The journey to my dream job

   I just finished an interview with a international start-up company this afternoon. The company provides, indeed,  my so called dream job"Market Expert" which is based at Singapore. Though it took only half hour for me as if three hours at least. During the interview the interviewer(leader for Greater China) asked me some quite practical questions, such as strategies, and challenges this product faces in Taiwan and China.

   The following websites are quite useful and informative at all. Before the interview, I learnt some tips from these websites, which are suitable for those having no much experience on interviewing. I hope it might help you if needed.

• Glassdoor: http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm
• About.com http://jobsearch.about.com/

   Reviewing the interview, I don't think I am satisfied with what I did. There is much to be desired. The result of first round interview for this role will be out next week. And 4 rounds to go if I am on the list. See. The journey to get my dream is somehow long and requires great patience lol.

  "Keep up the good work" for myself.

Library of north Melbourne

  Maybe it would be quite difficult to find that this photo was taken at the library of north Melbourne. Actually when I finished the job in Mt. Hotham, I went back to my favorite city, Melbourne, in Australia. The scene was when you sat at one of tables, you would find. It's like outside is amazing weather, but you just sit in the library to leave others alone.

   In order to have the Internet access I had spent more than one month staying in the library.  Besides, there was a variety of magazines and novels which were all my favorite.

  The place where I stayed in Melbourne was really closed to the library, 5-minute walking distance. I always went there in the afternoon when the sun was not notoriously big.  The two-story library was usually filled with a lot of residents and students.

  And if you want to snag souvenirs and postcards, there is a bookshop near the entrance of the library. I always bought cheap books in the shop. It's self reinforcing when you get involved in local community, and library provides a way for you. It not hard to find promotions from the notice board of library and brochures about events held in Melbourne.

  Compared to the libraries in Taiwan, I prefer the library in Australia. The libraries in Australia provide the Internet access and air conditioner. Besides, with modern designs, it creates an excellent aura for those who want to have their time no matter on reading or doing homework.

The album of popular Taiwanese singer
was found in the library of Australia

Flood in Beijing

   In 2010, I had stayed at Beijing for almost two months, though I didn't get used to the life there(maybe it's my first time to leave Taiwan for such a long time). Its traditional historical sites (such as: forbidden city and the Great Wall) and modern skyscrapers totally truly impressed me. No wonder, it has been the capital of China, the biggest economic over the world.

   Sadly, I got to know this news few days from Weibo, the biggest social network in mainland of China. The flood took its toll on more than 30 people and influenced nearly 20000 people's lives. I have a few friends in Beijing and luckily they and their family are still fine.

   I really hope the disaster would past and the authority would take action as soon as possible.

Fried chicken

"Finally I get the fried chicken!"

I, honestly, was extremely excited while having this. Since I came back from Australia, I had sought any chances to re- taste my favorite delicacy, which is always on my list of the most unforgettable Taiwanese food and did successfully. Initially I was invited to watch the newly released movie called Ted. With limited budget I decided to go out for dinner instead of popcorn provided by the theaters. To much my delight, I found the store right outside the theater!

While I was a university student, I always had this as my dinner though it's said "unhealthy food". It's like the fried chicken sold by Mcdonald and KFC. But it is from different part of a chicken and covered by different sauces according to my experience. And they are the factors of whether fried chicken is tasty or not.

According to a Taipei Times’ report in 2011, Taiwanese devour more than 250,000 fried chicken cutlets each day.

If piled atop each other, they would make a chicken cutlet tower 10 times as tall as Taipei 101, the island’s tallest skyscraper at 508 meters. 

Become an uncle

"My sister gets pregnant."

It is an astonishing news for my family, without any expectation. Since I got this news from my mother a few days ago, I almost have not talked to my sister. The most unbelievable/irritating thing is that my sister considers this baby as a solution to the embarrassing situation between her and her boyfriend's family.  What a PITY.

While I was in Australia, she tried to know what I felt if she got pregnant. And I got ballistic not only to this stupid question but the intend meaning behind this question. Beside, I have told her for hundred of times your boyfriend doesn't deserve you to end up being a wife for him(a couple of reasons), but she gets PREGNANT now!  She follows him rather her brother. Most important, she always regards every boyfriend as her future husband and they broke her heart every time. No wonder i got indifferent to her love romance even they are going to be spouses.

