timtim's Xanga

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Sun, 27 May 2007 18:30:12 GMT

Tempo is so great!!

Its high quality is consistent in whatever shape, even in family-box size, and all over the world, i.e. after wetting it for an hour, these 2 thin pieces of Tempo were still "in shape" and had no slight tendency to break or leave anything on my face.

It is truly wonderful! But I never see they use it as a selling point here...

...............

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Tue, 22 May 2007 14:22:57 GMT

Before I could finish my writing on "Life has started to be busy yet more meaningful", which was supposed to be put here at the beginning of this month as I was working so hard in Frankfurt, I am having nothing to do in the Munich office again...actually I have been idle for 2 weeks...

Yes, being idle at work (and got paid ) was okay at first as I just moved in my apartment that there were lots and lots of things to do such as washing and cleaning every single bit of thing once or at least once, trying to put stuff from this and that and see in what setting and position fit them the most, buying stuff (spent so much $$$ in fact), putting stuff and integrating stuff...it is kind of exhausting and time-demanding...yet enjoyable!

So now, my apartment is "modified" and up to the standard that I can invite friends to come and stay over...however, keeping it dustless and tidy isn't easy I must say...asking myself not to buy junk food and eat them is also another difficulty as I am living alone!!

And as time goes by, things are getting more settled (yeah, I finally got my company credit card and cell phone!!), it is time to do real work and show my quality...however, I am just being idle...I am not happy about it anymore...I am not patient anymore...I want work...and I want to learn!!!

Something so lovely told by mum about my dad:-

"Your dad keeps on telling people that most HK youngsters study abroad and finally look for jobs in Hong Kong...only my daughter is growing up in Hong Kong, received her education locally and is working overseas now...I am so proud of her!"

Well, my dad said so is solely because he misses me so much that he forgets I have many good friends are working overseas right now...while they all grow up in Hong Kong!!

But dad, you are definitely lovely!~

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 12:22:26 GMT

In our office, we have something like this...you can click on the photo and see if there are any handsomes in my home office here!

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 14:35:38 GMT

Frau BA (Hons) Wong!!

During the cultural awareness training 2 weeks before, I was told that, erman people are very serious about their titles. If he/she obtains a doctor or professor title, you should address him/her as Dr. X or Prof. X ALL the time.??xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The instructor then followed by an example:-

 had a colleague who suddenly became a Dr. in Mining History of Eastern Germany one day, which isn useful nowadays no matter in his work?or in general?Oops!~ told me that he couldn wait 4 days till his new business card was ready just because he would have no business card to be given to others the coming 3 days?

So now, I am Frau BA(Hons) Wong, the people from the Finance Department address me like that in their emailsee, ugly~ Fortunately, this is not my department practice?/SPAN>

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 12:19:13 GMT

Abstracted from an email to my Elegant Piscean Friend, who mentioned I may not believe in luck but wish me good luck......(isn't that a bit contractive?)

Here is my reply:-

"I am not sure if I believe in luck, but I know I am a lucky person cuz I am lucky to have a good family, good friends and I could usually do what I want if I pay effort and work hard. Maybe some people only consider they are lucky if they could get what they want without paying any effort. But for me, it means lucky already when you could get what you want by paying effort. More than that, I know what I have and I treasure them...isn't it the most lucky? (think I am going to post this paragraph in xanga...isn't it meaningful or inspiring? Haha...I am so 自戀...I know that...all the time...)"

Yes, I know what I have and I treasure them...such as:-

- The good coffee machine in the office

- My mobile job nature...Munich is only where my home office is...I have to work all over Germany...wish it'd be my turn to work in the Netherlands and Austria...I don't mind always staying in hotel most of the time still...though my colleagues told me I'd only want to go "home" every weekend after my first assignment!

- Living in luxury hotel and traveling by business class is a norm

- Handsome senior managers (like Bred Pitt...) with their open-top BMW and Mercedes, but also a ring on their special fingers...ar...

- The usual 2-week break fooling around in the office in between projects and you can leave the office anytime after lunch?/SPAN>

- Lunch cash coupons provided by the company

- The casual atmosphere to have lunch with the whole department

- No charge code for photo-copying!

- So far, over 99% of the local people I met are very helpful and friendly

- My nice 3-room apartment till 1st of May! You can see it here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=uvpwwp5.7pkzyzgd&x=0&y=zc8ixh

- Absolutely no work during weekends

- Enjoying my early evening in the backyard of my place under the sun and writing my journal during...weekdays...!!

