Life is a chess game

I'm not much of a chess player; my brother Kevin is more the savvy player than I. Yet I can't help but notice that life is a big game of chess. I've talked about this with others before so its not like epiphany and I am all-knowing of life. It's all a learning process right? Well, being here in a new culture, with a new life for all intents and purposes, really puts that chess game a new meaning to life. From a more broader perspective, my decision to move here and pursue a career away from comfort and the familiar was a big gamble, a daring chess move; I've never been on my own, having lived under my parent's roof for all of my life and secondly Toronto is a thriving city teeming with opportunities. Yet, the year or so of looking for an internship through AIESEC, always at the back of my head I thought that this internship abroad will be the kickstart to my career, that this will be the way for a check-mate, so to speak, and be successful. So I made my move, and here I am, in the Netherlands working for DaimlerChrysler Customer Assistance Center, an intern with the IT Consultancy department. And I'm not having any regrets whatsoever.

On a more closer perspective, life is fraught with so much difficulties. Anyone can imagine the things to do in a new country to get settled in, plus the language barriers. I'm really thankful the dutch people have a good level of speaking and understanding english. Otherwise, things would really be hell for me. It's been a hectic 2-3 weeks for me starting at DaimlerChrysler. There was an issue of raising the salary as it was really very low especially compared to the other trainees here. Suffice to say, it caused a bit of a conflict between AIESEC Maastricht and the trainees (yes, all the trainees, we watch out for each other here, which brings us closer together and be more tight-knit in friendships), since the relationship between company and AIESEC is always tenuous at best; a company can easily say no to the next traineeship opportunity, and asking for a raise certainly would raise their eyebrows for another traineeship renewal since they would have to keep a higher wage from now on. AIESEC Maastricht obviously wanted a renewal so supporting the trainee in getting a higher salary was a bit difficult to balance the primary goal of a sustainable relationship. A chess game, life is. So, make a move I did (a bit forced to tell the truth), but no move means no game and no better chances later on in the game. In the end, my salary will be raised by a bit, all it needed was a move on my part. (Ahmed, if you only knew about this, I know you would have smacked me in the head for putting money ahead of the cultural experience through this internship. I would have gladly stood still; instead I will write a blog and tell the story behind it, in your memory. I know it is your intent for me to write everything about this internship on this blog, and I'm going to do it.)

On a less serious note, I guess you can say I've gone dutch now. I've finally gotten myself a bicycle! Today, I biked to and from work for the first time. It'll take some getting used to, but I hope to be very healthy after a year of biking around the city for work and leisurely activities. I must admit I was a bit winded in the morning; definitely will have to get used to biking very soon. An important trivia about this bike: I came by it free. No, I didn't steal it. It's company owned, and it's on loan. It's a nice bike, quite different from the regular bikes you see around here. For one thing, it's a Shimano mountain bike, I think 24 speed. So I bought it a heavy duty chain, worth 20 euros. Again, it was free, courtesy of reimbursement from the company. Yup, still keeping with the theme of a chess game: know the game, but in this case, know the little quirks in policies at work, ask around, befriend some people (very important, be friendly), and ask innocently if it's possible to get a bike from the company. It worked! Sometimes I don't know if what I'm doing is manipulative or honest at best. I wonder sometimes...

It'll still be a while until I can fill the shoes I'm supposed to be wearing at work. It's very very different from the past jobs I've had before (more responsibility, not at all labour intensive (yet), ie. monkey job). It's very challenging, but I think it's more to do with my inherent personality and characteristic that I'm going to have to overcome, rather than the actual responsibilities of the job. But that's the purpose of my decision to move to an unfamiliar country, and it just so happened that the job is very much in line with my diploma. I can take this into bigger and better opportunities. The dutch culture I think will be good for me: they are upfront and blunt at times, and that's what I think I will learn here, at least have a more grounded and balanced to my more inherent introverted and at times (timid?) apprehensive attitude.

Quite the extreme end of what I have just said above (being introverted and apprehensive), but I have a nick name at work: little drambo. The nick name you will find is in sharp contrast to my self assessment. I will explain at the next blog. It's quite funny actually, though I didn't feel so at first, for obvious reasons.