Experiencing Taiwan: My Project

晚安!
*) Read: Wǎn'ān,which means 'good night'.

Well, hello people! I am so glad to finally be able to write another post tonight :D

If you read my previous post (about a month ago), you will have known that I am currently involving in an Exchange Program offered by AIESEC. Perhaps some of you are not familiar with this organization. Well, AIESEC is an international student organization that is located in many countries. They provide several programs which are volunteering progam for students and global internship program for professionals. They basically sending their local participants to AIESEC in another countries and also recieving as well as hosting a project in their own countries for the foreign exchange participants.

Back to my story, I applied for their volunteering project and permited to choose a project abroad. After a long consideration and discussion, I finally chose to do a project in Taiwan. The name of the project is 'Embrace Taiwan - Tuscany Restaurant'. The main reason I chose this is because the period of the project is quite flexible and fits my holiday period. The default duration of volunteering project  is 6 weeks depends on the project requirement. Unfortunately, I only got 30 days of VISA. So I will only be here for a month. But, the positive side is that I do not need to miss classes because my winter holiday is only a month.

 I went to Taiwan on Sunday, Dec. 21st 2014. I considered myself brave enough to do this because firstly there is no other Indonesian student joining this project. Secondly, I cannot speak their language. I think I only knew around 15 words plus numbers and it was not helping at all! And lastly, I did not even know who will pick me up in the airport.. During the journey, I kept on convincing myself that everything is going to be alright, don't think too much, and just enjoy every second of it. When I finally arrived at the airport, there was no one holding a board/paper with my name in it. I already passed those people twice or three times but still cannot find anyone. At that point I was like "Okay..... Nothing to be worry.... Keep it cool..." And after a while, there was a girl who looked confuse and lost approached me, and she said "Is it you???" while showing my Facebook profile in her phone. I was so thankful and reliefed then said "YES! YES! That's meeee!" and I hugged her.I think that was a reflex LOL. 

The next day, another girl named Jenny took me to High Speed Railway Station to meet the owner of the Tuscany Restaurant where my project takes place. Tuscany is located in Hsinchu. It is a region in the north of Taiwan, approximately 1.5 hours to Taipei. Before going to Taiwan, it was not so clear for me about how the project will be like. It turns out, Tuscany is basically a hostel (in the second story) and a restaurant (first story). But the restaurant only serves people who booked, so it is not a daily open restaurant. Beside this, they also have a farm, where they plant stroberries and several types of vegetables, and a  terrain which they rent for the campers. Every morning in the so called factory, just across the hostel building which they also own, they make and deliver a fresh juice. So yes, they own a big land and operating an integrated business.

There are 5 people who live here. They are the owner (husband and wife) whom I call Mr. Lo and Ai (means aunty in English), their 13 y.o son named Lo En, Ai's daughter named Meng Xue (I don't know how to write it correctly), and her 3 y.o daughter called Ah Pi. Anyway, there is also another student from Malaysia here. His name is Adrian, but we call him with his chinese name Yu Sheng. Obviously he is chinese and he can speak Mandarin! So, it's my luck to have him here.

Now the question is what do we do here?

Basically, we just do what they need us to help. For example, packing dried vegetable to be sold in the market, harvest and pack the stroberries, clean up the building if there will be guests coming, sweep the (large) garden the day before campers come, planting new seeds, etc. But when there is nothing to help, Yu Sheng regularly go to the farm to take care of the plant and I usually remake the old albums by retake the pictures and crop it one by one. Those albums belong to the church (the family is chatolic and they are quite active in the church actvities) who wants to make a digital documentation of the old albums. We do not work on the weekend, but Ai usually go to the market to join their product on Saturday. So, Yu Sheng and I usually go with her. 

Well, what else can I say... The Taiwanese are so friendly and warm to the foreigner. I really feel welcome not only by the family, but also by the people around their community. This family is very health-conscious, especially Ai. Their home cook are mostly vegetable and I can hardly find a deep fried food. They also prefer the natural taste and not adding much spices in their food. If you are not familiar with this, you will probably think their food are quite plain. Every breakfast (on the weekday), they always give us the juice they make. It's always a mixed juice, sometimes vegetables, fruits, or pumpkin. Honestly, I enjoy their diet a lot! Everything is healthy and mostly homemade (for example kimchi). I really want to continue this lifestyle when I go back to Indonesia.

FYI, I will be going back on Monday, Jan 19th 2015. It's the day after tomorrow! I don't know whether to feel sad to leave Taiwan or happy to be back home. After all, this has been an incredible experience I will not forget :). Anyway, I will also post another story about the trip to Taipei. So, just wait for my next post ;) ;)

Here are some photos for you, my faithful readers!

