Berkat di malam Paskah

Okay, perlu saya tekankan lagi kalo saya sama sekali bukan orang yang relijius. Not that it's a bad thing, but I'm really not. I just like to go to church gatherings and meet people. Yes, sometimes my purpose is really mixed up. Sorry, God.

Dan emang dasar manusia, ada kalanya kita khilaf. Kita berpikir kalo agama itu ga penting, yang penting hanyalah relasi kita dengan Tuhan. Kemaren ini gue sempet mikir kalo jadi Agnostic is not a bad idea. Tapi belon sempet gue pikir lebih dalem, Tuhan udah sadarkan gue.

Jadi selama tiga hari berturut2 (Kamis Putih-Jumat Agung-Sabtu Suci), gue ga pernah absen dalam ikut misa/ibadat. Semua ritual yang 'spesial' pada Tri hari suci ini, meskipun adalah bikinan manusia, sangat gue kagumi dan gue nikmati pada saat menjalankannya. Meski kita suka laper dan bosen ngikutin misa yang panjanggg... tapi kalo kita nikmatin, enak juga lho. Dan tiga hari ini beda2 misanya. Kamis Putih ada adorasi, Jumat agung ada Pasio (sp?), dan Sabtu Suci paling ribet sendiri. Panjang2 dan banyak bacaan dan ritualnya.

Dan tiga misa ini pada tahun ini tidak luput dari 'situations'. Maklumlah ini baru pertama kali kita misa paskah di rumahan. Waktu kamis sich biasa aja, palingan orang2 banyak yang telat (termasuk gw). Waktu Jumat, 2 orang yang tugas nyanyi Pasio tiba2 KETAWA di tengah2 nyanyi. Damn! Dan pas Sabtu suci, api di wirug ga mau nyala2. Tapi untung semua itu lewat dan ga ada yang incident yang berarti.
Dan hari ini abis misa sabtu suci, kita beres2 rumah, pindah2in sofa, dsb dst, dan tibalah saat2 yang paling ditunggu2 yaitu MAKAN MAKAN! Yeayy.. akhirnya berangkatlah 9 dari kita ke jindingxuan buat makan late night dimsum.

Waktu homili tadi pasturnya ada ngomong sedikittt tentang oma-nya. Tapi dia bilang, nanti kapan2 diceritain. Trus abis itu pas makan gue tagih lagi dan akhirnya ceritalahhh orang2 berkepanjangan tentang nenek mereka masing2. ada yang nangis, dan ada yang bikin kita ketawa ngakak. sampe kita ga sadar kalo itu udah jem 2.
Jadi intinya, kita jangan cuma mendoakan orang tua kita aja, tapi jangan lupakan kakek nenek kita, baik mereka masih hidup ato udah ga ada di dunia ini lagi.

Menarik banget sih denger cerita2 mereka, bagaimana nenek2 mereka yang bersahaja, sederhana, dan selalu mendoakan keluarganya kapanpun. It's amazing. 1 cerita yang paling gue suka adalah, neneknya si Michael kalo hari paskah maunya misa paling pagi supaya pulangnya keburu nonton TV siaran langsung dari Vatikan dan dapet berkat juga dari Paus. hihihi.. so sweet and cute.

Bokap gue dari kecil yatim piatu. Kakek dari nyokap waktu gue kecil udah ga ada. Gue cuma inget beliau adalah kakek kurus yang suka makan permen pagoda (bahkan sekarang kalo sembayangan keknya masih suka dibeliin itu permen). Yang sekarang tersisa cuma nenek dari nyokap yang gue panggil popo. Popo gue ini bahasa Indonesia aja ga bisa. Jadi yaa.. beda banget deh sama nenek2 mereka. Tapi setiap kali mereka cerita itu gue juga tetep inget popo dan mikir, sekarang popo gimana yah keadaannya?

Trus dari cerita2 anak, udah gitu sharing2 sama besties gue di Indo, ini udah common fact kalo anak itu bener2 kebentuk dari sifat org tuanya. Keluarga gue dibilang relijius juga kagak... bonyok gue mungkin ga gitu ngerti tentang Katolik karena baru dibaptis sekitar 15 tahun yang lalu. Tapi selama 15 tahun ini, kalo bukannya yang bener2 ga bisa, bonyok gue ga pernah absen ke gereja setiap minggu dan ga pernah telat sekalipun. Jadi ya gue sekarang tau tentang katolik bukan dari ortu gue, tapi dari kegiatan2 rohani. malah gue pengen yang ajarin bonyok gue atau encourage mereka untuk sesekali ikut retret ato biar lebih tau lebih dalem lagi ttg iman Katolik.

So, singkat cerita, gue ngerasa so blessed banget hari ini. mulai yang dari ngerasa: wow, liturgi, upacaranya katolik keren banget, sampe gue bersyukur banget bisa denger sharing2 orang yang seru dan lucu2. menginspirasi gue untuk selalu tetep taat dan berada di jalan yang benar dan mudah2an kalo dikasih dapet PH yang katolik juga supaya bisa bangun keluarga katolik yang saling mendoakan dan harmonis dan happily ever after....................

