The Ego Episodes

Monday, Aug. 01, 2005

There Will be More

Before I delve into My Life in the Last 30 days, I present to you photos of my convocation ceremony 3 weeks ago, following Tim's example.

www.flickr.com ladyisis' Joyce's Convocation 2005 photoset

That's how my convo went. I know it's hard to believe, but I wasn't really looking forward to my convocation ceremony. You work your butt off for 4 years just for this moment and when that moment comes, it felt more like an anticlimax more than anything, like it's just a ceremony you have to go through and not THE Ceremony. I think it has to do with the things that you have to deal with after graduation. It's different when you're a foreign student wanting to make a living here--HERE where you've got no home, no family or relatives to support you. HERE where you virtually start from scratch, so you can't afford a holiday or several months of bumming around, doing nothing, reflecting about what you REALLY want to do with your life. It's different here. It's different for me. So after exams and the days leading towards graduation and the days after that, I felt like there's a cloud hovering above me. You won't understand it till you've experienced it I guess.

But no matter how difficult it is, I have made a decision. Going back home is a choice and probably easier, but it has its own consequences. I've weighed these consequences and made a choice. I'm staying here. Although it's easy to be lonely and frustrated because you really have a ton of things to worry about, I just accepted it. I chose this life and this is how I'm going to deal with it. You have no idea how stressed I was the past month--I still am, but only a little bit now.

The past month (or two?), I acted on my worries. One can't keep on whining about not having a job or enough money; eventually, you have to solve your problems IN A CONCRETE WAY.

So after sending several application letters and going through 2 interviews, with no fruitful result, I applied as a sales promoter, got the job, then got a call for another part-time job as a document archiver (or specialist or whatever they want to call us) on my second day. So I quit the sales job after only 2 days of working. Not the most ethical way, but I mean, my boss was ready to let me go. I was overly underpaid in that job so I moved to another job where I was still underpaid, but overall, it's better than my previous job. And I realized I hated a job that requires me to convince people to buy a product that I myself am not totally convinced, so I was glad/relieved to get out of that job. I am such a bad liar.

Then before I started on my sales job, I actually had a call to do a transcribing job which pays 3 times as much as the other two jobs (an engineer friend told me it's higher than what she's getting as an engineer). Finally, a job worthy of my time. But I was worried that I won't have enough money after my transcribing project's done so I decided to take the transcribing job AS WELL AS the document archiving job. So I worked for about 8 hours archiving documents and then used the remaining time that I had transcribing. Makes sense, right? Wrong. I couldn't have made a more stupid decision.

You see, my transcribing project had a deadline and adding the fact that I underestimated the number of hours I would take finishing the project, I basically had no time to waste and it got me really STRESSED. There were days where I had to sleep around 5 hours every night just to be able to finish the project on time--the project--and let me reiterate--the project that will pay me 3 times as much as the other job.

As the deadline was almost directly in front me, I got more stressed out and then I got sick. No, really sick. Cough, running nose, the works. And so after ignoring the voice that's been telling me to quit the other job, I finally listened to reason and quit the document archiving job after 3 weeks. I only had one week left to finish the transcribing project.

As with the sales job, I was relieved to have quit the other job. Although I had side trips and probably enjoyed myself more than I should have, I was able to finish the project on time BEFORE MY CONVOCATION on July 11. But I had at least three nights of about 3 or 4 hours of sleep. My time management skills (if I had any to start with) reached a new low.

And instead of acting like a normal person--catching up on sleep after a gruelling week--I decided to go out and have fun. The night before my convocation, I went with Donny and his friends to this sub-zero bar at Clarke Quay for drinks, but basically to check out what this sub-sero thing is all about.

I had my ever reliable red turtleneck on, plus a thick jacket for reinforcements. It was a Sunday night so finding a parking space was next to impossible. Luckily, my bladder was behaving well that day. We finally made it to the place and the first thing we saw was a bar counter made of solid ice. We went further inside and found waitresses and waiters wearing winter wear. Of course. Actually, I kind of liked the white winter coat worn by the waitresses, but not the white boots. Anyway, we ordered drinks, shouted a lot to everyone's ears because the techno music was so loud, drank some more and me? I wore my jacket even before it hit 8 degrees Celsius and rubbed the palm of my hands together over a tiny tea light. Drinking even more alcohol did not help much in increasing my body temperature. But compared to my companions, I was better off--in terms of what I'm wearing. But they're doing fine even without any jacket. I'm such a wimp.

So we went back outside where they had the bar counter of solid ice and took some pictures. It was about 2 or 3 degrees Celsius, so we only spent about a minute before we went back inside where it's 6 degrees Celsius. That's a big difference, I tell you. Overall, it was a lot of fun--but I did not like my margarita that much, but oh well, the fact that it remained frozen for the whole duration of our stay there was a plus.

