These Books Made Me
These Books Made Me
Front Desk
Is it a memoir? Is it fiction? Who can say when your author and main character are both wunderkind business people. This episode takes us to the Calivista Motel, a charming motel operating on the backs of children and horribly exploited immigrants. When you are an 10 year old front desk clerk, you're responsible for a lot - checking people in, locking bad guys out, making keys, your English and Math homework, and chasing down conmen car thieves. In Front Desk by Kelly Yang, Mia Tang (see what she did with the name there -Mia/Me...never mind) does all of this while fending off the affections of a sparkly pencil thief and becoming baby Howard Johnson. We talk English language learning, terrible teachers, and just how feasible a motel owning co-op really is. In a first for the pod, our expert is also our guest host and does Yesenia ever have some stories to tell about interesting guests and toilet catastrophes.
These Books Made Me is a podcast about the literary heroines who shaped us and is a product of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System podcast network. Stay in touch with us via Instagram @TheseBooksMadeMe, Twitter @PGCMLS, with #TheseBooksMadeMe on any social platform or by email at TheseBooksMadeMe@pgcmls.info. For recommended readalikes and deep dives into topics related to each episode, visit our blog at https://pgcmls.medium.com/.
We cover a lot of ground in this episode and used some books and articles as jumping off points. Here’s a brief list of some of them if you want to do your own further research:
Chinese immigration in the 90s in a circa 1990 article:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-15-ss-95-story.html
An overview of Taiwanese immigrants in the US:
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/taiwanese-immigrants-united-states-2008
Hi, I am Hannah.
Maria:I'm Maria.
Heather:I'm Heather.
Darlene:And I'm Darlene.
Hannah:And this is our podcast, these books made. Today we're going to be talking about Front Desk by Kelly Yang. Friendly warning. As always, this podcast contains spoilers. If you don't yet know who licked a sparkly green pencil, proceed with caution. We have a special guest with us today. Can you introduce yourself?
Yesenia:Hi, I am Yesenia and I'm a circulation assistant in the Prince Georges County Memorial Library System.
Maria:Okay guys, so we're gonna get started. For this book, what did it mean to you? Was this the first time everyone read it? If not, how did this reread compare to your memories of reading it when you were younger? <laugh>
Darlene:I was so young in 2018, < laugh >
Speaker 2:Just a baby.
Speaker 4:Um, this is sort of my first time reading it because I did pick it up when , um, it first came out because it had a lot of buzz. And so I read the first few chapters. I don't know why I put it down and then didn't come back to it. So it was nice to kind of revisit it and actually finish it this time. Um, and I just really enjoyed my reading of it.
Speaker 3:I also think I didn't really finish it, so I was totally mixed up about this book. And had I got an arc of this book at the same time that I got an arc by a author who was a graphic novelist and that author's name was Wang. And I somehow like confused the two books. But I think that I read about half of this the first time I had read it and then put it away. 'cause I was like, I think I just had too many arcs to read from. Um, so for, for non-Library people, an Arc is an advanced reader copy. And if you go to a library conference like a LA, all the publishers just wanna give you advanced reader copies of everything. Um, so you walk away with the whole stack of books. And I think I was in more of a graphic novel phase at the time, so I did not come back to this one. So no real comparison other than I remembered being fond of the book. But then I clearly didn't remember what happened like in the back half of the book. So <laugh> , it was a fun read.
Speaker 1:So I read this book in the last week, <laugh> . Um , it was kind of fun to , uh, read a book that was sort of more recent publication, something I really didn't know a lot about. I somehow missed it when this book came out in 2018 or 2019. So I went in knowing very little about it other than what , uh, what came up when we talked about covering it for the pod and it was enjoyable. I
Speaker 2:Also picked it up during the pandemic , uh, rereading it. I also actually wasn't sure if I finished it or not because I remember tearing up when I first read it and then this time I was like, I'm crying and I don't remember finishing this ever. Um, so, but I managed to find my old copy as well. It was, it was a , a great reread for me.
Speaker 5:No , I had never read it. I hadn't really, I'd seen it on the shelves, but I hadn't really picked it up. But it was a great read.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, we merchandise it all the time. I was like, oh, I really should get back into it. And then I never did.
Speaker 2:I'm actually looking at your copy, Hannah. It's very well loved and read. Yes, it's one of our copies, right? This has been checked out multiple times.
Speaker 3:Poor thing . It probably
Speaker 2:Looks like it's , we probably need to ask for a replacement to retire that copy . It's looking
Speaker 3:A little worse for
Speaker 2:Wear . Has not sat there on the shelf and just been looked at <laugh> .
Speaker 3:Okay, I guess we will jump into a plot summary here. Mia Tang is 10 years old and has a very important job. Her parents are hired by, well, more like horribly exploited by a Taiwanese motel magnate named Mr. Yao . Mia works the front desk at the Calista Motel when she is in at school because her parents are running themselves ragged, doing literally all of the other work at the motel themselves. Cleaning, fixing things, housekeeping, accounting, wake up calls, everything. The Tangs immigrated from China a few years prior and Mia has moved constantly as they've taken whatever work they can find. The motel represents home and stability to Mia, but in many ways working for horrible Mr. Yao is a nightmare. He constantly finds reasons to deduct pay from the tanks, often due to mistakes Mia has made. While the motel has a core group of regulars or weaks that are sweethearts and take Mia under their wing, it's also a hotbed for rude, abusive customers, robberies, auto theft scams, and terrible policing. Possibly worst of all , it puts Mia in frequent contact with Jason , Mr. Yao's son who is in fifth grade with Mia. Mia can't stand Jason and thinks he's a spoiled rich bully who is just like his father. Some things are better at school though, as Mia meets her best friend Lupe, whose family are secretly from Mexico. The girls bond initially over their shared lives about their imaginary dogs. Mia has a golden retriever and Lupe has a pug, a golden retriever, and a Shiba inu , none of whom exist in real life. Eventually they're honest with each other and bond over their shared experiences as immigrants and being on the rollercoaster of poverty . Mia struggles at school when she is mocked for her clothes and her English not being perfect at home. Mia's mom drills her in math, but constantly runs down Mia's English abilities and options in the us Due to her own insecurities about her English and her career, a series of minor catastrophes occur. Hank a kind weekly is railroaded by police for a car theft. Because he's black, a washing machine is destroyed by a key. Jason falls in love with Mia. Her mom is beaten by robbers, but Mia is resilient and keeps on looking for ways to better their circumstances. She settles on entering a $300 win a hotel in Vermont essay contest. Ultimately, she loses the contest and is crushed, but then finds out that Mr. Yao is selling the motel. Mia organizes a group of weaks Chinese immigrants and fellow losers of the win a hotel contest to invest in pooling funds to buy the motel for $300,000. Mr. Yao tries to cheat them, but his treachery is revealed by Jason who decides not to be evil like his father. The hastily put together investment cooperative ultimately purchases the motel, and Mia invites everyone to jump into the previously off limits pool with her ushering in happier times for the tangs in the residents of the Calista Motel.
