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springday-aus · 3 years

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Hockey Player!AU with Mark

moodboard link

Group: NCT

Member: Mark Lee

Genre: fluff, romance

Additionally: college!au

Type: Bulletpoint AU

Word Count: approx. 2.3k

→ Inspired by NCT U’s 90s Love!

I’m gonna be completely honest: I don’t know shit about hockey so apologizes in advance

Mark is a left-winger for the team

he plays for his university’s team and they’re actually pretty good

within the three-ish years that he’s been on the team, they’ve won a couple of championships

it’s not really hard considering that Mark takes everything too seriously

(at least that’s what Donghyuk says during practice all the time)

Johnny somewhere: “okay Mark”

Yuta: “let’s not overreact Mark”

Taeyong: “leave my son alone”

Mark: “I’m a grown adult…”

Taeyong: “shhh”

since he used to play for his team back in hometown, he naturally joined the university’s team

he was a natural and everyone easily took a liking to him

especially since now they have someone to make fun of constantly

by they, I literally mean just Donghyuk

I’m just kidding—it’s all in good fun because it just shows how close they are

Mark is just that one college kid that’s still cute even when he’s not a freshman anymore

the other team members still treat him like the youngest even though YangYang and Sungchan are like

👁👄👁 hello ?

speaking of which, their teamwork is incredible and it shows through their games

and, on the rare occasions that they don’t win, they still have dinner together afterwards

well, it’s less of dinner and more of drinks and strategizing what went wrong—which are kind of depressing but it’s fine

at least that’s what Sicheng says as captain, but it sounds like denial

anyways, even though Ten is the co-captain, they all work to make their play plan together

they all contribute ideas, especially since they’ve been in the positions they’ve been in for, like, ever

anyways

again, Mark is like really good

so you know he got that bombass scholarship

and that’s what really pushes him to do well bc let’s be real, college is e x p e n s i v e

he also likes ice skating in general because the cold reminds him of home

so he’s one of those hockey players that also likes figures skaters and it’s funny because he gets so many weird looks from the others

(altho, Jeno goes with him sometimes bc he’s nice)

back to what I was saying tho: Mark is really good

despite his personality, he’s a bit more aggressive on the ice—considering he’s a forward

Donghyuk, the right-winger: he makes sense

there’s the passive aggressive-ness

Mark? who knew he had some strength to him when it’s actually applied

seriously, have you seen his thighs?

speaking of which, the team serves a lot of looks

which means a lot of speculators that show up to the games

which means lots of fans

people typically come for the looks, but then stay for the games bc the team is very underrated

they actually win games and everything but like

advertising for the team? nonexistent

@stupid college funding distributions that focus on mediocre sports like football

so, where do you fall into the mix? you’re an og stan

you’ve been in the stands since you entered university

it didn’t even have anything to do with the members (altho, it is nice to have some eye-candy)

you just……… like hockey

even if you don’t understand much about it

it’s just… interesting to watch

so, whenever the season rolls around, you go to the games

but to say over the years that you didn’t develop a particular attachment to our boy Mark…… is an absolute lie

so, do you have a crush on Mark?

yes

but also like

who doesn’t have a crush on Mark

this man is literally so talented and nice and adorable and he just makes you want to take care of him all the time and ugh

one of your friends went to a game with you and literally was just like “oh he’s cute”

You: “we know”

he’s def one of those guys who everyone has or has had a crush on at some point

and you are no different

the thing is that you are fine with not ever confessing because you’re happy with just being on the sidelines because you’ve. literally. just been on the sidelines…

the idea of confessing feels ridiculous bc realistically, what would you mean to some guy that literally e v e r y person has a crush on?

the thing is though is that Mark knows you

at least, he knows of your presence

if he didn’t, it would be embarrassing considering that you come to every game - he’s got loyalty unless some people

Ten: “who?”

Mark: “dude”

Donghyuk: “is this another one of your imaginary friends?”

Mark: “I TOLD YOU THAT IN CONFIDENCE”

jkjk , they all kind of know you, considering you’re one of the more consistent faces since they’ve been playing in these games (primarily the home ones bc free tickets for students but still)

you also don’t paint your face or anything—you just show up in your university sweatshirt with a couple of those foam light up sticks or something

again, not that wild like signs with his face or anything

you’re just…. a spectator

but yeah, Mark knows of you as a loyal fan ?

who also is kind of cute when you’re cheering for them

I want to emphasize that you have gone to, like, nearly every game, but the main ones you’ve *always* have gone to are the home games bc they’re more convenient

or the final games bc hello

they’re the finals, why the fuck would you miss the finals

I emphasize this because, when you’ve suddenly gone down with the flu, you literally cannot make it to the finals championship game

you thought: no one was gonna notice your absence anyways

haha, you thought

anyways

your friends figured you were sick from the beginning and were like, my friend, it’s flu season, stay away from me and pls stay at home

(wash your hands kids, it’s still covid season)

so you didn’t go and stayed in and binged watched iCarly or something

meanwhile, during the game, Mark was like

where... where are you???

so homeboy is highkey distracted and lowkey worried bc did you die???

(you were dying bc of your clogged nostrils, but otherwise, no)

they somehow managed to win by a couple of points so it was kind of fine

but the teasing was increased by all of Mark’s friends

i.e. Johnny, Donghyuk, Jaehyun, and everyone else

come on, it’s so easy to make fun of him

but like he doesn’t care about any of it bc he was worried about you

which got him thinking

why is he worried about someone whose name he doesn’t even know? is there something more? why is there something more? he literally doesn’t know you? except that you come to the games and you’re really cute cheering him on? what is this?

you know, ✨just Mark things✨

this bothered him for quite a bit more than he liked to admit

and it’s about a couple of days later

things are normal and you don’t feel like everything is dripping out of your nose

until you’re walking through campus from your class

and there’s some footsteps running from behind you that makes you coil up into a semi-standing ball bc you thought a bunch of frat boys were just excited or some shit

but then the footsteps stop at you and you’re standing there, wide-eyed

in front of an out of breath Mark

he was walking out of his class with Jaemin and he spotted you from across the quad

and immediately ran to you

Jaemin: I was talking but okay

this isn’t about you Jaemin

anyways

Mark is in front of you, panting and you’re just like sir?

You: “how are you out of breath? aren’t you an athlete?”

Mark: “oh my God, you’re just like Donghyuk”

you give him a bit of time (and some water bc he seemed like he needed it)

and once he’s caught his breath, he stands up and blurts it out

Mark: “what happened to you during the championship?”

You: “....................... what?”

seeing you blink at him confused, he can feel his ears reddening when he’s realized the situation he’s put himself into

Mark: “um, I just”

Mark: “I noticed that you weren’t at the game”

You: still confused bc how does he know about you

You: “huh?”

Mark: oh my God this is the wrong person, want to die

Mark: “you know what, I have the wrong person, I’m just gonna bounce I am so sorry—”

he starts backing up, but you aren’t letting him escape

You: “whoawhoawhoawhoawhoa, hold up hold up”

You: “I didn’t even know that you knew that I knew you”

You: “wait, did you run here just to ask me that?”

Mark is full on flushed at this point bc of all the questions and realizations and it’s all crashing down on him all too soon

and now you have this mischievous look in your eyes that remind him of Ten when he’s clowning Doyoung and he feels like he’s made a mistake

a good mistake but still a mistake

You: “is it?”

Mark: “well, you like, show up to all of our games and you didn’t go to the finals so I didn’t know if anything happened”

You: “oh, I got sick and I figured I shouldn’t be going into giant crowds while having my insides die internally”

You: “but, I did hear from my friends, congrats btw”

Mark: “thanks”

Mark: “are you feeling better tho?”

You: “yeah, but like, my throat is still kind of shitty”

Mark: “oh, if you want, I have a couple of friends who might be able to cook something up for your throat”

Mark: “I’d offer to make something, but Kun doesn’t let me in the kitchen anymore after finding out about the egg incident”

You: “the egg incident?”

Mark: “I can’t cook, like. at all.”

You: “I think I’m good, I was just gonna go get some tea to make it less scratchy or something”

Mark: “I can walk you?”

You: “sure”

so you two go to a cafe or something for you to get some warm tea and you two end up talking and you get to know each other a bit

and then you end up trading numbers and you make some time together

since Mark doesn’t have to go to practice until the next season, his time has opened up considerably

sometimes you study together

other times, you go check out some other places nearby campus

(eventually, you did get to try Taeyong, Jaehyun, and Kun’s food, to which there was no turning back at that point bc they make the best kind of food—free)

you’re basically dating at this point and his friends know you as his significant other so

Chenle: “is (Y/N) gonna be here?”

Mark: “no? it’s our movie night”

Donghyuk: “aren’t you dating tho?”

Mark: “what”

he told you he took it casually and cool, but considering how red his ears were getting when he told you………………. cute

Mark: “c-can you believe they thought we were dating?”

You: “is that not what we’re doing?”

Mark: “what?”

you both established your relationship after that and Mark got a lot more shy and it’s super adorable bc it makes you wanna take care of him and ugh

he’s precious okay

also cut to him trying to ask the other guys for advice, but then he gets embarrassed as Johnny and Ten tries to educate him about love

or how Lucas gives him cheesy lines to use on you

these boys are having a field day and Xiaojun and Doyoung have never felt more at peace

anyways

def the nervous type that he can’t even hold your hand and keeps asking if it’s okay

so you’re the top of this relationship bc he’s a shy lil boy

after a bit tho, he gets more comfortable and it’s great

he’ll get teased often right? when it happens in front of you, he just runs to you with a whine of your name and buries his face into your neck

and you end up yelling at someone

it’s cute tho

bc they def see you both as an adorable couple

when the hockey season starts rolling around again, you def spend more time at the practices—whether you’re there to watch, do your homework, or just help motivate him to play better

you started dressing up more too, especially since he gave you his jersey so you started wearing them to the games (and also face paint bc Jungwoo had some extra for an unknown reason)

and you make Mark Lee signs and it’s super cute

Sicheng also invites you to the afterparty dinners bc why not

also, remember that thing I said about watching figure skaters?

you two watch the Olympics for that and it’s like tradition now for you two to settle in front of the tv with snacks and watch them skate

so, since he’s an athlete, he has to be careful with his body bc then like scholarship will go poof

that means some of your dates might be physically limited

like he’ll go mini-golfing with you, but he can’t go to like self-defense classes with you

he’ll go to support you but if his foot gets busted, his coach and the rest of the team will be on his ass and he feels a bit bad about it but like you understand

considering that you absolutely refuse to get on the ice bc hockey is hard people

speaking of hockey, you told Mark he’s hot when he plays and he was FLUSHED

bc like the look in his eyes and the way he carries himself…. reminds you of when you’re doing some more………...steamy activities

anyways, stan Mark Lee

he’s a sweetheart who works so hard and you’re there to provide him with lots of love

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astormyjet · 3 years

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Winter of 2018 - Summer of 2021 TIME FILES WHEN YOU’RE IN YOUR 20s!!!!

OH BOY. It’s been three years (or more) since I updated this. “Time is a weird soup!” to quote a fave. I guess I quit tumblr around the time there was a purge of content and creators and a smack down on a lot of the fandom communities. Tumblr has always been something of a crapshow though so I’ve been more productive with my time than I was in some ways, but I’ve also found other ways to waste my time. *cough twitter/netflix/youtube/MTGArena cough*.

General Life Achievements since 2018 -JLPT N3 GET in 2019! -Blackbelt GET in 2018! -TESOL 120 Hour and BE 50 Hour Cert from online provider GET in 2021 -STUDENT LOAN BANISHED (Thank you grandparents) -Survived Apartment flooding in early 2020. -Mystery anxiety related illness and chronic pain in my left leg from early 2020 - Present. -A mythical 6th and 7th year on the JET Programme. -Started posting on Instagram a lot more about my wanderings around Matsuyama/Uwajima. Mainly old buildings and stray cats. @astormyknight -Surviving so far in Japan with old rona-chan.

2018 was rough. I was given an additional school in the first semester (March to July) as we had someone find a better job. I enjoyed it, but it was a bit of a rough go especially when I was transferred that August after three fantastic years at Tsubaki JHS and ES and only a semester there. I legit went through the five stages of grief - which I think is another reason I stopped blogging. I was given my current base school along with four other schools. Going from 2(3) to 5 schools was a bit of an adjustment. I still feel a bit spread out.

That said, I keep running into teachers and students who were at the Tsubaki’s. The teachers shuffle around every April, so it's always a lottery with which new faces are going to be old friends (or enemies…). A couple of kids moved and transferred into my current schools from Tsubaki too. So I have one kid I can say I've been teaching for 6 out of the 7 years I've been here!

One of the kids who was in JHS 3rd grade when I first got here (in 2015!) hangs out around one of my favorite cafes, so I got chatting with him recently. He's in his second year of nursing school - his class nearly broke me in the first year, it was really a trial by fire with those kids. I was 22 then, and he’s 20 now, so it was interesting chatting to him about that first year of teaching. His younger sister was one of my favorite students too, she was in the group of kids that graduated in the March of 2018, the year group that went through Tsubaki JHS with me - they’re newly minted University students now!

This Thursday morning when I was cycling in to work, a kid who was 2nd year JHS when I left (so 2nd or 3rd year JHS now) pulled up with their Mum in a van and got their mamachari out of the back to bike to school. The franticness of it all was hilarious. Their Mum legit sat on the horn until I pulled over. I was so happy to run into this kid, even at social distance and both of us late to work/school - because we both remembered each other and as they were going around the corners they were yelling each time they turned and humming the old elementary school directions chant and pelting me with questions about what I’ve been up to.

I've had so many students and schools now, that everything is kind of running into a blur. I remember flashes of kids faces and voices, random memories of in class or out of class shenanigans out of the blue. Also, I now, more than ever, have issues remembering kids' names, but I still know their faces (even with their masks), whose homeroom class they were in, who their friends were and which club they were in. I get random flashbacks to past conversations with them when I see them on the street or we run into each other. I feel bad because the first thing former students ask is ‘Do you remember my name?’ and I always have to be like, ‘Honestly, no, but I remember you did this on x day, x month in x classroom’.

Socially in 2018 -2019 - a few of our friends went home and things shook up a little. Our DnD group changed a bit - one of our players stepped into the role forever DM (THANK YOU RALPH). From memory the newbies were great - some of them just went home at the start of last month and it’s weird not seeing them around (JESS DO YOUR BEST!). I think we only have one or two people left from that rotation. There’s no 6th year ALTs, and only two 5th years.

Aug 2018 - Aug 2019 was the year of Hiura - my mountain school. Dang man, they were so cool. The students of the JHS and the ES combined barely hit 30, so each class was between 3-10 students depending on the grade. It was easier to get to know the kids, their abilities and their goals than it has been for me at other schools. I miss it so bad, being in nature once a week did my country-kid heart so good! The bugs! The frogs! The river! The mountain! The monkeys! The lizards! The dilapidated houses and hidden shrines!!!! The random crabs in the English room...I forgot that there was such a thing as freshwater crabs, and being right next to a river, the invasion wasn’t as out of place as I first thought...

The area is so picturesque and calming. Every week up there was a small adventure (after getting over my motion sickness from the bus ride up). The kids were constantly pranking either myself or the main English teacher. There was always some new weird bug or lizard in a tank to be educated about. There were chickens on the way to the JHS that used to escape from their cardboard box prisons to run riot on the gardens. There were old people to freak out with my youth and foreignness! The kids also got to do a lot of extra classes, sumiyakai (making charcoal the traditional way), planting and maintaining rice paddies, setting up vegetable gardens, raising fireflies, conserving a special breed of fire lily (only found in this particular mountain valley) and another rare flower, wilderness training ect.

I wish I could have stayed there a lot longer but SOMEONE (read...the BoE) decided that schools had to be shuffled again(thank goodness the dude who has it now was able to keep it from the 2021 shuffle, he's the best fit for the school). I had so many good memories from there, I wish I had been more consistent in writing it down. I do have a bunch of photos and videos from there though, so that's nice. The only thing I don’t miss is the bus trip up and down - not only was it motion sickness, there was a healthy dose of fear each ride as the driver brought us perilously close to the edge of the mountain drop…

2019 - 2020 was interesting. With the school I got given instead of the Hirua’s I was roped into more demonstration lessons which was a lot of pressure because I was also involved quite heavily with the JHS observation and training lessons too. They were somewhat rewarding, the third graders are now super smart 5th graders, but the teachers who need to embrace the new curriculum and ways of teaching really haven’t taken on anything from the lessons....

