~Current Job~

Today is a rainy Saturday.
A day I'm glad to be home,
A day where I can sit back and relax.

It has been a month since I started working,
And currently I'm working in the factory instead of the office.
Less stress but lots of physical work.
So I always end up tired by 8pm, going to bed before 10pm.

This is also the time where I sometimes ponder,
All these years of education,
Just so that I could work as a factory worker?
Even knowing that it's temporary,
A process before I go into something bigger,
But still, it scares me to think that I actually enjoy doing this,
Than to face the telephone calls I have to take at the office.

I'm going to be in the factory until August,
After that heading to the Quality control department,
Then 6 months at the Product Development department.
Next April, I'll be at Tokyo branch, doing my training at the Sales and Marketing department.
Unlike my peers, my training is 2 years, while theirs is until this August.
I'm glad in a way, for training means there's more time for me to learn and prepare, and the responsibility and stress are less..
Or so I hope..

But, as a foreigner, it also means I have to do lots of translation work.
Unlike my peers who can go home and enjoy their GW holidays,
I spent my 4 days holidays doing translation work, both into Taiwan Chinese and English.
While trying my best to write daily reports in Japanese..

There are pros and cons being the first foreigner of the company.
I sometimes wish they could understand the struggle I have to go through,
But at one hand hoping they won't help me too much so that I could learn faster.
The irony of being me, feeling stress at the smallest task, gesture or even comments.

I just hope they won't put too much high hopes on me.
I'm not an elite for I knew friends at Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka university etc.
I'm just a normal Malaysian who happens to speak more languages than the Japanese do.
Put me back in Malaysia and I'm no different from any other.
I sometimes wish they wouldn't treat me too differently.
Though sometimes I wish they would.
Again, such irony being me.

~1/4/2013~

I knew it was gonna be tough, but never thought I would hate morning assembly so much.
The lessons with the CEO was alright, lunch with new members were bearable,
And even the voice training of greetings from one end to the other end of the factory was done, though it kinda damaged my coughing throat.
However, there was this morning assembly greeting.

To get you started for the day, everyday someone has to play the role to start the morning assembly, another has to be the greeting leader and the next has to read a book on education of workplace out loud. That training itself took us 2 hours, and with every training we had to learn how to bow, how to greet; out loud with a smile. It wasn't so bad..

Unless you are a foreigner like me. Not only I need to train with them, I have to keep up with them in memorizing the lines and phrases in Japanese, sometimes not even knowing what the words meant. On top of that, I have to be alert at all times that I might be asked questions, not only by the superiors but also my own colleagues. Having been here for the past 7 years, I still haven't manage to grasp everything they talk about and yes, still have certain of difficulty understanding what was being said.

So I came home after dinner, worn out. Even the warm shower managed to do very little. So I head to bed at 10pm, after revising the morning assembly procedure and prepared for the page we might have to read today, and woke up at 5am. So that I can make it to the company at 7:30am. I seriously need some time to get use to this. Before that, I just need to get it out somewhere. Here probably. Hopefully no one in my company gets this...

~28/02/2013~

The last day of February 2013. The day where I finally hand up my thesis to my university and finally (almost) free from my responsibilities as a student. The next awaiting "duty" will be my graduation day. The day I officially bid my student life goodbye.

At this time, this moment, I am somewhat relief, but still lack the bursting emotion that I am free. The word "free" still sounds, somehow, somewhat..foreign. Just like turning 27. It's not some event worth going "ga-ga-oh-la-la" about, unless you take the effort to make it into one.

Next week onward, I will be at my apartment, doing chores and "rearranging" my emotions. Before heading to another trip with my best pal and planning my family's trip to Japan. A whole full week for myself, indulge and rest, before stepping into reality and work life.

But for today. I'm going to slow down, take a good look at every nook and corner of my university, the people I meet everyday and enjoy the "normality" of it.