Speaker 4:All right , so now we're gonna do an author bio. So Kelly Yang was born in Hong Kong in 1984 and immigrated to United States when she was six. She grew up in Southern California and between the ages of eight and 10, she helped her parents at three motels. They managed during this time. She managed the front desk, helped her parents hide undocumented immigrants, and she even wrote a letter on behalf of an undocumented immigrant to scare his employer into returning his passport. Her parents came to United States with only $200 and therefore struggled financially while she was growing up. But she's said this time was also filled with positive memories like bonding with the motels as weeklies . At age 13, yang attended and graduated from the University of California Berkeley, where she majored in political science. At 17, she attended Harvard Law School. During her first year of law school, she was sexually assaulted. She had to experience not only Harvard's administrative board acquitting her attacker wrongdoing, but then the school decided to investigate her for malicious prosecution. At 20, she was found not guilty and allowed to graduate with her law degree. However, yang Orent practicing law in pursuit of her passion for writing and teaching. In 2005, yang started the Kelly Yang Project, which aims to promote writing and communication skills among kids in China, Europe, and the United States. She was a columnist for the South China Morning Post and wrote pieces for the New York Times, the Washington Post and The Atlantic. In 2018, she released her debut novel front desk, which garnered a lot of publicity and accolades. It was at the top of many yearend lists and it received the 2019 Asian Pacific American Award for literature . Yang has stated that the book is 60% reality and 40% fiction, drawing inspiration from her early childhood. In 2020, she wrote her first young adult novel parachutes loosely based on her experience with sexual assault. She mentioned in her interviews that she finds writing therapeutic and that it allows her to process. Yang is a strong advocate of libraries and is against censorship, especially of diverse stories. In 2023, yang served as honorary chair of the American Library Association's National Library Week. She has three kids and currently splits her time between California and Hong Kong.
Speaker 3:I wanted to kick off by talking about this book being a little bit different than anything else we've read because it really is almost a memoir. Like I think it's really close to not being fiction in terms of how it's cataloged. 'cause this could have gone in bios maybe.
Speaker 1:I think that's a good point. Um, if I've, one of the conclusions that I've come to , um, from us doing the podcast for the past couple years is, and pairing a , a close reading of the book with doing an author bio for , uh, the authors who wrote the book is that authors are pulling so much for their own life with it , which is not a surprise, but I was surprised a little bit at how much it really seems to inform what they write about. But this I think, is closer to a, a bio than some of the other stuff we've covered even.
Speaker 3:Yeah , I just , I was thinking about some of the other books that are j that we end up calling bios, like some of the tmy books. Mm-Hmm . Or like , uh, El Defo by CC Bell . And like, I mean, Al Devo, she's a rabbit in it, which is like, I think as much a remove from actual occurrences as anything in this book would be. So I am kind of curious if it was simply that she didn't name a character after herself. Like I'm, I do wonder why we catalog it as J Ffic rather than than Bio.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I think in her author's note, 'cause I was surprised as well. So when I saw that 60 40 quote, I was like, oh, that makes so much sense. Because in her author's note, I mean she, she talks about having to write letters on behalf of, or that she's written a letter on behalf of an undocumented immigrant that her parents did , um, hide a lot of undocumented immigrants. She talks about that her mom was assaulted , um, that she did help manage the front desk of the mo motel , um, the motels that her parents managed. So there was a lot definitely, definitely that she pulled from, I wonder. Yeah, like where she did take those creative liberties. I think she did say it was in some of the characters, like some of the outside characters that she decided to do it. And that makes sense. 'cause you can kind of play around with those Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> characters and then maybe, who knows, maybe it was also like the happy ending sort of, because I've <laugh> we can get into it later, but I was like, oh, this seems, it seems very fiction .
Speaker 3:It seems a little too perfect at the end. Yeah . It's like you don't raise $300,000 in a month off of $50 donations, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 4:And then everyone just kind of like having a piece of this estate , which
Speaker 3:Would've been incredibly hard to manage . Like how are you profit sharing among like that's what I thought too . She's basically running a mutual fund . That motel at 10 years old .
Speaker 1:I had concerns about the logistics of that afterwards. <laugh> like who's how Yeah,
Speaker 4:But also like those that didn't win the motel. I don't think they just wanted a stake in a motel. I think they wanted to work at a motel. So it's like, yeah. What happens to them? Do they not get to like work there? 'cause it's really just, it's supposed to set up me and her family kind of still continuing to run things. But it's like, well what happens if any of these, does any of the people that like put in money decide that they want to come and , you know, leave their jobs and come and work at the , they
Speaker 3:Franchise it just little IV skin all over the country. <laugh> ,
Speaker 1:Even if this is strongly pulled from reality, I think there's definitely enough fictional elements to keep it in fiction. Happy ending aside, it's got a fictional skin on top of everything. It
Speaker 6:Rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.
Speaker 2:That's a very good point that by the end it's all very beautifully pictured on how to like kind of end with your family and then your found family. Um, which makes sense why it would be more on the fiction side.
Speaker 3:But at the same time, I wonder if a lot of the hard things that happen in this book, the big issue, things were real life for her. And I wonder if it undercuts that a bit if you let people think it's fiction.
Speaker 5:Yeah. I think for the age group that might be the most appropriate approaches to say like, well this may or may not happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I know Yia mentioned, well probably because of the age group it was gone to , but it , she was that age Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> when everything was happening. And it's just, this is very real for a lot of kids .
Speaker 3:She in college at 13. Yeah .
Speaker 2:So , so it's just like, I mean, in her bio, like she wrote the letter, it's, and this was what probably when she was 11 mm-Hmm . <affirmative> 12 before she went off to college. So No, I , I do agree. I think it does take away from a lot of that. I think we all hear about, we all see it in the library too, how many kids at the age of eight are translating for their parents.
Speaker 4:But to add to that discussion, I also think that she said that oftentimes she didn't feel herself reflected in a lot of the stories, which makes sense. I mean, she had a very like, you know, very rough childhood. She didn't really see it portrayed anywhere, but also not in any sort of positive light either. And so I think that she kind of did this for the person that might also, or the kid that might also be kind of experiencing this really tough time
Speaker 2:Going <laugh> . I kind of just wanna go back a little bit to what Darlene mentioned about how the author didn't see herself. And can we just look at how Mia the , where she saw herself reflected was where she real , um, in relation to the telephone. She's like made in China just like me because that's the closest to something she felt was at least somewhat relatable to her, unfortunately.
Speaker 3:Well, and like she got <laugh> . She was, she was really like enamored with the poorly written directions that had been like translated from Chinese. Oh
Speaker 4:Yeah . <laugh>
Speaker 3:Where it was like she saw something there Yeah . As well. And like was talking about like, I think she , she brought up her mom's English and that as like an example 'cause her mom was an engineer Yeah. In China. But then comes here and they're working, you know, low wage service profession jobs because it's what's available and with her English skills and like, that's such a through line in the book is the mom sort of trying to give MA the leg up, but it's still like very infused with the hardships she's experiencing. So she's like leaning hard into the math 'cause she's like, my English is bad and that has held me back. Yours is never gonna be native. It will hold you back. Yeah .
Speaker 1:Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> , I felt such a sense of relief for Mia when to go back to what Maria was saying. Like she was looking to see herself and then when, you know, she was talking with Lupe and they bonded over their imaginary dogs <laugh> . And then when Lupe showed up with her dad to repair, I can't remember what it was. Was it the washing? No, the washing.
Speaker 2:I think it was a
Speaker 3:Cable . He's like the cable guy.
Speaker 7:Cable guy .