Outside of work as well, I was given the chance, thanks to an ALT buddy of mine, to join in with the local festival. It's been one of the biggest highlights of my time here, and I am gutted it’s been cancelled for the last two years, but I understand the reason…. I was able to travel to Okinawa too during that summer for an international Karate seminar with the Dojo I train with. I met the head of the style I currently practice and a bunch of people from around the world. I also got to see Shuri castle before it burned down. So that was a stroke of luck. One of the places I want to go when/if we get out of this pandemic is Okinawa. I want to see more of those Islands so bad. Just before the whole pandemic thing too - I managed to see the Rugby World Cup, a Canada vs NZ match, I even ran into Tana Umanga in Oita city!!!

2019 - 2020 was supposed to be my last year on JET, so I was frantically Job hunting. I went to the Career Fair in Osaka in early Feb/Late January 2020. I applied and got interviewed for a position in Sendai in early Jan 2020. In the end though - the Rona hit. We started hearing whispers of it around the end of 2019, then the cruise boats happened, and then Japan refused to cancel the Olympics...every holiday season there is a new wave of infections, my nurse friends in Tokyo are struggling....my teacher friends in more populous areas of Japan are struggling…

JET couldn't get new ALTs for 2020-2021, I took the extra year when it was eventually offered, as the one job I had managed to get a serious offer for was hesitating because with the rona setting in, things were uncertain. There was a lot of time spent adjusting to the new rules surrounding what we could do in class with the kids as well as textbook change. Schools shut on and off during the spring months.

I also got a reminder of my mortality mid May with an unrelated illness which is still smacking me around a bit - stress/age, it does things to the human body it has no right to. It's only been in the last three months I’ve been able to exercise like I used to, I’ve put on a bunch of weight I can't shrug off (one part medication, another part diet) My relationship with food needs to change, and I really need a kitchen that allows me for more than one pan meals. I also need to figure out what to do with a left leg that is in constant pain from the knee down and a heart that misses beats when stressed out (mentally and physically…).

My apartment also got flooded by the guy upstairs at one point, I spent most of late February/early March living in a hotel while my walls and floor got redone - I think this was one of the things that really stressed me out and kicked my anxiety right up a notch, it was right when things were getting REALLY bad with rona-chan in Hokkaido and schools were shutting down here as it was filtering into the prefecture and so Japan closed schools for the first time…

Classes in covid times have been weird. We’ve been wearing facemasks full time since the early stages of the pandemic (March 2020) - so I admit that I get a bit pissed off seeing both Americans and New Zealanders back home bitching about just having to start wearing them full time in public. I have asthma and have been suffering with the things on during the 30*C plus with high 90s humidity summers. Teachers were offered vaccines late July 2021, just days before the Olympics were open - and I finished my two shots in the middle of August. But the overall distribution and take up of the jab has been slow. As mentioned above, we can't play a lot of the games we used to play with kids in classes anymore, and a lot of the activities outlined in the textbook curriculum need to be adjusted too, so we’ve had to be creative. We use hand sanitizer a lot more too. One of the things I miss the most though, is eating lunch with the kids.

Socially from summer 2020 - now 2021 we played a lot of DnD and board games, both online and in person when we could. There were no new ALTs again for the 2021-2022 JET year, and those of us who were in 6th year were offered a 7th. Four out of six of us took it. As a whole we’re down from a peak of 38 ALTs for Junior High and Elementary school to 22 for now. We hopefully will get a new person at the end of September, and 4 more in November. Which will bring us to 27. This has led to ANOTHER round of school shuffles.

Summer vacation has been weird the last two years. With rona-chan, we haven’t really been able to travel. All the summer festivals (all the Autumn and Winter ones too!) have been cancelled, so the changing of seasons just feels, wrong. I dunno. There is so much we all miss from pre-rona-chan, and so much that doesn’t happen that makes this just feel like one long long unending year of sadness, coldness, raininess, unbearable heat and repeat. I’m tired. Time is going so fast, but so.dang.slow.

I lost my favorite school (AGAIN GDI!!!) and gained the school I taught a semester at in 2019....I had my first day there on Wednesday. Schools actually started back on September 1st so there was some drama as the BoE didn’t communicate fast enough about our school changes. We legit got told on the 27th of August (on a Friday) our schools were changing effective September 1st, but somehow some of our schools found out on the Monday 30th August. In July we were told we would be changing schools at the end of September, so.a lot of ALTs and schools were left short changed, not having opportunities to say goodbye to co-workers or students/having their planning for the semester more or less thrown out the window too. I love my job. I really dislike the way the BoE treats us, the Japanese assistant language teachers and our schools.

The new school I have is used to having an ALT there twice a week, who plans all the lessons and executes them. I’m at three elementary schools. I'm only at each once a week, I want to plan, but being that I miss an entire lesson in between visits, it's going to be difficult to do so. Not impossible, but being that I'm already doing it for two other schools, who are at two different places in the textbook ah…….. From what I have talked to my new supervisor about though, it sounds like the teachers have taken on more of the lesson planning and I'll be able to contribute ideas when I'm there. I just want to and wish I could do more without being confused all the time. (This is all usually done in my second language too, not in English so extra levels of confusion and miscommunication abound).

I feel like this at my JHS too a lot of the time. I want to contribute more, but even with constant communication with my main in school supervisor (who is a badass and pretty much on the same page about everything with me) I still feel about as useful as tits on a bull. Especially now that classes have been cancelled and or shortened, there's less time to do stuff. Any game or activity I plan is usually cut in favor of making up time in the textbook. When I'm in class, I'm back to being a tape recorder, the fun police and general nuisance.　

Also in the last week...my two of my schools were shut due to students testing positive for the rona. This is the second time my schools have had a scare in the last 8 months. And by shut, I mean the students were all at home, but the teachers all had to come into the office. Because why not I guess….. I mean, the cases increasing is really not unexpected with the amount of people who were travelling over obon and the increase of cases due to the Olympics/Japan being slow on vaccinating/delta being the dominant strain/Japan's leaders doing relatively little except asking shops and restaurants to limit people coming in at one time and closing before 8pm. I know my schools weren't the only one shut either - but still High Schools were having their sports days this week. I kept on seeing groups of kids hanging in the park after, so that was a little bit nerve wracking.

It's just frustrating - we’ve been on half days to “minimize the risk of infection” for kids and teachers, as if only being at school from 8am through to 1pm is going to reduce the risk. My schools have only just started testing out Microsoft teams and Zoom lesson equipment. Thankfully our school’s run in this time was contained real quick, the family was super good about informing us when they got their results back, and the fact they needed to be tested. The homeroom teacher and the students from the same class were the only ones tested, and they all came back clear, which was nice. But the information came back so SLOW.

I’m a little irritated because I found out on Wednesday night what was going on, and even if I am vaccinated, I am super worried that I will end up being the covid monkey due to being at different schools three days out of five. I think other than being worried that I will catch it myself and get real sick, my biggest fear is that I will be protected from bad symptoms from the vaccine, but still be able to pass it onto some of my more vulnerable friends and students. The whole thing is a mess.

Other than Covid and BoE drama, life is good. I’ve had a couple of other big changes - both fantastic and not so great, but yeah. I have my health (and health insurance!) for now. I have a job, for now. I have a sense of existential dread for the next 12 months, but we’ll see where we end up. Life post JET is going to be way less cushy and I am TERRIFIED. I mean, I have a BA in Eng/Ling and no idea what to do with it…..because I am NOT suited for academia.

TLDR: Love my job. Don’t like the system. What is life? Future scary.

#life on JET #blog post #life in Japan #jet programme #jet program

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passionate-hedgehog · 4 years

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Sweatshirt

Summary: Y/n gained more than an office when she was promoted to a main writer for Mythical Entertainment.But while she’s celebrating the new aspects of her job, her boyfriend seems to be crumbling.

Pairing: Damien Haas x Reader

Word count: 4584

Warnings: None

A/N: When I wrote this, I was really just wanting to write a story about how a hoodie exposed a Damien x Reader relationship and then I added some angst because...entertainment, ya know? But at the time I’m posting this fic, I’ve had gone through almost losing my job because of state health mandates due to COVID. I found out that my restaurant thoroughly respects my work ethic and my schedule will remained unchanged. But working an entire shift unsure if I’ll be returning...or if I’ll see any of my coworkers that I’ve come to know as family ever again? I was able to relate to this a lot more than I thought I would. I’m not downplaying anyone that goes through uncertain things, especially during 2020. But I hope it can help a little bit.

Y/n’s morning had been one for the books. She ran into her boyfriend’s former boss, Ian Hecox, at her favorite coffee shop while wearing a hoodie she DEFINITELY wasn’t meant to be sporting. The item had been a part of an unreleased merch line for SMOSH. They had been planning on announcing it the week after Defy, SMOSH’s parent company, had unfortunately shut down. Select cast and crew had been gifted with the limited stock, and Y/n had discovered it in her boyfriend’s closet just minutes before she ran out the door to get to the coffee shop.

Ian, a man she had yet to be introduced to before that morning, had been polite but concerned about how she had the item in the first place. She wanted to give the simple answer that her boyfriend of four months, Damien Haas, didn’t know she took it from his closet that morning. But Damien being in a relationship hadn’t been general knowledge to many people yet, and she didn’t want to put him in that position. He had been trying to work past his SMOSH days and focusing on future endeavors. She didn’t want to reconnect dots that he had worked so hard to disconnect. After reassuring the man that she did not, in fact, legitimately steal it and that the owner never wore it out in public, she apologized for wearing it and promised to remove it once she got to her destination.

When Y/n made it to work, she was greeted with the two head-writing team members sporting nearly creepy smiles aimed at her. She narrowed her eyes at them and immediately grew suspicious. The writers, Nick and Ellie, pulled her down the hallway towards the various offices and stopped in front of a single closed door. Ellie stood off to the side of the door but grasped at the handle.

“Congrats on your promotion!” She winked and pushed the door open, letting Y/n look thoroughly into the room.

“Is this...do I have my own… what?!” Y/n looked between Ellie and the room. “What??”

“Rhett and Link, and the rest of us, agreed that since you’ve been promoted to a main writer position AND you’ve been handling a lot of other projects that go beyond your job description, you should have the space fitting for it. They have a new investment that you’ll be working with.” Ellie moved to stand by her fellow head writer, Nick.

“Trust us. You’ll need this space. You’re about to have your hands full.” Was all Nick supplied, as cryptic as it was. “There’s a meeting in 20 minutes. You won’t have to worry about being late now that you’re so close to the main offices. See you in a few!”

The duo walked away and left Y/n to take in what happened entirely.

“My own office?” She wondered as she finally took her first steps into her own space. There was a desk, a chair, the same kind of desktop that is used in the other offices, and room for her personal touch. She had dreamt of her own office, and she finally had it. Y/n took out her phone and noted she had enough time to grab her meeting materials from her bag, and decided to make it to the meeting early.

-------------------------

The meeting had left the writer confused. Mythical had purchased SMOSH, her boyfriend’s former employer. It was a happy thing. She knew it was a happy thing. Damien had walked her down memory lane when Defy had shut down, and he found himself at home more than he wanted to be. It had been therapeutic for him. But he eventually decided to leave those memories there in the past. And now she was hit with the dilemma of whether or not she should tell him. Would she even be allowed to tell him?

“Hey, Babe!” Damien’s voice called from the doorway.

Y/n looked up from her desktop, all inner turmoil disappearing when she saw her boyfriend’s smiling face. “Hey! How’d you find me?”

“Nick walked me down here.” The brunette let himself into the office and sat in the chair across from his girlfriend. “This is so cool. You didn’t tell me you were getting an office. We could have gone to Target and grabbed some cute things.”

“It was a surprise. I didn’t know about it until I got here this morning. Oh! Speaking of!” The woman grabbed her bag and shot an apologetic look. “I might have made a bad decision that I definitely need to apologize for.”

Damien cocked his head in confusion, similar to that of a puppy.

Y/n pulled out the black and blue hoodie from her bag and passed it over to her boyfriend. “I took this on my way out. I was in a hurry and didn’t quite look to see what it was I had put on. Eventually, I realized what I was wearing in public, and I put it in my bag. I’m sorry, Babe.”

Damien’s eyes met the fabric, and he shrugged. “Eh, it’s fine. You can just keep it, actually. I already have so many hoodies and shirts from...you can just have itz. I bet it looks better on you anyway. I don’t need it.”

Y/n copied Damien’s confused look from earlier. “Dames, this is your hoodie. YOUR hoodie. You designed this, and it’s your only copy of it. I can’t take it, Babe. How about I throw it in the wash when we get home, and I’ll just put it back where I got it from?”

Damien shook his head. “No, that’s okay. Just...consider it a gift, I guess. I don’t need it. Take it.”

“Dames-.” Y/n began.

“I think I’ll meet you in the car. I have some calls to make for a few auditions. Take your time, Y/n.” Damien got up from his seat, immediately breaking eye-contact with his girlfriend.

After the voice-over actor left the office, Y/n let out a sigh and leaned as far back in her chair as she could, her head dangling off the headrest. She debated with herself for a few moments on whether they should talk out what was definitely him pushing unresolved feelings into a box. She decided that there was enough excitement for that day, proceeded to pack her things, and made her way to her boyfriend’s car.

--------------------

A few weeks later, Y/n found herself in a private meeting with her bosses Rhett and Link. After the news that Mythical had purchased SMOSH, Y/n had found out that she would work as a main writer for Mythical and that she would also help out with minimal production work at SMOSH while they built their team back up. The SMOSH gig wouldn’t be long-term, but it was definitely something different than what she knew. The writer had assisted with some production work on GMM during her career, so the production aspect itself wasn’t unfamiliar to her. Working for two different channels? That would be tricky.

It was not as tricky as treading the waters with Damien once he finally found out that SMOSH was coming back to life, which would be difficult since Y/n would be the liaison between SMOSH and Mythical for the foreseeable future. She would be working with Ian, going to board meetings, working in the SMOSH half of the building, and helping create a staff for SMOSH. Y/n was always up for a challenge, a chance to expand her horizons in her career. She just hoped that it wouldn’t damage the relationship she worked hard to build with her partner.

“Tomorrow is your meeting with Ian. We’ll give you the black card to charge the lunch to. He didn’t have an exact number of how many people would be showing up, but it should be fine.” Rhett handed the credit card to her. “The cafe you picked didn’t seem too pricey, so we’re not worried. Just make sure not to lose the card.”

Link leaned forward in the chair he was occupying, folding his arms on to the desk in front of him. “Have you been in contact with him yet? Introduce yourself and all of that?”

“Uh…” Y/n glossed over the fact that she had, in fact, already met Ian in person almost a month ago on accident. “Yeah...We already discussed a little bit about tomorrow. Going over what he’ll be telling his team and things of that sort. He mentioned that he had been keeping it under wraps from them. But I’m ready for it. I can’t imagine that happening to Mythical. I’d be devastated. I’m very thankful that you guys run your own ship.”

Rhett gave a shrug and a short “Eh, we try.” that caused Link to give a quick laugh.

--------------------

The morning of the meeting with Ian felt...off... to Y/n. When she woke up, Damien had already vacated the bed. She thought that maybe he had decided to go to the meeting that he had no idea she would be at. Perhaps she could subtly slip it in that she’d be there and they could take the same car. It took her a few minutes of searching the apartment to realize that her partner wasn’t even home. She didn’t know where he was. She only hoped that he would be at the cafe later. Y/n shook it off and began to get ready. Today was going to be nerve-wracking enough without him there.

Y/n made it to the cafe ten minutes before the determined meeting time. She found Ian easily and approached him with her head held high and an incredibly pleasant smile plastered to her face.

“Ian?” She asked as she approached his chair. He turned to her and watched the lightbulb go off in his head. “I’m Y/f/n Y/l/n from Mythical! And now, SMOSH...kinda.”

He stood up and shook her hand. “Hey. Nice to officially meet you! Although, I believe we’ve met before…”

Y/n winced and nodded, taking a seat across from him. There were a handful of empty chairs scattered around the table. She didn’t count them but was glad that the lunch meeting had already been approved by her bosses to be charged on the black card.

“Before we get started,” Ian began. “I just want to clarify that I haven’t told anyone what this meeting is about, and I’m still not all too sure who will be making it. A lot of things have been up in the air for so long, I’ve had to learn to just go with the flow.”

