On Baby A's birthday, the c-section surgery went as planned. I walked into the OR around 9:30am and was pushed out around 2 hours later. W was instructed to wait outside while the team was getting me prepared for anesthesia. He then got invited to come in and sat next to me while the team worked on getting Baby A out of me 😂. W was a good DJ and Baby A was born while Taylor Swift's Shake It Off was being played. So...did I feel any pain during this life-changing surgery? No, I didn't. I had a spinal block. I never felt any type of pain during the surgery. Getting the anesthesia injected - however - was the most uncomfortable part of the surgery. There was a lot of pressure. I felt my back being pulled or pushed, or something. It just felt very uncomfortable, not painful, but very uncomfortable. It was also hard to try leaning toward the source of that uncomfortableness. Learning to relax while being uncomfortable was a very hard thing to do. But it was necessary. Once it...
The main reason for visiting this collegetown was so I could finish remote I-9 for my new job. My employer is in Utah and since I live in Oregon, I couldn't complete the new hire process in person (some documents had to be verified in person, emails/scans were no-go, and flying to Utah for this was out of the question). A HR rep gave me a list of institutions in Portland that could help with finishing remote I-9. She also said if I had any preferred institution(s), I could give her the name(s) and she would contact others to see if arrangements could be made. I really appreciate that gesture because, personally, I didn't like the idea of driving to Portland during this period of time (e.g., rising COVID cases, parking, news of riots and protests in Portland etc). After some negotiation, the HR rep and I worked out on completing I-9 at Pacific University instead. Initially, I asked to finish this in their Hillsboro campus as that's much closer to home, though Pacific University's HR told me unfortunately this had to be done on the main campus in Pleasant Grove. So I said ok, hence the trip to Pleasant Grove last week!
上星期四, W請了下午的假跟我一起去Pleasant Grove. 我跟他說了不需要一起去, 而且我是為了工作才必須去嘛! 他說想一起去 自願充當司機因為我那幾天肚子很脹連續幾天類似經痛(但沒月經)很不舒服. 去的那天還帶了Duke 變成一個小型郊遊!😃
會去這個大學城是因為這樣我才能完成為了新工作的一些文件處理及身分認證. 我的雇主在Utah, 但我住Oregon, 所以新雇員工的文件無法親自面對面的完成(有部分文件和身分認證 必須當面處理, 不能只靠email/掃描完成, 我也不可能為了這個飛去Utah). 人事部的代表給我一份清單 上面列出了一些可以合作幫我完成最後的文件處理(以下簡稱I-9)的位在Portland的學校 說我可以選自己想去哪一間. 她還說, 如果我自己有比較想去的學校 讓她知道她可以幫忙聯絡看看能不能換. 我很感謝她提出的這點, 因為其實個人很不想在這段時間開車去Portland (原因有COVID疫情, 停車比較不方便, 民眾暴動抗議陸續還有發生等等). 和人事部的人談判過後, 講好了我可以在Pacific University完成I-9. 最初, 我問過可不可以在Hillsboro園區來完成, Pacific University的人事部(下面簡稱HR)跟我說很可惜必須在位於Pleasant Grove的主園區完成. 所以我回沒關係, 然後就發生了我們上星期的小郊遊!