All in all, this situation can not be changed. Only my sister realizes we, people surrounding her, are the ones care her, not hold her back. There would come a happy ending.

Unexpected journey

Indeed yesterday was not my day.

My bad luck began from the morning. In the morning I wasted a morning to wait for the delivery just in order to the order. And the responsible guy seem irritated after a couple of calls from me and responded to me reluctantly, which made me quite annoyed.

And in the afternoon I visited a company which my boss asked few days ago. The person I contacted was the general manager of the company. He was quite nice before the delivery of goods. I told to my partner he had been one of friendly managers I've seen while hopping to the car. HOWEVER, while I got the call from the people responsible for the deliver(it was him again), he, the manager got the different attitude to us. A sudden change shocked us, including my partner.

I apologized to him for the mistake caused by my boss, he seemed unsatisfied.

After arriving in the office at nearly 6 o'clock(I usually arrive in home at 6), I found my boss had been at the office. In fact, I got prepared for the talk my boss would do on my way home. No doubt he gave a life long talk for me despite of dinner time.

We, including my partner, got the same conclusion from the talk with our boss that he liked to share randomly in any given talk.

Chishan

Today, without any planning, I went to Chishan/Cishan (旗山) with my coworker called Kai. Chishan, a small town known for its banana in Kaosiung city, is his hometown and he had lived there for more than 30 years since he was born. From our company, it took almost one hour by driving car, which is closer than I expected.

Before Kai's recommendation, Chishan in my impression is merely on the way to Liouguei, a remote district my family often visit .  No delicacy, No fun. However, after meeting him, I always heard that there are so many delicacies in his hometown, and got excited when he told me we were heading to his hometown this morning. Largely because I fond of eating lol.

Chishan's historic building is mainly on Chungshan Rd.(If you know Taiwan well, you will find every city has the road called Chungshan Rd.). When holidays come, it is not difficult to see how famous this historical site would be from the crowded street and bustling vendors.

Here I would like to introduce some famous food in Chishan. If you grab a chance, don't hesitate to try them :)

Ice cream

Juice - According to the logo, it has been selling juice for sixty years. 

Fried meat ball 

Reunion with classmates

Tonight I had a reunion with my classmates of senior high school. I was invited by my best friend who came back from Hsinchu for fixing the computer in the weekend. For the rest of my classmates, indeed, I had not seen them for such a long time since we celebrated his birthday in freshmen life.

Though five years passed, they still look good. One works in a sunglasses factory, the other is earning his master degree in NCKU, a renown university in Taiwan. During the reunion, they shared what they met in their daily life, which were so funny and ridiculous, especially the working welfare.

All in all, meeting with old friends, in the boring day, surprisingly inspires me so much and resonates the previous life with them. Life should be like this way :P.

Australia- Live Sports

Aussies are very passionate about their sport, so why not get out to see a live game?

Rugby
Rugby is really about two things: brutish men and a ball. Add in plenty of pushing and shoving, plus a few tackles, and you've got a pretty rough picture of rugby league and rugby union. There isn't much difference between the two codes so it's just important to remember the teams.\

Football(AFL)
For most people on the east coast, rugby is the big sport but it's closely followed by the Aussie Rules. Sydney has two clubs- the Sydney Swan and new Greater Western Sydney Giants. Most of the games take place at either the Sydney Cricket Ground or ANZ Stadium.

Cricket
The Sydney cricket team, the NSW Blues, play at the Sydney Cricker Ground fairly regularly in Summer. There's also a Sydney Twenty 20 team known as the Sydney Sixers.

Soccer(Football)
For soccer(football) fans, Australia has a league that is rapidly improving in quality. NSW has two teams, Sydney FC and the Newcastle Jets. Sydney play most of their home games at the Sydney Football Stadium.

Basketball
The Sydney Kings are the major basketball team here, playing in the National Basketball League. To catch a few games, head to the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

A horrible night

   Last night must be the most horrible night in my Australia life.

I was woken by my flatmates so many times during sleeping, which made me really mad at all.  At 11pm I felt exhausted so I close my laptop despite the film described about the rock & roll introduced by my french flatmate. I fell asleep immediately.  Time passed secretly. I was woken up by the voice of Brice and Imrand, from French and India respectively. As a result, I found I have slept for more than one hour and obviously became energetic after sleeping.

