Weekends

I feel like I waste my time if I don't go out on weekends. Probably that's one of the reasons I was so angry with Songi when she cancelled on me.
For me, a weekend is the reason to live. I love sleeping in in the morning, eating brunch (love this word) and watching TV without any pressure. When I go out with my friends, I can eat non-Korean food at places like Outback Steakhouse that I hardly go to during the weekdays. I love shopping, walking in the street, sitting in parks in the sunshine and going to bookstores. What I love to do on weekends is not special but I feel so happy when I do those things.
One of the things about me that I want to change is I don't like to do those things by myself.
Yesterday I rested at home until 5pm and thought I had rested well enough even though my lower back still hurt. I got ready and went to the area near Ihwa women's univerisity to look at some more clothes. I bought two pairs of earings and a shirt there. The earings were good choices but the shirt was a mistake. Oh, shit!
Although I went there alone, it felt good to be outside after some good rest. My next challenge is going to the movies alone. haha

Things I don't like about my friends

Songi wanted to go out with me last Friday night but I was very tired and wanted to meet her next day instead. She insisted that she wanted to meet me that night saying that she went to work and came straight home after work for the whole week and she was too bored. So I decided to meet her. In the afternoon, she texted me and said she was feeling tired too and it would be better for us to meet on Saturday. I was ok with that.
On Saturday, when I woke up in the morning, I found her text that said "I am feeling unwell. We'd better meet on Sunday afternoon.". I was still feeling tired so her cancellation didn't bother me too much.
Saturday afternoon after work, when I was going to Hanaro mart at Mokdong with my sister, Songi called me and said she was too bored staying home all day and I said "We'll definitely meet tomorrow.".
Sunday morning, I was chilling out at home eating some bread and watching TV ("CEO exchange" I really like this show!). Around 12 pm, I decided to call her to arrange the time and place to meet. She didn't answer the phone and my text after the call. She called me back 30 mintues later and said she was out to have lunch with her roommate." As soon as I heard her say that, I knew what she was gonna say considering she was full at the time. She said "I am sick and let's not meet today.". I got really mad at her. She said "I am so sorry. Let's meet on Monday.". I said "I am meeting my friend on Monday. But I don't wanna meet you even though I didn't have a plan for Monday. How could you be so rude? You always do whatever you feel like. If you felt sick, you should have called me earlier. You ruined my weekend." I hung up.
This is a pattern actually. She always does this and I get angry with her. I stay angry until she calls me several times and says she's sorry. Then I have to forgive her.
I don't mind Songi reading this because I complained to her about this thousand times already.
I tried not to meet other friends of mine while Songi is in Seoul. It's because not only I feel most comfortable with her but also I don't want her to feel lonely as she doesn't have many friends in Seoul. Maybe I was too considerate of her.
After Songi's third cancellation, I called some other friends of mine immediately and made plans for this weekend to rule out the possibility that Songi ruins my weekend.
She texted me this morning but I don't want to reply. I can't change the things that I don't like about my friends but at least I don't want to let them affect my life.

Work

This week has almost ended without enjoying much free time at work while Frank is in India for a week. Whenever I talked to Frank in India over the phone, he grumbled about the horrible road conditions there and said the car was going through the jungle and snakes wriggled every where. Despite his over-the-top description about all those things, I was still thinking overseas business trips must be fun.:)
I was glad when I checked my work email this morning that Laurent, the CTO of Ultrasonix, my Canadian account didn't send me any more emails saying extremely urgent requests. But I am still not feeling completely relaxed because I said to him that I would send the sample tomorrow but I found out this morning that the sample might not be ready by then.
Il-woong, the deputy manager of the manufacture dept. needs to be much more careful of what he informs me.
A few days ago, I made a certificate according to the information he gave me over the phone conversation and I quickly sent it to Laurent. Then Il-woong called me again like 5 minutes later and told me there was some change in the information. Of course, that's not my fault but to Laurent, it will look like the information I give him is always unreliable.
This morning, I emailed Laurent saying "Surely, the sample will be delivered to you tomorrow. So have a relaxing night instead of staying up late waiting for my email." because Il-woong said that to me. Again, he told me that it might be hard. It is so frustrating that I should sound like a liar to my client.
Il-woong has very laid-back and tolerant personality and gets along with me really well. He tries to help me a lot without showing any frustration in many difficult situations I have to confront. But I can't help feeling annoyed at him at the moment.

