It will be 10 years on Saturday, January 20th, I have lived in Minnesota. So much has happened in 10 years. It doesn’t seemed that long though. 10 years flew by very quickly – year by year.

I still remember my first 3-week trip to MN was in 1996 during the week of Halloween. The entire city, everywhere was white and it was freaking cold. Went to Rochester and visited DB’s friends. What we did there??? Hummmm, lets see if I remember them. Dressed up as biker girl, drank, dance, party, ate and sat next to the fireplace as much as I can. Next day, can’t remember much. All I remembered was everyone in the party were nursing their hangovers.

Came back to MN for good on January 20, 1997. The weather was worse. I remembered DB told me it was 20 degrees, snowing heavily when he picked me up from the airport and I was shivering – cold to the bones. The heater in the house was set to 76 and I was still cold. DB was roasting and I was wrapped in heavy blankets.

Got a job at where DB was working through a temporary agency. Job title – Production Operator. It was actually really neat. Didn’t expect it to be that fun. 90% of the operators on the production floor has black hair. They all thought I don’t speak English so they spoke really slow when they talked to me. Many of them spoke to me in Vietnamese.  Surprised them a little when I told them I’m not Vietnamese or Cambodian or Thai.  All was so inquisitive about me…new kid on the block, what to do, must tell them the story minus other stuff. Gotta “ying chau” (entertain) a bit.

I learned how parts were made, sorted, tested, packed, vacumn sealed and shipping. Brand new world. Had great “teachers”. Learned to eat Cambodian, Loatian, Vietnamese and Thai food from the other operators.

Worked there for 7 months and the company had a RIF – reduction in force. Temps were first to go. Out I went and came back to Ipoh for 3 months. “Leong tei koon” (jobless) what else to do, so DB said go back to my mom and visit him in Bangkok at the same time. That’s what I did.

Came back and landed a job at a travel company. Worked for a wicked witch of the west. She is one heck of a woman – she really knows how to belittle a person. I have never worked for a boss that was so hard to please. She was domineering and a Ms. Perfect all the way to my clothes, too. No blue jeans on Fridays. I told myself if I can work for her, I can work for any person out there. Worked for that bitch for 1 plus years and I had it with her bitching all day long and even when she was in Europe, Russia or South America, she still calls me and wants to know what I was doing. I said goodbye to the wicked witch in February of 2000.

Got a temp job at my current company and have been there ever since. Great company, bosses and coworkers were wonderful. The work environment is just so peaceful. Everyone is pretty much business casual except for the top dogs, but still, we are allow to wear jeans on Fridays, blue jeans on top of that!

Moved up several times working for the same department, Compliance. I totally like what I’m doing on equal employment opportunity. I was the system administrator for our recruiting system but the center of excellence took over – one recruiting system for the entire company globally. Missed that a lot, but it gives me more opportunity to touch on affirmative action and writing the plans.

That’s all I have accomplished for 10 years in this Land of 10,000 Lakes.

(To be continued…gotta go sleep now)

 

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