Yukon Jay - 小祥

a plethora of jobs 工作很多

Yippy!!!! Finally got the boring workshops out of the way today, giving me for the first time access to the databank with all the jobs. There was quite a bit, but mostly reserved for the biology and chemistry students...

However, I did find 2 jobs that interested me. One with Environment Canada, the other one with Citizenship and Immigration Canada in Ottawa. The only bad thing is application deadline is due June 2nd for the immigration job... I still have to get my coordinator to look over my resume and cover letter before I can apply, I'm running out of time!! The Environment Canada job is perfectly suited for my major, while the immigration job would be perfect for my Asia-Canada minor. So not sure which one I should choose. If I get the immigration job, I would also have to relocate to the nation's capital. Umm, that would mean living there in the winter from September to December..... living in igloos and hunting whales for food.

So I really don't have much time and still have to get coordinator to look over everything..... why does time always work against me? Timing is just so off.... I also found out today that I have to attend a workshop (Transition to Workplace) on Aug 13th, so that cuts into my travel plans for the entire month. Grrrrr....

今天我跑到学校参加了一个聚会。 这个聚会是教学生怎么找工作的，也教我们怎么写摘要。 这个聚会总共是五个小时，我回到家的时候就可以上网看大学总共有什么工作，也能看有那总工作。 我有看到两个我喜欢的。 一个是跟我地里有关的工作，另外的是跟亚洲学习有关的。 这两个系我都有专门的学习。 现在问题就是要选那个工作。

我因该都选两个，这样两个都可以去面谈，看谁要我。 其中一个工作要我搬家，搬到别的省。 搬家没关系，其时我争得要的工作是要各国际工作，学校是有，知是不是有很多。 那搬到别的省也好。

这边的天气还好，这几天都一之下雨，气温十五到十七度。 热的时候就差不多二十一度。

Busy busy busy 现在很忙

I was gonna say not much going on, but then that's a contradiction to the title isn't it? Well, there really isn't much going on except school. I'm already halfway through my summer course right now... got my term paper due pretty soon and as usual, starting to stress out about it. My prof is going through my proposal/outline right now. Hopefully I'm on the right track. I have been good with all my other assignments and presentations, got them done early and tried not to procrastinate. Can't say the same for this research....

This Saturday from 10 to 3:30 I will have my last important workshop out of the way and then I can start applying for jobs. I'm getting impatient with all these workshops.... its been a few weeks and still haven't applief for anything yet. Saturday we will be instructed on how to write professional resumes and cover letters, they will also help us with interview skills.... Boring stuff but important...

Other than that, not much else.... my uncle in Taiwan finally got my email and left a comment on the blog.... Pretty long message, I was able to read 75% of it, the rest had to get my mom to help me. The frustrating part is that I learned simplified Chinese in school, and Taiwan uses traditional Chinese, just like other countries that uses Chinese; for example Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan I guess, but just the Kanji part. Universities in North America only teach simplified Chinese because China is in the UN and recognized as a country while Taiwan isn't. It only has about 26 countries that recognizes it as an independent country... that list continues to get shorter every year. Politics..... its an ugly business.

我的大学暑假五月就开始， 放到九月。 但是我今年有去读暑期课， 要读到六月中。 除了读这一门课，我学校现在也帮我找工作。 如果找到的话，这工作会跟我在学校学习的有关。西门菲莎大学是花一个学期帮学生找工作，那下个学期， 九月的时候，就开始上班了。上班是四个月，刚好是一个学期。 上班的时候， 那个学期就不用上课了。 这工作是要个我们学生禁烟，这样毕业找工作就比较简单。

我暑假的打算是要跟学校找工作。 找到以后如果有时间的话，我想回台湾玩。 小弟要我带他去日本，所以我们会去玩几天。 小弃也有叫我带他去香港，那也应该会去。 越早找到工作越好。这样子我从找到工作到九月上班的时间更多。

我要回台湾的时候会让你们知道。

2 languages

So I'm gonna attempt something I've never done before... update this blog in two languages: English and Mandarin.

I've been thinking about doing it in Chinese but never really got around to it. The reason why I'm writing in Mandarin now is because I can let my relatives in Taiwan know what's going on with the family here and second, to prevent me from forgetting everything I have learned the last 2 years. If I forget it, that would be a waste of tuition money and the effort I've put in. I've already forgotten how to speak Thai (I was real fluent when I lived in Thailand) and Hakka, a popular dialect found in Taiwan, China, and Singapore. So if I forget Mandarin... let's not even go there.

