An interesting year

A lot could be said of 2006, but for me it has meant a lot as it was the start and end of many things. It hasn't always been as great of course but which year has been? As always there have been many doubts, times when I wished things would be easier or moments when I just wanted to move on.

Then there were too many moments when people I love were feeling bad due to different circumstances and when it seemed impossible to make them feel better. Also for that reason I hope the next year could be a new start for many.

But maybe now is more the time to remember all the good things that happened here and at other places, so now I will focus on them. :) I can't really speak for other people, so forgive me for focusing on myself again, but personally I have to admit it hasn't been a very bad year. The start of it was rather boring, as my thesis wouldn't write itself. But it wasn't in vain, as this year I finished my studies and became Master Kat. :) Furthermore I found myself very quickly an enjoyable job, so also this went really fine. Professionally I could definitely say that 2006 has been good for me. :)

But the best thing about the past year must have been that I was abroad so often and arranged 5 holidays. In total I was travelling for 39 days, an absolute record in my life so far. :P Of course I was more abroad during my Turku year, but that doesn't officially count as 'holidays'. ;)

I was able to see a few people back who I miss very much also now and meet and get to know some people even better. It all comes back to me wanting to travel more and visit these friends again and again, but let's see what 2007 brings. And which amount of free days my bosses are prepared to give me. :P

March '06 - June '06 - July '06

Me in snowy Oslo, with my sister in beautiful northern Norway, my two Spanish supermen in Málaga

September '06 - December '06

My other Spanish macho in Burgos and Pablito and Petra in beloved Turku

Presents!

The true Christmas spirit came to life yesterday evening, some time between the main course and desert... Presents! I still behave like a little child when it comes to that, I whine the entire night about when we will start with the unwrapping and giving, until they all give in to me and we can begin with it. It's not just my own presents I am eager to see, also the reactions of the other people is what makes it great for me. And I am too curious and impatient. :)

This year some of the presents still were a surprise to me, which is kind of a surprise as my mother can't resist to give as many hints as possible for me to eventually find out what I will get. I also managed to surprise the others though, by having my ears pierced for the third time in my life. The first time the holes infected, the second time I forgot to put earrings in them after a while, so let's hope that I will be able to keep them open at an age of 23. :P

Apart from a couple of earrings I also received perfume, a DVD, headset and gloves. Nice soft black ones to match the black scarf and hat I got for my birthday. ;)

Showing off the gloves...

The past two days at work however have been so incredibly dull. The difference to the weeks before Christmas is huge, as I now really have nothing to do and back then no time to do nothing. So today I've spent the hours by chatting to people, getting drinks for everyone every 15 minutes and eventually even playing limbo under the extendable wires of our office badges. This lameness will probably continue throughout the week, so maybe I can bring my Spanish course with me tomorrow. I haven't worked with it since I got my job, so now maybe my job can put new life into it. ;)

In spite of earning money by sitting at a desk feeling bored, it does feel weird to have to work these days. In the mornings the roads are almost empty and more than half our office has holidays. But only two days more and then three days off again. Then four more days of work, weekend and then another three days off for me to explore Belgium together with Pablo. And get him poisoned by cooking for him. :P

Monotony and mouse issues

Christmas is only a few days away and Kat still hasn't bought a single present. I blame it on my work of course, not me waiting to the very last moment for such things. ;) I have a decent idea of what I will have to buy, but what scares me the most is the idea of the immense crowd that will fill the city centre this weekend.
Due to the work, I have the impression that the end of the year has come much faster than expected. It's hard to really await the holidays, as they are rather speeding towards me. People tend to say that time flies when you are having fun, but personally I disagree in some way. When I compare my ten holiday days to my last two weeks at work, it feels as if the latter have speeded more. During holidays you do so many different things or at least things you enjoy, so that creates memories. At work however you do the same kind of stuff each and every day, which in the end leaves you with no specific memories at all. If you ask me what I did in Finland I could talk for hours, but if you ask the same about the past two weeks, all I could say is 'work'. :P

Swedish for 'the most piggish or swinish', the way the former owner of mouse nr 3 must have been like. The main shopping street of Stockholm is full of such weird phrases. :)

Well that and an episode which included me and three different computer mice. :P After coming back from holidays I had moved desks and gotten another seat with another computer. Unfortunately the mouse didn't work very well, so I decided to complain and demand another one. Bad plan, the replacement still didn't work properly. So on to mouse number three, which was attached to a computer that is never used. One minute with that mouse made me wonder what on earth had been done with it anyway. The scrolling thingy looked yellow-greenish, with little hairs sticking to it and totally sticky. Absolutely horrible! I was disgusted and even more so when my Spanish neighbour came up with several reasons for why the mouse was in that condition, all just as sickening. And probably even true, which made me shiver even more about having touched it in the first place. :P

As I referred to the shopping street in Stockholm just before, I remember that I tomorrow will go Christmas shopping. Probably on the busiest day of the year. :P What makes it even better is that I don't really know which gifts to buy, so destressing from this work week will not happen tomorrow I think. ;)

Nice empty street in Stockholm...