From their conversation, I found Imrand seemed to bring his girlfriend back to flat, which made me anxious indeed. That meant I was going to have a noisy night not only because they, he and his french girlfriend, would talk a lot as always and afterward have sex on the bottom of bed(He and I share a bunk bed). Few minutes later, he got a call from his girlfriend.

   And my horrible night launched.

At last, I realized I had a headache before hitting the bed again with no reason. So I kept counting sheep, which is useful for me, until fell asleep again. Time passed secretly. Then I was woken up again because of the light turned on by my Imrad. Hence I found he bring his girlfriend back. They always have a talk at the balcony before they sleep. Because his girlfriend is French, and Imrad doesn't speak French at all, so they talk in English, enabling me to know what they talked.

"Damn, why do i learn English and understand what they talked? I want to sleep" A idea came up to my mind. And i choose to count sheeps again and fell asleep again.

Then I was woken by the voice of my text message. It is from my another french flatmate Victor, who works as kitchen hand in Manly.  Manly is a tourist site known for its beach. It takes half a hour from city to Manly by bus and ferry. Victor worked late last night and he needed to catch the night bus. Plus the doorbell of our flat is broken. So he needed someone to open the door for him. And I seek help from me, obviously he didn't know I was sleeping.

Honestly, I really got mad after being woken up several times. But I felt better after I woke up naturally in the following morning. That is the disadvantage of share flat. No matter what, we should take respect of other residents and accept the culture differences. Don't take any thing for granted.

Kent

Jeremy Lin Game Winner @ Toronto Raptors 14/2/12

Jeremy Lin.

He is Jeremy Lin, who recently dominates NBA. Although he can't speak Chinese, his parents are from Taiwan. So many people are arguing what his nationality would be. Despite of this issue, all Taiwanese are crazy about him and follow his performance desperately due to his dazzling performance. :P

NSW Government to overturn uranium ban - ABC Sydney - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

This is a quite strange news.

The governor insisted that is not the case, but even he had trouble separating exploration from mining as he spoke with ABC Sydney this morning.

"We'll introduce to parliament this week, as early as tomorrow, to allow exploration of uranium mining, ah of uranium in New South Wales" he said.

The ban on uranium mining will continue. 

NSW Government to overturn uranium ban - ABC Sydney - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Chinese New Year

Tomorrow is the first day of Chinese year according to the lunar calendar.

And tonight is the new year's eve. In this night, like Christmas eve, we always have dinner with our family and spent the time with family after dinner until midnight.

However, this year I am in Sydney and unable to go back for this big occasion due to the budget.  So, I am going to miss the chance of reunion, making me feel so down. For the past 23 year at this moment, I usually spent time with my family. Due to the weather which is usually cold in the eve, we always had hotpot together in either our house or grandmother's house. After hotpot time, we got the red envelope from our parents and relatives. Red envelope contains money, which is used to suppress or put down the evil spirit, from our parents and relatives, which is such a good time for me. 

Sydneysider!

   I am still in Sydney.

   Most of my friends left Sydney after the world-class famous countdown at harbour bridge, but I still stay at this city. My life here, honestly like the fireworks, although, is short, it impresses me so much and will occupies one part of my memory.

   Currently I work as a commercial cleaner in Sydney. As the boss told me while my first day work, this job may last few weeks to the mid of Jan.. And now is the time, I have to take action to find another job.

   Anything can happen. That is why I like the life here.

Life keeps going

   Since my last time to work, it has been almost two weeks.  Without work, my life here doesn't stop but still passes. 

My colleagues: French

   Since two weeks ago,  I have worked in a DVD company located at Sydney. 

   In this DVD company, there are two kinds of staff, permanent staff and casual staff. Permanent staff is mostly recruited by the company itself and, on the other hand, causal staff is recruited by two agencies. One is SKILLED, the other is FIRST CHOICE. And I am from SKILLED. 

   In the days I worked in this company, I found all staffs recruited by FIRST CHOICE are from France. And from my agency are from Taiwan, Hong kong and other country.    Everyday, I have different works depending on the need of company, so I always with different groups of people. Take today as an example, I was divided to a line where French work. After today's work, I reckon French is talkative even during work. ALL DAY LONG! 

   Although I am in Sydney, an English environment, I am surrounded by French not only those in my share house but those working with me. How interesting it is. If I learned French during my uni, now is the best chance to improve it. :D
Kent

Alison Gopnik: What do babies think? | Video on TED.com

Alison Gopnik: What do babies think? | Video on TED.com

If we want to be those butterflies, to have open-mindedness, open learning, creativity, imagination, and innovation, maybe at least some of time we should be getting the adult to start thinking more like children.