This is Ai- Lo En - and little Ah Pi

This is my sweet cozy room. I never expected that it will be this nice.

The room I live is one of the hostel room.

When there is no guest booking for the room, the owner will live 

here. So, that's why the room are so beautiful :)

Left: These are the green houses (2 for vegetable, 1 for tomato, 

3 for strawberry, 1 for new seed, and 1 for the chicken and goose). Yes, they own them.

Right: This is the hostel and restaurant building. The building is beautiful, 

but the decoration inside it are even more cozy and nice

These is the strawberry green house. We harvest the strawberry every 2-3 days.

Selfie inside the vegetable green house.

#sleepyface 

Left: Our stand in the market. That's Yu Sheng and Ai.

Right: The market takes plece in an open space. 

Packing the strawberriesss

There are the organic baby vegetables that we just bought.

We then plant and grow them in our farm.

 

These are our typical meal. So healthy, isn't it?

These are the typical lunch box they usually buy if they don't cook.

If you don't eat pork, you have to be careful because they use pork a lot here

(include the oil and broth)

We are eating Vietnamese food here. It's a sandwich (L) and a seafood rice noodle (R)

Here, we were eating in some kind of ramen house.

I order beef noodle (L) and the other one (R), 

I would say it's like martabak but thiner and crunchier

Thank you for reading.

Kiss and hug,




Delicia

What Should I Write?

Bonne Nuit*!

*) Read: Good Night in French

It has been forever since the last time I updated my blog. I have been truly overwhelming by my schedule this semester. A week after completing my internship, I went straight back to Bandung to start my intensif french course. -Here, 'intensif' means 5 days a week with 2.5 hours for each meeting which lasts for 3 months.- At first, I thought I could handle this because this semester I am only taking 19 SKS. In fact, I was wrong. '19 SKS' is what so called de jure and is only written in the KSM because a lot of my time was spent by doing a never-ending team assignments. Beside the academic activities, I am also occupied by laboratory activities as well as GMUN selection and preparing AIESEC exchange's document. -Yap, I registered for Ganesha MUN Club in my final year.-

Now, the french course is over and I have taken my DELF test in mid. November. -DELF is a (french) language sertification which has 4 levels, A1, A2, B1, and B2. The test is held 3 times a year and once you have taken the test and passed, the results will remain valid for a lifetime. There are 4 competencies tested with the maximum final score is 100 and the threshold grade is 50.- The result for my test will be published next week. I am hoping that I do not only pass, but also get a good grade #fingerscross.

About 1,5 months ago, I accidentally met a dear friend of mine. We haven't been seeing each other for quite a long time. There, he told me about his future plans such as graduated in March, continuing  his study abroad, attending international conference, etc. He also said that he will do the IELTS test on Dec. 5. Triggered by his inspirational story, I also decided to register for an IELTS test. Without taking any further consideration, I registered for an IELTS test on Dec. 13. Now that I have a clear head to reflect my decision, I think it was reckless and not well planned. Dec. 13 is the end of my first final exams week. So, I will still have to prepare for the second week of final exams. I am a bit afraid whether or not I am able to optimally perform in every exam, including the IELTS. Unfortunately, I don't have wide array of choices. I have to nail every test! So now, I have 6 days left to prepare for my IELTS test. May the force be with me..

The last project I am involving in is AIESEC Exchange Program. I should have gone for student exchange in the last summer holiday, but since I had to do the internship, the exchange is delayed until the winter holiday. Out of all possible alternatives, I decided to go to Taiwan because it is the only project which fit my holiday schedule. On the next Monday, I will recieve my VISA from the Taiwanese embassy. I hope they give me a more-than-a-month VISA because my project in Taiwan lasts for 1,5 months #fingerscross. And guess when I will be going! On Dec. 19 at 4.40AM! In fact, my last exam will be on Dec. 18 and there is still a TUBES (Tugas Besar) waiting.... I don't know how I can pull this off. But I believe everything will be fine. Sometimes, being optimistic (and realistic) is the best policy.

Bonus photos:

 Bareng mas toko roti di kantor.

Hampir tiap hari saya tukar kupon roti di sana

jadi kenal deh sama si kang Dedi hihi.

Bareng mba2 dan mas dari Corporate People Development

Menang juara 2 pas lomba 17an.

Ada 2 ibu hamil di foto ini.

 Bareng mas2 dari divisi sebelah a.k.a

Astra Management Development Institute (AMDI)

Mereka masih muda2 loh. 

(Left) Psikologi UI 2009, (Sit) Teknik Industri ITB 2008.

Yang di kiri ini namanya Mba Stella. Doi juga dari AMDI.