Ten unforgettable days

All great things seem to have to come to an end and so has my trip to Stockholm and Turku. I can hardly find words to describe what an incredibly good time I have had there and how much I miss the people and the places again. But I am also really happy to have experienced it all and to have so many new memories now. And pictures! So what better way to describe what I did and who I was with than to post loads of pics. :P

Sofie in Stockholm, Pablo at the Student Village and Petra in our flat

My trip started two fridays ago when I drove back from work around noon. Of course I still had to pack stuff, so it was not surprising that I was running around as a chicken without a head as we would say here, trying to grab all necessary things before leaving. At least I didn't forget to take my bank card this time. ;)

In Stockholm I met up with Sofie, who is currently working there. I really like that city, although it was incredibly dark and gloomy while I was there. After loads of talking, window shopping and eating I eventually took the boat to Turku on saturday evening. I honestly HATE that ferry, when I am on it it's just for transportation. You can be sure that you will wake up at 4 in the night due to drunk Finns, screaming and singing in the corridors long enough for you not to fall asleep again.

And then there was Turku... It hasn't changed a bit, ony several people were missing. But two great people were there and made my week to the unforgettable one it was. First Petra, the best ex-roommate ever, who was so kind to stay living in my old flat. :P It felt so natural again to spend time with her and live with her to some extent. ;) She cooked, I was lazy. I made a mess, she an even bigger one. Nothing has changed. :P

And Pablito. We started talking to each other about one year and a half ago and met for real this summer. In the past months we got to know each other better though and therefore I was really looking forward to seeing him back. And it was great. :) We all went skating, shopping, had parties, went swimming and watched movies. Quite normal things, but that's what I wanted in Turku, to feel at home again, rather than being just a tourist. One week was too short in my opinion, as there was so much more I would have wanted to say and do, but I am incredibly happy to have had it. And I won't forget this week, I am sure of that.

Home again

In a way it does feel as if I am returning home again this weekend. Turku has meant so much to me for several months and therefore I know I will feel right at home again. My old roomie from back then has been so nice to not move out of our flat yet, so in that way it will even be more of a homecoming. I won't have my own room back of course, although I am sure I could get rid of it's current owner i I'd tried. :P Muhaha

I am sure the room misses the way I treated it, it looked so cosy during most of the time. ;)

Here it is in a very typical Kat-style. All my stuff is within reach, both when studying on the ground or sleeping on my mattress. Handy don't you agree? ;) Of course there was a point when my parents came and visited me, so for them I did do an extra effort and following pic shows the room probably at it's cleanest after nine months without my mum around forcing me to clean out my mess. ;)

Mm, Petra must really be looking forward to having me back as her roomie. :P I try to behave better as a guest of course, but even then my stuff just magically seems to spread itself over the available and unavailable space! Obviously I can not help it. :)

So, now I will have to leave my Viggo (yep, my laptop has a name, just for the network of course ;) )and start packing some stuff! I already put my skates in my bag and to my horror they appear to fill already half of it... Maybe I could save space on warm clothes, Turku seems to be having about 7 degrees, so no snowy weather for Kat apparently. But I'll have a great time anyway. :)

Farewell

This is it, my last post...

written on this computer that is. :) Tomorrow will be the first time that I will spend a large amount of money in one time, as I am planning on buying my own laptop. It's an idea I have been playing with since a while now, as the computer I am using now is already second hand and not mine. The fact that it's old means that everything goes slow, each day it crashes and many programs won't even run on it. The fact that it's not mine means that I am supposed to be careful of what I do with it and download on it, so having no one but myself to look at seems like a good idea. For this old computer anyway, as it has suffered tremendously in the past 2 years with me behind it I think. :P So tomorrow I am off with my father to the city center to look for some possible laptops and hopefully find a decent not too expensive one which will work with our wireless Internet thingy. You can see what I need my father for, I haven't got a clue about the technical side of these things. ;)

This past week has been rather uneventful, even at work it was relatively quiet. Let's pretend it is the silence before the storm, as changes are coming. :) Next week a new system will be introduced at my job, meaning that the table division will be altered and that I most likely will be seated somewhere else, with other colleagues. Could be exciting, but I mainly find it annoying, as I truly enjoyed the people I was sitting close to. But many people say changes aren't always a bad thing, so restless Kat will just have to wait and see how it will be. So hard being patient sometimes. :P

Here winter hasn't appeared yet, in southern Scandinavia neither (it'd better come in a week though!!), but in some parts snow has fallen. And that means the start of this years winter season on TV. I can now spend my Saturday and Sunday mornings again in front of the TV with a blanket around me cheering my favourite norwegian athletes on their way to glory. The biathlon will first start next weekend, but the cross country events have already begun. And for all those people who claim this is a sport for grannies, I do not agree. :P Last year we did a tour of 18 km and I have never ever felt as tired and completely destroyed for the following days and after that trip. But we were proud to have made it. :P

Chaaarge!