Happy Easter all!

xoxo

Cindy

The Intern Diary: Day 6 and 7 work on weekends

Haha finally I break my own rules. I didn't update on the 6th day. It was because I was toooooooooooooooooo exhausted on Friday. As usual, my boss gave me an assignment at around 5pm, right when our office had this happy hour where there were beers in office. my boss and her assistant were missing during that happy hour. and not long after that, she came to my desk with a cold beer and said, why does nobody want beer??? I smiled and she put the beer on my desk and said: drink! this is an order!!! and I had no other choice. hahahhaa
Few minutes after 6pm, I didnt finish my assignment, but I had to go. When I went to the kitchen to put my bottle, my boss and 3 other people were inside and chatting happily. she said: are you leaving or are you here for another drink? and I said: nah, I'm leaving, c u tomorrow. And a guy said as I left: c u tomorrow????
The day after was Saturday. I know. And a terrible sandstorm hit Beijing. When I woke up the sky outside was yellow, literally. I thanked God because my boss let me take taxi to the hotel. The event was for beijing kids club and I enjoyed it sooo much. The kids were soooo adorable. And I got to eat a hotel brunch. It wasnt super good. But yeah u know, I would never have lunch at a 5star hotel unless someone paid for me.
And the rest of the day wasnt so lucky for me. A stupid ATM machine swallowed my money. And I have to wait till monday until the bank takes care of it.
ahhh this is almost the end of one day weekend. and I dont think I would have any weekends next week. just see.

The Intern Diary: Day 5 - things are getting more and more challenging

what a day! me and the whole marketing team got YELLED by the big boss. haha.. and I took part in that foolishness. my manager told me to email all the staff. i emailed them all and like 2 minutes after i sent it, the big boss replied to another marketing staff with CAPS. and then he jabber-ed (our office's internal messenger) us saying: when the marketing staffs are all there, come to my office. I'll stop whatever I'm doing.
Then my manager who told me to email that stuff was like: F***! and she looked very frightened. hehehehe... But its not that bad. he just told us what we did wrong and what we should do.
and that means extra work for me tomorrow.

xoxo

The Intern Diary: Day 4 - Late Shangban

Early in the morning my boss texted me saying that I may come at lunch or after lunch. But instead I went out at 10 AM and arrived at office at 10.40. Nobody was there yet, so I managed to do some job-unrelated jobs. Hehe... That's not bad.
Today I made a few phone calls and pack a gift box for the Beijing kids club members. It's fun. And right before xiaban, another boss tell me to WRITE the press release of yesterday's event. And I am so confused, an office full of English native speakers, journalists, and she picked me???? She said: It's okay, we're all not native English speakers. I KNOW, in marketing, nobody is white but Clarisse is a native?!? I guess she'll just laugh at it and at the end ask someone else to write.
That's funny though. I hate it when they tell me to write but I voluntarily do other things happily.
Tomorrow I have to take a long lunch, I have 'shir' to do.

Update 2moro

xoxo

Cindy

The Intern Diary: Day 3 - The 7th annual restaurant awards by the Beijinger

I didnt go to office today. But instead I went to the venue at 3.3 sanlitun rightaway. Damn Beijing traffic (and me walking so slowly)! It took me 1,5 hours to reach slt!!! I took bus because I wanted to avoid subway during rush hour. But thankfully I wasn't late.
Then I met an ex teacher of mine who now works for the global times. I saw an old friend to named Colin, but I didnt have the chance to say hi to him. What a shame! I was busy at the back with 2 bitchy award girls who bullied the other one.
So there was a lot of beer, wine and cheese (they were sponsors). but the best best drink ever was iF juice! (www.ifjuice.com)
And I got the goodie bag! It has a Toni and Guy voucher (yay!), a scented candle, a knife for cutting cheese (from the cheese sponsor, they only make huge cheeses.
Everybody was tired but happy so I was granted a day off tomorrow. But I'm still gonna go shangban and save up the day off for another day.

xoxo

Cindy

The Intern Diary: Day 2 - working overtime

My manager told me at the end of my first day: come again Monday, 9.30-ish. Note the ish.
So I left dorm at 9 this morning. and I arrived at my office at 9.30 sharp. That's awfully close! To reach another point in Beijing in less than 30 minutes is super fast! And I was among the first ones to arrive at office.
Today was pretty busy and I left the office at 7.30pm. That means I worked 10 hours today.
Tomorrow I dont have to go to the office but to 3.3 Sanlitun instead. There's an event there. Gonna update more tomorrow.
Cya

The Intern Diary: Day 1 - What interns do

Woohoo... I have a great news, guys... In my last semester of university, there's an expat magazine in Beijing called The Beijinger that recruited interns for marketing. I applied and got accepted and they asked me to start immediately (only 4 days after the interview and 3 days from the day they told me I was accepted, apparently it's obvious that they desperately need people to help).I thought of a friend who once had unpaid internship at Vogue New York and I just pretend that mine is just as cool.

And on my first day, I didnt have my own computer yet and my boss who went out for a meeting let me use hers. She told me to look through 1 folder and I found pretty funny things. Westerners are more humorous and not as strict as the Chinese.

So my office has a kitchen where we can make coffee etc, but I havent figured it out how to use the machine btw. There are also microwaves and fridge so I can bring my own lunch. There are 60ish people in the office. My boss walked me around and introduced me to everybody but I couldnt remember any single name!

Later on that day helped them making cards for the winner announcement of the restaurant awards. I didnt make the best card in the world but anyways they didnt expect the best either.

I will have to work on weekends sometimes and it gets compensated on weekdays. So it's fine. And the events on weekends (usually for kids and families) are kinda fun so I really don't mind (especially it's nice to work like 5 hours in a 5 star hotel venue then have a whole weekday off).