“Honestly, same.” Y/n replied as the waitress approached them.

A couple of people approached the table and greeted Ian and took seats by him while Y/n chatted with her usual waitress. The newcomers and Ian gave their drink orders before the server walked away.

“Shayne, Court, I’d like to introduce you to Y/n of Mythical Entertainment. Y/n/, Shayne and Courtney are two of SMOSH’s actors. They were hired in 2016.” Ian introduced.

“It’s really nice to meet you two! I spent the last month watching a lot of SMOSH, and you guys crack me UP! It’s almost impossible for me not to laugh at a video with either of you in it. Or any video, to be honest. Except for the Dominos mukbang. I got a little uncomfortable at the end of that one.” Y/n winced at the end of her introduction.

The three conversed as more people showed up, Keith showing up with Noah and Olivia. Matt Raub could be heard arguing good-naturedly with Sarah Whittle down the sidewalk as they approached. Lastly, Lasercorn and Mari appeared separately but arriving at about the same time. All of the chairs around the table were full except for the one to Y/n’s left. She glanced at it longlingly before giving her full attention to Ian.

“So! Should we order and then talk about why we’re here while we wait for the food?” Y/n suggested.

Ian nodded in agreement, and Y/n made eye contact with their server, pulling her over to the group. Everyone gave their order to the waitress before Y/n gave her own and then proceeded to give the order for Damien, in hopes that he would show up in the end.

“But you can put that last one on our personal tab. I might just end up taking it home. Thanks, Clementine.” Y/n called as the waitress walked away.

Y/n was about to officially start the meeting when her phone went off loudly. She pulled it out of her pocket to send it to voicemail when she saw that it was Damien’s name. “I’m so sorry. I actually need to take this really quickly. Continue your conversations.”

Y/n rose from her seat and walked off a few paces. She answered her call, hoping it would be her boyfriend telling her that he had a meeting he would be late for (the one she was at) and that he wouldn’t be able to pick up lunch that day. What it ended up being, though, was Y/n trying to subtly convince Damien to go to the meeting she knew he had (the same one she was at, but he still didn’t know that part) and failing miserably.

“You know where I am with that, Y/n. I don’t know why you’re pushing it. It was a good few years, but it’s done! I need to figure out what’s next for me. Dwelling on the past isn’t going to fix it.”

Y/n took a deep breath. “Have you even talked to anyone about this meeting? Do you even know what it’s about? Maybe something amazing and wonderful will come out of it!! You won’t know unless you try! And I know you’re building on your VO work, but SMOSH is already here and waiting for you. LITERALLY. WAITING.”

Damien grew quiet on the other end of the line, and Y/n realized she said the wrong thing. “What are you talking about. Y/n? What do you mean by ‘literally waiting’? How would you know anything about SMOSH’s meeting?”

“I just..I don’t...Damien. Please. Coming to this meeting could be what you need, right now.”

“You said coming instead of going. Why would you use ‘coming’ instead of ‘going’?”

“Oh my GOD, can you please stop analyzing what I’m saying for five fucking minutes and just listen to the point I’m trying to make here?!” Y/n noticed she was yelling and apologized before talking quieter and calmer. “Please, I’m begging you. Come to this meeting. They need you here. They’re your family.”

“Family wouldn’t keep info, like this meeting, a secret. Right?”

That caused Y/n to pause. “They...they didn’t tell you about the meeting?”

“They definitely told me. You didn’t, though.”

Y/n realized that she was losing grip with the conversation. “No, wait-Damien, I didn’t-”

“I’ll talk to you later, Y/n. Or not. Who knows, am I right?” Damien ended the call with a beep audible from Y/n’s end.

After taking a few deep breaths and clearing her eyes from any of the tears built up from frustration and legitimate sadness, she collected herself and returned to the table. When she sat down, she noticed all eyes were on her.

“What did Damien have to say?” Ian asked with a sad smile that told her he already knew the answer.

“He uh...he can’t make it. Something came up.” Y/n cleared her throat and took a sip of her diet coke. “Any chance we can just completely ignore what just happened?”

“How do you know, Damien?” The question came from someone on her left.

“I guess not,” She took a bigger sip of her drink. “Damien and I...have been seeing each other. For a few months now.”

The surprised reactions that spread around the whole table proved to Y/n that her boyfriend really didn’t tell anyone about their relationship, including Shayne, whom he called his best friend. Y/n couldn’t imagine not telling someone that important about a relationship that’s lasted as long as it had. But after what went down over the phone, the breaking of trust and the arguing, she thought maybe there was good reason for it. In an attempt to not dwell on what happened, Y/n called on Ian to continue the meeting.

--------------------

Instead of going to her own apartment after the meeting with SMOSH, Y/n decided to take Damien his food in hopes of a peace offering and have a chance to talk everything out. She pulled into the visitor parking of the apartments and took a second to collect herself. She knew her partner was hurting. The signs of his anxiety and personal, private compulsions were showing through when he thought she couldn’t see. She knew he was struggling, but all she wanted to do was fix it. But how? Would he even let her into the apartment?

She knocked on his door and waited for an answer. She knocked again a few minutes later, before taking out her key. Naturally, she’d respect his want for space, but at that moment, she didn’t have it in her. She made her way into the apartment and eventually found him laid out against his headboard, playing his Switch on his bed. He didn’t look up when she walked in or when she sat on the bed.

“I uh...I brought you your order from the cafe. Do you want it now, or should I put it in the fridge?” She asked gently from her spot at his feet.

He clicked the lock button and put the handheld device down. Looking at the bag in his girlfriend’s hands, he gestured for her to hand it to him. She leaned over to give it to him, and he put the paper bag next to his Switch. Without speaking, he nodded his head towards the door, and Y/n picked up his hint.

“Right. You probably don’t want me here right now...uh..”She scratched at her neck, disappointed in herself for thinking that he’d want anything to do with her at the moment. “I’ll just...I gotta grab some of my things from the bathroom first. I want to make sure I give you all the space you need.”

Y/n made to get off the bed when Damien cleared his throat. “No, Y/n. I was stretching my neck. You don’t have to leave.”

The writer turned to face him, pushing what she hoped was a convincing smile on her face. “It’s ok! Really! You deserve some space after what happened. I completely lied to you about today, and that’s gotta feel like trash. I can let you eat in peace for once.”

“Please don’t.” He met her eyes, and she saw sadness there. “I can wait to eat. I just...I really want you to stay. Please?”

She nodded and pulled herself up the bed to lean against the headboard next to him. “Do you want to talk about it? I understand if you don’t. And it’s completely reasonable not to want to tell me about it at all. I am sorry, Dames. I didn’t know how to tell you, so I thought maybe it would go smoothly if you just saw me at the meeting. I figured it’d be easier handling the topic of ‘us,’ too. Which...was weird to do with or without you.”

“Yeah. Shayne had questions for me. But I’m not upset that you told them. I can’t imagine the pressure that put you under. It couldn’t have been easy trying to get around it in the first place.” Damien kissed the top of her head.

Y/n looked him in the eyes and gave a sad smile. “I’m worried about you. You tell me you’re okay and that you’re moving on, but...to me, it doesn’t look like it. To someone on the outside, maybe. But I’ve been with you since before Defy shut down. You haven’t processed it or grieved it. You barely talk to your best friend. It shows a lot that you hadn’t told him about me. Like...yeah, you’re a private person. But you don’t usually hide things from Shayne.”

The actor nodded along with her words. “Yeah, I...I don’t know how to...like I just…”

Y/n noticed he was struggling and held his hand, quietly waiting for him to continue.

“Defy shutting down and SMOSH limiting everything it was doing was hard. When we were as happy as we could get working for Defy, I never thought about ‘what’s after this?’ I didn’t think I’d have to worry about it. It all seemed to be going so well...So when it came, the loss of it all...that’s what happened. All of it was lost. Everything I did, all of the moments, the time...It felt like two years of my pure energy that I was never going to get back. I put everything I am into my life at SMOSH, and it felt like it didn’t matter in the end. So, I moved forward as fast and as hard as I could to outrun the pain I knew was coming. Unfortunately… the running didn’t work, and the pain still came. And I feel like I lost connections with people most important to me along the way.”

“No, Damien… you didn’t lose those connections. Trust me. They miss you. They need you in their lives. Whether it’s through SMOSH or just inviting them over for pizza and video games. Baby, they still love you. I promise.” Y/n sat up straighter and pulled her legs underneath her, letting both knew caps lay against Damien’s outstretched legs. “I can’t give any advice towards the running away from what happened because we both know I’m a little escape artist when conflict arises. But I think this conversation right here is a great way to begin to work through it. But I think it would work better if you talked it through with your best friend that went through the same thing.”

Damien pulled her against him and wrapped his arms around her. “Hmm...maybe. And you’re not that much of an escape artist anymore. You forced your way into my apartment and invited yourself on to my bed. We could have had a huge fight, but you went through with it anyway.”

Y/n looked up at him with her head still on his chest. “Because I love you. And I don’t want you to be sad anymore…”

Damien leaned down and kissed her, gently slipping his hands under her shirt before he pulled away. “You are more than I’ll ever deserve. Thank you for making sure I work out the things that bother me and affect me.”

“I’ll say it again.” She accentuated each of her following words with a poke to his torso. “I. Love. You. Dumb dumb.”

He grabbed her hand and guided her, so she was straddling his lap. “That hoodie you took from me last month, I didn’t get to see you in it. Can I get a peak?”

“Uh...sure? Are you sure, though? You seemed pretty passionate about not ever seeing it again.” Y/n rested her hands at his sides, softly running her thumbs over his shirt as if to comfort him.

“I think...I just didn’t want to think about my last few good memories with the company and everything. But I don’t want to run from it anymore.”

Y/n’s smile lit up her whole face. “Yeah? Then yeah, I can go put it on.”

“But could I convince you to wear it with nothing else on?”

#damien haas x reader #damien haas #smosh fanfiction #just me self-projecting my problems on to damien

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abiteofnat · 3 years

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If you’re reading this, I’m coming back to Chicago, beetch

The non-existent rumors are true. After a brief 10-month exit from the city to soak up the fresh air and social distance-friendly suburbs, I am now returning to Chicago as a single, slightly more anxious version of myself. While I’m still trying to kick some of the anxiety and OCD that COVID-19 pushed from “lifelong tagalongs” to “all-controlling demons”, I feel 97% ready to be back where I feel most myself, and cannot wait to welcome that change. While that 3% still makes me a little uncomfy and hesitant, I’m a believer in pushing your boundaries to allow yourself to grow, and also, I am really sick of suburbs food.

Ha! I joke. I wouldn’t move downtown simply for access to more diverse & higher quality food... or would I? All I know is while there are plenty of gems in the North Shore, I’ve eaten take out from all of them ten times over, and I did not foster my dislike of cooking out of nowhere. My parents do not enjoy cooking, my sister pretends to enjoy cooking, and I will cook if it is 5 ingredients or less. My latest speciality is a toasted bagel with butter, hummus, and EBTB seasoning. Voila. So when it comes to dinner, we are living off of a carousel of suburban favorites, and are losing steam as we are still not comfortable with dining inside (or dining inside in the city, where the fun food is).

All of this to say, it’s exciting to imagine what life is going to be like in a few short weeks. While I’m still extra precautionary, I can’t wait to have my own space downtown, where I can enjoy coffee on my little balcony (!!!) and dream of the days friends can come squeeze into my studio safely while I lay out an entire table of sharable spreads and snacks from Ema (Charred Eggplant Spread is the best one, don’t fight me).

So you may ask, how did you come to this decision to move to the heart of downtown out of seemingly nowhere, you hermit?

It starts with my mom and I having a brief, simultaneous breakdown and coming to the conclusion that we would both feel comfortable doing a staycation downtown, as long as we wore masks, sanitized always, and braved the cold to eat outside. This was big for me! As a person with real OCD, not cute TV show “I have to keep my pens straight” OCD, this would be the most exposure I’d had to a lot of uncontrollable variables since the pandemic started. If you’re thinking, “you get to spend a weekend downtown in a hotel with your mom, shut up”, know that I hear you. I am unbelievably grateful that I’ve gotten this time with my parents, and that we can do a staycation. However, having anxiety comes at a cost, and that cost is blowing everything way the fuck out of proportion instead of being able to rationalize it sometimes. Let’s! Normalize! Having! This! Discussion!

So, we went downtown in early March for a two-night stay, and oh my goodness. The realization that we got to be in a different space, and do different things, and eat different food for a weekend made it feel like a legit vacation, and not like we drove 30 minutes to get there. The view from our room was of Michigan Ave, and hearing the traffic and seeing the people out and about instantly made me feel a sense of peace I wasn’t expecting. I’ve lived downtown for 6 years, but it always shocks me how much the city feels like an extension of me once I’m in it after being away. My mom and I went out for a walk (gentle yet forceful reminder to please wear a mask), then decided to grab dinner while we were out. The plan was to bring it back to the room, but there was a warm spell, and there just happened to be a table for two at Topolobampo on Clark, and suddenly we were sitting on the patio under the lights eating masa quesadillas dipped in a spicy salsa verde. It just happened!!!

Before getting downtown, I was tentatively looking at apartments for the spring. I was looking at Lincoln Park, Old Town, maybe Lakeview, and came across a listing in the Gold Cost that caught my eye. That one was swiped out from under me within days, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the area. Then I discovered another unit that was available, and couldn’t shake it from my mind. Over mushroom tacos I discussed it with my mom, and we decided to go see it. Totally not what I had been planning for in terms of location, but why not?

Once we polished off breakfast the next morning (Eggs Benedict with fried eggs, extra hollandaise) we headed out to see the place. Let me say I have never seen my mom fall in love with a single apartment I’ve lived in, and she was ALL. FOR. IT. Unreal reaction on her part. Once I saw the west-facing views and the incredible natural lighting, I was 100% in as well.

We spent the rest of the weekend wandering the downtown area, enjoying another dinner outside at The Gwen and my mom’s first visit to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery, which was 95% more empty than I’ve ever seen it given we went in a pandemic at 8:30PM. Shit on Starbucks all you want, but that Roastery is an incredible use of space (in non-pandemic times) and the coffee & Princi pastries are really, really good.

When we got back home feeling refreshed and like we had actually gone on a vacation, I jumped into apartment shark mode real fast and signed as many documents as the very kind realtor could send over. One week later, whabaam, I was a Gold Coast girl. Ahem, *lady*. What better way to celebrate than going to Somerset and having the Rapini & Roasted Garlic Flatbread and Wild Mushroom Risotto? No clue. As I sat outside, yet again with my mom, I felt a wave of excitement come over me and realized, this is it. This is the sign and feeling I’ve been waiting for, telling me it’s time to move back to the city and start over. The creamy, herbacious risotto also helped solidify that.

SO. After all of that, the news is I’m moving, and you’re probably wondering why I shared all of this on a blog about food. I meant for this post to be about everywhere I ate during my staycation, but realized quickly we ate at some very basic places - DELICIOUS, but still basic. Oops. Below are all the dishes I had and a rundown of the flavors, textures, etc., however don’t expect to find any new, revolutionary restaurants. Sorry!

1. Topolobampo

This Rick Bayless restaurant has been around forever, and unfortunately, you can tell by the interior. We’ve eaten here as a family a couple of times before, but never had a noteworthy experience. I can confirm that in a pinch, the patio covered in fun lights & mini piñatas, and the sharable, filling bites will do just fine. This was my first time going to a Mexican restaurant as a non-alcohol drinker, and instead of my typical mezcal margarita, I opted for a Fresh Limeaide which was refreshing and flavorful. We split the Guacamole and Chips, which if you’ve ever stopped at the Frontera in O’Hare, you know is good as fuck. It’s smooth, creamy, tangy, and topped with chopped onions and cilantro for a little crunch. It’s not the most life-changing, but it is consistently satisfying. Next, we got the Mushroom Tacos and Masa Quesadillas. The Masa Quesadillas were a fun surprise, as instead of a tortilla, the masa is what makes up the outside. They are almost like empanadas and stuffed with gooey, melty cheese, and come with a spicy salsa verde on the side. I would come back for these alone - they’re rich yet light, warm, and comforting, all the things you would want when dining outside when it’s still a little chilly. The Mushroom Tacos were quite frankly unreal, because whatever they seasoned the mushroom slices with and grilled them on made them taste unlike any mushroom I’ve had before. There was definitely some meat crossover on the grill, so don’t order those if you’re vegan, or ask them to prepare the mushroom separately. I however was LOSING MY MIND. Over mushrooms. The joys of being vegetarian!