November 11th, the end of World War I... What better way to celebrate this than to start your own war! Some colleagues at work had organized a paintball trip at one of the fortresses around Antwerp. These were built to defend the region during the war, but nowadays other activities are taking place there, in this particular case similar to it's original use. :P So off we went, eleven TNT people and one additional warrior, this being my sister, who had been very pleased to hear that she could come as well. After all, who would want to miss an opportunity to get full of bruises, paint and mud! :P

Team TNT in full force!

At the event we were teamed up with another group of visitors, together making the green team. Some vicious looking others would be building the black team, from that moment on our worst enemies. We were all given an extra or extra extra large overall, making us look very sexy of course, and with it a semi-helmet, covering just our face. Not the back of the head or neck, as we would soon notice and feel. :) Throughout the day different kind of battles would take place, like capturing a flag or guiding our captain into the camp of the enemy. Each game was played twice, so each team could be defender and attacker once. Before noon we were winning each battle easily, but unfortunately the black team was somewhat expanded in the afternoon, putting a stop to our winning streak. In any case, everybody had an absolutely wonderful time, making us forget about the aching bones and soar spots where paint bullets had hit us. Joining the army would have been a disaster for me though, as I already have painful muscles after carrying a gun for some hours and running and hiding in muddy trenches and behind trees.

My best shot of the day must have been the one aimed at my sister. She was of a course a team member, but right before the end of our paint ball wars, I couldn't resist the urge to fire at least one bullet in her direction. It landed neatly on her leg, leaving a beautiful bruise and a grudge against me. :) But then again, that's what sisters are fore, to tease now and then. We have an illegal hobbit sword here at home, so I hope she won't be out for revenge. ;)

:)

It's truly great to be remembered. This might sound somewhat egocentric, but in the end I do think that almost all people need to know and feel that other people care about them and sometimes think of them. And birthdays happen to be moments on which people think of you, so another reason for me to enjoy growing one year older. :) The day itself was very nice, many wishes from many friends and relatives, nice presents and a nice dinner party thingy in the evening. Home made pizza's, no shop can beat those. :) One of the smallest presents I got was no surprise to me, but it means a lot more to me than what it looks like. It was the last train wagon on the picture.

The last eight years I received one wagon for each birthday from my best friend Charlotte. We will have been best friends for ten years this year, which I think is already quite something. One could say that now that my name is finished, our friendship could be too, but she decided to now start on my last name. Then I'll have 8 years to find myself a husband and put his last name behind it. And if he has a double last name (as many scandinavians or southern european people have), my friendship with Charlotte will be secured for quite some more years it seems. :) And then I'll just get divorced some times to keep on going. ;)

The following poem was part of my card and present I got from my Thor, in far away Venezuela. He wrote some instructions on top of it, so I'll do my best. Correct me if I write rubbish, spanish readers of mine. :P

Saying friendship

is like saying care,

it is like saying support

and help when

there are problems.

Saying friendship

is like saying loyalty,

it is like saying comprehension

and sincerity

Saying friendship

is like saying happiness,

it is like saying life.

Maybe quite a free translation with that verb, but a direct one would have sounded even more unnatural in English I think. Anyway, even though I am everything but poetic, I like this text. Probably because I received it from someone I consider a true friend anyway and that gives it extra meaning. :) Maybe it isn't good to be dependent, but there definitely are some people I couldn't anymore imagine my life without.

23

Tomorrow I'll be 23. I think it's a nice number, for some reasons the uneven numbers appeal to me. 17 sounded nice, 19 as well and 21 definitely has a charm to it. I find that 23 has this as well, even though it starts sounding more mature. At a family party some weekends ago one of my younger cousins wanted to know whether or not my sister and I were "adults". We found that a hilarious comment. I guess my life has become more adult-like since I started to work, but only because it brings more responsibility than being a student. I am the youngest at my job and I wouldn't say I am being treated like that, but I do feel it in some way. Mainly because I giggle more and find it in a way funny when I make mistakes. :P I also don't have to care too much about the money I make, as I can still spend it on nice stuff without feeling guilty for not saving for a new washing machine or so.