My first impression of Pleasant Grove is it reminds me of the small town that I grew up from in Southern Utah. Most buildings being 1-2 stories tall and noticeable less traffic (though still more than the town I grew up in 😅). Other than the universities I actually attended as a student, I've visited several other universities for work (meetings), as a prospective student (actually lost interests and ended up not applying afterwards), competitions (swim meets, I was a swimmer in high school), visitor just for the sake of visiting, and for taking exams (ACT/SAT). W has also been to other campuses. One of the things we first noticed about Pacific University was "this school has free parking!!!!" It might sound silly, but parking on campus can be a pain in the butt sometimes. It's definitely nice to see the sign "4 hour free parking." It was easy to find empty spots (COVID / work from home / online classes definitely contributed to this). The ground was still wet and tiny piles of snow could be spotted on our way to the HR building. Duke was very excited to sniff all the new scents he got to sniff 🐶
Pleasant Grove給我的第一印象很像小時候住南猶他的小鎮. 大部分的建築都是一層樓或兩層樓 而且車輛很少(不過還是比小時候住的小鎮多啦). 除了就讀過的大學, 之前也為了各種原因參觀過別的學校 像是工作(參加會議), 申請就學前的參觀(參觀過反而沒興趣沒申請), 比賽 (以前高中是游泳校隊 競賽借場地在各個大學), 純粹當訪客在校園走走, 也有過是為了考試(ACT/SAT申請大學和研究所的考試). W也自己之前參觀過其他的學校. 我們兩個馬上對Pacific University的印象就是"哇! 免費停車耶!!!" 可能聽起來有點太蠢, 但在校園停車真的有時候很讓人煩悶. 看到"免費4小時停車"的告示牌就很有親切感 哈哈. 空車位很好找(疫情/在家工作/網路上課一定也有關係). 當天地上還很濕, 前往HR路上能看到小部分積雪. Duke整個很興奮到處聞新味道🐶
Some random shots of the campus. It's hard to not notice how "residential-like" some of the admin buildings are. If not paying attention to the signs, they appear just like good old student housing bungalows.
校園隨手拍. 很難不注意到幾個行政單位的建築很"住宅樣." 如果不仔細去看那些告牌, 他們看起來就像以前常見的學生合租房子.
The offices leading up to the actual HR office reminds me of the little shops on a little main street 😃 Small town charm! I missed my hometown that day! After we found the door to the HR office, I rang the bell outside but no one answered. I could see a lady sitting inside facing the front door. She looked at me for a few seconds and then back to her computer screen. It looked like she was on a phone call too. It was 3:57pm. I made an appointment with HR for 4:00 so I thought "ok, I'll just wait until 4:00 then ring again." Three minutes went by fast, I rang again. She didn't look up this time. I waited a few more minutes, still no response from anyone, and I was becoming impatient. Although the HR here was just helping, at the very least an appointment was made and we drove past 2 cities to get here. I pulled out my phone and called the number attached to the bottom of the email HR last sent me. A lady's voice picked up the call and I said I'm at the door waiting to be let in for my 4:00 appointment. The lady inside the office looked at me through the window and said "Oh, I didn't think that's you waiting outside. I'll unlock the door in a minute." Honestly, it felt a bit strange. What did she mean by "didn't think that's me?" Do I not look like someone who could be there for paperwork? W said I look too much like a student still. But I even dressed up for signing the papers! Well, I dressed business casual. I was wearing slacks & a blouse and had one of my nicer purses with me lol. After I got checked in to the HR office, Duke waited outside. He was such a good boy and didn't try to get other people's attention. He just wanted to sit close by (the door) and watched me as I finished signing and checked out.
走到HR辦公室前有幾個不同單位, 他們的排序方式讓我想起一些小鎮main street上的小店. 小鎮的可愛地方! 那天讓我懷念起以前長大的小鎮! 找到HR辦公室的門之後, 我在門口按了門鈴 但沒人回應. 當時看的到有一個女生坐在房間裡在門的正對面. 那個女生有看了我幾秒鐘, 然後轉回去看電腦螢幕. 她當時看起來也正在講電話. 那時候是下午3:57. 我的預約時間是4:00. 所以那時我想 "好吧, 等到4:00整我在按一次鈴." 3分鐘過很快, 我又按了一次鈴. 這次她沒看我 又等了幾分鐘沒有人有反應, 而我也開始覺得有些不耐煩. 雖說這邊的HR也只是幫忙, 但畢竟是有預約且是特別從隔了2個城外開車過來. 我掏出了手機, 直接撥打了HR最後寄給我的email的簽名檔附上的電話. 一個女生的聲音接了電話, 我馬上說我正在門口等人開門因為4:00有預約. 在辦公室裡面的女生馬上隔著窗戶看我 然後說"喔, 我沒想到門口的人是你. 一分鐘後就解鎖大門." 說實話, 我感覺有點怪. 什麼叫做"沒想到那是我?" 我看起來不像會去辦事的人嗎? W說我外表還是太像學生. 可是我有特別穿得比較正式耶! 進去了HR辦公室之後, Duke就在門口等我. 他很乖, 沒有想引起別人的注意. 就只是坐在門口外面看我簽名陪著我到整個過程結束.
