Today I continue to dredge up the memories of my school year. The second semester of that academic school year I transferred to another college to continue my further study. The program that I took was named business computer system. At that time it was said that this program offered students with an optimistic perspective, and I was desperate for a better future. In fact, my purpose of going to school was to get a better job and get away from my controlling parents. I had been looking forward to being independent. I transferred the 3 credits that I earned from XYZ college to the new college I was about to attend to. With hope of success, that September I started to fill my time by taking 5 courses. Some of my schoolmates took 6 or even 7, but that`s not for me(I am always slow, yes, I am 小慢). At the beginning, the endless homework, tons of reading, writing, projects, and presentations always tired me out and I had no time for developing my extracurricular activities such as badminton and running, therefore, I was almost like leading a simple life--- classes, library and bedroom at home. I needed time to adjust my busy life.
However, I never allowed myself to become a bookworm, but it was also hard to force myself to study quietly. I had been a child who loved to play and have fun. Among my friends, I was the one always being teased and joked about, in a good sense, though, and I didn`t mind as long as they were happy. A happy nuts, in Chinese, they called me, and I think my loud and sort of terrible laughter must be contagious. Beside study and hanging out with my friends, in my me-time, mostly I liked to chat with net friends in the internet. I sometimes disguised myself as an amazing girl telling people in the chat room how fast I could use my toes to type both in Chinese and English and how many languages I could master---I thought not many peopole could skillfully apply the Google translate service, and I also told them how I could use my 2 eyes to read 2 books the same time. So they thought I was just a little girl like I was at the age of 13, or 14.Anyway, I thought it was a good way for me to vent out my frustration from my study and the tense relationship between me and my parents.
However, most of the time I had been thinking about my future. In order to obtain working experience and get myself well prepared for my future, I was active in participating in volunteer work, for example I applied to work for a non for profit senior centre organized by a Chinese Corporation as an executive assistant. My duties included answering the phone calls and made phone calls to some seniors to help them improve their quality of life. For example, I was asked to call and reminded them about their medical appointments and the time to take pills. This volunteer work gave me an opportunity to develop my Cantonese and Mandarin talents which I was proud of. I didn`t have to call the clients every day, but after a few days of calling, sometimes I hesitated to talk with them in the phone, because some of those seniors seemed not to act like normal, i.e., they shouted at me as if I was calling to hurt them. Later on I learned that some seniors who needed care from the center had suffered from Alzheimer and dementia diseases. So I forgave them.
I volunteered for that senior center for 3 months, 2 days a week, 2 hours a day. That summer, this experience played an important role when I was looking for a summer job that it helped me obtained a job in a community centered not far away from home. My boss, Ms. Chen was a young lady from Hong Kong, graduated from University of Toronto with a master degree in social service or equivalent. She was the director of the centre responsible for social service related to information referral, translation, homeless shelter programs, youth education programs, etc. Ms. Chen is a nice person, she speaks fluent Cantonese and English. Maybe because she was little when she immigrated to Canada with her family, she didn`t speak good Mandarin. However, I found that her Chinese handwriting was pretty good, for this, she really had my admiration. I never write good in both Chinese and English, but I could type very fast, that`s true. working with her were 2 ladies and one gentleman. One of the ladies was a young lady from the Philippines, the gentleman and the other lady both are from India. The lady from India had a great penmanship, and she said because back in her country, English is their official language, so they hadto learn English, and if she could not write it well, she would receive punishment such as hitting on her palms with rulers or canes.
My work there was to answer the phone calls and referred information and did translation for clients who needed. The title of my job was Information Referral Worker.
I was enthusiastic, friendly and liked to help people. As the information referral worker, I helped people calling in to find the right information they wanted. Information I provided varied from day care and school locations to movie theaters, and you name it. The information system set in the computer was easy to access, so I didn`t have much challenge with that. However, because Toronto is a multicultural city, and back then our community center neighborhood residences included a lot of Chinese people who don`t speak English and our service was designed to meet their needs. So sometimes my boss arranged me to do translation for some clients who speak Chinese.