I don't have any big plans for tomorrow anyway. It's a Sunday to begin with and I really don't like organising big things for myself. :P Parties are great, but not if you are the one responsible for it I feel, as it creates too much pressure in a way. Receiving many gifts is fun though.... :P

Winter is really coming now and I love it! This week was the first in which I could wear my new winter coat and such an event is always nice. ;) I don't expect it will snow here any time soon, but hearing from other people that it snowed in their country is already great. I am all the time urging cold weather to stay in Turku, as I really intend to bring my skates there and have a massive snow ball fight. :) Sledging would be cool too. It sucks that alpine skiing is so expensive though, as I would love to do that again. I am of course still a total beginner when it comes to that, but my two times on such ski's weren't so dreadful either. It does remain scary to fall when racing down a steep mountain, so I would need some extra nerves to become better at it I suppose. ;)

Didn't I look like a professional? :P

Luke, I am your Fazer

Some years ago my sister and I could be seen as real Star Wars freaks. Almost every weekend we would watch one of the original three films and during the rest of the week we would use as many quotes from the movies in conversations, both appropriately and inappropriately. One of the memorabilia we purchased back then was the Star Wars Monopoly edition. This weekend we had some friends over to play some games and due to this event the box was taken out and again we got all exited by seeing our mini Darth Vader and mini starfighters. In the end we decided on playing Risk, but I did think it was worth replaying some scenes of the films. I was always a big fan of Han Solo, the true hero of the series if you asked me back then. :P The way he always saved the day and brought some wit into the life of little whining Luke must have appealed a lot to me. That and the looks of Harrison Ford. :S Quite shocking to think that a 14 year old could fancy a 40 year older man, but I guess we all went through such a phase, right? ;) These days I have to admit though that Darth Vader is way cooler! :P

Today on the other hand I met up with a friend who is currently working in Sweden. She was back at home now for some days and she was soooo kind to bring me some Fazer Blå! Yum! My ,and everyone else's who has tasted it, favourite milk chocolate from Finland. I'm not entirely sure if it beats the taste of the Belgiann Côte d'Or, but it certainly comes close. :) A while ago I had the chance to try some real Venezuelan (Tack igen Thor min!) chocolate, which is quite a priviledge, as that should be one of the countries where the origin of this divine brown stuff lies. And it was good! Yes, a shockaholic I am, and proud to be one!

The sun

I took this picture yesterday morning, as I was kind of surprised to see how fast the rising hours of the sun are changing during these days. I have passed by this spot almost every day in the past 3 weeks and when I first paid attention to the sun's location, it was standing relatively high above those trees on the right. Each time it was around 8:10 so I could really compare it well. This morning the sun wasn't even visible yet, so winter is approaching fast. Not that we would notice it by the temperatures... Today we have another 18 degrees I think, yesterday it was even warmer. Nice, you could say, but it is hardly normal for the middle of October. And it's even inconvenient, as the mornings are absolutely freezing. I leave home with a scarf around my neck and with gloves on, I leave work with only my t-shirt on. So you have to carry around all of these clothes for nothing. So I suggest weather changes soon and true autumn and winter comes. And I want a real winter, with snow!! I think we had quite a good one last year, snow at the end of December and also sometimes during January and February. Maybe we even can go skiing again in our park. :)

So, back to worknow, my lunch break is over and my supervisor will be back soon.

Red

Last week the local elections took place here in Belgium. Normally this wouldn't attract so much attention from foreigners, but on Sunday many journalists from abroad had found their way here, to Antwerp. There is a lot to see here for tourists, but this time it were the high expectations about the outcome of the elections that caught all of the attention. You could actually call it some kind of disaster tourism, as everybody had come to see political extremism prevail. Everybody supposed it would indeed happen, over the past years this party has grown steadily and was on the verge of becoming the largest party in certain areas, mainly close by or in Antwerp. I am proud to say now that not everything went as bad as was expected. (Bad in my opinion would of course have been that extreme right would have gained more power) All over Flanders the "Vlaams Belang" had indeed grown, with the exception of two areas, being the city center of Antwerp and one of it's districts Borgerhout, where I live. Here, and in many other regions, the socialist party had grown immensely and for the first time in years the right party had lost some percentages. Not really much of course, but maybe it's a start, at least that is what I want to believe. You could say that that fact that the extremists grew everywhere else overshadows their loss in two areas, but even the right party showed that it was more the other way around. They had not expected to loose in the one place where it all started for them and where their popularity had spread from so also for them this came as a shock. They won't truly admit this, but some behind the screens filming has showed their disbelief and disappointment. Now I just hope that this will go on also in the years to come and that more people would realize that negativism implies no improvement in the way a city or country is governed.