Speaker 3:And
Speaker 1:Then like, you know, it came out , they were both making up the dogs 'cause they were embarrassed to talk about their actual home life. And then I was like, okay, well it's sad that they're both experiencing what they're experiencing, but at least they can talk to each other and not feel like , uh, not feel totally alone. Like , I remember feeling such a sense of relief for her that they could Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> at least when they were standing at a side of school being afraid to do sports. 'cause they didn't have medical insurance. They at least didn't feel completely alone. Like,
Speaker 4:Yeah. I think, I think the romanticism in this book, like the way that Mia like kind of sees the world is really interesting and I think kind of keeps you reading despite the fact that you're like, oh my God, this child is really going through some really tough things. But it's like the way that she sees everything, it's like, yeah, she's just really searching for that sort of , um, like identifying with someone else or like with other people. And so the way that she relates to other people is really interesting too. I think that the rollercoaster theme , um, is really important in sort of bonding her and Lupe and the fact that it makes her really empathetic. She's like, oh, you know, like when she was thinking that maybe she would win the Vermont contest , um, she was like, she finally like understood what that would mean for Lupe and like possibly leaving her. And so I , I really like the sort of like empathetic lens that this book has
Speaker 3:Bits in this, that it was like, oh gosh, that takes me back. Like the sparkly pencil ,
Speaker 4:Um , sparkles.
Speaker 3:You know, God, I thought that was so true for, for when the people around you have way more than you because you do latch onto these little things. And it just reminded me when I was a kid, I was like third or fourth grade and all of the girls had these fancy pens that they got from Jug Emporium. I wanted a fancy pen so bad. And like my dad got me this pen that was like , uh, they were like covered in like a friendship bracelet kind of thing, like the woven ones. Oh . So they had a little thing. That pen was my everything. I mean it probably cost like 3 99 or something at the time. But I knew that that was a non-essential. And it was a stretch and it was , it was like the way that like name brand food, like cereal was such a luxury. Like if I went to somebody's house and they had like real tricks,
Speaker 4:Silly rabbit
Speaker 1:Tricks are for kids,
Speaker 3:It was like, whoa. You know? Or
Speaker 1:Like the kids coming to school with like ,
Speaker 3:You're rich, like
Speaker 1:The kids coming to school with like lunches that, I dunno like a , I'm not totally sure what lunches would be considered more cool and less weird, but probably like, I don't know , a Lunchable lunch . Yeah . So I didn't go to school. I was homeschooled so I , I shouldn't be talking about this.
Speaker 4:The sparkly green pencil sparkles did remind me of like the scholastic book fair because I was like, oh, it was just like a dream. Like you would see everything laid out in front of you and then you'd be like, I can't like afford <laugh> . Right . Most of these things because it's just, yeah. I mean it's priced pretty high. Um,
Speaker 3:We've read a lot of books with those little things though, because it's like Franci's cup of coffee. Mm . Yes . With the condensed milk. They have nothing else. But her mom really sticks to that. You get one spoon of condensed milk to do what you, you can eat it plain. You can eat it on bread, you can put it in coffee. And Francie doesn't even put it in the coffee. She just eats the condensed milk and she dumps her coffee down the drain. 'cause it's like the only luxury she has. And, and then Anne with her puff sleeves. Yes. And Anna Green Gables where like all she wants in the world is the extra fabric puff sleeves and like a pretty fabric instead of just brown <laugh> and
Speaker 1:Tiny, tiny little status symbols among children.
Speaker 4:This is not related to any of this, but the whole sparkly green pencil. But then also just like Jason and Mia's like back and forth and then the fact that um, he like ends up professing is like infatuation with her later. Why
Speaker 3:Did you do it that way? That was like, it
Speaker 4:Was , yeah ,
Speaker 3:My guy . No, send her . Yes. No maybe. No . And keep it like <laugh> .
Speaker 4:Yes, but keep it ,
Speaker 8:Take it easy man. Who your beans bro . Whatcha
Speaker 1:Doing?
Speaker 4:Her response was a hilarious, but B it was like , was this her way of like starting this sort of pride and prejudice sort
Speaker 3:Of like Yeah , Jason is the Mr . Dar <laugh> .
Speaker 4:Darcy dar That's right . Because I think she said like similar lines like, you know, you could be the last person on earth and I would never like you. And I was like, oh that's, and not that I'm like, shipping to wonder
Speaker 3:Was an intentional reference so I bet it was.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I was like, I wonder if she just was giving like a nod to like a writer that she really, whose work she really appreciated. Not related to anything. It's just the sparkly green pencil. Eh , sparkles obviously reminds me of Jason 'cause he's the one that linked it
Speaker 5:The worst
Speaker 3:Spoiler . It's ing You bring that up though 'cause there's so much about writing in here. You know, it's really fundamental to Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> the novel is like Mia's improving her writing to the degree that it really is life changing for people. That's where her power is. There's really nothing about reading <laugh> in
Speaker 9:Americas to grow up thinking. Reading is fun .
Speaker 4:That's true. Because you would think that if she wanted to better her writing, she would've learned more .
Speaker 3:She would . Or that if you wanna be a writer, you would think you would also be a , like a voracious reader. And she's got a lot of downtime sitting at the front desk.
Speaker 2:Which , who did she get? I think it was either Mrs Q or Mrs. T who had the dictionary. The, so yeah ,
Speaker 4:Mr . Yeah ,
Speaker 3:I think that was Mrs . Q . But yeah, she was looking at stuff up when she was doing her writing and like making some edits. Yeah .
Speaker 2:Because she was the one at least who she would've gotten books from as well. So That's a good point. Yeah , because Miss she had her own little mini collection of books.
Speaker 3:I kept mixing up those two ladies. 'cause then the one like didn't even really need to live there because she had like all this money and she was like, but this is my home <laugh> . I wouldn't have these great friends if I Yeah . Rented an apartment.
Speaker 4:I hope that's something she explored in like future sequels because I do think that's a missed opportunity.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think I'm gonna keep reading 'cause I did enjoy this. I thought it was really sweet. Yeah . And so Yesenia was telling me about when she used to work at a restaurant about her sister, like how you have to like grow up fast because Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . It's not just external people, you know, it's not the customer that's drunk that's coming to the front desk all . Sometimes it's the internal customer like Mr. Yao that you have to like figure out how to manage. I don't know if you wanted to share any of that, but it, when I was reading it, I was thinking like , oh, this reminds me so much about what Yesenia and I were talking about.
Speaker 5:Yeah. Just the experience of like working at a really young age and you just grow up around so many older people and not everybody's always as nice as they should be, even if you are a kid. And so it's kind of like working with my sister. Like I was just like more careful with who I let her be around and where I, where I would let her work in the restaurant.
Speaker 4:Oh, are you older or younger?
Speaker 5:I'm the oldest. Oldest.
Speaker 4:Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> .
Speaker 3:Yeah. Like she was talking about like, it would be okay for her to host this , but she didn't want her in the back with the
Speaker 2:<laugh> . Like kind of
Speaker 3:Chy. <laugh> . Yeah.
Speaker 5:Like I was like , as the day progressed, the people got a little bit nastier. So I was like, you're gonna work in the front.
Speaker 1:Even if that child is like incredibly young people seem to forget that the worker they're interacting with is, well in Mia's case 10 or uh , I mean they're just the employee not giving me what I want. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> And just treat them like they might any worker that's not
Speaker 3:One back customer kind of atoned for that one . He wrote Mr . Colin . Yeah . Like when he realized like, oh, she's a moment a child and like I'm getting her in trouble by being a jerk. And like he really came around and now I think he invested in the motel <laugh> . I had $10,000 <laugh> . It's like, okay.
