Big CHI

It was a last day to work in CHI,  time flied so quickly! I worked in there only 3days but I  very proud of being able to help them.

Yesterday I knew that CHI's CEO Farouk Shami  was a member of the Ms.UNIVERSE's judge, wow! amazing.  Still more, all of products used in the contest is CHI's one, staffs making participant's hair or make is CHI's member! How cool!
You can check it by YouTube very easily.

For 3days, I and Selvia made research of "the best mascara, eyeliner in U.S. and Japan." We couldn't translate some product's name in Japan at any cost. I thought the research in 3rd day was the most difficult for me. It was a research about "cosmetic ingredients", with many difficult words.

Everybody in there were very kind. Thank you for every thing!

Kaori

Hit the Road together with Phil and Kaori

Last Saturday, when Sarah and three students of Toyo Gakuen University (Yusuke, Eri and Hisayo) have already gone back to Japan, Phil, Kaori, and I hit the road together by car that Phil borrowed from his brother, Tom.

Because Kaori really wanted to go to Planet Zero, one of game centers, we tried to look for that place. On the way to there, we got lost, even we brought a map. hahahahaha.

About 30 minutes later, finally we found Planet Zero! But, unfortunately,
it closed! We have checked the business hour of Planet Zero. It should be open at that time we went there.
Kaori feel so disappointed, but we also had no idea.


After that, we went to Half Price Book, Walmart, and Trade Villagers.
Trade Villagers is one of the largest flea market in Texas.
You can find many things with the very low price.
I bought 5 pieces of T-Shirt, then it just costs me $10!!! It is really cheap, right?


Then for dinner, we went to steak house.
It was really delicious. The best steak i have had ever!

For the dessert, Phil brought us to the Chocolate Bar.


They have so many flavors, just for chocolate ice cream.
I tried root-beer flavor. I like it!

Selvia

It's just more than Church -Lakewood Church-

Last Sunday, Phil brought us to Lakewood Church,
one of the biggest church in The USA.

From outside, the church seems like an ordinary church.
But, wait until you go inside that church, i am sure you will be surprised.

The church is so amazing, with the accommodations more than 5000 people and the very powerful sound system, you will feel that you are not in the church but in the movie theater or the concert hall.





Selvia

Farouk Systems (1)

Farouk Systems Inc, the company where i do my internship.
This company produces hair products.
The famous one is CHI.

The first three days, I worked together with Eri.
We did a lot things we have never done before.
The first day, we labeled some hair irons and replace the plat of icon of
those hair irons which have some missing parts with the perfect one.
On the first day, we did not have too much to do.

Then, on the second day, we were asked to help them checking the inventory and
make a list of what they have and do not have in the inventory.
They are going to order what they do not have in the inventory according to the list that we wrote.
Checking inventory is very detailed job because they have so many types of product hairs, not only shampoos or conditioners, but also some hair treatments and hair spa.
That job is more difficult than what we thought.
I just think that fortunately i did not do that alone.

And on that day, right before Eri and I left the office, we got T-shirt from our co-worker.


Then, on the last day Eri and I worked together, we did some researches about
foundations makeup and eye shadows.
We were asked to search which brand has a good sale, which brand is trending right now,
or which brand is the top.

Here is our co-workers, Megan (left) and Sarah (right).
They are so friendly.
This picture is taken at the Italian restaurant
where we went to have lunch together last Thursday.


Selvia

Sushi Bar

Hello, everybody.
It's been a while not write something in this blog.

Last Friday night, Kaori and I went to have dinner at Sushi Bar.
I know this place from Agron (one of receptionists of our hotel).

Actually, the sushi is quite expensive. Imagine that one piece of sweet shrimp
(ama ebi) is $4.50!!! But, because the sushi is so tasty, it is worth enough.

Kaori was too happy. She even ordered two bowls of miso soup.





Selvia

Business Manners

We've found there are some differences between business manners in the US and Japan. Firstly, we were surprised at the way people exchange business cards! It's done very casually! People don't always use two hands, it's very relaxed, not formal and often people introduce themselves with just their first name and a strong handshake. This is what happens in the real world.

Secondly, in the office at Birkman, we keep the doors open. It's very friendly, everyone talks to each other, greets each other. In Japan, sometimes people work in a big open office yet no one talks to each other! In the USA in the office we are working in even the CEO keeps her door open. It feels really nice to communicate with people!

Thirdly, flexi time is a big part of the American working day. This means that people can work flexible schedules. For example, they could work from 6:00am until 4:00 pm if they are early birds! Or even from 10:00 am until 7:00 pm depending on their schedule, e.g. If they have to take kids to school or have other duties. This is very flexible and makes the workers very happy! It's very convenient. Everyone gets their work done and not so many people need to do overtime.

The American Dream

Have you heard of Chi hair straighteners? They are the worlds leading brand of straighteners. They are made in Houston, Texas and were designed by Farouk Shami, the head if Farouk Systems. Farouk Shami is a Palestinian-American businessman from Ramallah, West Bank, who now lives in Houston, Texas, where he runs the hair-care and spa products company, Farouk Systems. He is an amazing businessman who has lived the American Dream! He was allergic to ammonia and he wanted to be a hair stylist but this job could kill him because of the chemicals in hair products. So, he decided to create hair products without ammonia! It was a great idea and he was able to build a very successful brand with a clear USP. Do you know USP? It stands for Unique Selling Point. His brand is unique. We were very lucky to visit his factory and get to have work experience there! This is a good case study of a successful American, Houston-based business.

Slap ya what??