2. The Gwen

On a happening Saturday night in Chicago, Upstairs at The Gwen is sure to be a packed scene. Located in River North, this hotel bar/restaurant offers a somehow cozy rooftop filled with loungey couches, fire pits, and ambient lighting, even though you’re surrounded by apartments and skyscrapers and there is nothing “cozy” about River North. Every table was filled, yet since you’re outside and it’s fairy spread apart, it still felt safe. I got my new classic, a Lemonade, and we got the Burrata to start. With sourdough, roasted beets, squash, pomegranate, pistachio, & arugula, this plate was nothing short of mouth-watering. It has textures! It has flavors! It has pomegranate seeds, the TikTok must have of the moment! The bread was 10/10, the burrata was 8/10, and all of the toppings made for a very find bite of salad on their own. For my main I got the Lobster Fettucine, a beautiful bowl of “charcoal fettuccine with saffron-tomato sauce, lobster, calabrian chili butter, and basil-brioche crumbs” as listed on their website. Take any of those ingredients and it’s going to be delicious, but all of them TOGETHER? INCREDIBLE. The chunks of lobster were huge, absolutely making the dish worth its price tag, and the sauce was flavorful, unique, and unlike any sauce I’ve tasted in the last few years. It’s typical to do a squid ink pasta with seafood and tomato sauce, but the saffron added a new element I very much appreciated.

3. The Starbucks Roastery

I KNOW. THIS IS A TOURIST DESTINATION. All I am saying is if there’s no line, go get an iced latte with two packets of sugar in the raw. That’s all. It’s really good after something like, I don’t know, Lobster Fettucine.

4. The Penninsula

You cannot go wrong with hitting up The Penninsula for breakfast or brunch, especially if you are staying there and have the option to do room service. Typically we would go to Pierrot Gourmet, the cafe in the ground floor of The Penninsula, however it has been closed temporarily. If there’s one thing to order with your breakfast, it’s the smashed fingerling potatoes. Delish.

5. Somerset

Somerset is becoming a quick go-to of mine for an impromptu dinner downtown, given it’s in the heart of Gold Coast and is cute if you’re sitting indoors or outdoors. The food is nothing too innovative, but it is done well, which is the most important part with “cuter” restaurants that may focus on the Instagram appeal over the food sometimes. Each time I’ve gone I’ve gotten the seasonal flatbread and a pasta or risotto, usually something with mushrooms, and it’s always been plate-licking good. To drink, I got -you guessed it- a Lemonade! For dinner I went with the Wild Mushroom Risotto which was everything you could hope for in a risotto, topped with olive oil, herbs, and local parmesan. We split the Rapini & Roasted Garlic Flatbread which was as it sounds, flatbread covered in rapini, garlic, and ricotta, which added a nice crunch and had enough rapini to feel like it was replacing a boring vegetable side dish or salad. The patio vibes were wonderful, the judgemental girls in the greenhouses looked like they were having a good time, and our waiter couldn’t have been sweeter. I will be going back to try the Fontina Arancini, which I just noticed on the menu. FRICK.

So there you have it, a very long-winded explanation of the last few weeks of my life and where you can find me on a staycation in Chicago. Hopefully once I move back to the city I’ll have endless new spots to try and won’t be basic anymore!

Until next time, Happy Eating!

-Natalie

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polite-pandemonium · 2 years

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ok, so

Basically: my anxiety in December was bad. Like, the worst it has been in years. I look back at the whole month and it was just a blur of being stressed and scared all of the time. Now that it’s over, I’m sad I wasted my favourite season (the holidays!) on essentially being terrified (omicron was a huge contributor; I was very worried about getting sick and getting others sick during such an important time of year).

More than that, I really want to strengthen my mental health and absolutely not spiral again this month. I spent two weeks at my mom’s over the holidays and it helped soooo much (I just read and watched TV and laid around) and I feel in a much better place, but I also am aware that a) I live in Ontario, where omicron is running wild and stuff is closing left and right and b) the pandemic isn’t over and if that is a trigger, I could backslide at any time. I’m back in therapy (appointment on Wednesday, baby!), but I just want to be more mindful of how I use my time so I don’t doomscrool

So I have decided to journal! On here! For at least the forseeable future. One thing I really miss about online life is Livejournal - how you used to get so deep with your entries and what you would share and you’d have an established group of people to connect with. Therapy was not really a thing when I was in high school and I think my dedicated use of Livejournal actually really helped with my mental health at the time (though, I’m sure it messed it up some, too).

Anyway, here is what I did on the first Monday of the year.

I ended up going on an hour and a half walk today because I just have the worst sense of direction and was not paying attention to where I was going cause I was distracted by a podcast. My original plan was to go to the library, then the bakery for a croissant, then to pick up a package, before stopping at the grocery and wine stores downstairs.

I had planned to walk through the side streets cause they are a) nicer and b) less busy than the main roads but while doing so, ended up walking too far? I for whatever reason thought the street I was walking to a street past another and then I ended up ten minutes too far. So I said, OK, skip the library, there’s a cafe I really want to go to instead. But then the crosswalk to get to the cafe was located near a COVID testing centre, with a huge line of people wearing NO MASKS and I was just like, no, I don’t wanna walk over there!

So I went over to the original bakery I had planned to go to with the plans to get a butter croissant and a fancy croissant for dessert later, but they only had butter croissants. There was a line and I didn’t feel like waiting so I left without a croissant! At this point, the cold was creating a lot of condensation in my mask (it was -16 today) and I did not have a spare, so I picked up my package which was TOO BIG to really take anywhere, went home, changed my mask, and then went down to the grocery store. I walked so far and I got so little done? I didn’t even really avoid people the whole time, which was my goal with my original route!

Tomorrow is the first work day of the year and like many others, I don’t even remember what I do. In some ways, we left the work year on a pretty stressful, pretty tense note in regards to certain team members and the stress about all of that has completely melted away; I can’t even comprehend it now. But I also know that a lot is going to happen in the next two weeks and am mentally preparing myself. (I’m being vague cause I have to be vague cause I am putting this down in writing, but for the record, I am fine in every way in my role.)

I just want to have a good day. I just don’t want to be anxious. I want to take care of myself and get through this month as best I can without like...not being present. Cause I feel like that’s a risk too? Spending so much time not thinking about things or focusing on work or self care or escapism that I blink and realize I’ve just been disassociating to cope. I have to remind myself that only so much is in my control and I should just try not to linger on the stuff that I can’t control, but it is SO HARD. My therapist told me recently I have an intolerance to uncertainty and my whole life makes SO MUCH SENSE. It’s literally like an allergic reaction; so I have to figure out how to manage being, essentially, terrified all of the time, without just slipping into a dissociative state.

I will say, that given recent restrictions and the state of things, I have absolutely nothing to look forward to. Movie theatres, gyms, museums, etc closed today, but I still haven’t been to a movie theatre and I stopped going to the gym in November when cases started rising. My work was never 100% back in office, so we just flipped to remote work once things started going hairy. Indoor dining is closed, too, but I also stopped going in mid-December. But literally, now what can I even look forward to? Even Kat and I have decided to be ultra cautious until she gets her booster so we’re only going on outdoor walks.

I do think I have to try to find things to look forward to. I saw on TikTok (which I actually have deleted for the time being cause it was contributing too much to my anxiety) that short term things we have used to cope in the pandemic up until now will probably be ineffective and you should try something new or go back to something you loved in childhood. So I’m going to focus my efforts on establishing a really good morning routine again (I just ordered soooo much coffee from Nespresso) and a really good evening routine. My plans so far are to watch a Ghibli film every night until I have gone through all of them, call my mom every night, and then IDK maybe I’ll paint again. I also am going to make sure I get a workout in and that I leave my apartment for a walk once a day for at least 30 minutes cause I KNOW I will not want to leave and it will be SO bad for my mental health cause this is a 514 square foot condo and I live alone.

I guess that’s it for now. Despite the tone of this post, I’m hopeful for the month and optimistic about 2022. I hope this week is good and I hope I can make it that way. :)

#diana does stuff

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addierose444 · 3 years

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A Typical Week: Spring 2021

Before getting into the actual content, I thought I would just point out that this is my 100th blog post! You can check out the full list here.

As noted in my fall 2020 version of this post, my week is primarily dictated by my current course schedule. (To check out all of my past courses, click here). Furthermore, the way I write these posts is to focus on academics as they're a big part of my life, but also the most natural thing to write about publicly. This post should give you a realistic sense of the structure of my week and courses. I thought it may be useful to contrast expectations and reality when it comes to productivity. Early in the semester, I mapped out my idealized homework schedule around my meetings and assignment deadlines. The first row lists deadlines. The other rows are split by my meals (lunch and dinner). Even if I don’t strictly follow the schedule, spending the time to map things out is quite useful. To write about my real schedule, I actually looked back through data from my time tracking application, Toggl Track. I know this is a very long post, but it wasn’t really interesting enough to become a two-parter.

A typical school day starts off with my 9:00 (or 9:10) alarm. I also often have a second alarm set for 9:15 as a backup. Here at college, I simply use the default clock app on my phone and have it play from my favorites playlist on Spotify. I very occasionally need to wake up earlier to finish up an assignment as midnight is my strict cutoff for doing work. I know a consistent sleep schedule is very important, but it’s definitely something I struggle with.

Monday:

My week begins with a 9:20 math class. The specific course is math methods which as previously explained is an applied math course from the physics department that is required for physics and engineering majors. We usually start off by going over the pre-class check in (PCCI) and/or other questions students have. This review is followed by a lecture on new material. Throughout the class, we work through example problems in breakout rooms (on Zoom whiteboards) and answer multiple-choice questions using the poll feature. (The poll questions are anonymous and ungraded). Partway through the class, we get a 4-minute break. One nice thing about this class is that we actually thoroughly go through the example problems when we regroup as an entire class. This is important because, without feedback, practice is of limited utility. Furthermore, going over the problem gives me a chance to get everything into my notes. The integration of lectures with practice is something I really appreciate about this course. In past math classes, the format has been a lecture followed by a worksheet of practice problems. While that model sometimes makes sense, I much prefer this integrated approach. One issue with leaving practice until the end is that you sometimes run out of time and don’t catch knowledge gaps until the end of class. After math methods, I get a 20-minute break during which I often listen to the latest episode of The Daily (a short new podcast from the New York Times).

Next up is my philosophy of logic class which starts with a few minutes of breathing and stretching. On the first day of class, I thought this was a really strange thing, but have come to appreciate it. Afterward, we go over any relevant announcements and sometimes debrief the previous class. This class is different from my other classes in that it is reading and discussion-based. We spend most of the class in the main room strengthening our understanding of the reading through full class discussions and mini-lectures. Even though the class is already very small (13 students), we also make use of breakout rooms to work through study questions. Our tests are pyramid style which means we spend one class period working independently and another class on the same questions in a small group. We also have short quizzes, called mini check-ins, every few weeks. Next up is lunch during which I sometimes listen to a podcast or audiobook. You can check out some of my favorite podcasts and books of 2020 at the associated links.

After lunch, I have my computer systems lab. The teaching assistant of my lab section starts off with a quick introduction to the assignment. We then work independently and ask questions as they come up. Even though we don’t really work collaboratively the lab is sort of fun because it’s less formal than a regular class. For the first part of the semester, the lab assignments often took way longer than the allotted time (and sometimes longer than our projects) so I often spent more of the afternoon finishing up the assignment. Fortunately, the course staff was made aware of this issue and adjusted accordingly. Just for some context, this course is a UMass class which is why there is a whole course team and teaching assistants. To read more about Five College course registration click here. At Smith, while some classes have teaching assistants who help out during class, all of the classes are taught and run by our actual professors. We also have student tutors as an academic resource outside of class. To read more about academic support systems at Smith, click here.

After finishing up my lab assignment, I start in on my math methods PCCI. A typical PCCI consists of reading a section or two of the textbook (written by our professor) and completing a short practice problem or so-called discovery exercise. Depending on the week, I either start in on my reading assignment for my computer systems class or logic class. At 4:00, I have my weekly one-on-one meeting with my supervisor for my ResLife job. Following the meeting, I relax by listening to music or an audiobook. At 5:00, I order, pick up, and eat my dinner. After dinner, I complete any remaining readings for my computer systems and logic classes. If I haven’t yet completed my lab assignment or have an exam the following day, I devote some of the night to circuits. Otherwise, I may work on a computer systems project or theory of computation assignment.

Tuesday:

Tuesday’s are my busiest day of the week in terms of class hours. With that said, it’s nothing compared to my Thursdays last fall. I start Tuesdays off with my circuits class. During class, we learn new circuit theory and circuit analysis techniques. We also go through example problems. While we often run out of time to fully work through the extra practice problems in breakout rooms, fortunately, my professor posts videos going over those problems. After taking our feedback into account, we now get a break partway through the class. Each lecture covers a lot of material, so the brain/screen break is much appreciated. To check in on how the class is feeling about various concepts, our professor has us use the annotation feature on a scale from totally get it to totally lost.

After circuits is my 20-minute break followed by my theory of computation lecture. The theoretical nature of the material means that it really is a lecture. While we obviously go through examples, there aren’t really practice problems as there would be in a math class. We use the chat to some extent in all of my classes, but to a greater degree in this course. Next up is lunch and a COVID test. At 1:40 I am back to circuits for the lab. Most of the labs are virtual with physical lab equipment, but a few have been in-person so that we could use special equipment. Ironically, one of our in-person labs was actually fully virtual in terms of lab equipment. (We were sitting on the lawn outside of Ford together and running circuit simulators on our laptops). Fortunately, we don’t usually need to stay until 4:30. I tend to just collect my data, ask some questions about the material, and then finish up the write-up at a later point in time. This time block is also the one used whenever we have an exam.

I always start by doing the textbook reading for circuits. I don’t read super closely, but it’s still a good primer for the next class. In terms of other work, Tuesdays are a bit more unpredictable and really depend on how much I got done over the weekend. Specifically, while I usually finish my math methods assignment over the weekend, occasionally I need to finish it up on Tuesday evenings. Likewise, for circuits, I sometimes finish the last few problems on a Tuesday evening. At 7:00, I have a staff meeting with the other community advisors in my neighborhood and our supervisor. Our meetings usually take place over Zoom, but our most recent one was in-person with ice cream from Herrell’s which was a lot of fun. You can read about some other Northampton food locations (restaurants, cafes, and more) here. In weeks where I haven’t yet started my computer systems work, I do what I would usually have done on a Monday on a Tuesday.

Wednesday:

Wednesdays are similar to Mondays without the computer systems lab and ResLife meeting. In the afternoon I often attend office hours for my theory of computation class to ask questions about the weekly assignment. Even though I don’t have my logic class until the following Monday, I usually just do the reading on Wednesday afternoon. On Wednesday evenings, I typically work through my circuits revisions. I also tend to do a good chunk of my computer systems coursework. This consists of watching lecture videos, taking notes, and taking lesson quizzes. Furthermore, I have definitely spent some Wednesday evenings working through computer systems projects.

Thursday:

Thursdays are like Tuesdays without the circuits lab. Even though I have the whole afternoon free, unfortunately, I am sometimes having to finish up my theory of computation assignment. It’s also common for me to start working on the new math methods problem set. In the case of this Thursday, I played some guitar and then started writing this post. I also do my circuits reading for Tuesday and take the quick lab quiz. If I have any remaining computer systems coursework, I do that as well.

Friday:

This semester I only have one class on Fridays, math methods. After class, I get a COVID test and an early lunch. I know it seems crazy how many free afternoons I have given that I am taking 22 credits and am a double STEM major. However, part of this is explained by my UMass computer systems course being asynchronous and the fact that I completed the one-credit companion course in C programming before my Smith semester started. My computer systems class was originally scheduled to meet Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons. Even though I wish the class was synchronous, the flexibility of an asynchronous class has been much appreciated. Furthermore, the class was in a terrible time block that would have caused me to miss most of house tea. Back to what a Friday afternoon looks like! After completing my PCCI for math methods, I often rewatch the lecture videos for computer systems (on double speed) and then take the weekly quiz. I next pick up tea snacks from Cutter-Z and attend house tea at 4:30. After tea, I order dinner and often eat it in the living room with housemates. Fridays are definitely my least productive day and I have definitely taken a few weekly quizzes on Saturday after having planned to take them on Friday. Instead of doing real work, I often spend Friday afternoons writing blog posts. As for this post, I wrote most of it yesterday but spent a good chunk of Friday afternoon on it as well.

