group photograph before heading back. Lyndon the drew from his wealth of experience working for the British Columbia Tourism Board. Dinner was typical HongKee food- that means it was just tolerable. It was amusing watching those who were unfamiliar with Chinese food struggle with the chopsticks. Xavier was exceptionally hilarious because he was holding a chopstick in one hand and a fork in the other. After dinner, we parted our ways but promised to meet up again for the next meeting, and the next outing…to Victoria (capital of British Columbia).

Brave New World

At last after what seems like eternity, I finally have the time to sit down and compose about my first 3 weeks here. It seemed like a sad moment as I left Kuala Lumpur but I had my mom for company, at least for the first 2 days that is. The trip to Hong Kong was uneventful apart from the fact that the plane was delayed for about an hour because of a missing passenger (the crew had to move out all of his/her luggage- for security reasons of course as it could be a bomb- who knows?). By the time we arrived in Hong Kong, we only had about 3 minutes to make the connection flight. Thank goodness for those Hongkees. Their attendants showed up just as we exited the plane, all eager to guide us to the appropriate check in desk (we were not issued our boarding passes back in Malaysia), then it was off to the plane for a grueling 14 hour flight to Vancouver. The Cathay Pacific plane wasn’t particularly comfortable but I did my best to endure it. The quality of the in flight television was so bad that it looked worse than the lowest grade of pirated DVDs. Still I did manage to watch 300, for the first time. Eventually it was touchdown in Vancouver. My granduncle was there to meet us so we immediately left for his luxurious apartment by the waterfront. During the trip back, I was struck by the politeness of the Canadian drivers (in contrast to the morons that Malaysian drivers are) and the fact that they turned their lights on during the day. We eventually arrived in my uncle’s house where I would spend the first two nights. The next day we left to go shopping for supplies at this huge mall appropriately called Metropolis. It was way bigger than One Utama but unlike the latter, parking was absolutely free.

Fast forward to move in day. I signed up for their week long orientation so I got to move in early. My room is scarcely bigger than Harry Potter’s cupboard but I got a nice view of the Vancouver skyline and well, it is my room- I don’t have to share it. The only room shared by everyone is the washroom. There are simply too many things to go into detail here, so I’ll just briefly summarize what happened so far. On the first night, there was a sort of carnival with games and prizes and a live band. I wasn’t interested in the band but I managed to win a toy doggy (I love stuffed animals). Other events of interest include a scavenger hunt, where we had to go downtown and take some creative pictures (probably a gimmick to familiarize newbies with the city), a hypnotist who was really amusing, a games night (I played Pictionary) and what else, campus orientation. I was extremely pleased that this year's orientation theme was Highland Scottish. That meant wonderful Scottish music with fiddles and bagpipes (there was even a bagpipe player to open the ceremony). The best part was when they gave this lively tune as the orientation staff ran past the gathered students. Nice! The campus is really huge; it takes at least 15 minutes to get to class. Even with the tour, I still found myself lost on the first day of classes.

The international committee organized events for international students to get together. The first was a complimentary boat cruise. Well, it was only about 2.5 hours long but we got a good view of the city. Apart from water, the only drinks on board were alcoholic drinks, which were not to my liking. Still, the cruise was fun and so was the next event. All the international students were divided into groups led by a veteran mentor. On our first night, we chatted until it was really late, each of us telling the rest a bit of our country and how it compares to theirs/Canada. I of course, shared some Malaysian jokes- the famous racist ones. The sort that involves the Malaysian, the Singaporean, etc. One of the most memorable events was when I visited one of my friend’s rented basement. Not only was it cooler than my own crappy room, but it was more worth it for the cost too. The three of us attempted to cook dinner, but we forgot to turn on the exhaust fan so the smoke alarms went off. We eventually got dinner ready, not exactly a gourmet feast, but (burned) fried eggs and microwave macaroni and cheese was fine with me. After dinner, we decided to borrow a movie from the owner to watch on the huge projector TV in the basement. It was hard to decide what to watch, as each of us had different tastes in films, but eventually my two friends settled for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I just agreed having grown tired of choosing, despite the fact that I’ve watched that movie a gazillion times. So that’s basically what happened in the past three weeks. Too bad I don’t have that many pictures to accompany this post. Will remember to take some soon.