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Sun, 08 Apr 2007 20:49:19 GMT

Sehr geehrter Damen und Herren, (it means Dear Ladies and Gentlemen in German)

I have been in Germany for 2 weeks (better say 12 days in Munich, 4 days in Hungary and 2 days in Frankfurt) and having my Easter holiday, alone, in the hotel now. It is great that I could finally have my laptop and get online!!

Life isn't bad here. So far, I haven faced any big troubles and *touch wood*, I wish I wouldn have to face any! I manage to find a nice apartment, which is still under renovation and won't be available in May, but it will really be a sunny and white one with a nice kitchen! And as I only have to pay a lump sum for everything, I could, for sure, continue the long shower I used to have!

Actually, work has been started for a week, however, nothing big really happens as my project hasn begun yet. It will soon start in Dusseldorf for 10 weeks since next Monday...so, please accept I may not be familiar with Munich after 2.5 months!

um... I feel it is not easy to explain what have been happening in these 2 weeks...please let me be lazy and copy somce paragraphs in one of the emails I sent in the past week, ok?

"Dear Mr. Chan, (you know, people here don't address people by their first name and it is really rude if you call your client by their first name!!! and when people could consider you as their friend and call you by your first name, they need to ask a certain official permission from you and have a celebration for starting to call somebody by their first name!!...surely, it doesn't apply to us...not in my TS department here as I would just call the Partners by their first name directly....)"

"Life regarding work is so far...acceptable. Just that you can't imagine you have to apply and arrange everything by yourself. You know, each of us got a company credit card and a company mobile phone here as things are, you know, not cheap in Europe and so, everything is paid by the company (especially for the TS department that people are always travelling all over Europe and we would only choose to live in 4 or 5-star hotel, at client's cost for sure, but that should be paid by the company credit card first. Our team is facing a big problem as the credit limit of this company credit card is not high enough due to the fact that we always have to be "outside" and live in hotel, plus to buy the flight tickets back and fro..)

Be honest, I didn't know I have to be so mobile when working here. People said that you would never know where you are going the next week. Only your booking in the coming 5 days is confirmed and things can be changed the night before. They deem everyone in Germany as a whole and so, you shouldn't be only working in Munich or Frankfurt or Hamburg but the whole Germany. I am actually being booked by a really long project...10 weeks...and it is still not sure if I will work in Frankfurt or Dusseldorf...it is not Munich anyway and so, after 10 weeks, i.e. 2.5 months in fact...I think I still couldn't tell you I am familiar with this city.

It is actually a big problem if I have to be so mobile during the first 2 months here. German people have their own procedures to get things done and they won't do it faster or slower because of who you are. So, you have to be patient and things will be perfectly done at their "scheduled" time as long as you are patient. German people seldom or never let themselves do things wrong...cuz things are all in procedures. So, my problem is...no matter what you have to apply, i.e. my company credit card and the company mobile phone, I need to have a "home" address, which I don't have it currently.

Without a home address, I couldn't apply my company credit card or company mobile phone, which are really necessary as I have to start to work outside Munich! But things can't be done faster because of all these procedures and you couldn't believe how active the rental market is here. Every time if you spot something good, within an hour or 2, it would be taken. The whole TS department in Munich (ok, it is small and we only have less than 15 people in the office usually) knows that I need an apartment and tries to figure out something good for me...however, you know how picky I could be...I don't wanna make a rush decision, though I may not have a long time to stay in such an apartment in Munich. What I could foresee is...I may need to spend the coming few years in hotel...as I will be always working in "other parts" of Germany....BUT, when the hell I am going to have my company credit card???"

"And well, people are somehow expecting I will leave the firm after 2 years. They don't expect I will stay long...they only expect I want to get an experience and I will leave. You may say they are just being realistic? I don't have any plan yet. I don't know what I'd love to do after 2...or 3 years....but I would think about with such a mobile life, will I be able to make new friends? With the fact that German people don't address each other by their first name, there are cases that they are colleagues, working with each other in the same office for 10 years while they don't know the first name of their closed colleagues. Work is Work; private life is their own private life that they are not willing to share with their colleagues. It is their mentality...and I start to worry if I could make any friends in such occasion....okay, TS is different. It is kinda international and people work in a much more US or UK way, rather than typical German...but...there is always a "BUT" for me....I will wait and see..."

Yes, so I have to wait and see...at the same time, signing up some "expats in Germany" websites ...life isn't bad so far, I am kinda excited in fact...I wish things are all going well at your side?