Unfortunately, the picture is blur..

Dapat penghargaan 'Best Position Paper' di GMUN 1st caucus.

Waktu itu saya dan Mae (kiri saya) mewakili negara Belanda.

I am wearing the same batik in both photo events. What a coincidence! LOL

Hugs & Kisses,

Delicia

My Internship Mate + Photos Edition

The first day on internship was pretty much nerve wrecking. I woke up in the morning and thought "What am I going to wear?" "how will it be to meet the other employee?" "How is my bos/manager will be like?" "Will it gonna be awkward, there?" "Do they have a suitable project for me?"and so many more questions rushed in my head. Despite all the question, one thing I know best was "first impression does matter!". So, I made sure that I wore a proper outfit and I was not being late. 

I arrived at about 7.10 AM and went straight to the receptionists. At that time I walked to the building, I convinced myself to look confident and professional (even tough I was so nervous inside). So that people will give some respect and take me seriously although I was a stranger. When I was waiting on the lobby to meet the 'bos', I saw some people sitting there, too. Not long after that, there were a couple entering the front door. The guy was skinny and looked kinda 'hey yooo. what's up?'. In the other side, the girl looked calmer and I liked the shoes she wore! LOL.

After waiting for about 20 minutes (it actually felt like 2 hours, no lebay), the receptionist called "Claudiaaa!". I looked around, but no one responded. Then, she called again "Claudiaaa!" and this time I was sure that she looked at me. I was like "What? Meeee.....? Possibly.....". I was quite astonished because I have met no one who mistaken between my name (Delicia) and 'Claudia'. They are not even close, please.....

The receptionist asked me to go to the second floor. In my mind, I was guessing what my 'bos' will be like. Is he one of the people who passed me in the lobby? When I walked out of the lift, not far from there there were two people talking. One of them suddenly looked at me and greeted "Hey, Claudia!". I was like, "Okay, he must be him!  The 'bos'". Then, the bos asked me again "I heared Mr. Aso recently passed away.." (Mr. Aso was a senior lecturer at Industrial Engineering ITB). Yep! The bos is an alumni of Industrial Engineering ITB year 19** (censored). This time, I was so surprised! I never thought that my bos would be from the same university as I am. 

Okay, still remember the couple in the lobby?

It turned out, they were also having an internship in the same room as I am. They are from Universitas Negeri Jakarta which formerly named IKIP. Albite we were not in the same department nor the same cubical, I felt pretty much connected to them as the same third year college students in our first-time-ever internship. I spent my lunch with them which I thought I would have no lunch-mate in my first day of internship. Unfortunately, they would only stay for a month...  :(

In the last day of their internship, we took some photos as their documentation. I think I will do this too in my last day of internship.  

Here are the photoooosssss!

Voila!

This is the couple in the article.

Deli-Eka-Tia

Dwi (an intern form President University)

Tia - Deli

 Deli-Dwi-Tia

THIS IS THE TEAM!

First Row:

Eka-Mba Dina (Admin)-Mba Chitra-Deli-Mba Dea-Mba Rini(bumil1)-Mba Agustine(bumil2)-Mas Irwan ('The Bos')-Tia

Second Row:

Mas Elthone-Mba Arini-Mas Thom

EXTRA STORY:

Mas Thom is my mentor here. He is so hilarious, I really mean it! He loves joking and doing 'unordinary' things LOL. He brights up people's day! One word that decsribes him best: KOPLAK! hahah. Look at his funny face!

 Hugs & Kisses,




Delicia

Internship: My Project

BONJOUR!

YES! It has been a very long time since the last article. I myself am almost forget that my blog still exists. These 3 months, starting from June, are the end-semester holiday. Instead of having a vacation, I am now sitting on my chair at an office building in North Jakarta. Yap, I am having an internship for about two months at this holding company. If I mention the name of the company, I believe none of you do not know about them.

I have been here for about a month now. I started on June 2nd, 2014 and will be ended on July 31st, 2014. I am placed in Corporate Organization Development (COD) Department. Here, COD acts like a strategic consultant for the affiliated companies. They are a projectized department with many different numbers and topics of projects to take care about. However, they work only with two analysts and one Dapertment Head. So, there are a lot of work to be done by these three musketeers.

So, what am I doing here?

At first, the Dept. Head asked me to help them with their project with Izusu Sales Operation (ISO). The project will be about Man Power Planning (MPP) using Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) tool by Boston Consulting group (BCG). I spent the first a couple of weeks to learn about their business and management system as well as company philoshopy and so on. After almost 3 weeks there, unfortunately my mentor told me that the company was not ready for the project since they still had another project to be done. So, I had to think quick and find another topic/problem to be solved.