Saturday:

Despite my best efforts to have a consistent sleep schedule, I often sleep in on Saturdays until 10:00. I then have a leisurely hour or so of listening to an audiobook. At 11:00, I get an early lunch. As mentioned in the Friday description, I sometimes end up taking my weekly quiz for computer systems on Saturday. When I have tests in math methods, I typically take them on Saturday night. (The tests are timed but are self-scheduled over the given weekend which includes Friday). When there is not a math test, I often work on my math problem set in the afternoon. Every few weeks, I host POCheese at 4:00. This week we are actually going to be meeting at 5:00 for a ramen night! At 6:00 I have a uke club meeting over Zoom. In weeks where I have already finished my math problem set and don’t have a test, I start in on my circuits problem set.

Sunday:

Sundays start like Saturdays in that I often have a leisurely morning. At 11:00 I get a COVID test and an early lunch. Sundays are almost always devoted to my circuits. This includes working through the problems set, the lab writeup, or studying for an upcoming exam. If my Saturday wasn’t as productive as intended, I do the homework described in that section. At 6:00 I have a Society of Women Engineers (SWE) board meeting. At 7:00, I either lead a community meeting (part of my ResLife job) or attend house council. Afterward, I fill out my weekly report (also part of my ResLife job).

#college #Smith College #academics #schedule #week in my life #homework #spring 2021

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record-on-the-shelf · 4 years

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Being a Starbucks Barista During COVID-19

So…I’m a Starbucks barista that decided to go back to work. For those of you who don’t know, Starbucks gave their employees the option of whether they wanted to go back to work or not. We get paid our average hours through May 3 regardless of what we decide. I’ve been with the company for over 2 years now and have never taken a vacation. So of course I took advantage of taking a week off and getting paid to do that. Being who I am, I lasted only 1 week before I got stir crazy and wanted to go back to work. There were also some good incentives to go back to work such as our usual free drink/food and coffee bean mark-outs, but we also get an extra $3/hr, 50% discount and tips. The tips definitely make it worth it (I went from getting $20 to $120 every week!!). Anyways, I got some insight for you on what it is like to work during COVID-19 as a Starbucks barista.

Company-wide: Cafe stores are closed, hours have changed, drive thru and grab-and-go only. Most stores in each district are closed. The amount of stores that are open are dependent on the amount of employees willing to work. We, the employees, are not to blame for stores not being open close to hospitals. The stores are determined based on if they have drive thrus and if they have enough space to accommodate grab-and-go pickup.

My store: We are only open 7-2 because our district thought it was best to have 2 stores open instead of 1 to alleviate the line a bit. Our line begins forming 30 mins to open and continues being busy until we cut off the line 30 mins to close. Sometimes, the line gets out of hand and wraps onto the main road in front of our building. We have had the cops come and redirect the traffic because it gets bad at times. Typically our line is 30+ cars long and it takes us anywhere from 30-50 mins to get through the line depending on how large the orders are and who is actually making the drinks. People make the decision to get in line despite knowing it will take awhile.

At my store in particular, we get quite a few bad, rude and/or entitled customers.

“Since I can’t come inside to enjoy my drink, can I get 2 free coffees that Starbucks is offering?” Umm..what now? We are in a pandemic and we are not giving you free coffees because of the mild inconvenience. On top of that, the offer is for front-line health care workers to get a free tall hot/iced coffee. The coffee isn’t for bored soccer moms with nothing else to do...

“This line is ridiculous!! You need to get employees that can actually do their jobs.” Sorry you feel that way. We have been trying our best. Taking it out on the employees is not going to solve the problem. On top of that, we don’t have enough employees. If you want the store to remain open, you have to deal with the line. Plus we didn’t hold you at gunpoint to get in line. The only way to make the line shorter is for customers to obey the stay at home order.

“You need to open more stores.” Sorry, we don’t have enough employees. (I had to repeat this at least 3 times per person because they weren’t grasping the concept of work being voluntary.)

My manager and I went out to cut off the line because we were about to close and a woman tried cutting in front of 10 cars to make sure she could still get a drink. I told her that the line goes back behind her, that she was cutting the line, and that we were not taking any more customers. She ignored me, sped to the back of the line where my manger was and lied to her saying that I told her that she could get in line. My manger, not wanting to deal with it, told her that I 100% didn’t say that but let her in anyways to avoid any more lies and yelling.

Customers have attempted to bribe the barista stopping the line to let them in.

Several customers have ran over our sign with our hours that blocks the drive thru when we close. They think that by getting into the drive thru lane automatically means we have to serve them. Sorry, that is not the case.

One customer yanked and banged on the front door after we closed. Keep in mind, we have 4 signs on our door and I wrote our hours largely on the windows too. He proceeded to look confused, walked around to the side of our building to the drive thru window and started banging there too. If he didn’t leave, we were going to call the cops. Thank goodness it didn’t have to come to that. Our store has made too many calls to the police this past year.

“You guys always run out of food.” We order as much food as we can that makes sense. We have donated so much food to Salvation Army at the end of each day. Trust me, we only run out of popular food and that happens maybe an hour to close. If you come late, there’s a good chance that the food item you want will be gone.

Customers will crowd around the front door and attempt to drink on the patio. We have to continuously go outside to tell customers to stay 6ft apart and that they have to enjoy their drinks in their car and not by the door.

A lot of young teens come through the drive thru and then park in the lot to spend time with each other. 9 times out of 10, they don’t practice social distancing. Since they are on our property, we can get in trouble too so we try to shut it down as much as we can.

I also spend a lot of time online when I am not at work. I’ve looked on reddit, tumblr, twitter, facebook and the news to see what customer concerns were.

One customer was mad that they could no longer access the free internet we provide. Saying that we “needlessly closed the cafes.” Sir, we are not purposely attacking you. We have to think about our safety as well as yours. If you need internet, several grocery stores have free internet. You can sit in the parking lot and still access it in most cases.

“Starbucks is not an essential business and shouldn’t be open.” I generally agree with you. However, the amount of healthcare workers that come through and show us immense amount of gratitude makes it worth it. We are meant to be open to serve them. Sadly, we get more people that are meant to stay home, coming in. They make the line too long where some essential workers don’t have time to sit and wait.

Customers have been complaining on reddit that we have been rude. I can’t speak for other stores, but mine has tried to remain positive and friendly. Keep in mind that we are scared and worried just like you. We can only hold back our fear from turning negative for so long. We deal with customers not following social distancing and the stay at home order coming in. They can be mean and downright disrespectful at times. We wish that we could refuse service but we need to keep in mind our policies. Overall, we are stressed to the very limit while working. All stores are. Lines are too long, some cars have families who order 6 custom drinks that take extra time. Then mobile/delivery orders come through with up to 20 drink orders at a time.

However, there are some pretty great times too.

Customers bring in their dogs to get pup cups. I take pictures of course! They brighten up our day so much.

Customers are generous with tips. We may have tipped the scale a bit by putting two tip jars out with a yes or no questions attached to them. We have done simple questions too like “do you like cats or dogs?” or our best question was “Did Carol Baskin kill her husband?” We have fun with it and so do our customers.

We get customers that are extremely funny or pleasant to talk to while we make their drinks.

We get to meet employees from all around and make new friends.

We have the honor of serving our front-line workers.

If you decide to come to Starbucks:

Make sure you have time to wait in line.

If you don’t have 30+ mins, mobile order and come to the front door. Please give us at least 5-10 mins if you can.

Pay with card or phone to prevent cash handling. Every time we handle cash, that person has to go to the back room and wash their hands. Save everyone’s time by doing that.

Wear a mask. The CDC recommends it and it gives us more peace of mind.

Don’t touch our hands when we hand you your items. Again, we have to wash our hands, which wastes precious time.

Only front-line workers get to take advantage of the free drink promotion.

Have backup food/drink items in mind! Due to the increased volume of orders, we run out quickly. We don’t want you to waste time in line if we don’t have the specific item you want. It sucks waiting so long and to not get anything at all.

Don’t try to be funny and fake cough. It makes us freak out.Don’t be that person.

Don’t smoke cigarettes in our drive thru. Some of us have allergic reactions to the secondhand smoke. We have told people before. Most don’t listen. We have, in the past, shut the window and refused to serve them until they put it out. We hate doing that but we are not putting our employees in harms way just so you can have a quick high. Wait until you leave our drive thru please and thank you.

Be aware of our hours. Don’t get mad when we stop letting new cars come through.

Please refrain from ordering at the window. It messes up the groove of the people making drinks. It makes the line stop longer than it needs to.

Let us know if the food item you want needs to be warmed. Some items come warmed automatically while others don’t. If you come to the window, take your items and then tell us you wanted it warmed up, we have to throw the item away and get you a new one. Don’t waste food.

Same goes for drinks. Let us know if you wanted it hot or iced, what size and if there needs to be sweetener. The drinks all have their own presets. If you don’t tell us, don’t get mad when we make it to the preset. It is up to you to order correctly. Side note: if you think you are going to pull off the TikTok hack where you purposely order a grande and get to the window and say otherwise, you are mistaken. You WILL NOT get the extra drink for free nor will you get away with not paying for the size up-charge. It has happened way too many times and we are over it.

Tip your barista? We don’t have to be here, but we are. Most of us rely on tips to pay our bills. Some of us got laid off from our second jobs. Some of us have partners that got laid off and need as much extra income as possible.

In general, be nice. It makes everyone’s day better if you do. We get nasty customers and having great ones help make the day not suck. Trust me when I say that being called a c**t, a b***h, a w***e, etc. for just doing my job to the best of my ability sucks. It makes you not want to come to work anymore. Plus I believe in karma.

That’s all for now folks! Message me back stories if you are also a barista, I would love to hear how your store is doing. I will block and report trolls so don’t do it. I may update this post or make a part 2 if I have more stories. Let me know if you want to see the dog photos? Umm I think that’s it?

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holisticpassport · 4 years

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My Covid Story

Apologies for any spelling errors, I’m on a time crunch. I’m a few hours out from leaving for my first flight since July 2019 (and before that, March 2018). Heading out to Sydney, I’m a mix of anxiety and absolute excitement. In January of this year, our sublet was almost up in Eltham and Cam and I had plans to pack up the car and begin doing workaways around Australia to help rebuild communities devastated by the historic wild fires (doesn’t that feel FOREVER ago?). When our sublet became available for a full lease transfer, we changed our minds to stay in our space, so that was the first instance of travel being knocked out of the picture. Then we had Valentine’s weekend open to go visit some friends in Tasmania, so we booked tickets and upon waiting in the airport, our flights were cancelled due to inclement weather. DAMN. Mid-march came around and it was Cam’s birthday, so we wanted to get out for a weekend of camping in our big bell tent, find a gorgeous spot in the woods out east near Warburton. When we arrived, every camping spot for an hour’s dive any direction was either full or completely not open at all. We picked a spot off a random road and spent one night there, but some rangers came by and said we couldn’t stay there due to the possible danger of logging trucks not seeing us. So that was a bust.

Then as you’re aware, this time frame leads up to the very tumultuous third week of March when Melbourne officially went into its first lockdown due to COVID. I documented this time in journal entries which I will add at the end, but ultimately the lockdown went until June, and the state reopened too quickly/had a fiasco with quarantined cases getting out of a hotel, thus sparking the second wave. We had flights booked to California for June to see my family and then planned to travel around Mexico for a few months, but that dream was quickly squashed when flights out of Melbourne ceased to exist at all. Months later, I had a flight booked in July to go to Sydney where I was to have my eggs extracted for donation. The day before I was to fly out, second lockdown went into effect and the flight was cancelled (thus forcing me to have the procedure done in Melbourne and cause a huge, historic controversy between Melbourne IVF’s CEO and the medical director of IVF Australia about how to transfer frozen eggs over a closed border!).

I’m struggling to comprehend just how important and meaningful my ability to travel today is. To think back to the first time in history, watching borders around the world close, flights become grounded, and witnessing a global pandemic unfold whilst in a foreign country—I remember thinking at the beginning how unfathomable the scale of it was. When people talk about things not seeming real or like it’s a dream you can’t wake up from, that’s exactly how it felt. I questioned whether I needed to go back to the U.S. in fear I might not see my family for years or be with them if they got fatally ill. Would I be able to even go back if that happened let alone would I be able to re-enter AU (the answer was no). And thank god I didn’t go back considering the absolute cluster fuck of a mess Trump made of the pandemic. But also, thank god my family has been healthy and safe. The level of fear for their safety was at an all-time high as civil tensions grew when the riots around the country kicked off in conjunction with the pandemic. I wrote to all of them to have a plan to escape to Mexico and get their passports if Trump won the re-election. This was a genuine fear I’ve never experienced before.

The level of frustration, depression, anxiety, hopelessness, self-hatred for lack of productivity during lockdown, and uncertainty about so many facets of life weighed down on me during this time. But I know how much worse our time could have been. I was immensely grateful for the fact that we had a home and incredibly gracious landlords who were human and understood the financial difficulties of this unprecedented time when so many became homeless as job loss skyrocketed. We were so fortunate that I was able to continue working even 2 days a week through the lockdown as a barista and Cam was able to get government support for six months as a NZ citizen who lived in AU over 10 years when so many other New Zealanders were forced to return to their country because of the time limit stipulation for support. We only had two family members contract Covid and were young and healthy enough to survive when so many families will be without a member at the holidays this year.

And I acknowledge my privilege in that my identity is so closely entwined with the ability to travel, that while it felt suffocating to not even have the choice to travel anywhere outside of a 5km (3mile) zone, I fully empathize with those in parts of the world where they could not walk more than 50 meters from their front door or people who didn’t have windows/balconies in apartment buildings who were going out of their mind. All of that does not diminish the struggles I faced with not being able to travel, but it does always keep my perspective in check. My trip today signifies how a city and a country came together during the most difficult period of our lifetime, followed strict government guidelines, and came out after 120+ days in full lockdown on the other side of a pandemic, now able to cross state borders without isolation or quarantine. To go to a live music show, have drinks on rooftop bars, walk around outside without a mask on, and see people going about their daily lives again on public transport and see a city bustling with energy—the months of mental hardship and growth was all to get back to a post-Covid world. Even though a vaccine is not out yet and we need to be cautious, the level of hopelessness has diminished significantly, and I’m not terrified my trip might be cancelled in two hours. I’m actually going this time!

There is also a whole other facet to my time in lockdown and that of course is the personal development and mutual growth in my marriage! That’s a whole separate post though which I hope to get out soonish. But here’s a bit of something I started a few months ago. Enjoy.

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I remember when it first started in the news; like a minor blip of a story flashing at the bottom of the screen: some mutant virus had infected a couple dozen people in some random city in China. I was working solo in a café serving the employees of a major shoe distribution company in the warehouse district of Collingwood, Melbourne. The TV was on in the cafe but muted the first few weeks of January as the main stories were about the most devastating wildfires in the history of the world, and we all just felt a communal helplessness. As the numbers grew in China and the story became a daily headline, the first case was announced in Queensland on January 25th. Everyone stuck around a few minutes longer each day after they were handed their coffee. I think back to the moment when Wuhan, the epicenter at the time, reported 1,500 cases and I thought surely there can’t be much more than that. This is just media sensationalizing something small. This whole story will blow over in another week or two.

If only.

It was summer in Australia, and my husband and I were planning what to do after our sublease was up in mid-March. I commuted daily from a suburb 50 minutes north called Eltham, a creative and eco-friendly heritage town. We lived in a triplex made of adobe mudbrick, surrounded by native forest, a communal garden, and enjoyed huge artisan windows that brought in natural filtered light through the towering trees. Our little studio was a quiet haven away from the chaos and constant flurry of people in Melbourne, especially during summer as it brought travelers from every corner of the globe. There was no way we could have possibly known that this little paradise would feel like a prison after six months in the world’s longest lockdown due to a global pandemic caused by that little virus in some random city in China now known worldwide as COVID-19.