My Aunt

   A random music in a TV programe made me think of my aunt this afternoon.    

   Since left Taiwan on April, I haven't seen her for more than five months. In fact, I made a call to her while her birthday last month, which is the same day as my mom's.

   She always took us to any districts of city besides her house, Kaoshiung as well. After buying a car, we always went for fun by car instead of taking any public transportation else. As a result, we spent much time on her car. In order to make the phenomenon enjoyable, my aunt always turn on the CD player. I therefore got familiar with such good songs.

Stay Alone in a room!

One of JDs was delivering woods in Mt. Hotham.

   Today I had  calls from three different employers. Unfortunately, they all refused me at all.


   The first one was due to my VISA restriction. I currently hold working holiday VISA in Australia, providing the holder a year duration to work and travel within Australia. Many Taiwanese come too with they own dreams and purposes. Most of them, including me, come here for earning money and improving English. And the holder could work for one employer within six months. The company needed someone who is permanent resident of Australia in order to avoid problems caused by VISA. As a result in a few seconds I finished the call with her. This is not what I can not break.


  The second was the company which promoted Chinese massage and therapy(推拿), therefore the company needed the applicant who is strong and hard working in order to do therapies it provided to locals. That was the chance I really like actually before getting know the job descriptions, because it gave to its staffs  accommodation and some chances of travelling Australia. "In my opinion, I am not strong enough to do the therapy but strong to move stuff."I told to the employer. Of course, after hearing this he shortly said thank you to me. I did it before, but just for Candy, a girl. She just had a slight feeling on her body. However, what the company targets was the local who generally stronger and bigger. Orz....


   The last and also last one was not on my list. I found it in the afternoon while searching jobs on a forum. But I called her as her request after 3 o'clock, she didn't answer me. Then I text her a message that I was highly interested in this chance she provided. Few a couple of hours, I got her text message that she had already found a girl who is going to replace her vacancy. Instead of complaint, I text her to thank her for letting me know the chance and put an end in my all day long on searching job.


   To be frank, I did not share this to my flatmates and Candy. They even didn't want to know.  Apparently I don't care. With a couple of coffee and my laptop, i choose to share on this platform for me and those who have ever explored this place.

Declaratiom

   This was the mail which I wrote to my boss after telling him Candy and I would like quit this job as housekeeper he provided. That was tough decision for me but intelligent for me. After reading this mail, you may know how intelligent it is.

Dear my lovely boss,

After deep consideration and overall discussion with Candy, we firmly decide to quit this job as the staff in your company. We feel sorry and, but honestly, have to make this crucial decision. The reasons that we decide to quit are as follows.

First of all, it is the problem of wage. Indeed, we have our second wages after one and half months, which took much more time than we expected. I know you have some difficult getting payment from Marco. Giving wages to employees on time is the responsibility of employer and, on the other hand, the responsibility for employers is working hard. If we work hard on our duties, should you give our wage on time as a reward? And you are not able to avoid this problem in the future, we undoubtedly will not get promise to have the same situation in the following two months.

Secondly, it is the problem of trust. If there is no trust between employer and employee, the business of you doesn’t go smoothly. Yesterday Liz and you promised Jill that you would come to assistant ABN application with her at 10 o’clock. Around 10: 20, I call you via Jill’s mobile. You told me Liz was the way to our place. But after a long day on waiting, both of you didn’t come with no any reason, which made us frustrated and disappointed at all. Even in this small case, you couldn’t fulfill your promise. Why do we believe that you will fulfill your promise in the following days.

Thirdly, it is the problem of time sheet. As you may remember this Monday when Andrew called you, only 2 out of your staffs, Jason and me, went up to the hill. No one knew when and where they need to do/go at the very last second. As a result, we can do nothing but wait for your arrangement all day long, which is quite unreasonable for your employees.

Due to these three reasons, both of us made the tough decision we won’t work with you in the season, which enables you to find better staffs and do your business well as you always do.

 At last, we truly feel grateful to you for giving us the chance to visit this fabulous place, Mt. Hotham, which will be an amazing part of our life, also thank for training us to be professional housekeepers. Furthermore, we will move out until you give us all wage we suppose to have in this period, or we will take some serious actions to ask for.


Kent