For translation work, mostly I helped my clients to understand letters and documents from government and business sectors. I remember one time a Chinese man from Vietnam needed someone to help him understand a letter from a long distance telephone company. It was a letter asking him to pay the long distance charges. But he said he never called those long distance calls and he figured it must be his tenant who moved out not long ago or someone maybe his friend or his other family members used his phone to make a long distance call without letting him know. Whatsoever, he was very frustrated, because the long distance cost was not cheap back then.
If I said translating was just once in a while, then answering the phone calls and taking care of walk-in clients occupied most of my time in the front desk. Most of the phone calls were from homeless people living in neighborhood shelters. Because they didn`t have a stable address, so the center provide some space for their mail, so they often called in to check out. Because some of our walk-in clients included those who lived in shelters, sometimes we encountered unpleasant situation. For example, one afternoon a stinky man who seemed not to take a bath in years walked in and required help. After he left, we almost like could not hold our breath, so I rushed to the bathroom and grabbed an odor eliminating spray to killed the unpleasant odor in the office. Lord love a duck! Later on I found that there were more than one air refreshing sprays sitting in the cabinet of the bathroom, so I thought my boss was experienced in dealing situations like that afternoon. Probably she would not do as what I did because she was professional. I just assumed. Who could stand odors like that man?
Because our service also provided computer and internet to the public, so you could imagine that we expected clients from different backgrounds. One day afternoon I heard a commotion in the computer area, so out of my curiosity, I peeked out of my desk. That was my boss having a disagreement with a muscle bound man. What happened was that disgusting man browsed porn sites as if he was using his own computer at home, and right beside him using other computers were kids under 12! Shame on him! I could not believe that there were people could be that unscrupulous in the public. So my boss decided that the resource center was off-limits to this perverted man. After that day, I admired my boss more. You had to know that she was a charming and tinny young lady, but at work, she was such an giant.
Although I was not making big money with this job, working with my lovely boss and co-workers I thought the experience was valuable and worthy. However, it was just a summer job that it only lasted for 2 and half months. September the same year, I continued to go back to college for further study. With the summer job experience, my English and self-confidence had been boosted into a new stage which was good for me.
As I said I didn't want to make myself a bookworm, so beside working that summer I still kept hanging out with my friends and poking in that club where I swung my fist to the face of that MBA man. There, a man about his age of 30 always enthusiastically invited me for a dance, but like always I said to him matter-of-factly that the floor was crooked, I didn`t know how to dance. I said I would step on your toes without doubt. But he said he could stand my steps. He said he`s from China, an engineer working for the city hydro department. I noticed that he is almost one head taller than I am. The fact was I was as clumsy as a bear when I danced, even today, that`s why I just liked to watch first. That night more than twice I stepped on his toes, but he seemed not to mind. My clumsiness embarrassed me but still quite a few guys wanted to dance with me. I didn`t know who they were, but I knew most of them were from China with high education. They were not bad people. Of course, I knew my best friend May and our 2 `` bodyguards`` secretly protected us--2 good friends of ours who are Chinese born in Vietnam. My best friends May also danced, but not as much as me. Ever since that engineer guy had kept asking me out that he said he knew a place where we could improve our dancing skills. However I didn`t say yes. Someone who was far away from me always occupied the bottom of my heart so I could not make myself to date with other guys.
Except for that club my friend who is from Suzhou, Yi, once in a while took me to some other dancing occasions held by students unions of universities such as U of T. One time, the dance party was held in a gym, there, was a big crowd, and the music was ear-splitting loud and people were so noisy. I stood there for a while as if I was a wall flower, watching, until I got invited. Yi told me that most of people there were single, master or PhD students from local universities, and that kind of activities was actually a good chance for them to find themselves girlfriends and boyfriends.
I didn`t say anything in response to Yi, but I knew that I didn`t need a boyfriend.
別離容易見就難 人生相見有幾番 為了分別時 讓你天天想我 今天我是癡情無限 相逢難聚愛更難 人生癡癡愛幾番 讓我癡愛長存 在你的深心裡 今天我是癡情無限 * 啊... 就算他日再不重逢 我今日都想給你 萬種癡心愛無限 將來難料會如何 人生咫尺隔關山 在那分別時 願你一生聚記 當天我是癡情無限 * Repeat *