Speaker 1:And he kinda looked at her and went, this is a kid she should not be working. And yet here we are.
Speaker 3:Let's talk a bit about Lupe's , um, rollercoaster metaphor. So at one point in the book, Lupe talks to Mia and says that basically there's two rollercoasters in America and the rich people are on one rollercoaster and the poor people are on a different one. And for the rich people everything goes right, right? Like their kids go to the good schools and then they go to the good college and they have money for the nice clothes that help them get, you know, all these sort of leg up things while poor folks are just in this sort of series of, you know, up and down, up and down and you never get ahead. Did we think that was like an appropriate metaphor for, for poverty in the US or the immigrant experience? I mean she was I think kind of speaking to multiple issues when she talked about that. I
Speaker 4:Think it was appropriate for that. Or I think it's appropriate for that age group. Like if you want to kind of understand, but you don't have, you know, you don't have that kind of lived experience. I think that it made sense. But I don't know if it's just because like I'm an older reader reading a dream fiction book and I'm just like, I don't know how I would've read it as a kid. I will say that, I remember when I read it I thought, oh, that's a really like simple way, but effective way to kind of get the point across. Right. Because what she's saying is that you don't, you know, it's like a rollercoaster and you know, it has its ups and downs but you never really get off of it. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> the way obviously 'cause you can't in an actual rollercoaster. Right. And it takes you down a specific path where you usually can't get off. Now there are a lot of other sort of privileges and life circumstances that could happen. So, you know, life is a bit more complex than that. But I think that it was simplistic enough that like the age group that this book is meant for could understand.
Speaker 3:Yeah , that's a good point . Did she try to come back to that too? Because with the Disneyland thing, so the, the more affluent family, God those people were horrible. I hated 'em so much. I got so mad about the genes . Um
Speaker 4:Oh yeah. I like the mom didn't , I'm sorry.
Speaker 3:Oh, it was straight out of the Addie book too. We had that almost identical Yeah . Exchange in Addie where it's just like someone's just really rubbing someone's face in their lack of things. Um, but that when that family came to stay and she tries to befriend the girl that's with them thinking like, oh, someone my age, I'll have a playmate. And she brings up Disneyland, which for Mia is this aspirational. Someday if we find this lucky penny that's a collectible that's worth $40,000, we might be able to go to Disneyland and we might be able to go to New York. And this girl's like, yeah, I live right by Disneyland. It's like no biggie kind of thing. And she's very dismissive of it. But again, she keep , you know, it's that rollercoaster idea where I felt like she was trying to like make that even more apparent. The rich girl has a different rollercoaster. She's got her Disneyland rollercoaster that she doesn't even have to think about. Mm-Hmm . And me and Lupe are having to find car thieves, like Yeah. You know , that's their rollercoaster to try to help their friend.
Speaker 1:And I was confused because like the girl left her jeans there and then I'm a little incurred on the timeline, but it feels like months went by and I like back that . Why, why didn't she all of a sudden get concerned about going back for her jeans months later? I really ,
Speaker 3:That was the wrong detour .
Speaker 1:Be fixating on . But
Speaker 4:Yeah . And if she know has
Speaker 3:She felt don't mean like you didn't even miss them for all that time. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah. And if she has the means, she could have just gotten new gene . Yeah .
Speaker 2:At least in a lot of cultures with immigrants, you have the new immigrants and you have the older immigrants and it's kind of like, well I've been here longer so I know how it is. Um, but I don't know, I also got a kind of vibe from the mom and the daughter. If you came back for some jeans, maybe you're not far off from that. Well there other rollercoaster
Speaker 1:There . Mm-Hmm . They were staying in a, I'm guessing probably a not super expensive motel. So Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I think it's miss , uh, the last person who stayed, who invested. He was like, oh, I don't have to stay here, but I choose to stay here. Yeah . He was like very honest with that. But with these folks, it just reminded me of Mr. Yao when like he was like, oh, there are other immigrants who can take this job or it's just this superiority. Mm-Hmm . Because I know more than we do at this point.
Speaker 3:Some of the families like that I went to school with whose parents were from Cuba, like their immigration experience is very different than the experience of someone coming from Mexico. There's a very explicit sort of like, well I did it so if I did it the right way. And it's like, okay, but people in Mexico can't just put one foot on us soil and be good. Like that's not how it works. And that's how it worked when you did this. There's a real dismissiveness and I wondered if some of that came from, because Mr. Yah was from Taiwan. So I was wondering too if it it
Speaker 4:Was , if it was like an asylum thing Yeah.
Speaker 3:A different experience because he was coming from a different point of origin.
Speaker 4:But I will say Jason did like make that point that he was like, I'm not trying to , yeah . I'm not Taiwan . It's different.
Speaker 2:Yeah. No. And even when he finds Mia playing the piano Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . He's just like, oh
Speaker 3:My dad's how you just spit on dirt
Speaker 2:All day , dad just day spit on dirt. Yep . It's like, oh you guys, you guys went to school, you guys, you learned how to play piano. It was such a foreign concept for him as well, just because of his dad having his own prejudices as well. Yeah.
Speaker 4:I, it was like a really big like punch to the gut when , um, Mia's mom like tells her sister like , yeah , what actually has been going on? So this is like closer to the end of the book, you know, she's been struggling this whole time but has been telling her family back home that it's great. And when it came to it and she like finally revealed to her sister that, you know, they had been struggling and could she maybe help out? She heard that she , um, is a little bit more well off now. Um, and the sister like declines just because she wants to get more real estate
Speaker 3:Saving for an apartment for Shen who is Mia's age in Beijing. Yeah . That was cringe. And then all the other siblings said that too, like, yes, we're also saving for apartments in Beijing. Like , it just felt like they were, I wasn't sure if we were supposed to read that though. Like when I hit that part I was like, well, maybe they're lying about their circumstances too. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> like, was Shen doing an imaginary dog when he's saying like, oh, I have all of these things. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative>
Speaker 4:I guess I took it with the author's note that basically said that, you know, they be , those who stayed became more affluent. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . So I guess that's what I, that's why I took it as it
Speaker 1:Does imply that they were talking about specifically, I think this is what you were talking about. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> Darlene. Yeah. Specifically the , um, the immigrants who came in the nineties. Um, they saying that this particular set of circumstances made these immigrants particularly vulnerable to exploitation, hardship. No group of Chinese immigrants before since came with quite so little and give up so much, so much. And then it said later some of these immigrants would go back to China and not recognize the country they left. They would not recognize their brothers and sisters in their designer clothes and handbags. Um, their brothers and sisters would not recognize them . Neither would the new Chinese immigrants who had arrived arrive in business class and not understand why anybody would ever turn to the loan sharks. So, I mean, we don't know. Maybe they were lying that specific family, but it does sound like after they left at some point a lot of people might've become more affluent. So
Speaker 3:To me I think she was trying to say that like, okay, her family in China wouldn't help but her found family helped. So like I think there's that sort of undercurrent of found family becoming like your community at some point. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> .
Speaker 4:And sometimes like yeah. That shared experiences can transcend kind of those like race and ethnic lines. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>,
Speaker 2:Which is how we also get the shop , um, owners from down the street, I think. Yeah.