My sister has come up with another alternative for when you aren't happy about the government. She would want to see a party being started, that supports animal rights. What the other ideas of the party would be, aren't very clear yet. I agree of course that animals need to be treated well, kind of equally, but to start a party for it? Maybe if pets would have the right to vote... My cat would want more card board boxes I think, otherwise she seems quite happy over here. :) So far my political statements. ;)

Apart from this red Sunday I also experienced a red Tuesday. Some colleagues at my work meet to practice some sport each week and this time they were going to play volleyball. I used to like this at school so I decided on joining them. It really was a very nice evening, the play wasn't exactly professional so my mistakes didn't stand out that much. :P The main problem however was the ball, it was incredibly hard! With each serve my right wrist hurt like hell, spreading the pain to the rest of my arm and shoulder. Everybody complained about it, so I was not the only one being like a baby (or fuffi ;) ). By the end of the evening I could move my thumb anymore and cycling back home was quite hard each time I drove over a bump with my hands on my steering wheel. :P And sports are supposed to be healthy? ;)

Material Girl Part Two

It's been two weeks since I started working and I still enjoy it quite much. By now I have gained some more responsibilities and noticed the lesser aspects of both my job and it's environment. The novelty of it all has worn off and now I am able to see that of course not all is as perfect as my first impression was a week ago, but that doesn't mean it's all bad now. After some more time I just got to see some more of the boring sides of my work and also the more meaner sides of some people. Not that I dislike any colleagues or so, I just noticed that there is a lot of gossiping going on. Some of you know me pretty well and know I very much enjoy gossip, but I prefer to think of this as positive information exchange. However, the things I heard talking about were quite more negative, which unfortunately is relatively natural at a place where many different personalities work. Anyway, it's part of life and of course it's not nice, but something I would see everywhere eventually.

This week I got to do my first preadvise for an airfreight. A preadvise means entering information into a computersystem and sending it afterwards to the correct people so they are informed about where certain good will have to be picked up, what their dimensions are, where they are being transported to and who has to take care of them. It's harder than sea transport, which I normally have to take care of, mainly because the information has to be completely correct. A ship is larger than an airplane, so then it doesn't matter when the pallet you preadvise is two meters higher than what you wrongfully entered into the system. :P One of my colleagues managed to let an airplane fly all for nothing from the US to Europe, so I was glad to notice that I haven't pulled something like that during my first weeks. ;)

I called this post part two of my material girliness due to my shopping over the past few weeks. The realization that I now have money to spend has been quite interesting so spending is what I did. I didn't exaggerate of course, but it was nice to be able to buy some clothes that I needed without having to feel really guilty about the cost. So I bought some trousers, shirts, a nice winter coat and today another pair of boots. :) Shoes are necessary for women, and preferably several pairs of them. I am of course not planning to go shopping each week from now on, as I think the time has come for me to buy a laptop. These days they don't have to be so expensive anymore, so as long as I can do the basic stuff on it, I will be pleased with it. But that will have to wait some more months, first save some money and spend some in Finland and Sweden. :)

Material Girl

My first week as a semi-material analyst is over and I truly enjoyed it! Of course I haven't experienced the real job yet, as I have almost no real responsibilities, but what I did do and see seemed nice to me. The unavoidable stress won't be nice, but I will feel useful and also that is important I think.

These days have mainly consisted out of training and practicing the programs that I was taught to use. The hardest one is yet to come though, it one that looks a lot like "DOS", completely black with some necessary codes to be filled in and so on. A disaster for my unorganised old computer program eye, but I will do my best to let it make sense to me. :P

The best thing about my job so far, are without a doubt the people. Truly everybody is so nice, and sincerely so, all really helpful and laughing all day long. All have told me they liked working in this company due to the atmosphere and I surely have to agree, it is wonderful. I am part of a team consisting of 4 other persons and it's quite an international group. Our supervisor is from Greece, the data analyst is a Belgian and the two other material analysts are from Spain and the UK. All are quite young and have a great relation, which made me feel very much at ease between them. So now I just hope I will keep feeling as happy as I am now with this job. :)

On a sidenote I could mention that I after only two days applied for holidays. :P And it was approved of, so from the first until the tenth of December I will be back in my beloved Turku! :D I will fly to Sweden, so a visit to Stockholm is the first scheduled stay. Then probably the night ferry to Turku, stay there for the rest of the week and in between visit Helsinki and a few friends there. :) It's still two months away from now, but it definitely is something to look forward to for me. It will be weird though, seeing it back in a different atmosphere, without quite a few people that made it the best place on earth for several months. But some of these friends will be there, so on the other hand I will be able to relive some great moments from back then and experience other new ones. And I want snow! My skates will be going with me, so hopefully the climate will soon turn back to normal and temperatures below zero become a daily aspect of Finnish life. :P It's too warm for the time of year over here as well, but it's quite enjoyable to be honest. :P But yes, autumn should come now. Along with it some rain and opportunities to wear my newly bought winter coat. :P

Pff, seeing my Finnish snowy home back like this makes me realize again how much I miss it there. But soon I will be there again for a while, hopefully with a similar scenery. :)

Tomorrow...