As the weeks passed by in February, more and more countries began reporting cases. I did not understand how pandemics worked as the last one I was alive for and could remember was H1N1 in California, and I was about 17—far too consumed with college applications and boys to think about world affairs. The Spanish Flu was never something that was particularly emphasized in our history classes, so it didn’t even occur to me to compare what was happening now to that point in time. Then again, this was incomparable because in 1912, the world was a less globalized economy and there were no commercial flights transporting thousands of passengers across the globe daily. By the first week of March, my daily rush-hour commutes became the first real difference I noticed. The number of morning passengers on the train platforms dwindled from 50 to 25 to 5, and eventually, to just me. As the train stopped at over 30 stops from where I lived to the city, my carriage wasn’t even remotely full at 7 a.m.

There was less foot traffic in the city. Flinders Street Station, one of the two largest hubs that saw thousands of people daily, was eerily quiet and empty. We were two weeks out from leaving Melbourne to go travel, planning to go to New South Wales, AU to help rebuild communities that were ravaged by the bushfires. I was desperate to travel this year, and we were so close to leaving. I had picked up some other barista work in an advertising agency closer to the city. But day by day, office workers were being told to work from home if they were able to. Hand sanitizer became readily available in the café, bathrooms, and around the office. I remember staring out the window of this high rise building that overlooked the lush green stretch of Albert Park and thinking it looks so normal outside. Every day, I looked at the news in Australia, which I had never really done before. Industries were shutting down, and the panic was setting in for thousands of casual workers in the hospitality industry as it was only a matter of time before we would be shut down too.

Melbourne is a cultural hub filled with travelers who typically come here on a Work and Holiday Visa which gives them 1-2 years to work and live in AU. Most find work in hospitality as there are over 40,000 restaurants and cafes in this region. You couldn’t go a single day without meeting someone from another country which is why I fell in love with this city. I worked as a freelance barista through agencies that called for workers to be able to step in if someone called out sick or quit unexpectedly and they found themselves short. But my agencies had gone completely silent in the week leading up to the industry shutting down. There was no more work and travelers were finding themselves stranded. I journaled daily in the lead up to my final day of work in the city as I knew something big was happening, and I wanted to be able to recall when it all began. I also knew we would not be travelling anytime soon, around Australia or otherwise, when national and international borders began closing around the world.

March 17th, 2020

All that’s being talked about is COVID-19. Entire countries are closing borders and going into complete lockdown. Italy has been inundated with patients in hospitals and now have to choose who lives and who dies. AU isn’t taking nearly as intense of measures, but the general atmosphere is not normal. All events with over 500 people have been cancelled. Those who have traveled anywhere must self-quarantine for 14 days or face a huge fine. Some people still don’t take it seriously, thinking/acting like it’s just a normal flu when in reality its ability to be passed on and even re-infect someone a second time is much higher than the rate of a simple flu. In the states, my family says all the restaurants and schools have closed, even the Hollywood entertainment industry has closed down. So many independent contractors, myself included, are without means to live because there’s no emergency government funding in place. It shows what’s truly flawed with the system. Luckily Cam has full time work still, but for those people who have kids and no daycare options? No partner or family? Those who are traveling and can’t get back home? This is devastating for all of us, but them in particular. Supposedly, there are rumors that the virus dies with the warm weather, but AU is headed into winter. It could be why the virus isn’t as big in places like South America and Africa (*note* countries from these two continents are now in the top 10 most infected places as of September 2020) Europe is completely shut down as is New Zealand. I have flights to California in June, so I’m hoping I can still go. For how weak my immune system is, I’m surprised I’m not more concerned because I’ve been continuously reassured the virus only attacks those with underlying conditions, mainly in the elderly population. Even in calm, tight-knitted communities like ours in Eltham, we’re seeing the best and worst of humanity come out with people hoarding resources, but also there are those offering rides for people to stores or grocery drop offs to their homes. I’m very interested to see how the next three months progress all around the world. Right about now, it’d be nice to hide away in a beachside house in Mexico. (*Mexico is also among the top 10 most infected countries now*)

March18th, 2020

The government should announce today whether hospitality industry will close, potentially putting Cam and I both out of jobs. Luckily our landlord is being highly accommodating. Trump is giving Americans $1,200 and has postponed tax season by 3 months. Only seems he does something decent when it’s to keep the economy from tanking and his money is protected.

Cam and I both have throat annoyances and headaches. We should try to stay home, but can’t afford it. Today, they’ve dropped gatherings of 500 down to only 100 people, yet shopping centers and public transport remain open, which I would think are the riskiest places for transferring infections. It’s been stated this is a once in a decade event that will change the course of history.

March 19th, 2020

Amidst all the chaos from morning to night, people are finally taking time to nurture their interests and creativity. I’m taking two courses on sustainable fashion and fashion in design. I’ve also applied to be a mentor for women trying to gain work and leadership experience at an NGO called Fitted for Work. They have stylists that help women to prepare business outfits and tailor their resumes/do mock interviews. I’ve looked into an MA program I’m interested in at Warren Wilson College back in North Carolina. I think looking forward is the only way to keep the fear down about how long these shut downs may last possibly through June. The world economy is going to see some extremely confronting realities it hasn’t seen since the Great Depression. For the moment I’m looking into teaching English online which I’m already certified to do, just to try and earn some money. I’ll be interested to see all the art that comes out of this period and the photojournalism that captures this historic time.

March 21st, 2020

We went over to Williamstown (Cam’s parent’s house) as Cam had two shifts out that way. Restrictions in cafes are now 1 person per 4 square meters, so in the 100 person limit already imposed, it’s now down to 25. I’m nervous for Cam to keep working and going on public transport. It’s high risk and unethical in terms of coming in contact with people we could transmit it to without knowing (asymptomatic) because it takes 14 days to even show symptoms. We made the choice to start self-isolation come Monday as we can see in the next week or two the same spike will be here in Melbourne as we’ve seen in Italy and most likely soon to see in the U.S. Reading other peoples’ accounts about how they continued life as normal as though nothing had changed in Italy is exactly where AU is projected to head towards.

March 25, 2020

As of Monday, AU took drastic measures to ensure safety and closed many non-essential businesses with a series of daily updates for more and more businesses to shut or only stay open for takeaway. Overnight, nearly 80,000 people in hospitality work were laid off or lost work, Cam and I included. A stimulus package of 66 billion dollars was announced and Cam qualified for government payments through Centrelink because he’s a kiwi who’s been here over 10 years. Other kiwis who haven’t been here that long are completely without any kind of support from the AU government, even though in NZ, Aussies are supported. A very backward, selfish system who told them to go home.

We went to Centrelink on Monday at 7:45am in Greensborough (suburb over from Eltham). By 8:30 am when the doors opened there were over 200 people in line. The government has been terribly confusing with their messages out to the public, highly unprepared. People are confused about what they can and can’t do, what businesses are remaining open, who is eligible… it’s a mess. Why are liquor stores and hair salons considered essential?? There have been spikes in young people getting this virus as young as 18, and they are dying. The virus coats your lungs like a jelly ultimately blocking oxygen. We did what is hopefully our last grocery shop because being in the store is just as contagious as a café. There’s no safety or hygiene measures in place. We had gloves on and people were dancing around each other in the aisles to maintain 1.5m social distance.

The U.S. is becoming the new epicenter with horrific rapid spreading, particularly in New York. Flight around the world, including as of today AU, are being stopped and we can no longer leave the country at all.

To Be Continued…..

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emilyeeew-blog · 4 years

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COVID-19 & The Co-Op

So. On March 16th, Co-Op volunteers and employees were sent an email titled “COVID-19 Precautions for the Riverwest Co-Op”. This email detailed the necessary precautions that we’ve all heard a million times by now. “Wash your hands”. “Change your gloves frequently”. “Don’t come in if you are experiencing any symptoms.” etc., etc. This was right when everything started to “blow up” about the coronavirus.

Little did we know, a day later, volunteers would be asked not to come in anymore. Five days after that, on the 22nd, there would be another email which explained a temporary store closure that would allow employees to do a deep cleaning of the store, so the residents of the Riverwest community who rely on the Co-Op for fresh foods and other goods won’t be left empty handed during this crisis. The cafe will remain closed.

This is an incredibly unfortunate situation, and I feel awful that as a volunteer, as a community member, there isn’t really much I can do to help. There isn’t much that anyone in the world can do about this situation right now. In one of the emails, our coordinator Annica wrote: “The best way you can be a "helper" during this time is by staying home and not coming in for your volunteer shift.”

It’s interesting to think that we are all helping during this unfortunate situation by staying home, by not physically interacting. The main thing that gives the Co-Op so much vitality is the people that work, volunteer, and shop there. Of course, they will remain open for essentials, because they provide food to the community, but without the laughter from a full cafe, or the individuals running into each other to catch up right outside the front steps, will the sense of community be lost? Or will this situation help the community silently grow closer?

I think this is a crazy growing opportunity, as much as it is terrifying. I think it will allow people to step up and help in ways that they may not have considered before hand.

Even after this class is over, I plan on going back to the Co-Op once it is safe to work some more volunteer shifts. I know that many small businesses and community businesses will need the help of volunteers and community members to get back up once this turmoil works itself out.

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jonwongton · 3 years

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12/04/21

It’s my last night in Seoul on my three month trip to South Korea!

When I think about it, it really was the perfect time to come here in almost every way. Ignoring the fact that we’re in the middle of pandemic:

I was able to keep my job since my whole company is still working remotely

I don’t have any big obligations that would prevent me from coming here (my own family, a mortgage, etc.)

The trip was stretched over a long period, so I could exhaust my drive for adventure on the weekends and experience Korean home life to recover on the weekdays

I came (vaccinated) during a time that wasn’t that bad, and I’m leaving right before things get worse (again)

I’m feeling super conflicted because I feel like I’ve been here for ages but this trip also flew by in the blink of an eye. On one hand, I can hardly remember quarantining in Myeongdong three months ago since so much has happened since then, but on the other hand, it feels like yesterday I was standing at SFO super nervous about how this trip would turn out.

This really has been the trip of a lifetime. I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to do something like this again, but I’m so thankful I had the opportunity to come here. I got to do almost EVERYTHING I ever wanted to do here. I can’t list everything, but some of the highlights include:

Visiting all the famous neighborhoods in Seoul (Myeongdong, Hongdae, Insadong, Gangnam, Itaewon)

Seeing all the famous sights in Busan

Seeing all the famous sights in Jeju

Seeing all the famous sights in Jeonju

Going up Namsan tower

Going to both Lotte World and Everland

Seeing Hangang both during the day and at night, riding a bike along the river, and making ramen at a convenience store

Trying almost every Korean food imaginable

Trying all the famous coffee shops and fast food chains

Hanging out in fancy cafes

It’s been a completely unforgettable experience, and I have 6.5k pictures to look back on if I ever want to relive this trip.

My love for kpop has been my main reason for wanting to learn Korean and come here, so naturally, the kpop related things I did ended up being the most memorable. Retracing GFriend and fromis_9′s steps and experiencing the same things I watched them do in videos throughout the years will definitely be the memories I cherish the most. This includes:

Spending the day in Namsan park

Going to gamcheon cultural village, gukje market, jeonpo cafe street, and gwangalli beach in Busan

Going go-karting, horse back riding, yacht riding, and hiking up the oreum in Jeju

Hiking up seongsan ilchulbong, riding a bike around Udo, and picking tangerines in Jeju

Going to the hanok village and the mural village in Jeonju

Riding all the same roller coasters in Everland

I was also lucky enough to be in Seoul for both Hayoung day and Jisun day. Birthday ad and cafe hunting is something I’m so glad I got to experience, and it makes me wish I could live here so I could be around for every birthday.

Because of COVID, there are still a few things I’d like to do like attend a music show live or see GSL live, but I’m sure I’ll get the chance later on. That just means there’ll be a next time right?

One upside from solo traveling is all the time I got to spend with myself. I went on an hour long “clear my head walk” almost every day, and that alone time really helped me

Get some fresh air and exercise

Process all my thoughts and emotions

Plan what I want the next couple years of my life to look like

This trip was a great way to close 2021, but I’m ready to start working towards all the goals that I set.

When I get the chance, I’ll try to post some of the highlights and my favorite pictures so I can have a bit more closure from this once-in-a-lifetime trip.

But for now, it’s time to go home.

#life

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nelliievance · 3 years

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Active Transportation and “Curbing Traffic”

Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives is the name of an interesting book I recently read by Chris and Melissa Bruntlett. I’ve previously discussed their book Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality which describes the history and implementation of measures taken to make Dutch cities bike and pedestrian friendly. The result is they have some of the highest percentages of trips taken by active transportation, and lowest percentages by motor vehicle, of any cities in the world.

http://www.Amazon.com/books

Their new book has a more personal perspective. The authors both found jobs in the city of Delft in the Netherlands, with a population of a bit over 100,000. They relocated there with their family (a younger son and a high-school age daughter), from Vancouver, BC. They were already a “car-lite” family in Vancouver, not owning any motor vehicles, renting one when needed, and walking and biking as much as possible. Vancouver is a beautiful city, which has worked hard to become more pedestrian and bike friendly in recent years. But the contrast in lifestyle with Delft was night and day. The difference is that Delft, like other Dutch cities, has not just striven over the past few decades to provide good pedestrian and bike facilities. They have actively worked on curbing motor vehicle traffic, so that their cities are much less “car dominant”.

Local streets, especially residential streets, are kept to a speed limit under 30 km/hr (about 18 mph), with various “traffic calming” measures. These streets feed to “collector” streets which take traffic out to a ring road around the city where speed limits are higher. Care is taken to eliminate what are called “sneaky routes”, where motor vehicles can try to take short cuts through the traffic-calmed parts of the city. This has become more of an issue in other countries like the US in recent years, with the advent of gps navigation, which will often help drivers find such “sneaky routes”. The idea is for drivers to take the ring road to get as close as possible to their destination in the city, and take a collector street into the closest parking garage. Thenceforth they are on foot.

This right away reminded me of the Stanford University campus, which is organized much the same way. “Campus Drive” is the ring road. If you want to go to the business school, you take the closest road in from Campus drive (with typically a speed limit of 15 mph (less than 30 km/hr.) and park in the nearest lot, and then are on foot. If you want to go to the engineering school or medical school which are on the other side of campus, you get back on Campus drive and drive around to the other side. There are few ways to sneak through the middle of the campus. This makes the campus inside Campus drive delightful if you are on foot or bike. But it is still perfectly reasonable to get around by car. And it tends to encourage walking, because it’s actually much quicker to cut across campus on foot than to get back in your car and drive around to find another lot. Many campuses in North America are like this. We just have to figure out how to organize our cities a similar way, as the Dutch have.

Stanford streetscape inside Campus Drive. Few vehicles on calmed streets, lots of bikes and pedestrians (Google Maps)

This brings up the question of people with limited mobility. In Delft the best solution seems to be mobility scooters, which fit in perfectly with the bike facilities. This works well as a solution in large stores, so it seems reasonable to extend it to downtowns. In the book the authors tell the story of a friend Mara who does fine in Delft using either her mobility scooter or her hand powered tricycle.

The most encouraging aspect of the Bruntlett’s personal story is the effect it has on their children, who thrive and become quite independent. They quickly learn to ride their bikes everywhere, as well as take advantage of transit and regional rail, which is very well organized. The parents learn not to bat an eyelash if the kids decide to go to a neighboring city like the Hague or Rotterdam. “Ok honey, just be back in time for dinner”. This is a tremendous relief for the parents, who no longer have to escort the kids to all their extracurricular activities, since they know they are perfectly safe finding their own way. They describe also how beneficial this is to the children’s development, in contrast to being members of the “backseat generation”, so prevalent in much of the modern, car-oriented, world.

This book answered a question for me that frustrates active transportation advocates: “why are we not achieving a higher ‘mode share’ (percentage of trips taken) for biking and walking?” In North America, it remains disappointingly low in many cities, down around 2% or so, with motor vehicles doing 95% or more of trips. Even cities at the top of the list in bike friendliness like Portland or Minneapolis are lucky to achieve 10% mode share. The answer seems to be that while we are doing a better job of providing alternatives, we are not doing enough to curb motor vehicle traffic. In the US and Canada we have spent decades sacrificing more and more of the land area of our cities to automobiles, including disruptively shoving freeways right through downtown areas, often at the expense of demolishing neighborhoods to make room for them. There’s a case to be made that we’ve already made our downtowns much too friendly to motor vehicles at the expense of everyone else. Curbing traffic seems be the missing step.