My mom's friend just helped me construct an email in Chinese to my uncle in Taiwan, informing him about this site and how to leave comments and etc. Since its all in English my relatives probably wouldn't have known how to do this.

I'm still not at all fluent, so we'll see how long I can keep this up till I get frustrated and quit??

这是我第一次用中文写的日记。 我的中文还不是说得很好所以如果我有些地方写错的话，让我知道。 只有这样我才能慢慢的进步！还有， 我的电脑智能让我写简体字，繁体字还没办法。

在这里别的皂片是我在美国认识得很好的朋友和他的家人。 我五年级在德州就认识的。 我们互相都很受。 平常每年都有回美国去看他们。 他们把我当成是自己的家庭人。

好了，那就这样。 舅舅，如果您又看到这个，请你留话。 这样我才知道你收到我的e-mail.

Job

Once again my boss has cut my hours back for the remainder of this month because business has been slow, which was expected... however, that cannot justify me sitting idly by and not be furious. As a matter of fact, I haven't been impressed with the schedule for the past 6 months. My tenure at Island Inkjet is now 2.5 years and getting paid mighty well so I keep telling myself to stick around till I start co-op.

I will be applying for co-op jobs sometime after I attend the final workshop on the 29th, and will be starting around September, give and take. I've already been to a few workshops, this week I received my WHMIS certification. So here's my plan: find a job ASAP after May 29th and pray job doesn't start till September 1st. From June 15th till August 30th I might be teaching English in China.... the company based in Vancouver is paying quite well for only 25hrs/week, and paying in U.S. dollars. I might already have convinced someone to do it with me.

So I just hope things will work out nicely... the timing is very tight though, but who knows. 25hrs/week can only mean one thing.... me running around in China and causing havoc.

The Matrix Spoof

Saw this great spoof in class yesterday so I thought I share this. This is also the kind of stuff I've been studying. So ever wondered what life is like for "farm" animals and where the meat you consume everyday come from??? Well, you can check it out in The Meatrix.

If you are interested in more of this topic, there's the Knowledge Network and their interview with Ben Bradshaw, my professor for environmental studies.

School and Games do go together

So this 4 hr break inbetween my lecture and my tutorial.... found the best way to kill time.

Today after lecture Alya and I decided to go to the mall to have lunch and kill some time there. So we had lunch and went to the mall's Playdium and played air hockey, speed racing, shoot basketball, Jurassic Park shooting game, etc. So as we were playing the Jurassic Park game, it ocurred to me that the dinosaurs in the movie were genetically engineered. Reason why this came up is because genetically engineering and genetically modified food is what we've been studying in our agriculture class. So hey, I am getting my education.... I can apply what I am learning to the real world.... best of all, to games.

So after these games we left the mall and came back to school. We tried to do some studying but couldn't, too tired. So then we found ourself a nice little room and played hangman. Man was that fun!! Good to know we're utilizing university classrooms for games.

Now I'm exahusted from a long day and trying to start on my research assignment. I am doing a more indepth look on agriculture-export model for developing countries. Kinda did some work on that subject last semester but not really. Tired now and not having much luck.... I hate researching sometimes... Seems like with each paper, it gets harder and harder to find information.... or maybe its annoyed with writing more paper after each semester.

Pain in everything

Well the time has finally come. Today at the gas pump I finally paid more than $1/litre. Pretty scary... I got 24L of gas and the cost was $26. That's not even half of the gas tank!!! So now a full tank should be about $65. It got me thinking... if the price was 69 cents like about 2 months ago, then 24L would only be $17.... so $9 difference, OUCH!! Right now everyone is still shocked at the prices... hopefully it will start to settle in soon and then we will stop complaining... including myself. I will post my idea of the perfect community in my next blog regarding gas prices.... stay tuned.

In other events... I helped my brother move a 125 gallon tank into his room last night. Stupid idea considering I'm not suppose to lift anything heavy. I figure Josh's friend is at the end with me lifting the monster so how heavy can it get?? Well, I aggravated my knee as I stuggled to support my weight as well as the tank. My knee has been bothering me all day... I think I will wait a few days and if the pain persists I will go see Cynthia, my physiotherapist.

Dream come true?

