Bookroom Robbery

From my training in Toronto back in March that I know OMF has a book room. And they have a list of books that I would like to get. I didn't get it back then cause I figured the Singapore office must have it too and it would save me luggage space to get it in Singapore. But one month later, I still haven't figured out where their book room is. So this time when I am in US, I figured I would go find the book room. Monday morning, book room was my first top. I told the guy who works in the book room that I am looking for some books. He asked which one. I said for sure one the title Killing Field. He then smiled and brought me to his desk. He opened his drawer and gave me that book. He told me that the cover was a bit scratch so he can't sell it. But he kept it anyway just in case. And that is the only copy he has left. And he will just give it to me. I was stunned to hear that. I was going to just get it anyway even though the cover was a bit scratched. I didn't expect it to be free. So I thank him and keep looking around. I found the other two books that I want and going to pay. Here he is again, searching thru his drawer and found me the two books both with the cover tiny scratches. Now I am even more shocked. He was happily give me those book and I felt like I robbed his book room :D But I am happy to walk out with a pile of free books.

Starbucks Guy

So after a month of hot and humid Southeast Asia, here I am back to North America again. I am running some training session in Denver. The first thing I arrived is NOT going to Starbucks. In fact, the coffee in US office is quite alright that I am surviving quite well. But I did go on the weekend. I got my usual drink, brought my book and relaxing. Suddenly a noise THUMP and the guy on the table close to me dropped his drink on the floor. It splashed everywhere. Luckily, it didn't get on my clothes (I was wearing white!) but just my arm and couple drop on my face. He apologized and went to get a mop. I figured I would go the washroom to clean up. Not sure if it is safe to leave my drink around, I took it with me. While I was cleaning up, I swang and THUMP. My drink dropped at the EXACT same way the guy did and now I made a mess in the washroom. ERRRRR. So I went back out to get a mop. That guy was cleaning up the floor with a towel. I asked him for the towel and told him what happened. I was debating if I should get another drink. But being a poor missionary I figured it may not be good to get two Starbucks in one day. But that guy felt bad splashing me and bought me a drink. :) No Ray, I didn't ask for his name or phone number. :)

Warning: Cranky Coffee Addict

Almost forgot, my house-mate. It definitely is interesting to share a place with people. Especially after living by myself for 4 years. There is definitely thing I am adjusting to. Like there will be noise in the place even I didn't make any. And you have to get up earlier to fight for shower first. But it has been okay so far. At least there isn't any fight yet. And I did warn her about my morning crankiness. And she witnessed herself this morning. I concluded that she is definitely a weird person cause nobody in their right mind would be excited and enthusiastic on a Monday morning when you needed to wake up at 6am. Not even when I was teenage. In fact, Monday usually is the worst day of me. Ask my friend and he will tell you I crank him every Monday when he tried to be funny. I just had no patient. But today she was all jumpy and cheerful. I was just not in my mood talking. And I had no coffee in my system at all too. Good that she did get a clue and stayed away from me. By the end of the day, she was saying she was glad when we reached the office, there were other people in the office and I started going back to talking mood. What she didn't notice was then I had coffee in my system and I could gather myself up. I should put a warning sign in my forehead.

A Loooooooog Update

I believed that my tolerance for yucky coffee has gone up. I have been drinking the office coffee last few days and still surviving. That mainly because 1. I am extremely tired and need my caffeine. 2. The fridge in my place broke down so I ran out of milk to make coffee at home. I was going to give myself a perfect excuse to go Starbucks everyday till the fridge is fixed. BUT WHAT KIND OF STARBUCKS OPEN AT 7:30AM!!! If I get my drink at 7:30am, I will be late for work. I have to give in that idea and keep drinking yucky coffee till the fridge is fixed. Luckily the guy should come over tomorrow. But I am flying out to USA on Friday, guess at least I can have less yucky coffee next two days. Yup, that is right. I am coming back to North America after you all said bye to me a month ago. It is not my choice! If it is up to me, I wouldn't try my ability to fix jet lag again. But my boss wanted me to run the training session in USA (who knows why?! may be I am from Canada and that is closed enough to USA?) I will be in USA for 2 weeks which is good enough for me to be away from the hot weather. Now the challenge is whether I would sleep in my own training session. Hahaha! I have a feeling that my boss love the idea to torture me cause there is a very high chance I am coming back in June again. I have to wonder should I bother fixing my jet lag.

Last week was definitely interesting at work. I was in meeting for whole week. It is called blueprinting meeting. Basically the consultant presented their solution and the people from the organization found any discrepancy to their business logic. I called it interesting because it is a group of tech people meeting with non-tech people. Sometimes the conversation goes on and on and on and on. I have also see how the project manager from the consulting team and my boss works in that case. I have to say I have so much to learn from them to be called a project manager. I felt that what I did last year as like baby step. Now that the week was over, the consulting team took what was discussed in the meeting and created a blueprint document so everyone would agree on the process.

Homesick was something I didn't expect happen to me so soon. I thought I would be so busy with all the new thing that I won't miss home at all. It shocked me that two weeks in Singapore, I really hate meeting people. The office is the headquarter of the organization and there are people constantly coming in and out. I will see new faces every day when I tried to remember the old ones. I hate every bit of that. I felt like I am at a cocktail party and keep hanging out with strangers and chit chat and never get to go home. I want to just see a friendly face. I want to see friends that would just know me and what I think instead of trying to make connection. I hate every second of it. I blame curly for my anti-social mood. After working with him for so many years, I just hate people :)

I did do something over the weekend to help me de-stress. I went to play beach ultimate. It has been weeks before I finally kicked myself to ultimate. And it was fun! For sure it was hard to run on the sand and my back muscle hurt like hell the next day, but I did have fun. I met some people from local and figured out their schedule. I will try to play more pick up games when I got back from USA.

More pictures up on here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=44926&l=4d54c&id=521521186. Some people said the pictures look like I am on vacation, but I don't think anyone want to see picture of me working or staring at document, right? :)

Singapore Week 3

It has been two weeks now that I moved to Singapore. I am still not used to the weather but adjusting. I didn't do much on the weekend because I was too tired from working on the weekday. So I just went grocery shopping and chilled at home. I figured it is weekend so I indulged myself in Starbucks. And man, it is sooooo expensive! Well, may be the price for my fancy coffee could get me a nice lunch/dinner. I guess the price is more or less the same as Canada but the food here is too cheap. I guess that is the end of my Starbucks ages. :( Living with a roommate has been okay so far. May be because we both pretty much drained from work. But we do have enough room in the place to have personal space. We will see how it goes as time passed. One disappointing thing is I may stay longer in Singapore than I originally expected. The project manager now envision to have one team lead based in Singapore and that would most likely the lucky me. Honestly I am a bit disappointed and the sole purpose of taking this mission is to work in Cambodia. But I also understand he wants the two team lead to lead in separate places. I will see how thing goes.