The photo above was from a brochure I picked up during a visit to a local ice cream store. I am sure some readers might recognize the cow as a symbol of a well-known milk company. I thought my brother as a punster would find humor in the word "Moove" and I have been considering making a career move. With the current downward economy, I feel somewhat lucky to be working at a decent job with decent income. There are many people without jobs due to massive layoffs, corporate cutbacks or working but not making end meets. I often wonder if there is anyone who really gets excited going to work, like jumping out of bed in the morning, singing while getting dressed, smiling and saying "Good Morning" when he/she gets into the office and feeling that the work is meaningful and beneficial to society. Is there someone who feels that he/she is appreciated by the boss, that the work performed matches the skills and talents and that his/her life is not just wasting away doing meaningless tasks that are beneath the level of his/her intelligence? Or like the character Terry Malloy played by Marlon Brando in the movie On the Waterfront, "I could have been a contenter, instead I am a nobody!".
How often do you smile and pretent to accept what the boss or a co-worker said while thinking, "Why do I put up working with idiots?" or imaging the person turning into a giant turkey? A miserable job takes toll on the person mentally, physically and spiritually. I saw it first hand when my husband lost over 100 lbs before he finally had the courage to resign from a job that he worked for 19 years since graduated from college. He gained back all 100 lbs after he found a suitable and somewhat happy employment two years ago.
My sister has changed companies or departments almost every year or six months the last five years. I don't think CH ever is happy with working. I believe that a job does not define who you are and what you would like to be. If it is so miserable, then it is up to me to quit instead of staying because it is my life that I am spending every hours, minutes and seconds at a job and the people that I hate.
Well, I will start making plans for a career move. I remember a wise person wrote that in life you must keep moving because if you are standing still, you will turn into a chunk of butter. Whatever that means, if you are smart, you will understand.
On June 31st we arrived at the port of Valencia, on the east coast of central Spain. The bus ride took about 20 minutes from the port to the city centre with a stop for photos at the futuristic Arts and Science Centre (photo above). The Centre includes a science museum with inter-active exhibits (we did not have time to go inside so we just had to trust the tour guide that the exhibits were great for both adults and children). I thought of my brother and his son as they would have enjoyed playing and learning at this museum. There were also the "Hemesferic" planatarium and the oceannarium (top 2 photos) which again based on what the tour guide told us "a spectacular underwater city of the marine life". We spent about 20 minutes in an open garden across from the planatarium. When we tried to cross the street to get back to the bus on the other side of the road, while my husband and I waited to the traffic lights, other people decided to run across and one of them almost got hit by a group of motorcycles. Here is my report - people in Spain also drive on the right side of the roads as in the States.
After leaving the modern city centre, we visited the Cathedral Metropolitana, the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, the central square of the old town with buildings of mixture architectural styles of Gothic, Romanesque, and baroque. The Cathedral is known for supposedly as the home of the Holy Grail from which Jesus shared communion with his chosen disciples at the Last Supper. I enjoyed this part of the tour as I was more interested in seeing historic churches, not the typical modern, sprawling and industrialized city centre.
My Spanish came in handy when I was not sure if I had to pay to use public restrooms. As I walked towards one of the toilets, a lady stopped me and she said "Un momento". So I said to her, "Dinero necesita?". She said no so I waited behind her. Turned out, she was waiting for her daughter. Almost 20 years later, two words I still remembered from my Spanish courses at Hunter College were put to practical usage!
