Gobble gobble

Two days ago, I spotted 5 turkeys in a yard.
This woman named Betty saw them too, and she took out her phone and took pictures. Too bad for me, I did not have my camera with me nor did I have my phone (a lazy thought had passed through that morning, "I probably won't need it today." Pheesh=.= murphy's law at work). With envying eyes I glanced from her phone to the turkeys, and the turkeys back to her phone again. It's not everyday you get to see these legendary turkeys that are said to be spotted waddling around the streets in the Brookline area. I've only seen one toddling beside the road one early morning, but that was it. And the one day, the one day I don't have a photographic device with me I see five: five plump turkeys strolling in someone's backyard (which me and Betty trespassed to get a closer look), pecking at the grass. Betty gets a blurry photo of them, which she kindly offered to send to me and I of course accepted. Except that she didn't really know how to work it and I didn't really get the photo after all.

And nope the turkeys did not gobble.

Peak of the Week

This totally made my day yesterday.

A girl walked into our office at around 2pm, all panicky.
She couldn't find her class, and demanded our help. Yes, demand.
I wasn't at the front desk, but a pro staff and a fellow worker were in charge. Instead I was huddled in the corner with a media assistant computer, my back facing the door, but on a swiveling chair which allowed me to observe as I pleased. A safe corner away from the tempest that was about to break out.

And break out it did.

When the pro staff did what little he could to help, excluding calling the professor (as we probably really can't do that), she was even more agitated.

"In England they would make the call for me," she exclaimed.
"Well this is America," my fellow worker replied.
That sparked it.

She took it as a racial attack, which she had experienced in England probably not too long ago. "Why are you looking at me like that??" she cried. She dropped her bookbag and stared down at my poor fellow worker.

All attempts from the pro staff failed to calm her down. I debated whether to try to help, but also worried that the girl might take it the wrong way, thinking we were ganging up on her. And then our manager stepped in. Whew.

Our awesome manager, the "Ultimate Supervisor", took her into her office, shut the door, and all screams let go. We could hear her muffled tantrum, and I was located two cubicles away (maybe like, 10 to 20 feet away). Quite an interesing display.

Not long after the screams quieted down, and from what I later learned during my conversation with our awesome supervisor, she helped her call the professor and found out where the class was. Apparrently this girl was extremely worried she would fail and get kicked out of school if she missed even one class. She was even calm enough to come back and extend an apology to my fellow worker, claiming she's a very nice person.

orz to our manager.

New Experiment Yum Yum~~

Cucumber stuffed with ground pork, steamed.
Ground pork cake with an egg on top.

Yum yum . . . experiment successful!

Harvard Conference

During our first pilates-turned-taibo meetup, my friend Ashley told me she was going to attend the Harvard Business School 2009 Social Enterprise Conference. I took a look at the website, at the schedule, and even though I had no idea what social enterprise is and what the conference was about, I was tempted to go because there were many sessions that sounded interesting. Plus, a HARVARD conference at $40 including breakfast and lunch + a career fair? Our Child Lit program's summer conference costs like $400 for three days! Not a bad deal. For Harvard, I mean. So I signed up too. My first official, professional conference that hundreds were to attend.

The day before the conference I had planned to go shopping with Ashley because she wanted to get new clothes for the event. Never happened. My poor friend came down with the flu that week, and could not get better in time for the conference. We were both terribly disappointed because she had been looking forward to it for a long time, and it wouldn't be as much fun to go by myself. Of course I still went though. I dressed as professionally as I could, wearing the new shirt I my grandparents had bought me, a long vest that was my mom's, dark grey or black slacks (I couldn't tell), and Mary Jane's. For outerwear I wore the black coat that my aunt and uncle gave me last Christmas. Although, when I changed my shoes after the conference ended, I realized the metal plate at the bottom of one of my heels was missing. Which explains for the hollow sound I thought I heard when I walked. Thankfully I brought another pair of shoes . . . toddling around in heels for 12 hours is not my idea of comfort.

I got up before 6am, still debating whether to take the T or the bus. I finally decided to take the train when I go and take the bus when I come back. At the Harvard T stop I walked down JFK St., crossed a bridge, and the business school was at my left.