Speaker 4:The Lama . Yeah . There's
Speaker 3:The , the laundry and then there's the, the other motel and there yeah. There are like multiple businesses that are all immigrant owned . I think one was an Indian Yes . Owner. And yeah, she looks at like multiple different facets of the immigrant community but also, you know, that sort of shared experience with Hank who's facing discrimination. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> because of his race. Yeah. She hits a lot of tough issues. I did like that squatter's rights came up. <laugh>, I was like, you could really see her law degree in here. And also the California
Speaker 1:Californians.
Speaker 3:Like that's like the most California thing ever. Like I loophole the squatter's. Right. Thing. Like , we're good now I can stay forever. <laugh> , we had on here to talk about generational trauma. Does anyone wanna <laugh> start us off on that <laugh> ? Yeah, so
Speaker 2:I actually put that down mostly because of, we see moms immediately when it first starts and it's the astronaut picture or like in the astronaut suit.
Speaker 3:Oh. That made me so sad that she ruined her mom's picture. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I
Speaker 3:Was like , oh, why'd you do that Mia? Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we've got mom a
Speaker 3:Whole
Speaker 2:Kid whole Yeah, exactly. And it's, but it's, she's becomes so cognizant of it that she knows she can never photo bomb mom again because mom was an engineer and this was probably kind of like her fulfilling her dream on some level. Um, and we just see that kind of, we talked a little bit about the English language with mom and how it kind of comes up and doesn't really want Mia to go through it. I think the most endearing thing was like the dad. The dad kind of fought against a lot of that and supported Mia along the way <laugh> .
Speaker 3:But I don't know that his viewpoint was all that healthy either. He was certainly more directly supportive of Mia's goals Mm-Hmm . Than the mom was. But he was kind of constantly bringing up like, well we can't do anything about it, it's just our fate . That's true. You know, like something bad would happen. Mr. Yow would be horrible. The
Speaker 2:Worst
Speaker 3:They would get, you know , cheated by Mr. Yao on something or they , you know. Yeah . It was just what she thought she could achieve anyways. Yeah.
Speaker 2:She would go to Hank instead at that point. Yeah . Like Hank became her biggest support, the pennies that meant so much to her dad. Hank was like, are you sure? And Hank went to go get the money for her. Yeah.
Speaker 1:The story did a really great way of showing just how disorienting it is to go to a completely new country and culture and no matter how capable you are, how credentialed you might be. Like just how vulnerable you are and what a grind it is to get started. Like you see it happen to our parents, like her mom's an engineer, right . Did they talk about what her dad did? And then you, you know, I think she had someone who I think they referred to as an uncle and I don't know if he was an actual uncle or if that was , um, I don't
Speaker 10:Think any of them were actual, they were all just
Speaker 1:Endearment . Um , but you know, there's , there were plenty of people who were I think very accomplished and , um, they're trying so hard to make it work and they're just, they're running into culture clashes and language barriers and just various other things that are just causing like, horrible issues for them. I think that it, just seeing how the adults are are struggling.
Speaker 2:Well, unlike Mia's mom who's like, you'll never do this. You can't do this. You're a bicycle in their cars. Um, versus Mia teaching how to overcome the idioms or I , I feel like on some level that's kind of going to be what breaks the wheel. I'm not
Speaker 1:Gonna stop the wheel. I'm gonna break the
Speaker 2:Wheel. Um, because she's not just telling them what they're doing wrong, she's trying to help them understand. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . And I think that's the biggest difference with generational trauma. Also kind of a healing process kind of thing with the , um, the uncles <laugh> , um, at least for me , uh, unknowingly, but at least on some level, I think that's kind of going to start helping 'em kind of move forward.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I mean, going back to the language thing, that was really, I don't know, I feel like that was really fascinating. Like Hannah said, kind of look into sort of What that experience would be like for someone. 'cause I don't know necessarily because I went to school at a really young age, so I just kind of , you know, young kids I think like have an easier time learning a new language and so they kind of just become really good at it. But language, especially if you're not learning , um, about it or if you're not learning it, like in an educational setting is very contextual. So yeah, that scene where one of her, you know, quote unquote uncles says, Hey baby to someone and thinks that that's just how Americans like greet each other. It's like, yeah, why would he know any different? He doesn't know the context in which people say, Hey baby versus when they don't. And so , um, yeah, I feel like she adds those little kind of like nuggets of information that yeah, they don't seem like much at first, but really there is a lot to kind of say there
Speaker 2:This book for me at least in that way, because I had a very hard time learning English as a kid. Um, we moved here, I was still very young, but I, my dad was very into Spanish grammar so I could read, I could write Spanish, but I didn't touch English until I started school. And that for me was like , I was in EOL for I think until third grade <laugh> because it was just very difficult. And even like for the standard American English, it's like, we see it with mom. I mean, I still hear it from my parents. The final like letters or like eggplant. Yeah. Like you don't really use that. Um, 'cause if I have my mom , my mom will also say a plan, like the final letters aren't usually just , um, emphasized. So I think that's why I kind of had like my own kind of traumatic kind of memories coming back with the book just because you, it's the same thing. It's like with Lupe and Mia, like you're trying to assimilate. You don't wanna stand out, especially if you're the only one who looks like yourself. And unfortunately for me, the only other person who looked like her was a bully
Speaker 3:Was Jason who was such a bully. Um,
Speaker 2:So that was kind of like the unfortunate thing. Which again, I wish the reading like you mentioned would come up more because at least for me, I mean, I became an English major more probably because of that. Which learning how it functions is I guess very different. Poor me up <laugh>
Speaker 3:Poor me up. Poor me up. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. No, I mean, unless you like use it in practice again. She loves the idiom. She's obviously a writer. <laugh> , it's like a blanket of snow or
Speaker 3:Whatever. Yeah . Yeah .
Speaker 2:So it was just, it's, it was pretty obvious that she did enjoy writing and just her mom was not having it. Um , and it reminded me of mean girls just because with Katie what she says, it's like, I love math because it's the same in every language. And it was the same thing. Her mom was trying to tell her like , no one will make fun of you. And unfortunately for Mia , her math, when she was wrong, everyone turned against her and
Speaker 3:She was totally right. What kind of teacher gives a math problem about hourly rates at a motel? Yeah . Yeah. Like I thought that was really inappropriate.
Speaker 2:I didn't like the teacher. Like ,
Speaker 3:Kids aren't exposed to hourly rate motels typically. Like that is,
Speaker 2:I
Speaker 1:Had questions about why Mia did the math for that. Like, did, did she choose the daily rate? Because Mr. Yao doesn't do hourly rates . Yes .
Speaker 3:And she was like , she chose the daily rate . We don't , because you don't get to do two . This is choice . Yeah . It's , it's this or nothing because they're not, I mean, they're not running like a Lu shack motel
Speaker 11:Love .
Speaker 3:So like she works the front desk. She's right . You get , you charge the whole rate whether you get here at, you know, three in the morning or three in the afternoon. Like you check in, you pay this.
Speaker 1:And we see her doing math in her head to calculate the tax.
Speaker 4:I could see why you didn't like the teacher. Like I know that she has like a heart to heart with her later and she basically explains to Mia like, maybe, you know, your , your mom doesn't really mean what she says. And like, sometimes people say things out of anger or confusion or, I don't know if she said insecurity, but essentially she was trying to say like, was that Mr .
Speaker 3:Was there my teacher? I thought that was one of the, I thought that was the regulars, the
Speaker 4:Weaks. Just kidding. <laugh> . I thought it was at school.
