December Northern Lights: An update on my life which you may or may not care about.

Tjena!

Hm, I haven't blogged since the summer, but I partially blame school for that. I've been so busy the past two months, and I've been spending an unhealthy amount of time in the costume shop at UBC... well, it's not actually a bad place to be, it's probably the only place on campus I enjoy being in. To update, I'm taking three language courses: German, French, and Swedish, and then there's costume construction, and a theatre production course where I get to work on actual shows - thus the spending many-an hours in the costume shop. Oh and it's been raining almost non-stop for the past week or two here. Refreshing, great for skin, but a bit excessive.
(Oh won't us Vancouverites just stop with our weather complaints?)

This December I'm going to visit my friend Christiane in Berlin, and Daniel who's in Reykjavik, learning Icelandic. I've never been to either of these places so it's obviously very exciting for me!! I am becoming quite interested in what Iceland will be like, people tell me there are magnificent geysers, Daniel tells me about caves, and I'm wondering if I will get to see any Northern Lights! What a breathtaking winter that would be!

I know I will not want to leave Berlin once I get there... there's just so much I'd like to see, but I'm only going to be there for about four days. That's ok though, I'm thinking about living there next fall and do some language assisting for English, and then try to find a really concentrated design school, and I want to check out the film and theatre industry there, and improve my German of course. If only the grammar would make sense to me.. like cheese in macaroni and cheese.

Yes, I'm somewhat trying to plan out my life.

And this post isn't really opinionated, but more self-indulgent.

I'll try to be more interesting in the next one.

When customer service seems a little too frivolous

Today I saw something that really made me think about the importance of customer service, or rather, the un-importance of customer service. I was shopping with a couple of friends and we were in a clothing store (which will not be named) at the cash register ready to pay, when one of my friends spotted a little notice they had. I don't remember the exact wording, but it was something along the lines of: "We have heard your feedback, and now we have a new 3-customer maximum policy. This means that if there are more than 3 customers lining up at a cash register, we will call another associate to open a new cash register for you". Wow. Just, wow. For half of a split second, I was slightly impressed, and then afterwards, I just thought it was the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.

Now before I go off into my rant, I just want to say that I have been thinking about the levels of customer service that I have seen, that I have worked with, and have had to show at a workplace, and over time I have been thinking about the "importance" of customer service, moreso recently than before. To be upfront and honest, I'm starting to think that it's getting a little frivolous. Sure, there's money to be made, company reputations to uphold, and some sort of customer/client/company loyalty maintained between all of that, but honestly, I think the time and the money and the effort could be better spent elsewhere.

I used to work at a restaurant for almost a year, and before that I worked in retail for a year, so I've seen my fair share of customers and the variety that walk in and out of the door. What really got me about the customers in these industries were the ones who would complain. I know, I might just sound like a bitter ex-employee ranting about customers, but if you think about it, does it really matter if your plate isn't the same temperature as your food, or if there are deodorant stains on a nice shirt you just tried on (which probably came from your armpits anyway)? Because really now, the food will just pass through your body in a matter of hours, and you will most likely launder that shirt if you were any normal person who washes their clothes once in awhile.

Even tonight, I was having dinner with my parents at a Japanese restaurant, and this woman at the next table sent back her Coke or soft drink of some sorts because she said something about how the restaurant likely used the fountain to serve pop, and that it must have been mixed up with another soda. I didn't know exactly, but she spent some time telling this to a server and obviously he had to refill another one for her and make sure it wasn't mixed up or whatever. Yes ok, if you get a weird drink mixed with another one, then fine, but still, even that bothered me because of all the time and energy that was spent on it instead of on other tables.

My argument isn't exactly the most concrete though. I still like to tip servers generously for their time and service, and can see when there is "bad" service or "good" service. But to be honest, I would rather shop somewhere where I could just look on my own, and ask for help if I wanted it. I would much rather pay less to eat somewhere where the server spent the least amount of time at my table, and just served us great food while I might have a nice meeting with a friend. Why would I want to concentrate on the details of his or her wine knowledge, or whether he or she gave me a steak knife 57.09 seconds before my meal came?

Altogether though, maybe we shouldn't even bother with good or bad or "exceptional" service. We can just have "service", that is good enough to get your food served, your clothes bought, and maybe your hotel room booked. This extra time and energy to ensure that you have a "wonderful, exceptional, pleasant, and memorable dining/shopping experience" could be used in much more useful ways. Even as a customer, why would you put yourself in high expectation of a restaurant or a retail establishment in the first place? So you can ensure your salad fork is chilled? Your pantsuit pressed with the right creases? I'm looking at this, and then next to it, I look at places in the world where they probably never even heard of such things as chilled salad forks. Why the hell would you chill a fork? I look at places where no one even wears pantsuits, and where no one gives a damn whether there are stains, wrinkles, or holes in the clothes they wear. How did the world move apart to such far ends of the spectrum? How did we human beings get to this point? What happened to the basic needs of survival? How did we become so f***ing selfish?

