My Every Day...

7:00 a.m.      Waken up by my meowing ("feed me") cat.
7:15 a.m.      Go back to bed for fifteen minutes.
7:30 a.m.      Help my mother wake up and get ready for breakfast
8:00 a.m.      Finally look at my daily curriculum and semi-prepare the days teaching materials
9:00 a.m.      Head to the kitchen for breakfast
9:30 a.m.      Hit the shower and brush my teeth
10:00 a.m.    Get ready to go to work
10:15 a.m.    Driving down the street towards the 91 freeway
10:35 a.m.    sometimes stop by Starbucks for my Vanilla Latte.
                     or arrive at my destination and park my car in the normal spot by the fence
10:45 a.m.    Greet the secretaries in the office as I start my day at "A" high school
10:50 a.m.    I usually make loads of copies for my three wonderful classes
11:12 a.m.    the bell rings. Walk over to the favorite place on Earth, the classroom.
11:17 a.m.    4th period begins
2:45 p.m.     You can assume everything that happens in between. School ends
3:00 p.m.     Hit the 605-91 towards Torrance public library to tutor for an hour
5:00 p.m.     run errands (bank, shopping, prepare dinner...)
7:00 p.m.     Another tutoring
9:00 p.m.     Home sweet home. (sometimes out and about with friends)
                                        work. eat. play. work. eat. play. work. work. play. play. play.
Who knows when I sleep.

This is my usual Mondays through Thursdays.
Translating, studying, researching, stationary designing all falls after 9:00 p.m. or Friday nights, Saturdays, or Sundays.

But this schedule may change for the better. Crazier!
I was just offered a position to teach Japanese and English
at a pretty well known lingual institute in Beverly Hills.
Should I take it or not... It is a big question.
If I do take it, the classes will start at 6:00 p.m. M-Th. I may need to teach  two classes per  day (each 80 minutes). So I will be done teaching around 9 p.m.
The pay is better than private tutoring.
It is a great opportunity.
But I love my tutees. But it is a great opportunity as a language educator.
The facility also offers translation and interpretation services that they had asked me to help with.
All a great resume builder.
UGH... I don't know what to do. Someone help me. oh please.
So I may need to invest in a white board to display my pros and cons.
I really don't know what to do. It is a a drive. It is beverly hills.
The school is very close to my fav restaurants, Mastro's and Buchon (oh boy, I miss Vegas)!
I will meet new people. I will be teaching adults. Will that next student end up my husband?
Who knows what will happen? Will I be okay juggling the schedule? My schedule is crazy enough.
It will get crazier. Will I be able to handle it?
I still need to finish my Master's eventually. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh. lol
It's a great way to waste time. Contemplating back and forth on "what ifs."

But I think I know what I should do. It is unfortunate to have to decline a few great positions but it will be an opportunity for other people. I can still be apart of their lives.
Life throws lemons at you, like I said before, I make myself a nice cold...
Arnold Palmer!

We shall see what happens. 

New work, new people, new relationships. Life only gets better!

LIVE. LAUGH. LOVE.

work is entertaining... one

Front desk can be referred to as "complain central" or better yet, walk-in psychiatric agency.
What we do best is not necessarily to articulate terms and conditions, to up-sell, or even to create "feel-good" experiences but to read body languages, facial expressions, and sometimes "minds."

I hate to say this but I have to admit, some of what we hear are incredibly ridiculous.
What happens most often is guest complaining or yelling in our ears for unmet expectations.

Please keep in mind, guests in their minds are always entitled to "everything."

The conversation started this way,
Obviously, this is @ the front desk:

A guest asked, why do I have to walk up to my room after a long night for in-suite dining?


My resoponse: Maam, I do apologize for the inconvenience. We do have restaurants in the property that are open 24 hours for your use. The restaurant itself is down the hall way to your right closer in proximity than your suite. It is my personal favorite, I do recommend you trying.


The guest then responded, I don't want to walk back to my suite because it is so far away but I still want to eat there and not any where else.




Some people are interesting. That's all that I have to say.

a fork in the road........

When I ask myself, "what should I do?" often times, I already know WHAT I really need to do.

I'm just searching for another word of affirmation, another sign of reinforcement, an extra push, or perhaps a smile of comfort. I'm looking for a shield to guard my heart from fear. I'm looking for someone who will take my hand and walk along side me, reinforcing me that everything will be fine.

Funny thing is, I have a tendency to hide (and I mean, HIDE) from my giants. I like to hide out form this question itself. I will hide for a very long time, if I needed to. I will stress over it and cry over it and finally come to the above realization; that I just needed clarification, help, and support.  It happens usually once a year and it is always the month of November.

Just learning to gain a clearer understanding of SELF,
our life long journey......

Sunday morning affair......

So I decided to head on out to a Sunday morning service today.
The church had a pleasant representation of varying age groups. Majority were women (I'm not surprised).
So a charming women I spoke with today said the following:

"Once you get a dose of this pastor, you'll never be able to stay away from him. He is definitely anointed. Every message, God uses him to speak to my heart. He is really anointed. The pastor really knows how to share right words at the right time."

Thought of the day, when did the definition of the word, "anointed" ever become- being capable of providing the right words ( that "hit home-run" )  to individual members of the congregation.

It has turn into such a subjective word.

Well, on a different note: I have a kitty sitting here on my desk while I type away. So he's my new pet (am I making a public statement?)  I was just on the phone with my mother and she told to me make sure to give the cat away. Her perfect reasoning behind her statement was because the cat will live for 20 years.