Speaker 2:No, that's why . Well, no, there was never any, I mean
Speaker 3:She gave her a and she said, your essay is so beautiful and Mia, I want you to read it to the class. But it took like the whole darn book to see that child. Yeah , you're
Speaker 4:Right. Yeah . But no, the scene that made me really dislike her was the green pencil one
Speaker 3:Solomon son , you don't King Solomon into pencil. Yep . Also, Jason licking the pencil like the worst . Seriously, guys , that was the grossest thing you could have done. Yeah.
Speaker 2:<laugh> .
Speaker 5:I love how she got her revenge though. Like that was so beautiful. And then it reminds you like she really is a kid and she just planned this out and she was like, I'm gonna do this
Speaker 2:<laugh> . No, but she also, her brain where's like, we're breaking into Jason's house, my pencil back .
Speaker 3:No , they really drew vibes . They're like going to scope out the like house of the, the guy that said his car was stolen and they're checking out like everyone that had registered but left that day without checking out. It was like intense . I
Speaker 4:Was like in a intense novel. This would not <laugh>
Speaker 3:It would not end that way . It would ,
Speaker 4:It would not end that well . Um , but yeah, I think that's a , I will say like , um, like speaking about Mia a lot, but like, I feel like she was a really refreshing character. I remember thinking like this whole time I was like, oh my God, she's so brave. I was like, at that age I would not have done Yeah . Half the things and I would've already had a lot of things ingrained in me. So the one that really, or one of the things that stood out, which is kind of autobiographical to Kelly was the writing the letter. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . Because in my brain I would've just been like, it can only come from like , I'm a kid kid ,
Speaker 3:I can't
Speaker 4:Do that . Yeah . I'm a kid. Like you would have to be a lawyer. It would have to be like really nice letterhead or something. But even just doing it regardless, just to see what would happen. I mean even that like still spooked the employer because they were like, oh, well maybe they don't know a lawyer, but they definitely know someone who knows English. And so this could really like blow in my, you know, blow back in my face. And I was like, yeah, I would've never thought to do that. I would've like convinced myself every, with every reason for like why that was not gonna work. Yeah . And why I should not even like attempt to do it. But I, I do like that. And I think it's like partly her age. It's kind of like maybe she just doesn't yet have the like, experiences to like hold her back just yet. But Kelly Yang did the same thing, it seemed so Yeah.
Speaker 1:Was so afraid that was gonna backfire when she wrote the letter for Hank and then she wrote the letter describing how he bravely like chased the , um, the guy who assaulted her mom and then got a criminal conviction. I had this sickening feeling that it was going to cost him from getting the job. And then I was so relieved when it actually worked. And I'm thinking that probably wouldn't happen in real life. I was thinking it was gonna create a rift between her and Hank. And I loved how like they had
Speaker 3:This Mm , they had a really good, this really nice
Speaker 4:Relationship. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I was so, you know, it was nice that it worked out and that , you know, he found out when he was like, that was bold kid. But it paid
Speaker 2:Off <laugh> . No, this book did very well with kind of keeping you on your toes because when that happened, there's a lot
Speaker 3:That happens . There's a lot
Speaker 2:That happened and I was like, how many pages are left?
Speaker 3:Has a really intense
Speaker 2:Life. She does <laugh> . Oh , I , I actually wanted just to bring up the sparkly green pencil really quickly.
Speaker 4:Sparkle
Speaker 2:Because mom had it. Mom had the pickled tofu. Oh that's , that, that was her whole thing as well. It's her kind of like, what would be the word? Her comfort. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> kind of thing to do. And then the Macy's bags. Yeah . That
Speaker 3:Was so heartbreaking. It was
Speaker 2:Like Mia was able to eventually get her pencil back, but her mom and her dad, the pennies were gone. No , I'm
Speaker 3:Sure her mom never went to Macy's again after that. And mom .
Speaker 2:Yeah . Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> like , yeah . Oh . 'cause how do you come back?
Speaker 3:He just be traumatized by
Speaker 4:Yeah . Yeah. As soon as they ran into uh , Mr . Yao's like wife or Miss Gao , um, and Jason, I was like, oh no. Like I can already see the , I can already tell what Meia mom must be thinking, which is like, we were paid nothing. We're paid just and like they're gonna think that we know
Speaker 3:We're shoplifting or have secret funds or Yeah .
Speaker 4:Yeah. And I was like, yeah, I could totally see that happening. I really thought that was gonna go somewhere too. Yeah. Same . So luckily
Speaker 3:I felt like she was just wanting that parallel there with the gene though. Like I, I thought the author was pretty sophisticated at drawing parallels between an adult and, and Mia. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> at different points to sort of mirror that experience because her mom's Maisy bag was the jeans for Mia. Yeah. You know, when they came back like , those are my jeans, gimme my jeans back kind of thing. And she had to put the ugly pants back on. But she's right. 'cause those pants would've been more comfortable than jeans. We've had a jeans discussion before. I'm not a big jeans person, <laugh> . Um , I don't find them comfortable. So I was team Mia on that one. She was right that her flower pants were more comfort . Heather comfortable.
Speaker 2:Heather's jeans True for truth or Yeah. <laugh> that . Yeah .
Speaker 3:Yeah . We talked a lot about jeans . We did . No, those were nasty though.
Speaker 2:Wash the jeans. Yeah . Yeah. I mean I keep reading about how supposedly denim aficionados are supposed to never wash their jeans and they're just so gross. Yeah . I sure they wash
Speaker 3:The heck out the jeans. 'cause she sell all those clothes they got from the thrift store. She washed like a million times and she still felt grody when she put them on. So
Speaker 2:They were definitely washing clean their denim <laugh> .
Speaker 5:Oh , I was gonna say I had read somewhere that like, people that are really like into their jeans, they don't wash them. They put 'em in the freezer.
Speaker 2:Kill
Speaker 5:The smell .
Speaker 2:That seems like insufficient to me. <laugh> .
Speaker 5:It doesn't make sense to me. 'cause then your jeans would smell like food or
Speaker 2:Just wash it with the freezer. Bugger . Yeah . <laugh> . Like just get a bar of soap and just stop . Just what
Speaker 4:She did, right? Yeah . Didn't, yeah . Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> .
Speaker 2:Just don't dry them. If you want to preserve the fabric for longer. Right .
Speaker 3:Don't stick. Stick it
Speaker 2:In the dryer. That's wash them's on cold . Hang to dry. Can do a day or two. Let them let the denim dry.
Speaker 4:<laugh> . Alright , so now let's talk to someone who actually knows something about one of the main topics covered in this book. Hotels.
Speaker 3:That's you, Yesenia. <laugh> <laugh> . So we have , yes. Our special guest is also an expert on hotels and has worked the front desk of a hotel. Can you tell us a little bit about your hotel background? Yesenia?
Speaker 5:So I actually worked at a hotel as the night auditor for about a year and a half. A lot of me as experience is like about when you have to bus people in and you know, all of that, it's very, that fear is very real. Like it , those are just part of what comes with working in a hotel.
Speaker 4:That's interesting . Yeah. I was gonna say you must have a lot of stories, but , um, there is <laugh> there is like one part in the book where Mia talks about it. Well, Mr Y talks about it, Mia talks about it. But it's kind of like you make that split second decision about whether you like let someone in or not. Did that ever weigh on your mind? Like the fact that sometimes you had to make certain judgements about customers?