That's when it will start, my new job. Imagine they fire me after one day though, quite ridiculous then to write this post. :P I don't really know what to expect from my first day, or for that matter my first week. The supervisor told me to expect a ridiculous amount of information, so I suppose he will understand if I forget half of it after one hour. Otherwise he would have said it differently, no? ;) About two weeks ago my job agency send another newly graduated language student to this company and she still is at work over there, so I suppose I will manage as well. Finally my function has been given a name, as I went to sign my first week contract this Wednesday. I will be a "Material Analyst", what a pity that I don't know anything about the materials our company sells, this being car supplies for General Motors. :P

All I hope for tomorrow is that it will remain dry outside until I reach the company. It takes about 20 minutes to reach it and I would prefer to arrive decently on my first day. Rain is scheduled for later on the day, so it should be ok. Speaking of the weather, when flying to Madrid I took following picture of the sky around us. The huge cloud at the right was the cause for our immense turbulence, as we turned towards it and took a dive straight through it. I still wonder why, as I think we could easily have avoided it, but as I said, in the end it was funny. ;)

And yes, I admit it. This stupid talk about tomorrows weather prediction was just a way to show this picture. ;) I like dramatic skies.

Mi viaje a Madrid y Burgos!

Yesterday I returned from my trip to Spain, needless to say that I had a great time! :)

With some delay due to the bad weather I landed Thursday evening in Madrid and found my way to the city centre. The flight itself had been quite "interesting" as we experienced very heavy turbulence, which was surprisingly enough really appreciated by the Spanish passengers sitting close to me. With each bump they cheered as if they were sitting in a railway, so this actually made even me feel comfortable when dropping some meters every few seconds. :P I love flying but I prefer the more steady kind of flights.

My main reason for going had of course been to see Enrique back and miraculously I succeeded in meeting him at the correct metro station. :P Finding my way is not my strongest point, at least not from the first try. This time however everything went smoothly and after some more metro rides we arrived at his flat.

Next day we left for Burgos, a reasonably small city about 250 km north of Madrid. Enrique had always been very proud of it and I have to admit that he had reason to be! To some extent it's a very typical Spanish city, referring to the type of houses and way of organization, but on other points I thought it to be unique. There is a lot of green to be found everywhere and the streets are also quite clean (not during the night however :P ). The river that runs through Burgos has been kept very natural, which I found beautiful. To me nature is vital to the beauty of a place and there were places where you would thought to have been somewhere on the countryside, rather than in the middle of a city. I especially loved the trees next to the riverside and with the cathedral on the background it made the picture complete.

The cathedral of Burgos has to be done justice I think. It is the second largest in Spain and truly amazing in my opinion. I am not a huge fan of churches, but this one was great. Especially because of it's (to me) different shape and also the inside wasn't too preposterous. Recently they cleaned the outside of the building so these days it has again it's original light colour. From the top of the hill it looks like this:

Apart from being a tourist, we also went out with Enriques friends, relaxed by taking siestas, talked loads and ATE! Spanish food belongs to the most yummie to be found if you ask me, especially the meat. Every day we went "tapear", which should mean something as going to eat tapas. All different kinds, varying from muscles, to salmon, lamb, ham, tortilla and morcilla (kind of blood sausage). Everything just as tasty so I think I must have gained some kilo's and will keep on gaining as I bought quite a few kilo's of meat myself to bring home. :P

The last day I spent on myself in Madrid as Enrique had to go to work again. The poor guy had to wake up at seven, waking me up as well of course to say goodbye. Five days were maybe a bit short, but for me it was great trip and wonderful to spend some more time with my Kike majo. :) Next time we might meet again in Finland, that should at least be the destination of my next trip. :)

But first earn money!! On Monday it will all begin, so now I will enjoy my final days of unemployment. :P

Madrid, here I come!