These days I realize that my work is all about communication.
I am in between my clients and the people at the R&D, Q/C and manufacture department.
It's all about how to deliver each part's message/request effectively and not causing any misunderstanding in between two parts.
Without much knowledge about medical/ electronics/ engineering information and this industry, what I do now can be such a simple job which consists of translating and acting as a middle-man. So was my job at Korea EnE. Aside from the knowledge I should have, the most important factor to be more prosfessional in my job seems like people management. That's part of the reasons why I am reading the book "It's all politics.". I wanna improve myself in every skill required for my job faster. Yes, MUCH FASTER. I am so lazy and slow...

My desk

Everybody left the office. I was waiting for Frank's call to reply to an urgent email from my Canadian account. Frank had to work even at the Singapore airport where he was having a layover for 6 hours to go to Bangalore. After sending an email, I decided to stay in the office a little longer and do things that I can do only when I am alone in the office.:)
I listened to a song called "Gallery" sung by Mario Vasquez which is my favorite song these days. Also I took some photos of the office. Should have made my desk look tidier. My desk is facing Frank's and between Sunny's and Mr.Kim's.

Insanity

Last friday, some of my coworkers went out for a drink. Of course I didn't want to and I had a good excuse that I had to go to school after work. I walked around Guro area with Helen as we had some time before the class. The class began and I was having a good time in it. Then my phone rang and it was Sunny calling me. I texted her and said "I am in the class right now.". After that, she phoned me a couple of more times. But I couldn't answer the phone anyway because I was in the middle of the class. Actually, we had a 5 minute break between the classes but I didn't call her back because I knew what she was gonna say. After the class, I was heading to the subway station with Helen feeling wonderful and Sunny called me again and I answered. She didn't say that she wanted me to come because she knew that I didn't like drinking but she sounded like she wanted me to join them instead of going home. She hung up the phone and I sighed with relief. Then she called me again and said "Why don't you come?". How could I not have gone when a senior like her called me several times? Besides she is the closest to me out of all my coworkers. I said bye to Helen and was walking to the pub where Sunny, Changjoon and Mr.Kim were. On the way, I kept muttering to myself "Why do I have to go? Why do they want me to come? Why do I have to drink? Why, Why, Why!!!". I saw some drunken people lying in the street and talking trash. Nothing could look more pathetic.
Finally I got to the pub. Thank god it was not one of those smelly restaurants although Mr.Kim and Changjoon smoked non-stop there. The crazy behavior of Mr. Kim started from then on. He told me to order something for myself and I was going to order a pineapple juice. He shouted at me saying "What are you doing?" and told me to order 3 bottles of Budwiser with ice in a bucket, which would definitely sound crazy. Of course, the puzzled-looking waiter said "No, beer can't be served like that.". Mr.Kim poured beer into my glass and wanted to do the love-shot which means that two people drink with their arms folded and with their faces close to each other's. I did it without any other choice saying to myself "Why do I have to do this with this drunken married guy? Please shut up and go away.". It was so yucky. Mr.Kim kept swearing and saying insane things like "We should have a new female worker who can drink very well and play very well.", "If Frank were not the general manger, I would have made you guys change the way you work. Don't say you are working in the sales department. You should drink more and know how to entertain people more. That's the way I've worked." Then he hit the table very hard saying like "Get a grip.". I thought I was gonna be hit and moved over a little bit with surprise. He must have had difficult times selling things at hospitals, which must be an extremely stressful job as people say dealing with doctors is one of the dirtiest things. But that's what he does and we have what we should do. He is in domestic sales and it's different. It will require lots of drinking and flatteries. But that's what he chose to do, anyway.
After the crazy night, I suffered on the fresh Saturday morning. Not physically, but mentally. I couldn't get Mr.Kim's drunken face out of my head. I kept thinking about the night without my will. Even though I always wake up feeling great and relaxed on Saturday mornings, that morning I felt awful even when I was asleep and about to wake.
Working with these people who love drinking so much seems to make me hate drinking more.

Talked about Mr.Kim's crazy behavior with Sunny over lunch. She said Mr.Kim always does that and it's just that I haven't seen it before. :o