This argument remains unfinished, because there are many other examples I want to share, and it is not that strong or concrete because parts of what I was taught in the service industry still linger in me, even as a customer. But since I am still a customer and have worked in the industry, I can say this much: No, the customer is not - and should not be encouraged to - think that they are always right.

So little time, so little money

I finally have job!! I've been working in North Vancouver for a few weeks now to earn some long-overdue monies! Although after my first paycheque I spent a good amount of it buying things I've been wanting over the year... but I'm very determined to save it for next year.. when I will hopefully go to Europe to do some teaching (assisting) for English. I was always thinking of going to France and doing it, but now I'm taking German again in summer school and I'm thinking maybe I could go to Germany instead? Or do one after the other...

Either way, I have to save a s***load of money for it. To be even more ambitious, I still want to go back to Switzerland in December, and at the end of August I was thinking of going to New York and Montreal, and in February (while the Olympics are here for two weeks) I was thinking of going to Peru or somewhere in South America. Am I crazy or am I crazy? From the looks of it, I think I might just stick to Switzerland in December and then France/Germany next September. Sometimes I wish my family would somehow win the lottery and then I could do all of this. But that would be the dream of mine and almost everyone else's (winning the lottery, that is).

Keep working hard people, hard.

Eventful night?

Last evening, I was hanging out with my friend from high school, Katherine, and we had dinner at Milestone's only to run into 3 other people we knew from high school that worked there!! After, we walked down Robson Street, I suggested True Confections, and I knew Katherine would say yes to cheesecake and cake!! She had Lemon Heaven, I had a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Anyway, after that, we walked down Denman and went to English Bay and sat down on a log for a bit. We chat, and then find that these people were looking at this tree behind us that had a HERON on it, and it had just dropped a wet bomb on the path below. Do herons usually hang out on tree tops?

So while we're looking in that direction, these two men - maybe about 30yrs old? - come up to us and ask "Do you know what kind of bird that is?". Well, that just started a whole line up of conversation that we did not anticipate to have with them. Basically, they wanted to take us out for a coffee, and they were wondering why we weren't out going to a night club (as it was a Saturday night). We had a feeling they wanted to take us out to a night club. Well, they continued to ask us more questions, like: "Are you guys best friends?... Oh, take the best friend quiz!!... Which one is the 'good' one, which is the 'bad' one?..."... and then they proceeded to sit down on either side of us.

Aw, crap.

Not that they were... creepy... or anything, it was that they were both quite talkative and interested in knowing more about us and seemed to want to take us both out. I kept slipping into the conversation I had with one guy that I had a boyfriend, and Katherine had to come up with the excuse that she had "a boyfriend" with the other guy she was talking to. They were both very talkative and really wanted to take us out for a coffee, but they finally took a hint and I think after half an hour.. or something... they finally left. I don't know what their real incentive was; they could have been two guys just wanting to make friendly conversation, or wanting much more... but that was interesting, kind of awkward, and very random. One of them even called himself charming.

The hunt begins...

To start off on a sad note, my dearest Daniel has left :'( He has gone back home to Switzerland after spending three-and-a-half weeks here in Vancouver with me. I am sad that he's gone, but it's part of life, and it's part of how we chose to do things, and part of being together yet apart. Well, that just means that next time, I'll be heading over to Switzerland :)! The past few weeks involved a lot of walking and a lot of Vancouver. I have now fallen in love with the Drive, and have renewed my love for old films, antique stores, Wonderbucks, and painting. I hope to learn oil painting this summer with a family friend of Daniel's, and I want to get back into dance and ballet.

Just living the Vancity life while getting back that summer skin.

Anyway, now it's hot as heck, and I'm on the hunt for a job! Summer school starts in a couple of weeks, I'll be continuing German, and I already have e-mails from my instructor. I'm hoping to just work work work and earn some money while improving my German this summer. No big plans - it'll be low-key for the next three months, but it'll be nice.
Hope you guys are staying cool, wherever you may be and whatever you may be doing :)

School is finally over!! Well, it's been over since April 8th, and I pretty much started my summer that day, since my exams didn't start until the 24th and ended on the 28th, but I only had three exams. So..since April 8th I have been watching movies and tv shows such as the O.C. (I watch it for Ryan and the Cohens) and the Office (SO funny, and I love Jim). I also went to a k-os concert with a friend of mine and that was pretty awesome, just dancing around to his music and chilling with the crowd... on a Thursday night too!

I am very excited for May 11th though, because that's when my boyfriend from Switzerland is coming to visit, and I have been waiting for this since I left Switzerland in January. So.. now it's his turn, and I'm going to take him around town and have him meet my friends, and hopefully he'll enjoy it all and like my friends, and that they'll like him too!! He's been to Vancouver before.. but only for a very short time and the only good impression that Canada has on him is our beautiful natural landscapes... so, I'm going to show him that there's much more to that and not every city is perfect, but that hopefully he can leave with more of the good impressions of this city. I mean, a city that's just too perfect would be... odd - wouldn't it? Too good to be true?