Wednesday night, half past ten, have I packed anything yet? Of course not! My plane to Madrid takes off tomorrow at three in the afternoon, so I figured that I could leave the packing until the morning. :) It's going to be a short trip anyway, so I won't be needing that much luggage and I took out the main stuff, this being the presents for Enrique. Belgian beers and Belgian Chocolates, very typical in many ways, but at least I am sure that he will enjoy it all.
So far I haven't really had time to pack anyway, as I spend this day buying some last minute presents, visiting a friend and right now babysitting. Tomorrow morning might be a little bit stressy, but in a way that's part of a first day of travel. I think so anyway. ;)

For those of you who haven't heard yet, Kat has a job. Indeed, one job interview was enough to convince the employer and myself that I might fit into the company. TNT, logistics and mail is where I will start working from September 25th onward, or at least officially after a six to eight week training period. What my precise function at the company is, will hopefully also become entirely clear to me in about a week, but so far I know that I will be in touch with a number of customers all over Europe, speaking both English and German. Some telephone work is required, as well as email and computer administration. I have no idea whether I will really like my job, but it seems ok for a newly graduate. The company itself employs many young people from different nationalities, like Brazilian, French, Portuguese and so on so that diversity definitely appeals to me. The interviewer made it sound nice in any case, so let's hope he spoke the truth. I will keep you informed in the time to come. :)

Now it is almost time to go home for me, go to bed and have an early rise and shine to pack everything before heading to the station to catch my train to the airport! Hasta luego y nos vemos after my return!

At work

My first real working days ever are behind me! It wasn't nearly as horrible as I used to expect during my student life, but that will most probably also have depended upon the kind of work I'd have to do. The past three days I was sort of testing out at a company that sells bottles and bags over the internet and it was my job to take care of small tasks that the real employees didn't have time for. :P It started with me calling some customers that hadn't paid their bills yet and others that had given a wrong credit card number. Naughty people that I had to reprimand in other words. :P Quite confusing from time to time, as I had to switch between Dutch, German, English and believe it or not...French! My French sucks, so I was very proud to notice that the customer actually understood what I said, even though she didn't understand what I was calling for. :P Later I had to order bags and take pictures of those for their website, which they liked to refer to as their "sacks-site"... Jeje, great sense of humour. ;) I think it worked out fine, they are now published on the site anyway. My final job during these days was to correct the German version of the bottle-website. Some American owner of the company insisted he had a better knowledge of both German and Dutch than anybody else, so with a little help from an online translator program, he created the website. Anyone who has ever tried using such a tool knows what the result might have looked like. :P All in all I really enjoyed those three days, the people I was working with were all very kind and the office itself was also truly nice to be in. In about one week I should be contacted by the job agency to hear whether they have a real job for me there of whether this was just a three-day-thingy. On Tuesday I have another job interview coming up, so there are other possibilities for me out there. :)

If none of this brings me any job though, I might have to consider taking a career in teaching. During our annual lunch with the relatives of my mothers side, this picture with my sisters glasses was taken. I think I show a lot of authority on it, perfect to control a whole classroom of annoying children that aren't interested in the beautiful language that is German...:P Such a pity that my eyes are still in a good shape, glasses would have meant my breakthrough for such a career. :D

My BBB-class earlier this week was a true joy for painful muscles. It was obvious that I wasn't used to doing such exercises, as I towards the end of the class really couldn't follow the high tempo and make the correct moves and turns. Good that I had positioned myself at the far back of the class, that way not too many people could see me struggle. :P Today my gym card expired, so I will have to find my way back to the swimming pool. Maybe I could take a real subscription to the gym when I start earning some money, but for now this seems impossible. I got truly shocked when I found out how much you had to pay as a non-member for participating in one class. It was 17,5 Euro, just for one hour! You would receive a refund if you decided to go on with it for six more months, otherwise it really was that price for one turn. Horrible I think, because like that it is impossible to make people want to try out some sports and make them do some exercise. My first gym experience was in Finland, where you had to pay 2 Euro for one turn and there the result was that even relatively lazy people as me would do some sports. Only for these horrendous fees I would boycott Belgian gyms. :P

Freedom...or not

Some days have passed since I ended my summer job and so far I haven't had much time to get bored. On Saturday a street party took place in our neighbourhood. As a child I always had the feeling I knew the people that lived close by pretty well, but nowadays the truth seemed a lot more different. I for example met up with a girl I had been to school with for 12 years and who lives in my street. I hadn't seen her in five years. Of course, she's not a close friend or anything, but for all I knew she had moved out years ago. So if only for this fact I do think it's nice such events are organized these days in my neighbourhood. A toast was needed, my sister and I thought. :P



On Sunday I started with my days of gym. The first day was just to introduce myself to the place and see what it had to offer. I also had in mind that I would be going there each of the following days, so complete stiffness was not what I needed. Some running, rowing, cycling, ab-exercises and muscle train machines were the main goals that day. Yesterday however I had time for a class and the one that was given on the hour that fitted me best, was "fatburning". I do not claim I should loose any fat, but it definitely was a tiring class, which made me sweat as never before. Still no painful muscles though, so tonight a class of figure training is scheduled! Also known as BBB, which in English could stand for 'Breasts, butt and belly'. :P Whether I will be able to visit the gym also in the days to come, will however depend on other matters...

