INTERNSHIP!

Hey, this is my first post in this blog. But actually not my first post in blogging world though. I used to have a blog but I forgot my password. So, I decided to create one because I suddenly miss blogging due to my boredomness lol.

            So here I am right now, doing my internship as one of the requirement from my department to graduate. I am working for a factory which produces powder drink products in a city that is famous for its “Lunpia”. I am halfway done with my internship and after 10 days working I do have some stories to share here. But let me first share my “road to internship” story.....

            It is not easy for me to find a place for doing my internship because my department kept on delaying the briefing about internship for the students. The internship should be done between May-July but they did the briefing at the end of February. We should get a fixed company at least one month before the internship starts because we have to submit the proposal one week before working and you know, the making of proposal and the revisions will take some while. I started to contact some companies at the beginning of March but most of them said that the quota for internship students for June/July already full, and some others did not even respond me. I was really desperate at that time and I was scared that I won’t be able to find a company to do my internship. But then, I remembered one of my mother’s friend. We once went on a dinner together and she told me that she had a friend in a company where I worked right now, and the company often accepts students for internship. So I suddenly applied for the company through e-mail. But it was not really easy though because the HRD keeps on saying that they’ll contact me later because they were so busy due to high demand. I only could wait in despair while trying to find another companies as a back up plan for the worst scenario. But then, the HRD called me one month after I submitted my application and said that I could do my internship there. I remembered I was about to start my exercise at the gym at that time and I was really happy until I worked out for a really looooooong time without being tired lol.

            The making of proposal and the revisions went on smoothly for me, since I only needed two times of revision. My internship supervisor said that I am the first student under his supervision to submit the proposal, the others even had not done any revisions when I finished mine! But another thing to worry comes, where should I stay and how could I get there? My parents told me to just stay in my little sister’s boarding house but I was like “OMFG SERIOUSLY THAT’S SO FAR AWAY OKAY”. But I have no other choices since it’s better than finding another boarding house for me and they told me to just grab a taxi.

            And the internship day came.....  I went to the main office to meet the HRD and she took me to the factory building and she introduced my field supervisor there. My field supervisor is the manager of PPIC department and he is definetely younger than my expectation (I was expecting that he is an old man hahaha). I haven’t met him a lot because I am not doing the consultation everyday (I know he’s a manager and he seems to be really busy so I don’t want to bother him much, and I tend to try finding anything I need to know by asking the supervisors on the plant) but I do have some conversation with him and he seems nice though, and also knowledgeable (for sure if he’s not knowledgeable he won’t be a manager hahaha). Until this day, I have spend 5 days in production and packaging department and another 5 days in QC department. So here comes the main story.....

            So one thing I feel all the time here is..... LONELY. Yes, baby I am so lonely lonely lonely lonely lonely~ I was expecting that I will meet any other internship students and be friends with them but well, there’s none </3 I do meet a girl who is doing her “training” but I only see her during lunch break so other than that, I am ALL ALONEEEE. Seriously I am not advising any people to do internship alone unless you are sure that you won’t feel lonely. Well, I am not a kind of girl who is really talkative (I am considered as someone who doesn’t talk really much by my friends though). But still, I am really desperate to have some nice talk and jokes during work time. For sure I do talk to the workers there but well, it’s different right? I can’t talk to them as if they are my buddies..... *sigh*

            Another thing that I feel is BORED. Especially when I was doing observations in production and packaging department. For 5 days I just went to the same place, watching same people doing same thing. I could finish my observation for 2-3 hours in each day and the rest? Just wandering here and there and half daydreaming. I really wanted to sit down and doing the report, just like what my friends do in their companies if they have finished their task at that day but well, it’s quite different there. It’s like the internship system is “come at 8, spend your time at the field, lunch break, spend your time at the field, finish at 4”, so you should be on the field no matter what. I really envy my friends who can do the report at the office hours though. Sometimes I did help the workers, but I will take a reaaaaaaally long time to do what they do and I even did a lot of mistakes since I am not used to it, so my attempt to help was not beneficial for them hahaha so I chose not to bother them with their works. Things are much better when I was in QC department, I always had something to do either it’s measuring moisture content, weighing sachets, measuring length, and many others.

            And another thing I feel nowadays is OFFENDED. I did not feel this when I was in production and packaging. This starts in QC department when I interact with the staffs directly for the whole day. They were talking about my race and some of them were quite rude about it. The people in QC for packaging are the worst. I understand if they are not used to see Indonesian-Born-Chinese people like me (it’s funny though actually another blood runs in me but yeah, the Chinese gene is muuuuuch more dominant). There are many IBC workers in the main office but I haven’t seen any single IBC in the factory building, and the people that works in the plant (the ones that are just worker and not supervisors/managers) are (sorry to say this) low class people that might not taught to be well-mannered and professional. But well, I don’t think that’s a good excuse for offending me with racial stuffs. Bhinneka Tunggal Ika is our country’s motto, which means that we are different but we are one. You should accept that this country has so many people with different races, including Chinese. If you don’t like it, go to hell dude.

            And the last thing that I feel is..... AWKWARD. All the people talks in FULL JAVANESE here and I can’t do that. The people here might think that “ah what’s with that girl she comes from Pekalongan and she doesn’t speak Javanese? She must be really ostentatious.” But that’s not the thing, really. When I was a child, my mom always scolded me whenever I said words in full Javanese and she told me that it was really ugly. I grow up with that mindset and I only use some Javanese words in my sentences whenever I talk to my parents and my friends. And my Javanese is getting worse since I moved to Jakarta 6 years ago, studying in international high school and in international class at university. I interact with my teachers and lecturers in English and with most people here in full Indonesian and Jakarta accent. So for now, it is much more comfortable for me to talk in Indonesian or English. My friends from Pekalongan even told me that I sounds really weird whenever I try to talk in Javanese. I do understand what those people are talking but I just can’t reply in full Javanese like them, I just reply in Indonesian and trying to put some Javanese words and a little bit of Javanese accent. But I know I sounds weird and things will become quite awkward lol.

            And there are any other things I want to say but I guess I don’t want to share it here. Even if I want to share, it will not be at this time being. Don’t ask me why hahaha.

            Well all the things that I had mentioned before are all bad, huh? But actually not all are bad here. The traffic jam is still bearable here. The traffic is quite bad whenever I get out from the factory due to so many trucks but I guess it is much better than Jakarta’s traffic. Most of the staffs are nice though and they always smile back at me whenever I smile at them and they don’t hesitate to talk to me even I am just a stranger/outsider lol.

            Well, this is quite a long post, huh? I guess I have to stop here. I will share another stories soon! Bye for now ;)