Speaker 5:It, it doesn't work in the exact same way because most of the time if you're checking in or if you're up to see a guest, it wasn't that same fear like something was gonna happen to me. But it was also that fear of like, when you get that call at, you know, one o'clock, two o'clock in the morning of like, hey, there's this guest, there's noise complaints. And you go up, you take a look and you're just like, do I call the police? Do I not call the police? Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . And then once the police leave, you're still there and the guest might still be there.
Speaker 3:Did you have any similar issues to Mia with like catastrophes, with hotel equipment or keys or <laugh> ?
Speaker 5:Oh yes. All the time the keys would get like de programmed and sometimes we used the key cards so the battery would die on the magnet reader. You'd have people with all of their things in the room. There's nobody coming till 7:00 AM and they need to check out at six.
Speaker 4:Oh .
Speaker 5:So we would have that. We had , um, a guest who they slipped. Their floor wasn't wet. They, there was nothing in the way. They slipped back and they fell in the toilet and it broke. It shattered everywhere. Oh my God . And there was water all over the place. We had to like, it was just me and I. And I was lucky that the hotel manager actually lived there. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . So I'm on the phone with him at like three o'clock in the morning. We're trying to figure out what to do and it was, it was water everywhere. She was hurt.
Speaker 12:I was falling and I can't
Speaker 5:Get up . So we had to call the ambulance. It was , it was
Speaker 3:A lot. <laugh> .
Speaker 4:Were you able to like cut off the water ?
Speaker 5:Oh yeah. He figured it out. He ran down as soon as like I Oh , okay . Was able to get ahold of him and he went to go shut the water off. But yeah, that room was closed for like a few weeks until they could do all of the repairs and it was a lot. Did it leak through the , to the floor below? No, we got lucky it didn't. Oh . We , we've had those situations happen before. Really ? Or like if the AC is like leaking. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> then it , it leaks into the inner kind of molds the Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> the , the ceiling in the room below it.
Speaker 3:So you said your manager lives on site . I'm guessing it's a little different than where the tanks were living at the motel. What was his like arrangement there?
Speaker 5:So he lived there , um, because he had moved from another hotel in California actually to here. And until he could find like proper housing, him and his family were staying there. It was, it was actually pretty great because sometimes we would have , um, like situations where I'm like, Hey, I don't know what to do. And he would always come down and help me figure it out. And there was situations too where it's just like, no , we really need a manager on site . Like, this is way beyond what I'm capable of handling. I don't even know what the next steps would be. And he was always just a phone call away. So that was really great. And he was really supportive of the staff. Like if there was something, and a , if a guest would, some , sometimes they get a little irate as late at night and then they would like, you know, verbally say things to us and he'd be like, no, you did a good job. You did what you could do. Mm-Hmm . So he, he was the opposite. <laugh>
Speaker 3:<laugh> . So after you have worked at a front desk at a hotel for some period of time, do you feel like you could run your own hotel now? Like Mia?
Speaker 5:Oh no. Oh, no,
Speaker 3:No , no . You're not gonna buy a hotel.
Speaker 5:I would know that is, that is a handful of problems. <laugh> , I mean, bless her. <laugh> . Yeah .
Speaker 4:Were you also thinking through the logistics of what owning a hotel could would be and also just how many people bought into the hotel? Like in the book? That
Speaker 5:Wouldn't work. Yeah, that would not work. It just, it's not, it's not feasible. I mean, we, where I was working, it was a, you know, it's a corporate kind of , um, owned chain. Yeah. It was a corporate owned chain. And they, and they had like the , you had the manager, you had the general managers, you had your night managers. It was like, it was a lot of people with a lot of different, and you had your restaurant managers and it was just a lot of different departments within one single hotel. In a motel, it might be different. Maybe owning a motel might be a whole different experience, but just within a hotel that's actually thriving, that's actually occupied it . It doesn't work that way. Having that many hands in the pot.
Speaker 3:Did you have a tip jar?
Speaker 5:No, but some guests were really nice. Oh . And they would just give it , you know, give us a , a tip at the front desk. And then you had the tips that went up to, you know, housekeeping. But,
Speaker 3:So what is the etiquette around that? 'cause I always think to tip the housekeeper, I don't think I've ever tipped the front desk. Am I supposed to? Oh, only
Speaker 5:If, if you've asked for something. So like the night,
Speaker 3:Okay , so if you're demanding <laugh> Yeah,
Speaker 5:Like if it , so the way that it would work is if you had, you know, put in a request for like, oh you need a taxi at 6:00 AM and your wake up call at this time and can we send up the laundry? And all of those different aspects. Like if you had called and you had spoke to the same one person, then you could leave a tip. But if it had been in the middle of the night and you need four pillows, three blankets, and seven towels and a wake up call and it's just like, this is your fourth call tonight and I'm going up all of these floors, it'd be very much appreciated. <laugh> .
Speaker 13:So if you're real high maintenance, you should maybe like appreciate the person who, yeah , $5
Speaker 5:For me to buy a soda so I can stay awake and keep getting you things. But great
Speaker 13:<laugh> ,
Speaker 3:I'm not asking for much.
Speaker 5:Yeah. I just wanna buy a soda. <laugh> .
Speaker 3:Did you ever have any wake up call disasters like Mia did and get the wake up calls switched for the rooms or miss someone's wake up call?
Speaker 5:Hopefully my old boss is not here. This <laugh>
Speaker 3:<laugh> ,
Speaker 5:But um, yeah, I actually forgot to do the wake up call. You're fired. And we used to write them all down on a piece of paper before we would put them into the system. And I just, I don't know if I forgot to write it down or if the person from the shift before forgot to write it down. But I , I didn't, I didn't put it in and the guy came down at six o'clock in the morning. He had missed his flight and I felt horrible about it. But
Speaker 3:I feel like hotels are pretty high stakes for people because either they're on a vacation that's important to them or they're on a business trip that's stressful. Or you're only in a hotel 'cause you have stuff going on. So
Speaker 5:Most people that were staying there, it was just a place to store their things while they went out and did what they had to do. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> .
Speaker 3:Did you have any long term guess like yes. Like Mia had that you got to know or that basically lived there?
Speaker 5:Yeah, we had, we didn't have, they weren't weaks but they were just like our , um, they were our gold members. <laugh> . Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . Okay. So these people stayed here for months and months on end. And we really got to know them. Like some of them would come down at night when they had absolutely like nothing to do. They couldn't sleep <laugh> and we'd be down there just chatting it up. You get to know their kids 'cause they'll stay there with their kids, some of their family members that actually live in town and they'll come up there and you already know. You, you build a , a rapport with them and they're not as scared to ask you for things and you don't feel like it's a burden to do these things for them because they're genuinely nice people.
Speaker 3:What's your position on kids working in hotels? <laugh>
Speaker 5:A hotel is no place for a kid to work and neither's a restaurant.
Speaker 3:Did you have issues with drunk customers because Mia had the scary drunk guy come in and Yeah . That your hotel served alcohol, right?
Speaker 5:Yes. And that, that's where we do have like, like I said, sometimes if the police has gone and then you're still there and there's been instances where I've really like had to put my foot down with a guest and been like, you have to leave like right away. Like I will call the police and, and then they kind of become a little belligerent and they're like, oh, I'm not leaving and call the police. And I'm just like, will do. It puts other guests at danger as well if when there's So you're responsible for a lot when you allow a guest to be Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> .