The Last Supper

Last Friday, Jacqui organized a farewell dinner for me and Faye, as both of us were leaving for Canada in a week’s time (of course as I am writing this post a week late, I will be flying off in two days time). We agreed to have it in Chilis Mid Valley, but Jacqui asked me for a replacement location just in case the place was full. As usual I resorted to my tried and tested method for making decisions- flipping a coin. As I had no coins available at that time, I rolled a die instead. Piccolo Mondo was eventually ‘chosen’ as the backup plan. On the day of the dinner I arrived early so I was just in time to receive Jacqui’s message that the venue has been changed to Piccolo Mondo. The place was decked out with Italian decorations apart from a giant Jalur Gemilang in a corner and a huge stuffed mouse covering what I believe is a fan. The first two guests, Jacqui and Christine Haw Soon were already there. We shared a few laughs, made a few comments about the place like how unobservant the waiters were because they didn’t offer to fill my glass with water (I later found out that they charged patrons for the water). Even though I was the guest of honour, I refused to sit at the head of the table because I felt that I could not chat effectively with everyone in that position. I chose to sit in the middle, or as Peter puts it, ‘among the working class’.

Soon (and for some, not so soon) the other guests arrived. Soo Tian took the spot opposite me and we soon started chatting happily as we have not seen each other for a while. He even gave me a parting gift, a book on Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911, knowing that I enjoyed that film. Jacqui prepared 2 cards, one for me and the other for Faye. I was asked to sign Faye’s card but was denied the chance to look at mine as it was meant to be a surprise. Since Jacqui absent mindedly left my card on the table, I couldn’t resist looking at it. It was quite nice and cartoony, just the way I liked things (although I was disappointed that it didn’t have any teddy bears on it). Peter came with his girlfriend (first time I’m meeting her) and Faye came with her boyfriend (also first time I’m meeting him). Christine from my Literature class was also present, Shenji made a dramatic entrance as usual (complete with a dramatic excuse as to why he was late), and the last to arrive was Jojo from my World Issues class.

The food was not too bad. Everyone decided to share dishes with their neighbours and so Soo Tian and I ordered a Roast Chicken and a multi- flavoured pizza to share. During the meal, the talk drifted to teachers from College, and as I was explaining the behavior of my least favourite teacher, the villainous Vivien, I accidently knocked over my glass of Chocolate Shake…it was an embarrassing moment because not only did the gasps from our table attract the attention of the entire restaurant, I accidently spilled some Chocolate Shake on Christine’s food and to make matters worse, the waiter offered (loudly) to clean up the table, which drew even more stares from the other patrons. And of course, I lost my Chocolate Shake.

When the meal was over, it was time for photographs. I did not have a camera, although almost everyone else did. I was forced to steal these pictures from Shenji’s blog. Hope you don’t mind! We snapped a few photos before taking a group one with me and Faye in the middle. Then it was time for our final goodbyes and thank yous. Later Peter and his girlfriend, Soo Tian, Christine, Shenji and I decided to have some dessert, actually McDonalds Ice-Cream. I treated them to the ice-cream as I was grateful for them treating me for dinner. I offered to send Soo Tian and Christine home afterward, so as to get some more time to talk with them. I really enjoyed this last supper and indeed I feel sad that I’m leaving such good company.

