Journal 5
My Part-time Jobs in Spring Break
In the last semester of my university life, I have to save money for a working holiday in Australia next year. And the financial standard of this grand tour is harder than I thought. Instead of putting off my plan, I made up my mind taking the challenge to prove myself. I've been doing a part-time job as social media editor in Yunlin-Chiayi-Tainan Regional Branch Workforce Development College. However, what I received from the job is just a little bit compared with the amount I need for my plan. Everytime I get in bed and get ready to sleep, I can't help staring at the ceiling and wondering whether there is another chance to earn money. And that is why I have to go back to Chiayi right after finishing tomb sweeping on the second day of the spring break. I have an exhausting but interesting part-time job that sort of relieved my anxiety.
The first job I do in the spring break is the staff of Chiayi County Children Art Festival in Chiayi County Performance Art Center(CPAC). I heard of the information of this job from my friend, and as he mentioned that they pay twice as much as the minimum wage, I apply for it without any hesitation. Previously, the first day of the festival did not attract many people to visit due to the rain. My colleague told me that out of the ten cars entering the parking lot, there are nine cars aiming for tomb sweeping, because there is a columbarium pagoda right beside CPAC. Therefore, I thought the next few days would be quite easy. Yet things didn't go with my expectation. On the first day I got on my position, the weather was surprisingly good. And what surprised me more was that despite the burning sun, rivers of cars and mountains of people flocking to CPAC. The scene was totally different from what I heard from my colleague. Though I knew that I would be extremely weary after all of the work, at least this festival seemed to be successful.
I was in charge of inviting those who came to share Facebook post about their experience, check in and follow CPAC's official LINE account. After the parents finished all those processes, I would give their children a small bag of tissues and a colorful pencil with a eraser in various adorable shapes. Most of them looked like animals, but some of them were in a form we still couldn't identify at the end of the festival. Kids were very interested in them anyway. Sometimes children might stood in front of the table for a while, thinking about which one to pick. I would guided them to guess what the erasers looked like, and helped them make their choices. That was a sweet moment when we have this kind of interaction, but once there was a lengthy line behind the child, all I can feel is nervous and impatient. The process would be more like a production line in a factory, focusing on efficiency and quantity.
There were a lot of mosquitos!
Every time I gave a pencil to a child, I found it interesting to observe how the parents told their children to response. Some parents were in such a hurry that they directly brought their children away at the moment they got the pencil, while some parents tried to guide their children to say "Thank you." Even though I was tired and found my smile getting stiff, those adorable and innocent feedbacks helped me get myself together. And right after their encouragement to me, the parents and their children called me UNCLE together. I, a 21-years-old university student, really had mixed feelings about this work.