"Same Same But Different"

I think I have a new love. I had watched The Reader not long ago (when I should have actually been writing papers/studying for exams) and I instantly fell in love with the movie. I also think I have fallen in love with the actor who plays the main character of young Michael Berg - David Kross. Wow what a cutie! Now he's going to be playing in the movie Same Same But Different with another beautiful co-actress. Looking at the production blog of the movie really makes me want to visit Southeast Asia again (it's set in Cambodia)...though they also have pictures of fried tarantulas and other yum-yums... but I haven't gone back to Malaysia in maybe 13 years? I just don't know if the movie will be released in Canada or even North America because it's directed by a German director (Detlev Buck) and will be released in Germany in October. It just sounds like such a beautiful movie, and it's based on a true story! Anyway, this is my fangirl moment of the day. I will likely have more entries about David Kross and this movie later on... just thought I'd share my new boy-actor crush ^.^; (because UNlike just about every other girl I know..Robert Pattinson is kinda weirding me out).

Karl Marx speaks Mandarin

So I was in Switzerland in December visiting my boyfriend. We went to Luzern after visiting his mother in Göschenen. We were walking around the city and about to cross a street to view the water (Lake Lucerne). Across the crosswalk, there was an older man in a suit. My boyfriend whispers to me that he looks kind of like Karl Marx. We start chuckling a bit, and then it's time to cross the street. As "Karl" walks toward us, we try to keep a straight face. When he passes us, he says in a very low voice to me: "Ni hao". This could be because there are many many Asian tourists in Lucerne but for some reason not in the rest of Switzerland, and since I'm Chinese, perhaps he was trying to practice his Mandarin on me. After "Karl" passed us, we immediately burst out laughing as we cross the street. It was the funniest and most unexpected thing to have happened in Lucerne. So we concluded that Karl Marx lives in Switzerland and speaks Mandarin.

Bill to the S and Phil Sid.

So I'm writing my final term paper for my English class that specializes in the sonnets of Shakespeare's famous tragedies (Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear). And while writing this paper.. and sometimes during lectures, I strongly think about William Shakespeare being alive and imagine him walking in on a lecture and saying: "What? That's not what I meant! What the eff are they teaching you?!". Of course I'm not discrediting any information regarding him, nor am I insinuating something "wrong" in the multitude of interpretations in the world, and I barely know anything about the guy.
But I often w o n d e r.
This also goes for any other famous historical literary figure.. like for instance Sir Philip Sidney. I'm using him in my paper to compare to Shakespeare, and wouldn't it be nice to interview these guys for a paper? The most primary of primary sources imaginable.
Now back to writing.

DOMO!

Aww. I love this guy. I bought this little Domo at the Richmond Night Market in the summer and took him to Switzerland with me in December. Recently I found this blog where this woman takes her Domo everywhere! I take my little Domo with me to school now, he hangs on one of by backpacks and learns with me. If you don't know what or who Domo is check out Domo Nation and you can watch the little animations! But on youtube I think they have the animations in Japanese. Ok, enough Domo advertising for today.

Dream

A few nights ago, I had this dream:
I lived in a house that was beachside, and the area was a combination of English Bay, Kits Beach, and Spanish Banks because English Bay and part of downtown was to the left, and in front was the water but also the North Shore. The setting was night and day.. but night was the most memorable. The house was 2 storeys and the first floor was partly like a basement, with the windows being level with the ground outside. The windows were big and wide, and curved. My best example would be the windows in the Wendy's on Kingsway >_>..... they're big, wide, and go from the ground and curve upwards to become part of the ceiling.
Anyway, it was a nice and spacious house, and at night, the shimmering lights from the city around the house, and the ocean in front, gave a spectacular view. Even more breathtaking was when I turned off all the lights in the first floor where the big windows were, and once they were off, I could REALLY take in the view. It felt like I was part of the ocean. The windows felt like they weren't there, it felt like I could reach out to the city lights in front and step in the ocean at the same time. I just stood in the dark of my house and let the city lights give off this glow in my house.. My other best example would be as if that part of my house turned into the big Omnimax at Science World. It was the most surrealist feeling ever.

Neu

Soo my first blog.. hm. I'm supposed to be doing homework, like this paper I have due next week for English, which I clearly won't do until the last minute despite how "motivated" I was to write it after talking to my professor last week. I'll probably be watching style.com fashion shows all day. Speaking of which, last night I went to a fashion show at UBC, which was cool, followed by a drop-in to a hotel room for my friend's birthday party downtown. Today I look out the window and the SNOW has returned. Vancouver weather is completely unpredictable. There was one week... maybe two weeks ago, when I started seeing the flip-flops and sunnies coming back. And the week after, the rain and snow returns, bringing back the mittens and the toques. It rained yesterday, and it was freezing. Anyway. Enough with the weather reports. I'll be back with more useful information.
'Til then.