Farewell Fellowship

Last Saturday, my family and extended family held a celebration of sorts to commemorate the departure of my cousin Christopher and I for the US and Canada respectively. My aunt chose her favourite restaurant, “Opulent Court” at the Pearl International Hotel. Upon first entering the restaurant, I noticed how empty it was as only a few tables were occupied. As usual we had a whole room to ourselves and since there were so many of us, we had to split into two tables, the adults have one and the children the other. As usual, I was to take my place on the children’s table. Sitting with me were my sister, cousins and aunt and uncle. Also joining us that night was the girlfriend of one of my cousins. Before the meal started we had to take photos (as expected). Posing for photographs is not what I do best and people have always commented that I do not smile in a photograph (which is why I have been accused of ruining photographs by not smiling). For this special occasion I thought maybe I would put on a cheerful face for once. On second thought, I decided not to. After taking a few photographs, which was tedious as we had to freeze our smiles for multiple cameras (not me though as I do not smile) we were ready to drink to our (my cousin and I) success. Wine was passed around but I only accepted half of half a glass. I would prefer the taste of panadol to wine anyway. My relatives gave some advice on the do’s and don’ts of studying abroad, including a few amusing anecdotes, like the fellow who returned from overseas with three certificates- a diploma, a marriage certificate and a birth certificate. After were done toasting, we all returned to our seats and eagerly awaited the arrival of the food.

I am not a fan of Chinese food, so I probably would not miss it in Canada. The meal plan for that night was the usual one served in the typical formal dinner. That means I didn’t enjoy it and I probably only ate half of what was served. While waiting for the first dish to arrive, we engaged in the usual small talk. One of my cousins, Raymond just had his first child and he delightfully showed us a video he had recorded on his mobile phone of him being “pissed off” (crying). We watched and laughed, not just at the sight of the little guy crying his guts out but also at the fact that the parents did nothing but laugh along and record the incident on their cell phones. Raymond and another cousin Steven shared a bit about their experience studying overseas. They gave some more advice, like not to leave laundry alone for too long or you’ll have to wash it again. Chris asked for some advice on ordering goods online through Amazon.com which provoked everyone on the table to assume that he was not planning to leave his campus room to do any shopping. Then the talk turned to religion. Steven had just enrolled in the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) programme at his (our) church. Chris had already gone through the programme and offered some insight. His best advice- get baptized at the end of the programme or it would all have been a waste of time. All this talk of baptism jolted my memory and I was reminded of my own baptism and the rosary that I received that night which had one bead missing. As my sister, who was also baptized that night had a complete rosary, all my cousins joked that my missing bead was a sign from God and that I would be receiving a call from the Vatican any day now.

Soon the food arrived and we all dug in. Most of us didn’t eat much (my aunt complained that we didn’t do justice to food). Still, I think most of us left the restaurant feeling quite satisfied. After dinner, we adjourned to my aunt’s house for a bit of chitchat. We celebrated the birthdays of all who were born in August and then we ate the cake, which was good. Luckily I didn’t eat much at dinner so I had plenty of room for the cake. Then we (my cousin and I ) received ang pows from our relatives, no doubt the best part of the night. We popped upstairs to check out Steven’s model collection. We ogled at his Transformers and Star Wars models which he evidently devoted much of his salary to. I wasn’t much of a fan of models but I had to admit these were impressive. As the nights events drew to a close, we said our goodbyes and thank yous. It really was nice to have so many caring relatives.

Glad to be leavING

Ha, to think that two weeks have already passed since I left ING. Well, I would say that the three months or so I spent there were not in vain even though the pay was horrendous. I have come to know a few nice people and it was sad to leave them (although all feelings of sorrow were dismissed immediately upon waking up at 10.00 am the next Monday, instead of 6.30). Still, I was glad to leave because of the extremely tedious and not to mention monotonous pace of my latest ‘assignment’, which took up most my time for the last month of my stay. The said task was as follows:

1) Examine all the personal folders of almost everyone in ING and ensure they were all up to date with the latest documents (promotion letters, annual increment notifications, and performance bonuses). Report any anomalies and correct them. Even though I did not go through the senior managers’ files, the total amount of files was at least 900.

2) Transfer said files into brand new orange files made of plastic. These files had extremely sharp edges and not a day went by when I didn’t cut at least one finger on them.

3) Arrange said files in alphabetical order back in their respective cabinets.