All of the sudden, my Dept. Head suggested me to do Work Sampling. It was random, I thought. However, Work Sampling method can be used to measure the 8-hours-work-efficiency of the back office personnels. Then, the sampling result can be compared with the KPI achievement during the sampling period (for about one month) to measure the back office personnels' productivity. For your information, to measure back office personnels' productivity is the main issue in Human Resource (HR) division across the companies. They have to find an appropriate tool to measure the back office personnels' productivity because the unroutine type of job and the type of result they produce is somehow hard to quantified.

There are always pros and cons for this applied method. But logically it worth a try. And if this method works and representative enough, then it will also be applied in the other affiliated companies. At last, productivity is improtant for the calculation of employees' bonus as well as to measure the over all performance of the entire company.

Well. I think that's enough information about my Kerja Praktik (KP) a.k.a internship. Actually this internship is an obligation, but I enjoy it a lot than I thought I will. I am gonna tell you more about my internship in the next post.

Anyway, 

SELAMAT MENJALANKAN IBADAH PUASA BAGI YANG MENJALANKAN! 

Semoga puasanya ga ada yang bolong sampai akhir.

Semoga tambah berkah juga di bulan puasa ini.

: D

Hugs & Kisses,

Delicia

p.s: I really miss the 'Hugs & Kisses' part LOL xoxo :* ({})

p.s.s: Don't forget to invite me if there is any 'Buka Puasa Bersama' event hihi ;)

April Madness

Comparing to the other passed months of 2014, I convince you that April was the most hectic one for me. Beside the routine campus activities, there are several other activities that I joined. Here they are!

The first one is Kuliah Persiapan Kerja Praktik (KP). In a more general forms, Kerja Praktik usually called 'magang' or internship. KP is an obligation for every student of engineering management and several other majors at Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB). In engineering management itself, there are 2 options of internship which are 1) to do the routine activities at the company or 2) to do the problem solving. Basically, it is depend on the needs of the company. So, it is not about what you want, but depend on what the company that you applied offers you. Above all, if you want to experience an internship I suggest you to apply to the right companies who are accustomed with this internship things. I also want to give an advice for those who are still in their first and (especially) second semester: USE YOUR HOLIDAYS FOR AN INTERNSHIP. I did not do any internship at the end of my first/second year and I regret that. If only I did an internship on my long holidays, I would have learnt much more things as well as enhancing my professional experience. 

 

The second thing I am participating is a laboratory recruitment. The lab that I applied to named LIPSP (Laboratorium Inovasi dan Pengembangan Sistem Perusahaan). There are 4 major fields in this lab which are management, marketing, finance, and human resource management. The fields I like the most is of course management and marketing. This recruitment was started on December 2013 and has been reaching the third phase. Now, there are only 16 people last. At first, there was around almost 50 people (if I'm not wrong) who applied. The recruitment task that spent a lot of my time was Business Plan. We did it in a group of 4 members. Each group had to make a business plan of a certain product. The sequential process of this task was: gathering and explaining about the BP, 3 days of making the BP, BP presentation, BP revision presentation, 4 days of selling products (this one almost killed me), LPJ presentation, LPJ revision presentation and personal interview. The whole process took only about almost 2 weeks. Huuufffffftttttttttt............. 

This is our product: cupcake o'bites from O'Bites Corporation

This is our product: cupcake one bite

 

Our company's logo

 

The third thing is recording. Well, you will not believe this LOL. My seniors are starting a start up recording company and they asked me to help them. I guess this is not like what you are imagining. They still do not have any studio with a set of electronic equipment. However, they are offering a mobile recording service. They can also do a recording in your own rent room (kosan) because their electronic equipment are pretty small. For sure, their recording result will be much better than if you do it yourself. They also will give you advices and feedbacks as well as provide the base instrument for your recording. Well, I only did this recording for around a couple of hours. And one more, they will also record you in a video if you want. That experience with them was fun! I sang Dear God - Avenged Sevenfold in acoustic version. They also chose this song for me haha *thanks Ka! They haven't sent me the result, but when they do I will post it in my blog hehe. -Even though I am pretty embarrassed about that :p- 

Ka Ridho (left); Ka Alan (right)

 

Sorry about the lighting.

The last thing (besides a lot of Tubes(s) for sure) is psycho test for Tanoto Foundation Scholarship. This event will be held on April 26th. I think I have to prepare myself a lot for this. Honestly, I am hoping to get this scholarship. It will mean a lot for me :'').

At last, every one have their own things to be done. My ultimate advice will be "maintain your health", do not get sick, and keep praying!


Hugs and kisses,




Delicia