Life is very intriguing. 

rain rain rain........

It is Saturday, September 24th exactly 5:56 p.m. It is raining in Las Vegas. 

I love the sound of rain. It is soothing.

I love the smell of rain. It is, for some reason, calming. 

( I have a fetish for "funny" smell. We'll save this topic for later)

I also love the fact that I can sit here in front of my computer typing away while catching up on "Dexter" not worrying about stepping outside in the rain. 

I do have to make a quick run to the grocery store but that can definitely be procrastinated until tomorrow.

Today is my "no-outside-work, Saturday."  

Now, if you have caught on with my verbiage; 

Yes, I am implying that I have TONS of "inside work" to complete. 

Funny story:

I grew up having to go to a Japanese school after public school four days out of the week. I had school from 8 in the morning to approximately 8 or 9 in the evening (12 hr shifts). My Japanese school was in my interpretation, "pretty hardcore." Every year, in the beginning of November, we had what was called, a "Kanji Contest ." Kanji is a Japanese way of saying, Chinese characters (if you didn't know, Japanese people do use Chinese characters in written form of communication). Since it was a contest, our scores were pretty vital to our reputation at school. Growing up, it was a family business to pass this test. I remember my father creating a poster for me with hundreds of Kanji characters. It was the "osmosis method." The poster was suppose to allow smooth absorption of characters. 

I'm not sure what happened to all the motivation but when I reached the fine year of six grade, I decided to not give a "rat's butt" about this so-called, contest. I could careless. What was this test going to do? Pay for all of my Roxy Clothes (my favorite brand back then)? The answer was: No. So, I decided not to study for the test at all. I ended up with a failing score and I was scheduled for a retake. I was the only one in the class that didn't pass. Was I embarrassed? Not really. I actually felt kind of cool for beating the odds. Even though being rebellious added to my coolness factor, I really had to pass the test the second time. I studied and prepared for the retake. 

A few weeks later, finally the ever-so anticipated retake-day approached. I even brought my kanji list to my middle school and studied during English and Social Studies. It was my prerogative to pass the test. After school, I headed to J-school and was sent to a special room with a special proctor to retake the test. Guess what, was I able to write all the characters? No. I had ten left. I needed those ten to pass the test. So, what did I do? I bribed the proctor for answers. 

I said, "I"ll bring you 12 pieces of your favorite sushi if you give me answers of these ten characters. Since, we're the only ones here, as long as I don't tell anyone, no one will know."
The proctor responded, "What kind of sushi are you talking about?"

Of course, I said, "Any kind You like. (good thing my father was a sushi chef)"

So the proctor said, "Its a deal, I haven't had sushi in a while and I know your father is a fine chef. How about you get me two fatty tuna, two regular tuna, two salmons...... (the list went on)." 

So, my intention was to promise him the sushi, forget about it and, pass the test.

Well, so my mother came to pick me up from school. The first thing she asked me was, "how did the retake go (surprisingly, she wasn't so concerned about me not passing the first time)?"
I said to her, "I passed."

My mother said, "How can you be so sure?"
So, I laughingly told her that I bribed the proctor for answers.
My mother now furious said to me, "You cannot betray a hungry man! If you promise someone food, you have to bring it to them." What was surprising and actually comical is the reason why my mother was angry with me. It was not because I bribed the proctor (should be considered sinful in my family) but that I had promised him something and that I was about to betray him. My mother  immediately drove me to my father's restaurant, had me explain the situation to my father and beg for sushi. My father being the nice-one of the family, packed 14 sushis instead of 12. My father actually complimented me for my cleverness but said he would have appreciated it if I had told him my plans in advance. My mother drove me back to school immediately (at this time, it was already 9:30 in the evening) in order for me to deliver the sushi. 

Lesson learned, if you promise someone food, you better give it to them or else, my mother will come after you.

Journalism....

According to The Elements of Journalism, a book by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, there are nine elements of journalism. In order for a journalist to fulfill their duty of providing the people with the information, they need to be free and self-governing. They must follow these guidelines:

1. Journalism's first obligation is to the truth.
2. Its first loyalty is to the citizens.
3. Its essence is discipline of verification.
4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
7. It must strive to make the news significant, interesting, and relevant.
8. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
9. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.

the word is MAGIC.....

MAGIC is the acronym for Men's Apparel Guild of California. It was founded in 1933, as an annual show. This show has now become the largest, most comprehensive apparel, footwear, and accessory trade event in the United States. 

I had the privileged of working the entire show the past week from the 20th through the 24th. I was hired as an international typist which equates to registration attendant/ information booth for anyone who spoke Japanese and only Japanese.  However, the show only provided assistance for language speakers of Italian, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese. What happened to other language speakers? They had to speak to us in English. Considering that we were all multiple language speakers, we were definitely more patient and attentive to the other language speakers though we were not able to assist them in their native tongue. 

So, I had a wonderful time working with other international typists and assisting visitors from all over the world.
Two great things from this show: Gained few friends who I would love to spend more time with and gained a direct Japanese contact for future interpreting needs. Yaay! They are PRICELESS gains! I'm super excited. 

So, I'll end this post with a funny conversation I had with a client: 

Me-  Sir, are you an exhibitor or a retailer?

Client - Excuse me?

Me- (repeat the same thing) are you an exhibitor or a retailer?

Client - I am Korean. 

This concludes my adventure as a bilingual/international typist. 

Check out MAGIC!