Went back home late, slept for about 2 hours and then CONVO DAY! I had pictures uploaded to Flickr, I don't know if you can see them, but click on this link for descriptions of the photos.

I've written a lot but I have not told you about how I'm in a new place now. I'm in a real house, with a real kitchen and large refrigerator, tv and bathroom, the works. And one thing I like about it is that it has Internet, so I can still write to you guys in here.

Okay, my house. I'm just staying here temporarily because I didn't have the money to find a permanent place, plus I didn't have alliance with friends to become flatmates with, etc. So I'm left with a temporary place for now. I will be moving out soon, though, but I don't know where just yet. I am looking, though! The difference is that I know exactly where in Singapore I want to stay so that should help me with making a decision.

I'm supposed to be doing some cleaning, laundry, or cooking lunch because I'm done with my transcribing project and I basically have nothing to do (except wait for my check) unlike my flatmates who are ALL WORKING. Now that I've written that, I just cheered myself up! Actually, I have good news to share.

A company has accepted me to become one of its Engineers (yes, it's with a capital E). Yes! So it's now a matter of waiting for my employment pass to get approved, about two weeks from now, before they decide when I should start work. So, hooray! I had a call on the 20th of July, got interviewed on the 21st and then got the job offer on the 22nd! It was so fast! Without going much into the details, after I got the job offer and hanged up the phone, I couldn't believe my ears and was so estatic that I jumped up and down like a SuperMario banging its head on a prize mushroom. That shouldn't be too hard to imagine. I told my flatmate, "I got a job. I GOT A JOB! Yay! Yay! Yay!"

I'm so thankful for this opportunity. I'm just so happy that finally, all that hardwork paid off. My parents, they couldn't be any happier for me. And so the Sunday after I got my job, I went to church, thanked God and also thanked Mother Mary who I've approached the week before.

So now it's just the employment pass. Hopefully it will be a smooth process, and then I will have to move in to another flat, preferably with friends and then hopefully, my life will stabilize from there. So now I'm just waiting. I just finished the second transcribing project last week and I think I still have that glow about me for a) finishing a project AT LAST (took me 3 weeks), b) having nothing to do for the following two weeks and c) and in anticipation of celebrating my birthday this week! I love August!

I am really excited for my birthday. Okay, I won't tell you more but it will be something. And there will be chocolate cake as demanded by me. Okay, some minor past events. I won an Elle magazine contest! It's called Take a Bite Out of Life contest where you are to write, in 30 words or less, your Take a Bite Out of Life experience. So I wrote how I took the plunge in coming to Singapore for university at 16, without knowing anyone here and that I have come a long way because now I'm graduating. That's what I wrote and for that, they gave me a $300 hamper of the new DKNY fragrance and some other DKNY products! That made my day, I tell you. I never expected to win something because I never do, but that time I did! And the hamper was like an advanced birthday gift to me. There was the big apple-shaped bottle of perfume spray, a traveller size eau de toilette, a lip gloss (which I absolutely love), a body scrub and a body lotion--all from the DKNY green apple range. I just love that fragrance. Thank you, Elle! And DKNY! And Singapore experience! And Donny for buying that magazine for me! And... well, to a lot of people!

I have not even detailed the places I've been to since I've been out of school and actually had money to spend (from the transcribing job). It's good with pictures. Speaking of which, I'll be using Flickr to share my photos from now on. As an alumni, I now have to surrender my webspace allotted to me by the university at the end of this year so all the pictures stored there will be removed, transferred and I don't know when (or if) you will see them again. And then with the new job, I don't know if I should continue writing in this public space. I will terribly miss it, though.

So this explains my absence. When I'm not working, I've been constantly running around to drive away boredom. And have I mentioned the the desserts in Bakerzin? You should have a go at it. The New York cheesecake is not as good as Donny's home-baked cheesecake but still, passed my standards, folks. You will not regret it. Right now, I've been reading the Chronicles of Narnia because the movie for its 2nd book (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) will be coming out soon. I'm now in the last book and it's addictive. Speaking of, I am looking forward to The Chocolate Factory! I know it will be shown in the cinemas on Aug. 4 but actually, cinemas here will start showing it the day before, Aug. 3! My birthday!

And now I'm hungry. And yet I cannot stop yet until I finish uploading this entry to Diaryland and make sure that there are no errors. Oh, the things I do for this space! So I can't just give it up. Anyway, I really have to cook lunch soon. How are you guys doing?

{ joycie at 10:14 a.m.}