There are such amazing foods in Houston! We've eaten Mexican, Greek, food from Laos, Italian, Tex-Mex, Cajun - it's all been really delicious! Houston is such an interesting city! It's very multicultural so the food is truly international and very reasonable! We came across some interesting sauces and spices, too! With very interesting names.....Slap your what??
Slap your momma means that when your mother cooks good food you should pat her on the shoulder to tell her it was great! It's a sign of appreciation!

Holiday Monday

Monday was Labor Day so it was a national holiday. Many businesses are closed on national holidays and some businesses even close early on the Friday before so staff can have a 'long weekend'. It's a good idea! A lot of people have BBQs or go shopping on this holiday. Some of us went to an outlet shopping mall, some of us went to the Galleria to hang out.

American Football is Big Business!

It's been an action packed Labor Day weekend! We went to our first football game on Saturday! It was CRAZY! Before the game people have a 'tailgate' party, it's kind of like an outdoor BBQ party, people have large trailers and cook food from the back of their trucks! There were over 30,000 people at the game! It's not professional, it's college student! Can you believe it?? Can you imagine 30,000 people watching a college sports event in Japan? Sport is very important in American college life! The University of Houston won! We beat UCLA. The weather was cooler than normal so it was quite comfortable watching in the stands. There were friendly people sitting near us who helped explain the game! It lasted 3 and a half hours! There were lots of commercials, t-shits and university goods for sale, and the drinks were very expensive inside the stadium. Sport is big business in the States!

Check out our photos in future posts! Coming soon!

NASA!

4th,Sep,Sunday

Today we went to "Space center Houston", official visitors center of NASA. We saw real rocket for the first time, rode in the model rocket, ate Chili soup, bought some Omiyage.
We are surprised at bigness of the rocket. It has many giant engines in its back. And we could fimd many kinds of costumes there.

Kaori

Human Resources

Two of us are working at a company that is all about people. It's kind of human resources. The company has a very accurate test for personality, motivation and careers. Taking the test shows you much about yourself and about how other people see you. Companies use the test to make teams and put teams together based on the data. It can be very useful for helping make people work better together. Today we are working on important translation tasks for the company!

Ziti?

1,Sep,Thursday
Today I did my work (updating JFPI's online store) calmly. So I wasn't tired so much today, and could sleep like a clock.
Thinking about it, we had "baked ziti" for lunch. What's "ziti"?
It is a kind of pasta. Look at the picture1. Its baked ziti　with tomato sauce. It was tasty.
Having lunch, we talked about our favorite foods. Mr.Dave seems to like Italian and Mexican, so I think he should know some nice restaurants.
Picture2 is Japanese Ramen. I like it very much and eat it almost every week in Japan, so recently I miss it a little.

Kaori

What's our job?

30,Aug,Wed
Today was a introduction day. I was explained what I and Selvia will do from today. Now, some parts of JFPI elite(JFPI's online store of apple's products for 7 companies of Africa) is in the middle of making. So we'll help make apple's online store, especially about thier accessories, like headphones, connectors, covers etc. When we upload the information of those acccessories, we must check three things, 1.picture, 2.specifically(spec), 3.price. Finding them from apple store, edit JFPI elite, and uproad them is our task. So we'll be editor for a while.

Kaori

Hi, everyone!!

It was very very hot yesterday.

But I walked a lot at University of Houston because of a little trouble.

I thought it was chance for getting exercise!!

Hisayo

U of H

30,Aug, Tuesday

Today we went to the U of H.We didn't know what "U of H" means. It is short for "UNIVERSITY of HOUSTON", and used in many situation.U of H was so much bigger than Fukushima University, and has won many medals or trophy, amazing!I hope F.Uni won more prize (in the field and track events, etc...).

KAORI

Orientation at University of Houston

Today we visited the University of Houston. We had a tour of the campus and we saw the Event Management offices we will be working in and met our bosses! The event management department is very busy this week preparing for the biggest football game of the season, Houston versus UCLA on Saturday. We will help with the preparations this week, such as preparing VIP passes, checking inventory lists, and general office tasks.

On Saturday we will have a free pass to the game, we will work in the hospitality section and we will have a chance to see the 'tailgate' parties that US students have on game day!

Visit to Farouk Systems

I didn't know about CHI products until attend this tour today. I had an image that a factory is big place, but the factory was a very small site. I can't believe that all products are made there. They export their products to over 100 countries. Sarah said that notices in the factory are written in Spanish, then I think all most all people who work there are not an American by birth, may be some of them are from Mexico. This is just like Texas. In Japan, there is the same situation. A factory in Japan, the workers are 80~90% not Japanese, they are Chinese or Thai or Philippine. I think they want a job on the other hand companies want to save labor costs. Peoples desire and interest to work has caused this situation.

By Eri

Farouk Systems USA

Here are some photos from Day One on the job! After our orientation, we had a factory tour of Farouk Systems. It is a hair products company that supplies products to over 250 countries around the world. They make shampoos, colours and electrical tools like dryers and straighteners. The pictures show the factory, the chemicals used to make the shampoo and the mixing vats. We'll post our reflections on the factory tour in another post, so stay tuned!!

Pool Party

Yesterday we went to a Welcome Pool Party! Yusuke's host family very generously prepared a wonderful BBQ feast for us! We had kebabs, cheesecake, salad, pickles, bread, lots of delicious fresh fruit and even Japanese noodles that were made by Dotty! It was all fantastic.

We also went swimming in Richard and Sharon's pool. It was a great way to cool off in the Texas heat. It was over 108 degrees again yesterday! The pool had a water slide and we played catch ball and did weights in the water! We chatted to lots of people and introduced ourselves! It was a great way to relax and get over jet lag!! We were exhausted when we went to bed!

Thank you to everyone who prepared the BBQ party!

True Texan hospitality!