This is the walkway I randomly entered.


I only had the vaguest idea of where the Spangler Center was, and when I came upon an important-looking building, I went in, thinking maybe I would hit the spot. If not, maybe find someone I could ask.



It tunred out to be a library. It wasn't Spangler, but I was right that it was an important building. Lucky for me a woman came in from the other side and knew where Spangler was.


The other side of the library.

The Spangler Center.

Ah ha.

Nice, isn't it?

Where we register

and have breakfast!

Sure is professional. Totally worth it.

I was secretly hoping for scrambled eggs and sausage . . .

but I'll welcome pastries anytime.


This is the building where the keynotes are held.

In the auditorium.

Settling down.

Where the panels are held.

Burden Hall. It was starting to snow.

My first panel.

Nice bathroom. I feel like a bumpkin.

Talking about global health and the challenges of delivering to the needed.

Second panel.

A peep at the snowy scene. Sure feels different from Simmons.

Mid-morning snack! The banana bread was delicious, the other one I wasn't so fond of.

Second panel. Introductions. Talking about food as an agent for social change.

The restrooms are in the left hand corner.

Second keynote.

I calculated that there were probably around a thousand people sitting in the room.

We had a brown bag lunch, nothing fancy. I had a turkey sandwich, lay's, and a cookie.

I don't know whether it was the monotone of the speakers, tiredness, or food coma, or maybe all, I was nodding off, and noticed that I wasn't the only one. The woman sitting mext to me was definitely asleep. Haha.

There were two people that I met who left an impression in me. One is actually a Simmons alumn who studied economy, and the other is a Chinese girl who I happened to meet at the bus stop on our way back. She was very chatty and admitted so, and I was surprised that she shared about her experience on a ski trip and how this guy was interested in her. She even told me what her professor just told them about accepting students: apparently, one of their policies is to accept a balanced amount of fast learners and slow learners. (Hmm...I'm a slow learner, so how come I didn't get in?:P) Anyways. Cute woman. (By the way, the ride on the bus was half as long as that on the T @@)

Third panel. The influence of media.

I only stayed half an hour for this one, because I was anxious to get to the career fair which would end when the last keynote ended. Choices, choices, choices.

The career fair was held in the room where we had breakfast, and boy were there a lot of people. There was a snack table in the middle of the room, with fruit, cheese, crackers, bread, and most yummy of all, Newman's Own all-natural pizza. They sure know h0w to advertise. I forgot to take pictures though. My hands were full of my resumes and company brochures.

Third and last keynote. About Ebay's World of Goods.

Not a lot of people left. Many left I suppose, and the rest are definitely still at the fair.

LOOT!

They gave us each a bag full of goodies: a conference tote,

Whole Foods tote, a t-shirt, Newman's Own Almond cereal,

Good Mountain tumbler, tea and teabags, hand-made triple

chocolate, heart-shaped cookies with pink icing and sprinkles,

a balance cookie-dough bar, a Nature Valley honey and oats bar,

a book, and a magazine. I took a Harvard Business School napkin

and a white plastice plate for souvenirs. I also grabbed some candy,

pencils, and pens. I couldn't get another bag for my friend, so I grabbed what I could at the career fair for her.

Meals+snacks+connections+knowledge+treats+nice campus=40 bucks. Not a bad deal, huh?

Operation Goose Attack

So. The new School of Management Building is up, and we can finally see patches of grass on our campus, which has been under construction ever since I came here. The green green grass is certainly a welcome change of scenery, but what do you know, it became prey to . . .

The Geese.

(don't know why the grass looks red in the picture)

They waddle in, in a very laidback manner: settle among the grass, bathe in the sun, peck at the green, quench their thirst in the melting snow. . . it's as if they own the place. The Simmons new campus has become Goose Villa. What a sweet life.

Except for their doo doo littering the pathways, I love seeing them around. Too bad they have to be chased away by a black-and-white dog our school employed. The dog does his job well by not harming them, but I will always welcome them back, even if it means sacrificing the little bit of green we have.