Here’s an example. My little town of Morgan Hill has an attractive downtown with quant restaurants and shops, that is only four blocks long. We have more than adequate off-street parking, both behind the downtown buildings and in a large garage. All free. So why does there have to be on-street parking all along our main street? Why should you be able to park right in front of your destination, rather than walk a block or two? People routinely walk more than the entire length of downtown Morgan Hill when they are shopping in department stores. And realistically, you’re not going to be able to park right out front, you’re going to clog up traffic driving around the block looking for a close space before giving up and parking in the garage anyway. The space wasted on the on-street parking could add considerably to the downtown ambience, with planters and sidewalk cafe space.

It will be interesting to see how the traffic reduction, and makeshift “taking back the streets” that took place during the Covid19 shutdown affects things going forward, a point the authors made in the book. There is already an interesting sign of this in Morgan Hill. A few years back, the city did a pilot study of reducing Monterey Road, the main road through downtown, to one lane each way. The majority of merchants objected, and many citizens threw a fit, leading to some raucous city hall meetings. Then during the Covid 19 shutdown, merchants were permitted to place barriers blocking a lane to create outdoors space, which was especially popular with restaurants for outdoor dining. Afterwards the merchants were again polled about the idea of the lane reduction, and the majority were now in favor of it. The city quietly announced they were going ahead with making the lane reduction permanent, and there has been little backlash. Amazing how just being able to temporarily experience less traffic, and more space devoted to human beings, changed attitudes.

Active Transportation and “Curbing Traffic” published first on https://steroidsca.tumblr.com/

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restorerjourney · 3 years

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Our last week and a half of outreach!!

08/19/2021

Sorry for the delay in updating you guys but the past week and a half has been a whirlwind...I feel like I’ve been saying that for every week, but literally this week was as well ^^;;

To summarize last week,

Monday: We did our usual preparation for street evangelism in the evening and asked God to speak to us on what He wanted us to do and who specifically He wanted us to meet. We call it “treasure hunting” when we ask God to highlight or describe whom God want us to meet. It’s been fun and so encouraging to see how we actually get to meet the people that He has described to us and encouraging that we could hear the voice of God. So normally when we get together we all take time to hear the voice and then go around in a circle and briefly share. It’s tedious to be honest and it’s tempting to just be told by the leaders what to do, but it’s SO MUCH better to do it this way because this really builds and unifies our faith as we trust God as our leader. That day we saw us doing soccer with the children, painting nails ministry, and meeting people as we walk down the street..so we divided into groups based on what we individually saw or heard from God. Some of us saw us worshipping with flags beforehand and so we decided to do that before we split into groups. It was so beautiful seeing the sunset and as we sang 3 songs, I danced with the flags. The old Alicia would have been embarrassed to be known as the “flag lady” but honestly it was liberating and I didn’t care what others thought of me. All I wanted was for the people to see through these flags that our group represented the peace and free gift from God. Locals took recording of us and watched us with awe and curiosity which was encouraging to witness. I did nail ministry and me and some of my team members met a group of girls who wanted to their nails done. After we ask them what color they want their nails done, we would share the 5 finger gospel that was represented with each different nail color so that they would remember. We also shared our testimony and I could see the awe and wonder in their eyes. It was their first time hearing the gospel and they all accepted Jesus in their hearts. I could tell some are still questioning it but I do believe and pray in faith that in that moment we invited the Holy spirit to plant seeds and start moving in their lives.

Side note: In Mexico, because their religion is predominantly Catholicism, many of them get it confused with Christianity. We emphasize and explain that Christianity is not just a religion but a relationship...that it’s not about perfection but knowing Jesus died and rose again despite our weakness and failures...so when we share the gospel to them, they are very receptive to accepting Him and the Holy spirit. What has been really helpful was trying to connect them with a local church or giving them bible which we have been implementing lately. Our desire as team is to not have just converts but disciples of Christ.

Tuesday morning we did one of the hottest ministries that I’ve experienced in my life..like literally it was so hot that you could cook an egg outside..and on top of that having to wear a KN94 mask and long sleeves so you don’t bit by mosquitoes...what an experience lol. There God spoke and assigned to us what he wanted us to do. Some of us gave food and drink to the families waiting outside of the hospital since no one could go in due to COVID. I was in the evangelism group and we encountered 3 groups of people. One of them was a christian woman who reached out to us to pray for her and her daughter who in labor early. It was encouraging to see her radiant faith and worshipping outside despite the heat for her daughter. There was another man that we met who was outside because his cousin got COVID and was there a lot longer than expected. Yedam, Javi, Yoonkyung and I shared the gospel, prayed for his original design, and encouraged him. Original design prayer is literally what it sounds like. Praying for what God has originally intended and gifted you before you were born. I’ve witnessed and experienced people becoming so much more receptive to the gospel and touched by the Holy spirit through this prayer. In the evening we did our weekly clean up at the base’s cafeteria. This experience is pretty much hard labor with no a/c, washing dishes, mopping the floor and praying that you don’t get bit by mosquitoes.

Wednesday we did our last bible distribution. We give out about 77 bibles every time we go since we each carry 7 bibles in our backpacks as we walk through neighbors. This time I felt God was gracious to me that everyone received them and when there is no one home, we usually leave it at the door and pray for the home that the family there would know Jesus. We’ve heard stories of people receiving Jesus Christ just by reading His word so it really encourages me that we as our team get to be part of this ministry. After we did ministry preparation for the following ministries this week while eating oreos, mexican snacks, and our one drink we get a day at the cafe. I usually get just iced tea with no sugar. We then went to a local church later in the evening and attended worship and some of us, including myself shared our testimony. I shared my journey of getting my period here in Mazatlan and how this second time really sealed the deal for me that I was healed. Three main points that I shared throughout my testimony was 1) that God loves to see our faith before He shows us His power 2) His ways are so much higher than ours, even when it doesn’t make sense 3) to worship the promise keeper more than the promise. For those who are interested in hearing it, I have a recording that I can send it to you guys!

Thursday we had our weekly campus intercession where we prayed for each other and the different spheres that God has placed us...whether if it’s science, business, arts, family, etc. After we were told for our weekly base cleaning duty to weed the garden at the base. This garden is in between the two sections of the base where there is no shade and weeds everywhere. This was one hurdle that our team had to face weekly because as much as we understand the concept of weeding, it didn’t make sense to us they didn’t spray any weed killer after. Weeding at 12pm in 95 degree weather for an hour is no bueno. However God spoke to me of how similar sin is to weeds and that we need to continually check the gardens in our own heart to prevent these weeds from going rampant. The bigger the weed, the more difficult and work it takes to remove them...because they literally start to look like small trees. After that gruesome afternoon, we found out last minute that we can go to Stone Island for the last time. We had zero expectation that we could ever go since COVID cases were so high there and to protect the people however we got an open door opportunity. There I got to visit the rehabilitation center where it’s mostly people who involuntarily are put there to be rehabilitated from alcohol or drug abuse. I was with a team called BSN which is a secondary school that teaches their students how to teach the bible to others. Every week they visit this center and share a bible study with them. It really encouraged my heart that I got to see the church be a light to this center by sharing to them God’s word. Also every time we go Stone Island we have to take a ferry to get there so it was sad to ride it one last time. Stone Island has been special in my heart because that is where we did our first and last alpha course before the pandemic hit the island really hard. There is a lot of witchcraft and idolatry there as well. There is a part of the island where this is a huge wooden cross but right next to it, there is an animal sacrifice altar for witchcraft. That’s how dark this place is, but we’ve received so many promises over this place that God is going to raise an army of believer particularly children here. I’m so thankful that I got to visit the island one last time before we go. For dinner, we usually go out with some of the ministry leaders and we get to bless them with a free meal and develop a relationship with them. This is crucial to share because before we left for Mazatlan, we heard from the Lord to not only serve the poor but leaders as well.

Friday afternoon we went to help out at another local church plant that just started but was postponed for awhile due to the pandemic. We helped out by giving out bible tracts on the book of John to the local neighborhood. I was with our translator Alejandro, Dayoung, and Imjae. The highlight for me during that time was when we got to meet a woman name Ilda and her husband to be and how welcoming they were to their home. They are in their late 60′s and although they didn’t have much they were so friendly and welcoming to their humble home. In the late afternoon we went to one of my favorite ministries which is Racham. Racham in Hebrew means “ a touch of compassion” or “to restore”. I shared previously that it is a children’s ministry that is partnered with the government to help abused children get out of the streets and find homes. All the girls there have been raped and all the boys have either done or sold drugs. The age range is 4 to 15-years-old. They are all so sweet and precious and we had such a great time playing games, teaching them how to hear God’s voice on their own original design, and the importance of community. Time flies by so fast when I am with them.

During the weekend I mostly spent time with people that I would see for the last time in a while. In the morning I ate lunch with my old roomies, did some last minute shopping, and hang out with some of the ywammers here in Mazatlan. One of my favorite memory is going to Sophie’s house and having a girl’s movie night. We got to watch “Coco” which was perfect to watch while being in Mexico. It was so cool to see up close what a life of a long term missionary looked like. And what’s crazy is that they are mostly late teens early twenties. They are all truly brave and I admire their yes to Jesus.

Sunday...omg was probably the HARDEST TRIAL I’ve experienced coming here in Mazatlan and it’s kinda comical. It was going to one of the local church’s sunday service. Before you judge, let me explain. 90% of the time when we go somewhere new to help out or attend, we have no idea where we are going. We just try our best to prepare. For example, always wear sunblock, and bug repellant because you never know where they might place you and you could be in the middle of the desert with a cloud of mosquitoes because there is a swamp nearby. I’ve gotten used to this always preparing myself as much as possible. When we got there, we find out there are 30-40 people there and the service is outside. I thought “Oh..Lord...”. Thankfully there were fans but it was HOT. And probably not the safest during the pandemic to gather like this, but what can you do? Just gotta walk in faith. So we did not take our KN94 masks off at all and by the end of the service which was almost 3 hours long!, our masks were gross. What was hardest for me was not preparing mentally that this service was going to be so long and while I was sitting there, the pastor had his microphone in full blast, the wind from the fans were blowing in my face giving me a headache, and I was getting hungry. Bad combination. I wanted to fall asleep so bad but had the burden to stay awake because the locals knew we were missionaries! It was like dying to myself and I had to use every once of strength to stay awake despite the heat and humidity. In the end, I felt convicted to never take a/c for granted at church and despite the environment situation, the locals were still worshipping God with everything they had which was inspirational. In the evening we had to out in the hot sun to support a local ywammer that we met who is making a music video and she wanted to use us as actors. As fatigued as we were from the heat, I believe God allowed us to be part of something so powerful through the song that she has written to bless the nations. I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Monday morning we met with the Stone Island church plant pastor whom we partnered earlier to start an alpha course. We met them to answer any questions they had about alpha before we left and to tie up any loose ends. It was so encouraging to hear their appreciation and how our small obedience to God really bless their ministry and vision. The locals who participated even approached the pastor and asked when the next session was! They will be restarting Alpha again hopefully next month if things are more under control with the pandemic. In the evening we did our last street evangelism which was such a sweet ending. We felt the Lord leading us to go to a popular market place down town and worship there and do a prayer walk while treasure hunting on the way back to the base. God shared with me to find a woman with a small boy who would come up to me. When we worshipped, a lot of the by passers watched and listened to us in awe and wonder. A lot of our team members felt a shift in the atmosphere and it was such a great foundation to start our ministry. I went with Javi, Yoonkyung, and Grace and God graciously showed us all the people we were looking for! One highlight was the woman with the small boy that I saw immediately came up to us after we worshipped and we shared the gospel to them. I could tell her in her eyes she was so blessed and encouraged by her prayers.

Tuesday we went to the dump ministry which was our last ministry for outreach. We went to the market to prepare the food as usual and this time thankfully didn’t have to climb up to the back of a truck to arrive to the dumpster. Some of us tried to put drops of eucalyptus essential oil on our mask but after 30 seconds it became powerless against the smell of death we faced at the dumpster. To me the smell the second time coming was a lot worse and I almost wanted to puke. It just smelled like death and you just would immediately feel nauseous. That morning however before ministry God spoke to me to find a woman named “ Esmeralda” and to pray for her and tell her how much God loves her. At the dumpster when I was trying not to puke, I asked around if there was an Esmeralda. No one answered. However more people started to line up and I asked again and I found her! There was only one and I got so excited. It’s just so cool and fun to do ministry like this with God and be reassured again that you could hear God’s voice. She didn’t know Jesus so I felt led to share the gospel and my testimony to her. She accepted Jesus and I shared to her how much God loved her and told me to find her this morning. I could tell in her eyes that she was in wonder and awe of who Jesus is.

Wednesday we went to get our COVID tests done before our flight on Friday. We were kinda nervous because if one of us was positive that person would have to stay behind and quarantine. Praise the Lord we were all negative! I believe it’s because of God’s mercy and grace towards our team and we were so truly grateful that not one of us got COVID during outreach...especially with the number of people we met during ministry.

Thursday we debriefed, packed, ate our last tacos, and cleaned up. Today is our last full day here and tomorrow we have our flight around 1:30PM. We have two layovers, Phoenix and LA...so we do have some prayer requests.

1) Travel mercies especially for our Korean citizens. They have to go through immigration again to re-enter the states and if they are denied they won’t be to finish remix and will be sent home. Also LA is doing pretty bad with COVID, please pray for protection and smooth transition to Honolulu.

2) Remix: Please pray for us to adjust quickly to our remix session as we will be spending about a month processing all that God has revealed to us..where God will take us...and what He wants to do after DTS. This is what we all have been waiting for really and on top of that, it’s also a lot of emotions because we have become so close as a family. Please pray that we would continue to pursue unity as a team and have many more breakthroughs while we are there.

Thank you for reading this long summary! There is still so much I have left out but because I gotta pack, I will leave it up to here!

-Alicia

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australiandentalschools · 3 years

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How to make the most of “Winter” break in Australia

My name is Brittani and I study at Griffith University Dental School. If you are thinking of coming to Queensland for your schooling (whenever borders open!), then allow me to convince you why you should!

Queensland is a beautiful state with a million things to see and do, one of which is the trendy beach town, Noosa. Considering the average winter temperature in Noosa is about 20–22 Celsius, I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to spend your semester break anywhere else.

So, here’s my mini road trip to this beautiful place!

Day 1: Sunshine Coast, Noosa National Park, Noosa Leaving from Brisbane at the wonderful time of 5:30 a.m. was not as fun as I anticipated it might be—but it was worth it! Not only did I get to watch the sunrise as we drove, but weeks before I set out on my mini road trip, I came across a little café that sells the most delicious looking muffins ever, located in Sunshine Coast. Naturally, I decided I had to have one—even though they open at 7 a.m., are an hour and half from Brisbane, and sell out very quickly. Hence my early wake-up time! Their muffin flavours change daily and I was praying that the day I went, it would be a delicious flavor. I was not disappointed. Behold, the beauty of my butterscotch brownie raspberry muffin from The Velo Project Café.

After this delicious pitstop, I headed north up to Noosa Heads. First stop: Noosa National Park! This is a must-do for anyone visiting Noosa. The scenic nature walk has breathtaking views of glittering ocean, white sand beaches, and beautiful rock formations. A few kilometers in, you can stop by the famous Noosa fairy pools! These are small pools located in the rock formations that have become very popular for their picturesque waters. Between the fairy pools, beaches, and nature hiking paths, you can spend the entire day at Noosa National Park and feel like you didn’t see it all. 10/10 would recommend.

Once the sun goes down, it gets dark very quickly. This is the perfect time to have dinner on Hastings Street, Noosa’s main drag! Filled with tons of restaurants and cafes, clothing boutiques, gelaterias, and hotels, this street is always full of life. All the trees are lit up at nighttime as well, making it a beautiful evening activity!

Day 2: Whales, Laguna Lookout I had pre-booked an excursion for this day: Swimming with humpback whales! I can’t believe that’s even a thing, but it is! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to swim with the whales due to various circumstances (like the whales displaying aggressive behaviour that day), but I did get to see some beautiful humpbacks breaching off the coast of Mooloolaba (about a 30-minute drive from Noosa) and it was an unforgettable experience. Also, unfortunately, I did not manage to get any photos of these giant whales because I apparently am not fast enough with my camera… but I highly recommend this trip for anyone wanting a bit of an adventure!

After a long day of driving and seafaring, I thought it would be nice to wind down by watching the sunset. A popular place to do this is Laguna Lookout. You lookout over the waters of Noosa to see the sun set behind the mountains in the background. It was beautiful!