Of course, there were problems that made my job much more troublesome. At least one quarter of the files were missing, lost, currently held by someone, etc, forcing me to hunt them down. Sometimes, someone would want to borrow one of the files, and quite often, he/she would not bring it back unless I asked for it. Some employees had missing documents that I had to search for (and usually never find). Luckily I had help, as my boss was kind enough to hire an extra pair of hands. The first girl, Emily was really efficient. She could file much quicker (and more neatly) than I could, she was good at arranging the files in order very quickly, and she knew where to find the next stack of files without me following her around. Unfortunately, Emily had to quit in order to continue her studies, and her replacement, some fat Indian girl was much worse. She did such a bad job at filing, that I was forced to redo some of the files. This really wasted a lot of time. Eventually, she left too, to get married, leaving me to continue.

After one month of filing, I had to label every single file with 5 labels (one for each section of the file). The first batch of labels were uncut, forcing me to cut each one separately by hand (all the chopping boards or guillotines used to cut paper were either in use or broken, so I had to rely on scissors). Eventually, I managed to acquire precut labels, so all I had to do was print the titles. This of course came after spending almost 4 hours wandering around the heart of KL looking for a stationary shop that sold them. Unfortunately, the only printer capable of printing on those labels was used by my colleague so I had to wait till lunch breaks to use her printer. Eventually, I did manage to label all the files just before my final day. Whew!

So what have I learned?

· The folk at ING did not make full use of my abilities. I started out doing professional tasks like making organizational charts, and doing head counts. Ended up doing mundane, brain-dead filing.

· I got to know the salaries of 90% of the employees; along with their company history (it was amusing to read some of their warning letters, even though I was not supposed to).

· The Human Capital is a really busy place. They get a phone call on average every 5 seconds.

· I learned to be more organized. The room I was given was barely bigger than Harry Potter’s broom cupboard bedroom, but I had to store almost 900 files in it. Considering the fact, that the room was made even smaller as the desk took up half of the room and disused computer parts took up another quarter. In my final week, I had to share the room with another temporary staff. At first I had the whole desk to myself, as she didn’t need it. Then I had to use only half the desk (still okay), then one quarter of it. Really challenging to squeeze all those files on such limited space.

· My colleagues are really nice people. Every now and then, we would all go out to some restaurant to celebrate someone’s birthday and that meant free food and cake afterwards. I was even invited to their annual dinner, but I got sick and couldn’t make it.

· Conversation with the staff was either about food or eating outlets.

It was an unforgettable experience, though I doubt I would ever work in the Human Resource Department unless it’s a matter of life or death.

The End of Cameron Highlands

Just came back from Cameron Highlands after picking up my sister from her church camp. This would be my third visit, following my own church camp about three years back and my first visit a long time ago (which I can barely remember). Despite not remembering almost everything that happened to me during my first visit, I can tell by the photographs and the way my parents complained that the highlands have changed a lot since then. It is definitely hotter, due to the lack of trees that are being cleared to make room for high rise apartments (all of which have the same type of roof design) and the ‘slicing’ of hills to make more roads. The way up was winding as usual, along the way we stopped by to look at some wares sold by the ‘orang asli’. These include some wild honey and some weird looking plants, one of which resembled a brown furry ostrich egg. We didn’t buy anything because we planned to do so on the way home. We passed the first town , Ringlet that reminded me of Thailand’s Chiang Mai (minus the king’s portraits but with Daulat Tuankus aplenty). Nothing to see there. In Tanah Rata, the next town, there was more activity, due to a permanently held ‘pasar malam’ (yes it’s even there during the day time). Unlike the vegetable markets that the highlands are famous for, this market sells mostly plastic stuff, like pirated kids toys. Then all the way up to the top of the hill. We passed cactus point, which we didn’t visit, as I heard from a friend that all the cacti she bought in the highlands died when she got back to KL. Plenty of markets, nurseries, and fruit stalls, so many that the road was totally congested.