Mit freundlichen Gren (Yours sincerely)

TimTim

Friday, March 23, 2007

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:25:04 GMT

After 3.5 years, I am sitting, again, in front of the computer in my room...asking (reminding) myself the reasons why I have to give (push) myself in a situation like this...I read the resolutions I wrote 3.5 years before and found that actually, I am still the same, thinking and acting stubbornly the same...

Resolutions of @ exChange experience:

In General:

To stay close with my true-self

Daily Life:

Recognize --> Realize --> Inspire --> Change and Integrate

6 Values:

- Demonstrating Integrity

- Enjoying Participation

- Acting Sustainably

- Striving for Excellence

- Living Diversity

- Activating Leadership

Objectives:

- To prove the @ vision which I truly believe and pay effort on is worth

- To finally pull myself out of the general right track of a typical local student and add interesting episodes and colors into my life

- To have cultural exchange with different nationalities and know some international friends that let me learn to view things from different perspectives

- To change. To be a better me. To be...

- more independent and tough

- more understanding and considerate

- confident and assertive

- objective yet critical

- thinking out of the box

- proactive

- prepared to everything comes over

- learnt to let go and accept something uncontrollable

- not self-protective (willing to share and show my love and care)

- less isolated?!! less self-centre and less rational?!!

- To have reflection about myself and think about who I really am and find my way out

What's more?

- To have exposure

- To inspire others and spread the @ vision

- To establish betterment of human through inspirations and more understanding of each other

- To acquire some practical skills and develop individual thinking

- To exchange the knowledge on @ operations and learn their best

(too much, too much??)

To convince myself why I have to go to Turkey when I am down and frustrated there?

Because

- I am an AIESECer

- I am the change agent

- I am the pathfinder of my life

- what I am doing is what I really want to achieve since my childhood

- not every one can have this valuable opportunity

- I may become a significantly different person

- I may influence people who would be significantly successful in the future

- I can realize many meaningful and beautiful things in the world

- it is challenging

- I can realize how much luxury things I have, how lucky I am

- a part of me would be missing and would not be found if I am not here

The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

What I should behave in Turkey?

- One should be defiant and not avoiding interactions with others due to substandard language proficiency

- One should try everything and make each day count here, but eat less

- Be open-minded and willing to take challenges, yet be cheerful and helpful

Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be cuz you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want in life.

Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched and those who have tried for only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives.

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --

I took the one less traveled by,

and that has made all the difference."

by Robert Frost

Final words at this moment:

I know what I am doing. I clearly understand that if I don't do it now, I must regret, though I don't know what the result would be, how I could react, especially when there is something that I am so uncertain and so out of control.

Lord, thank you for giving me a lovely family, letting me know how many good friends I have...thank you for the one who spent the wonderful time with me in the past few weeks...I will try my best. I am TimTim.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 17:28:59 GMT

K: Brave!

E: GING!

U: envy u...as you can do what you want

B: I really admire your courage. I think if I were a gal, I would never do the same.

L: challenging yourself...put yourself in a different place and see if u can excel outside the box

M: you are definitely one of the most "got a handle on everything" girls i know - and you are intelligent, hot, and successful, i mean what other things can a guy look for? don't even start worrying or whining about your life being messy...think about all the other ppl who are not half as smart or successful or have personal / family / work crisi all the time...

Simon: http://www.fotop.net/kmgarden/TimtimCentral

John & Polly: It was so good to see you again. You look stressed but excited, it must be such a big step for you! John and I admire your courage and determination. The world is such a big and wonderful place, you should really explore and enjoy all its has to offer while you are young. We send you our very best wishes and hope you will have a successful career and a great time in Munich.

On:

(who wanna leave me some encouraging words here? please let me know...)

Using the Dior Poison again...I feel sad...

近日，有些眼淺...

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 16:20:15 GMT

The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Hand worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

On, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I ---

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 17:48:30 GMT

I know it is just something I would feel every year around this time; I wholeheartedly believed there would not be results in the past, however, what do all these clues tell recently?

Am I just thinking too much? Am I just being stupid? There should be nothing happened...there shouldn't...

After a month, I would leave Hong Kong and fly to Germany for what I want since my childhood...besides it is for a stubborn promise, for a rational person to be indulgent once in her life time...

If so, things shouldn't be complicated...I should let it go...I should leave it...right?

L said, "You could do that...but the first aim is you are happy. Don't hurt yourself again..." my eyes wet at once...

I only wanna know if there is only me who feels in this way...I don't wanna let it be in vain...