Day 3: Noosa Botanical Gardens, Beaches, Tinbeerwah I love picnics, so of course I had to find a good picnic spot to attend while in Noosa. I came across the Noosa Botanical Gardens located on Lake Macdonald, complete with a Greek-style amphitheater that looked like the perfect place for a picnic. And it was! I went in the morning around 9 a.m. and the sun was glistening off the lake. The amphitheater was empty and all you could hear was the birds chirping. I enjoyed my croissants and jam by the lake, and I don’t think life gets much better than that!

After that, the sun was starting to warm up, so I thought the obvious choice was to go to the beach. There are many beaches to choose from including Noosa Main Beach, Tea Tree Bay, and Alexandria Bay. If you want a beach close by with lots of amenities and restaurants, Noosa Main Beach is your best bet (although it can get a bit busy). Tea Tree Bay is quieter and more secluded, but even more beautiful in my opinion than Noosa Main Beach. You do have to do a short hike into the national park to get there though, but it is free! Alexandria Bay is much further to walk to than Tea Tree Bay, but it has very calm waters and is also beautiful. There really isn’t a bad beach you can go to in Noosa! The only thing that could have made the beaches better here is a nice cold Iced Capp from Tim Hortons.

Due to the previous night’s beautiful sunset, I wanted to see another. I had overheard some locals talking about Tinbeerwah lookout as being the place to go to watch it, so that’s where I headed! A little further off the main drag than Laguna Lookout, Tinbeerwah lookout is situated atop a mountain in Noosa which means a short hike is included in your sunset viewing! But the view is worth it. You get a complete 360-degree view of Noosa and its surrounding land and you can watch the sunset uninterrupted by any trees or hills.

So that pretty much sums up my trip! There were other things I wanted to do in Noosa such as strawberry picking and the Eumundi markets, but unfortunately due to COVID-19, these attractions were still closed.

That really just means I have to go back! If this hasn’t convinced you to come to Queensland I really am not sure what will… but, enjoy the summer while it lasts in Canada!

Follow Brittani on Instagram!

Studying at Griffith Dental School

Griffith Dental School has state-of-the-art, special-purpose dental facilities and modern laboratories, including a commercial dental lab in a new $150-million purpose-built Griffith Health Centre.

As a Griffith dentistry student, you’ll have the opportunity to undertake community placements in state schools, rural and remote communities and in Indigenous and aged care. Completing Griffith’s Bachelor of Dental Health Science and the two-year Master of Dentistry program provides the education and skills you need to apply for registration as a dentist!

Program: Bachelor of Dental Health Science/Master of Dentistry Location: Gold Coast, Queensland Duration: 3 years & 2 years

Entry Requirements for the Griffith University Dentistry Program

Entry into Griffith Dental School’s Bachelor of Dental Health Science (and Master of Dentistry) program is directly from high school. Students may also apply to the program during or at the completion of their undergraduate degree.

1. From high school

Average of 94+% from top Grade 12 subjects required. Grade 12 (or equivalent) English is required. Biological science, chemistry, physics, and maths B are strongly recommended as they are considered assumed knowledge.

2. From university

Cumulative GPA of 3.0+ / 4.0 (or equivalent).The DAT (Dental Aptitude Test) is not required when applying to the Griffith Bachelor of Dental Health Science / Master of Dentistry.

#griffith university #griffith dentistry #griffith dental school #canadian dentistry students in australia #study dentistry #things to do in australia #explore australia

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orbemnews · 3 years

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The Siege of Sarajevo lasted for years -- now the city's battle with Covid-19 is dragging on with no end in sight They’re a constant reminder of the bloody conflict in the early 1990s that claimed the lives of around 100,000 people. This city, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was besieged for almost four years and 11,000 people died in Sarajevo alone. Now the city is fighting a very different kind of war. In recent months, the Covid-19 pandemic here has taken lives at a pace not seen since the siege of almost three decades ago. Between March 1 and April 28, 698 people have died of coronavirus in the city, according to the Canton of Sarajevo government — with an average daily toll of 13 and 10 in those respective months. The Siege of Sarajevo saw a daily average of seven deaths, including combatants, although it also saw gruesome mass-casualty incidents such as a marketplace bombardment in 1994 that took 68 lives. Dr. Ismet Gavrankapetanović, the head of Sarajevo General Hospital, remembers treating the many victims coming through his doors every day with gunshot and shrapnel wounds during the 1990s blockade. And — as Bosnia experiences its deadliest period of the pandemic so far — the 59-year-old Gavrankapetanović says there’s now a familiar feeling inside the emergency room. “You can’t see your enemy and a lot of people are dying because of that virus. That is really a war,” he told CNN. “[During the siege] in Sarajevo we were completely surrounded — a lot of injuries and a lot of troubles, but also in the last three months that was also very similar, so [it’s a] difficult situation.” Gavrankapetanović says that among the victims of the pandemic have been many of his hospital colleagues — left vulnerable by a government that seems slow to get its act together. “We have a feeling that … nobody cares for us,” he added. Mediha Slatina, 53, lost her husband Dr. Enes Slatina to coronavirus in November. The 58-year-old was an ER physician at a clinic near Sarajevo airport. Slatina says he did everything he could to protect himself, but could not avoid contact with Covid-19 patients. The doctor battled the virus for 16 days from a hospital bed before he died. Two days before that, Slatina had lost her father to Covid-19, then four days later her mother-in-law also died. In a single week, the pandemic had claimed three of her closest loved ones. Slatina told CNN she feels that Bosnians “have been left alone and betrayed.” She says her country is suffering from a lack of coordination between the dizzying web of regional and local governments and national institutions. “The problem is not tackled by some joint action,” she added. “Everybody takes care for their own [region], but there is no common point, which would deal with this issue, we need something at the [national] level … and taking things seriously.” CNN reached out to the office of the current President of the national government, Milorad Dodik, which declined to make anyone available to comment. Zoran Blagojević, public relations consultant to the Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the country’s two autonomous regions, says his entity doesn’t even have a Health Minister at the national level. He told CNN that the national government — which has a presidency that rotates between the three main ethnic groups — should be leading and coordinating the two main regional governments. “In many countries the system is not working, but in our country it doesn’t work at all. It’s a very huge problem about who is responsible for what and that is the reason why we are delayed and late for some of the problems like buying vaccines, respirators or ventilators,” Blagojević told CNN. “The epidemic situation actually helps us to see very clearly how many things inside the system don’t work.” For Blagojević and many observers, the problems start breakdown in effective governance starts with the country’s constitutional law, which is based on a peace agreement, brokered in Dayton, Ohio in 1995, not on a traditional constitution. Since then, “nothing was changed to improve the functions of the country.” Sarajevo has been largely rebuilt since it was hollowed out by war, but ethnic divisions are still entrenched on the ground — including in the system of government that requires largely Eastern Orthodox Serbs, Bosnian Muslims and Catholic Croats to share power. This complex arrangement was enshrined in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constitution after the war and designed to prevent future conflicts. Yet some observers say it has also made it difficult for the government to effectively tackle the pandemic. National institutions are weak and while the two main regional governments are strong, experts say they’re often reluctant to coordinate and work together. Adnan Ćerimagić, a senior analyst at the European Stability Initiative, says his country pinned its hopes on purchasing vaccines from the COVAX program, which aims at helping poorer countries get doses, as well as getting surplus supplies from the European Union — which have yet to materialize. While the rest of the Western world is accelerating inoculation rollouts to head off another wave of infections, as of late April Bosnia and Herzegovina has only received 226,800 vaccine doses — many of them donated from Turkey, Serbia and China — according to central government figures and Ćerimagić’s tally. With a population of 3.3 million, that works out as about seven doses for every 100 people — well behind the mid-April European average of 29 doses for every 100 citizens. More than one-third of the country’s vaccine supply was either procured or donated to a local or regional government, not a federal institution. One of the main regional governments, the Republika Srpska, then bolstered its supply with an order of 67,000 Sputnik V vaccines from Russia, according to Ćerimagić. The government’s failure to purchase enough vaccines prompted protests in Sarajevo in early April. “Those protests were well-intended, and were basically a reflection of the state of mind of [the] majority of the population,” said Ćerimagić. “For months they were told that the authorities are not doing anything when it comes to purchasing vaccines while Croatia has started the vaccination program and Serbia is a global success on vaccinations,” he added. Indeed, Serbia’s rollout has been such a success that it is letting its citizens choose which of its five vaccine brands they’d like to be injected with. Last month, Bosnia’s Balkan neighbor even opened its vaccine program to foreigners. Bosnians streamed across the border to get a shot in response. So far around 40,000 foreigners have been vaccinated in Serbia, the largest group among them Bosnians, according to figures from the Serbian prime minister’s office. “We are a small region, and if you’re not safe, even when we get the collective immunity, we’re not going to be safe,” Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić told CNN at the time. In response to surging infection rates, Sarajevo imposed curfews and restrictions in March — but, as in many places around the world, its fragile economy can’t afford to stay closed for long. Ćerimagić says that restrictions were loosened at the first sign of declining case counts. While the overnight curfew has remained, shops and cafes have reopened, with some even serving indoors. This cycle of lockdown restrictions isn’t sustainable, Sarajevo Mayor Benjamina Karić maintains. “We will lockdown the city, we will lockdown the people, but without vaccines it doesn’t mean a lot,” she said. The mayor is also frustrated by the failure at higher levels of government to procure enough vaccines. “I think that the worst possible thing is that this could be stopped, in the same way as the war could be stopped during the 90s. Now we can buy vaccines, we have money to buy vaccines, but we do not have a system,” she added. Her sentiments are shared by Dr. Bakir Nakaš, a retired physician who specialized in infectious diseases and managed Sarajevo General Hospital during the war. He now lives in small wooden country house surrounded by green rolling hills just outside the city. That’s where he feels safest, away from the crowds of Sarajevo. Nakaš says that not only have Covid-19 restrictions been too weak, so has the vaccine procurement effort. “Everyone in our region started to vaccinate their citizens from the January of this year and Bosnia Herzegovina didn’t have enough vaccines to allow us to start to do this,” he said. Nakaš blames the delay on a lack of government coordination, and he’s not optimistic it will improve. “I can’t be sure that citizens of Sarajevo will be protected by the end of this year,” he added. The current hospital chief, Gavrankapetanović, agrees. “Without the vaccination, I’m sure that we will have a fourth wave soon. And I am also sure that this will be a never-ending crisis,” he said. Last month, central Sarajevo’s Bare cemetery struggled to keep up with the pace of burials. Moving across this huge complex, as the white gravestones marking the Bosnian War dead end, the freshly sealed graves of the pandemic victims begin. In the cemetery, Ramiza Tahirović buys flowers to lay on the grave of her nephew Ismet Osmanović, who died from Covid-19 just seven days earlier. At 45 years old, he spent more than two weeks in the hospital hooked up to oxygen. “Then after 15 days they moved him to the ICU unit and put him on a ventilator and we never spoke to him or saw him again,” Tahirović said. Asked if she is afraid of the virus, she replies: “I cry, I am scared. I am 75 and I don’t see any progress … still so many people are dying.” Despite her age, however, Tahirović says she won’t get the vaccine, as she isn’t convinced of its safety. Amid Sarajevo’s mounting deaths, she isn’t convinced of much anymore. “I don’t trust the doctors, I don’t trust the government, I don’t trust anyone,” she explains. “The trams and buses are full of people, many of them are asymptomatic, I just don’t feel safe.” Tim Lewis, Fred Pleitgen and Claudia Otto contributed to this report. Source link Orbem News #Battle #citys #Covid19 #dragging #lasted #Sarajevo #Siege #sight #Years

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dreamsinfiction17 · 3 years

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Reflection.

So here is my reflection post for 2020. I’m sure I’m not the first one to say this cos COVID was a major pain in everyone’s asses but yes, 2020 was a hectic and unpredictable year.

Work: Not only did I have to adapt to a new work routine (it’s now 10 months into this WFH arrangement and I have a love-hate relationship with it), but I also had to handle with the fallout of the pandemic since our MB (Major Boss) was placed in charge of the response team. To make things even more fun, GE was added to the mix. This is my first time working in the civil service during a GE and I can say I have survived haha. It was an intense 2-week period, with me waking up at odd hours of the night and day to come up with coverage reports together with my colleagues. I wished we could have spent days in the office together as that would have made things less lonely but at least I felt encouraged by their warm messages every now and then. I also had to handle a period of 4 months when my colleague went on ML and that felt even more strenuous to me than GE and COVID, I feel. Maybe because it was for a long stretch of time when we were understaffed; at least during the peak of COVID and GE we could always count on covering one another. I also did a lot more translation work and the tight deadlines sometimes made me want to rip my hair off lol. But I would like to think that I have grown from the experience. And then, there were both senior management and director changes. Senior management changes was bearable but I was very sad to see one of the best bosses I’ve worked with move on to another portfolio. I hope we do cross paths again one day.

Okay now that I’ve written it all down; a lot of work-related things did happen in 2020. How did I survive all that without taking an overseas holiday? As J would say, my PB pay in March/April will definitely reflect my hard work the past year heh.

Personal: Hmm, I’m not sure if I’ve grown much personally in the past year. I always think that life is a marathon and your growth shouldn’t be measured by bouts of time but by seeing the bigger picture (if you get what I mean). I think I have learned to be a bit more mellow, to let things flow where they go as long as I have put in my best effort. It’s still hard sometimes as I tend to treat myself more harshly than I do with my friends or family, but ever since the new iOS update came out and I placed Kim Seokjin’s quote on my homescreen, I feel more comforted every time I look at it and remind myself to take it slow and go at my own pace.

The customisation of widgets took me 7 hours according to Screen Time >.<

Oddly, thanks to COVID and CB, I’ve become closer to my friends as we hang out more often (virtually) - almost every weekend at one point! I think we were all feeling the stress of staying at home 24/7. Also D is back in SG now! We all had a lot of fun watching Netflix shows together and playing online games (including virtual escape rooms which I love!) I’m glad that COVID gave me this silver lining - to reconnect with past friends and know who to rely on when times get tough.

I think I’ve also grown spritually this year? Since I was mostly WFH last year, I am so thankful that I managed to do my prayers on time each day and having time at all to just sit down and talk to God. I’m not the most spiritual/religious person but I loved having these dedicated small pockets of time where it’s just me and my Creator. Subhanallah, the many mercies of our daily solat. I hope this is a turning point for me spritually; please make many duas for me :)

I’ve also dabbled more in writing and personal fitness last year, especially during the circuit breaker months. As much as I love the written word, I’ve never really taken it seriously - maybe because I felt like I could never measure up to all the great works of literature that I’ve enjoyed over the years. But this year, I tried writing short prompts (thanks to Skillshare haha) and I was surprised with how much fun I had writing it! They’re not any good and I don’t know if I will publish them on the internet someday but I just liked nursing this little flame of writing passion I have with no expectations whatsoever. Hopefully I could do more writing sessions during my spare time and cafe days! On the personal fitness front, I felt myself getting more sedentary during CB, since my usual form of fitness (hour-long commutes to and fro work) were suddenly gone. I also felt more restless being cooped up at home. So I did my daily steps! I relied on my Xiaomi fitness tracker and did indoor walking while I was watching a show so that I feel more “productive” LOL. But then my tracker died (it just would not charge anymore?) so I took the opportunity to upgrade to an Apple Watch as a birthday present to myself! It was so expensive but also very much worth it (the Apple Store in MBS is also such a beaut). I’ve had it for close to a month now and loving it very much; it makes me want to be more active and close my Move, Exercise and Stand rings each day heh. I also synchronise it with my phone so that Telegram and Whatsapp messages come through too and now I don’t feel worried about missing an important work text while my phone is charging lol.

But one of the main highlights of 2020 is definitely working on achieving some of my childhood dreams. I finally signed up for piano classes with a private tutor! I was always semi-bitter that I didn’t get to do the things I want when I was a child (partly due to money being tight at home but also because that same money went to my brother’s hobbies urgh). Now that I’m a working adult, I’m gonna be independent and work on achieving my own dreams. I will probably write about my piano learning experience (thus far) in a separate blog post so I won’t go into too much detail here but I just want to say that I am loving it very much so far and it gives me so much joy <3

...and that’s it! What a lengthy wrap-up haha. Hope you’re not dozing off at the end of this post.

I’m looking forward to what 2021 will bring. Whether good or bad, I pray I have the strength to see through it all.

#wrapped2020 #2020 #recap post

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