Sing that title to the Christmas song "Up on a roof top, click, click, click, down through the chimney, Old St. Nick." And stop shaking your head, you're smiling even if I'm silly!
Today Lauren, Ray, and I were presenting on interviewing for American college entry and jobs. Ray met at our apartment right before we got ready to leave with this:
It's breakfast...in a bag! It's actually pretty good, though I'm sure you think it looks disgusting. It's some sort of rice based dough with peanut butter, some sweet sauce, and you can see he put hot sauce on part of it. I ate a bite without the hot sauce--tasty and filling. I had already had breakfast, as had Lauren. Our theory is that he brings it after he knows we've eaten so that he can eat all of it and still look nice (he brought 2 bags).
Ray started out the day EducationUSA had put on at the University of Macau with an hour long presentation. We had about 15 students show up I think. We then proceeded to lunch, followed by mock interviews. This was my favorite part. I helped a masters Translation student who wants to go to the U.S. in a few years to pursue a PhD. She was a very sweet lady, but she had difficulty marketing herself, as it seems many Asian women do. I told her:
"listen, Suzy is smart, she's got a great heart, she's got passion to help the world of researchers better communicate and thereby improve the world...she has all these things that I've dug into and gotten from you. You just have to bring that to the top because interviewers aren't going to dig. You need to sell Suzy--I know that sounds bad 'selling yourself', but when I list these things about 'Suzy' you're like 'who's Suzy? I love Suzy! Right?' That's just it, there are people out there that love you and there are reasons why. What you need to do for your interview is stop being modest and let these interviewers know why they should love you too--why you are the one they want for this position."
It's stuff like this that makes my days in Macau worthwhile. It's those moments when I see something light up in a student's face that might just change their future that makes all the other moments fade away. Suzy had that look.
After interviews were over, I jumped into the lovely grocery store near UMacau called MamaCare and bought myself an American treat (they don't have this store in Macau, Macau). Below you will find the tummy wonders :)
I mostly bought the Snapple for the Real Fact under the lid. And in case you didn't know, this is your fact of the day.
Lauren had some loose leaf green tea at work today, so I snapped a picture of the leaves after they've unfolded. This is green tea as you've probably never seen it:
On the bus back to the office, I crossed paths with 2 sweet, fragile looking little ladies from Hawaii who were pushing 70 years old if they were a day. I talked to them for just a bit. The 2 of them were travelling by themselves and had been to Hong Kong, Macau, and Lantau. I was so impressed! Go get 'em girls!
Tonight, I helped Alice worked on her resume and cover letter. She is a third year accounting student who is super bright, has great English, and a good attitude. She wants to go for grad school in the U.S. and also do an internship there. We have a lot in common as far as challenges and goals, and it felt great investing in another student who definitely deserves it. If anyone hears of summer accounting internships opening up, let me know!
Last, tonight we learned about time in Cantonese. What's interesting is how we think of past as behind and future as in front of, but the Chinese think of time in up and down. Future is down, past is up. Our teacher asked us, "which way will you go when you die?" Of course, the Christians in the class were like 'up, I hope,' and others (Portuguese) claimed they weren't religious but hoped it wouldn't be down. The teacher responded by saying that Chinese think they will go down. Now obviously this is a generalization of beliefs and there are plenty of Chinese Christians, but that's how she introduced the topic. Apparently Chinese believe in 18 levels of hell (or the equivalent to hell) and that you go to a worse level of punishment based on the wrongs you've done. Up is where the 'gods' are, and no humans can go up there. So basically, life is just about getting less punishment... She also talked about the tie in with reincarnation.
This ties in with the burning of (normally fake) paper money that is common here...someone comment and remind me to explain this on another day's blog. You've learned plenty for one day ;)...and it's late here.
Your goal of the day: inspire with words.
2 comments:
Regarding summer accounting internships in the U.S. I believe that you have a close friend that would know about that since he has and is participating in an internship program......I refer to Ben. You might want to inquire for your friend since I believe that he keeps up with those things. Love.
I mentioned that program to her, but I think she might be looking for something more accounting specific. His seems more finance oriented, but perhaps I'm wrong since his major is accounting. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll try to remember to ask him next time he gets free to talk.
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