I know I already mentioned this before but I'm really excited so I must now release it. So bare with me.

I had my co-op meeting again, this time to go over the process of getting a job.... the boring stuff. Then we started to talk about the various different type of jobs and I inquired about employment overseas... he said he has a girl in Bangkok working for the United Nations and that she's working on some environment projects. When he mentioned the UN, it reminded me of all the UN offices, like gigantic offices I saw when I was there last summer. They had the environment and agriculture buildings there, and some few other ones. When I saw them I knew right then that's what I wanted to do but never thought I would get the chance to make that happen.

In the end he asked me where I like to go and I said anywhere... He had a student in Bangkok last year, and now this summer, so I think next time its my turn. Hopefully there will be a position available in September. Bottom line is I expressed what I wanted and he said "Okay, I'll send you somewhere." If I end up overseas working with the United Nations....... that'll be like a dream come true!!!!!

Shouldn't get too excited..... don't want to get my hopes up.

Basketball

Well so it looks like I can still play basketball. When my friend Geoff (also my tenant) and Crashmore came home tonight, they noticed my garage door opened and stole my basketball to go shoot hoops in my neighbour's basket. When I heard his loud car pull up, I went out to go say hi and saw them playing. Now those of you who know me, I would never turn down the chance to play. I mean why not... I should be okay if I only shoot around and not play aggressively.

This is my first time touching a basketball since the tear last summer. After a few minutes of warming up, I asked them if they wanted to play a game of 21.... should of seen them play. They dont play basektball at all.... only hockey. So they played with a hockey mentality: hitting and body checking. Hmmm, reminds me of someone by the name of Emily who uses the same tactic to win.

Anyways, I ended up playing with more energy and effort than I should have. Glad nothing went wrong. One thing I did notice was that I couldn't shoot any long range shots. Tried a few times but just can't get that jump that I would normally get. No support at all with my right knee, which happens to be the knee I use to elevate.

Still haven't heard from my surgeon yet. I'm expecting a longer wait now since the nurses were on strike the last few weeks.... as expected, tons of surgeries were cancelled, which means longer wait for me.

Pain

I finally dragged myself outside today and mowed the much neglected lawn. As I was mowing, I felt pain in my right knee, exactly where I had tore the ACL. So this can't be good. For the last year, I've backpacked and use to take my dog out and go for a jog... and all this time I have never experienced pain till now. Maybe this means I need to start doing my exercises again, something that I haven't done in a long time.

I had my co-op information session last Friday and will have my first workshop this Thursday. I pretty much knew what was to be said since I was suppose to start last semester. The one new thing new was when the director told us about the overseas job opportunities. Currently the program has students placed in Switzerland; Belize; Mexico; Bangkok, Thailand and a few other places. Now this is what I signed up for!!! I just pray I will get the opportunity to work in foreign countries, like Thailand or China, and do what I'm "trained" to do in school... that would almost be like a dream come true, doing something you love and travelling at the same time. :)

Dodge SRT-4

I had a chance to ride in the 2004 Dodge SRT-4, an "enhancement" of the Dodge Neons. They're only making 10,000 of these and a friend decided to buy it after rebuilding his engine for the truck and now selling it. Very smooth ride... we booted it a few times =)

So my class has been really boring. Tons of work, but I guess that's to be expected in a condensed course. It should get better though as we move away from the history of agriculture and toward contemporary agri-environmental issues.

Back to school

Well today was my first day back to school for the summer semester. I only have the geography 385 (agriculture and environment) course till middle of June, which is really good because SFU is trisemester and summer courses usually runs till middle of August. I've got about 4 hr break in between the lecture and tutorial, so today I came home after the lecture by bus and will be driving back to school. It takes me 2 hrs round trip by bus and usually 20-30 minutes one way if driving, depending on traffik. There's no way I'm driving there twice a day with the gas prices now.... this 4 hr break really sucks. I need to meet someone who lives up there so I can go crash in. Unfortunately SFU has a small housing complex, most students commute to school. Expanding the campus on top of the mountain have always been difficult because all around it is native land... so that usually hinders development unless a treaty can be negotiated.

Not too much going on. I will also be attending co-op meetings and workshops. I think I am gonna try to get an internship in September... which would mean interviews in August. Might even consider doing the internship for 8 months if possible, usually it is either 4 or 8 months. Total requirement is 2 years before graduation...