Speaker 3:Mm-Hmm .
Speaker 5:<affirmative> drunk and in public areas of the hotel.
Speaker 3:And I guess last question, do you have any tips for anyone who is interested in working the front desk at a hotel?
Speaker 5:I think the one thing I would say is that if you plan on working at a hotel, you do have to keep in mind that a lot of people are coming from so many different places and you never know who you're gonna meet. You meet a lot of interesting people with a lot of interesting stories and it's best to always keep an open mind.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for sharing your hotel knowledge with us. Yesenia . <laugh>
Speaker 4:Is , it was really interesting hearing you talk 'cause I feel like there's so many similarities between customer service jobs. 'cause then I was like thinking about the library the whole time you were talking and I was like, did that just prepare you for a library job? <laugh> .
Speaker 3:Oh you were working on simultaneously? Yeah . Yeah.
Speaker 5:Okay . So I was working both. Um, and honestly, yeah, like I always said, like I'm like it's the same job, just different places. Like when I check in books, when I check in people <laugh>.
Speaker 3:So ,
Speaker 5:And they do come in in all types of conditions and some you do have to withdraw <laugh> . Yeah .
Speaker 2:Okay. For our game segment, we're going to do play buzzes. What career in hospitality and tourism should I choose? Let's see. It says congratulations. You are , you know, you are interested in a career in hospitality or tourism, but there are many different options in this field. Which pathway is best for you collectively answering as Mia ? For the first one, which of these do you most enjoy? Taking care of children. Making food or planning holidays?
Speaker 4:I'm thinking planning holidays. Me too. Because Mia doesn't seem particularly like invested in food or making food. Um, although she does find it , it interesting that her parents like cook for the un . She brings
Speaker 3:I she does observe her home for the uncle too . Yes , but that's a cafeteria burger. She didn't make it.
Speaker 4:No. Yeah, yeah , yeah. Um, and then taking care of children. The one time she tried to spa , like pay special attention to a child. It was the child that like came her
Speaker 3:Jeans . Yeah . Horribly wrong.
Speaker 4:Um, just not a nice child. So yeah, I would think planning holidays.
Speaker 2:Okay. Which job sounds most interesting and exciting? Travel agent chef. Waiter slash waitress.
Speaker 3:I think travel agent. 'cause she talks about all the places that they would visit if they want . Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> if they got the $40,000 penny? Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . Like she wants to go to New York. She wanted to go to Disney World. She wa I think wanted to go back to China to see family. Yes . Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . I
Speaker 1:Think she wants something different than service
Speaker 2:Job . Yeah .
Speaker 1:Her parents are doing now. So travel agent would be the only option we could pick among these.
Speaker 2:What work lifestyle would you prefer? Shift work early morning slash late nights or a nine to five day. I
Speaker 3:Feel like she'd want a nine to five. I think so too . I mean she's watched her parents work this grueling non-traditional schedule. Yeah. I don't think she would be wanting that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. No. No sleep for dad. Yeah. Yeah . Nine to five. Which workspace is most up your alley? No Set workspace, laid back . Environment. Kitchen slash cafe or working globally? Traveling around the world.
Speaker 3:I think she'd wanna travel and write.
Speaker 4:I think. Yeah. Mm-Hmm ? <affirmative> . I think so too
Speaker 3:Though . She would probably appreciate a more laid back environment than working for Mr. Yao . Too . <laugh> . That's true. He is not a laid back boss.
Speaker 2:What is most fun for you? Exploring new places. Making up a recipe or hosting guests.
Speaker 3:Hosting guests ? Yeah .
Speaker 2:Hosting guests . Which movie are you most likely to watch? <laugh> . Nanny Diaries. The Tourist or the 100 Foot Journey? <laugh> .
Speaker 3:I'm gonna say Nanny Diaries. Just 'cause that seems like more likely to appeal to a 10-year-old. Yeah.
Speaker 4:I don't know
Speaker 1:Many of these movies.
Speaker 3:<laugh> ,
Speaker 2:What is your favorite thing to do on a holiday? Taste new foods and drinks. Relax and take each day as it comes. Or Sightsee.
Speaker 3:Not the second one.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I feel like she's
Speaker 2:Maybe Sightsee.
Speaker 3:I think I feel like
Speaker 4:She's an active person.
Speaker 2:Can take pictures with her mom.
Speaker 4:Oh ,
Speaker 3:Go on the rollercoaster at Disneyland. Yeah. I think she talks about seeing like the Statue of Liberty or something. Yeah . If they went to New York.
Speaker 2:Final question. Which quote do you mostly identify with? Work hard and be nice to people. Eating is a necessity, but cooking is an art. Or just book a ticket and leave.
Speaker 1:I think the first one. Yeah . I agree.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's what's been modeled to her from her parents too.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:See and it's calculating results. Did you pop up?
Speaker 4:Oh yes ,
Speaker 2:Yes. Mine has not. Oh there it is.
Speaker 3:We broke it. 'cause too many of us were playing simultaneously.
Speaker 2:<laugh> , what's the exact same answer ? It's
Speaker 3:The most traffic this quiz has ever gotten.
Speaker 2:<laugh> . Oh it's travel. Looks like a career in travel. Could be just right for you.
Speaker 3:I think that's accurate. I feel, and it seems kind of like, while it's not her career, I feel like she's a very like jet set author <laugh> . So like if this is little her, that's maybe what she would've aspired. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 4:<affirmative> . That's like a nice untapped <laugh> novel idea. Like a child. Um, what is it ? Air? No. What are they called?
Speaker 3:Airbnb?
Speaker 4:No, just like the people are on a plane. <laugh> . Am I
Speaker 3:Stewardess Or like a flight attendant. Sorry. We don't call 'em stewardesses anymore. A flight Attend attendant flight . Flight industry.
Speaker 5:Each episode we ask whether our book passes the Bechdel test. The Bechdel test asks whether our work features two female characters who talk to each other about something that doesn't involve men or boys. So does it pass?
Speaker 3:For sure.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 3:She has so many conversations with Lupe and her mom. Even like conversations that we observe. Like the teacher calling the substitute, like calling her Oh , that's
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 3:Friend. And being like, I just don't think I can do that . I'm not cut out for this <laugh> like Yeah, I I don't feel like this other than the Jason plot line . Most of this is not concerned with that. Yeah,
Speaker 5:I think most of it it was just trashing Jason
Speaker 3:<laugh> . Yeah. The men, the men are a mixed bag here because yeah, Jason gets better by the end, but he is a little rough. Like he's clearly a follower and just kinda goes along with stuff even when it's not nice. I mean his dad's a terrible role model. Mr. Yao's A disaster. The
Speaker 11:Worst.
Speaker 3:He's like horrible. The lone sharks are men. The guests that like lied about his car getting stolen as a man. Yeah . Like yeah. There's a lot of not great men in this book. But then you have really good guys like Hank. Yeah. So yeah.
Speaker 5:And Lu's dad who gives her the
Speaker 3:Great
Speaker 5:<laugh> . Yeah , he gives her that great line. You can't put , you can't win if you don't play. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Which is like really one really good advice. It's so true.
Speaker 4:Well that's it for this episode of these books Made me join us next time when we'll discuss a book in which our main character runs a business out of her bedroom. If you think you know which book we're tackling next, follow us on Instagram. We're at these books, made me and drop a comment on our guest , our next read post.