We stayed at the Equatorial Hotel which strangely, was below their usual standards. The building badly needed a fresh coat of paint and the interior was very plain. The room had two televisions but one of them had a faulty remote whereas the other had a battery missing (from the remote- who would steal a battery is beyond me). Luckily it was just one night. The TV did not have Star Sports, so I missed the F1 race on Sunday. Meals were very expensive (considering the fact that they were not included in the package), especially the dinner, some kind of steamboat special, made with ‘sup tulang’ (bone soup?). We spent most of Saturday exploring the highlands before turning in. First we visited a tea plantation, where the roads were so narrow that only one vehicle could pass through at a time. The plantation, owned by BOH, was fairly well maintained and impressive (following Malaysian standards). Next, we checked out the other resorts available in the highlands and my parents realized what a mistake it was to choose the Equatorial. First we visited Strawberry Park, part of my dad’s project last time. Looked good on the outside, but we don’t know how it is inside. Then we checked out an expensive resort just opposite a golf course. Expensive at first glance before we realized that it was actually cheaper than the Equatorial as all meals were provided.

On Monday, we went shopping in the markets and bought several flowers, plants and vegetables (you can’t leave Cameron Highlands without buying some of the local produce). I just admired the cacti, and wondered whether they would still be capable of growing once the highlands warmed up too much. Close to lunchtime. we picked my sister up from the place she was staying (same place that I stayed). Went to this tea shop for lunch, it looked English, but was actually run by Indians, really religious Catholic Indians (they got Jesus stickers pasted on their windows). Finally before we left, we paid a visit to a Healthy Strawberry Farm (yes that is what it’s called). I noticed that the strawberries were no longer planted on the ground but on benches. Hmm, must be some new, energy conserving, profit multiplying method. We took the new road back to KL, which was supposedly less winding than the old one. Unfortunately for my parents, all hopes of buying ‘orang asli’ products were dashed because it was pouring with rain all the way back to KL. There was also a massive traffic jam because of the road works (with non-existent workers). What an end to a pathetic and sad trip to Cameron Highlands. At least I got to see it in it's glory days , that is during the early 90s.

WorkING for a week

It has been a week since I first started at ING. Thanks to a friend, I now have something to do to pass the next for months. Sure, the pay would be much better if I worked in a restaurant like Dome, but at least I got to see the inside of an office. The Human Capital Office surprised me for being smaller than I expected. I thought the place would have hundreds of workers, seeing as how that department was responsible for hiring new people. I was surprised to find that less than 15 people worked in the office (out of which only 3 were men, and that does not include me). Still they were quite friendly and helpful. My time spent there was called an ‘internship’, whatever that means. I suppose I am supposed to learn something, but al I do is really boring but tedious work and every now and then, my supervisor would point things out to me like, “these are the personal folders of past employees, every company is suppose to…”, blah, blah. For a week, I have been filing old papers belonging to people who have already resigned. Boring nonetheless, but I did get a bit of entertainment reading the complaints of sexual harassment made against one employee. That fellow got fired some weeks after that. Awww…Then there was another case where this woman believed that she was the target of a conspiracy to get her fired. Interesting. Apart from that, I made use of my college built PowerPoint skills to create organization charts, fun at first but a headache eventually. There was a bit of excitement on my first day because of the Plant A Tree campaign. Some big shot from Holland came to initiate this campaign and of course plant a tree. Actually the hole was already dug, so all he did was plunk the tree in and pour some water. Had lunch with an old friend that same day. She was the one who helped me with the job. Went to the Weld Building for the first time too. ING is the official sponsor for the Renault F1 team this year so today there was some activity going on. There was a Simulated Car where one can pretend to be test driving one of them race cars and some competitions too where the prizes would be passes to watch the race. Of course I was too lazy to bother with any of them. Getting to work itself is a chore, the Monorail is so small and it is always crowded. Waiting for it to pull up at the station is a pain in itself as it can sometimes take up to 20 minutes for a train to arrive. Stupid government. Why can’t they make the train bigger, knowing that it is so popular? Another thing, why must they announce the advertisers along with the name of the station. I find that really odd. The station is a short walk from the office and on my very first day (which is the only time in my life that I went out without an umbrella) it had to rain. Well, at least I got my first paycheck today, and that is a good thing.