This whole process only required signing of 2 single-page documents and showing of ID. The lady who helped me with the procedure said this was her first time preparing such documents for someone outside of their school so she was on a call with a technician almost the entire time to overcome some barriers to downloading docs from outside of their network, constantly checking the steps as we moved forward. It was almost as if I was just there to watch her talk with the other person. When she told me everything's set and passed my ID back, I asked "do you need to make a copy of my ID?" because in the back of my mind, all of my previous hiring processes included making a copy of my ID, including the times I got hired by the same employer that I have right now. Plus, I really didn't want to have to drive over again (even though W did the driving) just for making a copy of my ID if that becomes the case (I told her this too). She looked up at me and said she's not sure, then she turned around to check on the computer for a moment. When she turned back to face me again, she said "yes, it looks like they do want a copy of this. Let me go make a copy of it real quick." She took my ID and went to a back room so I just stood by the doorway and kept on telling Duke how much of a good boy he was for waiting so patiently 😂 From stepping in to stepping out, this whole process took about 30 minutes. Whew, the remote hiring process is finally completed!
整個過程只是在兩張紙上簽名 跟交出證件作身分認證一下. 替我處理這些的HR女生說這是她第一次幫非校內人員處理這些文件, 所以她幾乎全程都跟一個技術人員連線講話 來跨越一些因為需要額外下載文件遇到的技術障礙, 電話中不斷確認每一步. 幾乎像是我只是在那邊看她和別人講電話. 當她跟我說一切都完成 並把我的證件交還給我的時候, 我問"需要去影印我的證件嗎?" 因為在我的腦海裡, 所有過去的hiring文件處理都有影印證件, 包含現任的地方以前hire過我的前幾次. 小姐看著我說她不確定, 然後轉身去檢查電腦上的資料. 當她再轉回來的時候, 她說"是的, 看起來他們會需要一份證件影印檔. 我去做備份很快回來." 然後拿著我的證件消失在後面的房間, 而我就站在門口跟Duke不斷的說他好棒一直乖乖的在門口耐心等我 😂 從踏進HR辦公室到踏出去, 總共大概花了30分鐘. 呼 終於這個遠程I-9都處理完畢!
After all paperwork was done, we took a stroll on this campus. We saw several squirrels running from one tree to another. Of course that got Duke all excited! He tried to run after one just when I was taking a picture of "Marsh Hall." Of all buildings I saw, this one caught my eyes the most because of its' architecture. Duke totally photobombed it 😎
文件處理完畢之後, 我們在校園中散步. 路途中看到許多松鼠 在樹群中穿梭. 想當然 這讓Duke超級興奮! 他在我正在照上面照片中的"Marsh Hall"時 溜過來想去追某隻松鼠. 在所有那天看到的建築中, 這棟的建築設計對我特別的醒目. 而Duke根本跳進來照片裡來亂😎
Somewhere on campus, we came across this super tall tree. It was so hard to try get them all inside one photo (the tree, W, and Duke)
走到校園的某處 看到一顆很大的樹. 很勉強的把W和Duke跟樹都照到.
The half day trip to Forest Grove and Pacific University ended after about 2.5 hours. My favorite photos of the day are the one of Duke photobombing, and this one of Duke sitting on the school block. The picture on top of this post is only different because that one caught Duke blinking his eyes 🐶
在Forest Grove和Pacific大學的半日遊 大概兩小時半就結束了. 當天最喜歡的兩張照片 一張是Duke照片裡來亂的那張, 另一張是這張坐在學校磚牆上. 本篇的第一張照片跟這張差別是第一張Duke剛好在眨眼🐶
💗CM
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