So I went back to Greendot to work.
Nope, nope I didn’t drop out of school.
It’s the holidays now and I went back to help out as a service crew for a month. Haha! Speaking of which, it’s already the 3rd week of the term break. Where did all the time go?
Anyway I wanted to utilise the break to earn some money to pay my school fees, even though I applied for scholarship under Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine and received some good news. (Ok I have a better excuse than this.)
The reason why I chose to work on-the ground is partly to re-integrate myself back into society after being buried in books for a few months, and also to accustom myself in dealing with all sorts of people – customers and colleagues alike – because I will probably end up in a similar situation, if not worse, should I become a physician.
Initially I was supposed to go to ORP but due to some manpower changes, I ended up at vivo with shorter working hours. I suppose that’s a blessing in disguise because I can spend my free time revising 诊断 and vivo is 2 stops away from home.
It felt a little different coming back under another identity. I do my job and leave, without the need to worry about sales targets, attracting customers and all things social media. But then again the job has its own challenges altogether. For one, even though my shift is only 6 hours long with a 5 day work week, I couldn’t stand for long. For a few days I felt a weird, twisted sensation in my left ankle while walking. 不通则痛, you know. It only felt better when I applied the 黄道益活络油. Obvious signs of ageing.
Some days I was assigned as the Cai Png Aunty. The difficulty was not about serving rice to customers during peak hours, but on washing a lot of things – scoops, hot metal displays, cups, the bento warmer etc in record time during closing. (I just can’t touch hot objects. Maybe my skin is too delicate.) Even the cashier now has to serve drinks and dessert with the customer still in queue, when it used to be the job of another person.
I remember when I was still on the ground at PLS, I broke down a few times. The worst one being the time I was assigned to the bento station. The amount of washing was insane and my back was aching from being hunched over the sink #heightproblems. But now I can’t throw a tantrum because…it’s just immature. Yikes.
Other than that, it felt quite nice to be able to catch up with my ex-colleagues and knowing new people alike. Whenever I hear of them mention any medical issues, or being interested in stuff like acupuncture and moxibustion, it makes me even more determined to 学好医术 so that I can do something to help them with their existing conditions.
Food wise, I can’t really say that I missed the food because I have been eating them as long as I can remember. Truth be told, I was especially sick of the Lion Mane Mushroom (Sorry in advance if you are a greendot customer and happen to be reading this). As part of our Biochem module we had to write a research assignment based on Chinese Medicine and biochemistry. I decided to pick on Lion Mane Mushrooms because I was quite intrigued by its medicinal properties. The paper ended up amounting to 5000++ words (in Chinese, for your information) and I felt so sick of that bloody mushroom after that. Some days I take a few morsels of it for my meals, but my stomach is protesting.
Fast forward to today- today is 十五 so it’s Vegetarian Day. The only time I stopped to have a proper break was at the end of my shift. The customers kept streaming in, I was counting money, keying in orders as fast as I could, and trying my best not to lose my temper and my patience. I was so knocked out by the time I got home and slept on the sofa. Yes my battery was running low even thought it was only a short 6 hours. I was quite amazed with how I managed to survive 10 – 12 hour shifts in the past with a 6 day work week. Is it I 气虚 or 肾精亏虚? Or are priorities different now?
Okay I will end off here and leave you with this:
The real MVP
SuperRandomWorld 