Being graduated and not having plans for further studies, time has come to find a real job. So yesterday a friend and I visited about every job agency in Antwerp, telling them what kind of work we were interested in, and more importantly, what sort of stuff we didn't want to do. For me this mainly includes call centers and helpdesks, which unfortunately is the only kind of job I so far have gotten offers for. About five minutes ago however, I was contacted by one agency that found me a job opening where they needed someone with English and German language skills. Tomorrow they want me to come and try out for a day, so in a way this might already mean the end of my so called holidays. :S I do hope it's a nice job, even for just one day. The hours seem to be long though and it's located not really close to where I live. Not by bike anyway, by car it would be ok. ;) I'll see what happens tomorrow, it's not sure they think I am the perfect person for the job and on the other hand it's not sure that I think this is the perfect job for me. :P

Done!

Summer job is over! All my avid readers (hm hm) will maybe have noticed that this doesn't agree with my last post, but apparently the job agency was wrong in telling me I would have to work on Monday as well. So, pity for my finances, but yay for myself. :P This morning I set out to myself to make it a memorable last day at work and I indeed managed to not get bored, not get annoyed with co-workers and not make any more cuts in either my hands or stomach. :P I also decided I wanted to try out other positions in the storage area so today I worked at the conveyor band! At that spot all the boxes that go to the separate pharmacies pass by and the people next to it have to read a list and throw in the correct amount of different medicines. Yep, very craving job indeed. ;) I liked for a while, it was a distraction from my eternal box opening and box transporting, so it was nice. :) Until late afternoon that is, as at that point the entire band got jammed and I had a full hour of panic and stress to get rid of all the boxes that were piling up in front of me, waiting for their medicines. :P All in all it were an ok four weeks, but I am definitely not going to miss the work. :)

The first thing I did when I reached home today, was to try and clean my hands! After washing them twice, taking a shower and using two kinds of scrubs, they still felt rough, like real working hands probably. ;) Some norwegian hand cream hopefully will do the job, as I want my soft and chubby hands back. :P

Yesterday I surprised myself (and others) and went to the gym to pay for my ten days of exhaustion. They started yesterday, but I believe I get enough exercise at my work. ;) So from tomorrow onwards I will try to visit it each day and do at least something physical, apart from taking a regular sauna...

Four more days

Indeed, only four more and then I will have finished my summer job for this year! And about time, as not only I would agree. Over the past few working days I seem to have become quite a menace to both myself and the others employees. My hands have red scars and scratches all over them and even my stomach has met the point of my knife. If anyone asks I could always claim I wanted to commit Harakiri instead of just admitting I was being clumsy! :P As for the hands, gloves have been suggested, maybe a wise idea as I can't imagine the customers would want to see blood all over their medicines.
Otherwise I almost dropped a large pile of heavy plastic boxes on top of another student and this afternoon another box just missed a woman by one meter. She's a real witch though, accusing me of having been neglectful and trying to hurt her on purpose... Honestly, if I wanted to hit her, I would have aimed better! ;) And I also broke two bottles of medicine which fell of my trolley as I was trying to maneuver it towards my desk. Unfortunately I first encountered some wall...

Today my basic course of Spanish arrived! It's quite large so I have good hopes to actually learn something from it and not finish it only having seen the ways of meeting and greeting and introducing myself. Now I just have to start studying and continue doing so, otherwise the size of the course will mean more of an obstacle instead of an advantage! I'll have time for it anyway, after next Monday I have nothing big planned until my departure to Madrid. Except for my ten gym days, but everyone who knows me will agree that they first have to see this happen, before believing it. ;)

Life of a cake...

My mother started on a (very successful) diet some weeks ago, which meant that a lot of greasy and fattening food was banned from the menu. All different kinds of always very tasty salads were prepared, deserts with diet sugar were created and tempting amounts of yummy chocolate were never to be found again in the fridge. The food was still delicious of course, but results of the diet were not only seen on my parents... I am quite aware that loosing weight is not meant to happen for me, so to solve this 'problem' I started on my own diet. This consists of eating at least one cheese cake a week. An entire one, just for me. The following picture describes five days in the life of such a cake, from it's buying birth to it's devoured death. :P This diet has proven it's success already, as my weight is back on level and my stomach never needs a hungry moment again. Come to think of it, I'll go and eat a slice right now. :)

Spending money

Today I went to the bank to find out my first paycheck had been submitted! Only one more week and I will be able to pay back my debt to my savings account AND pay for my flight to Madrid! Indeed, I have booked another trip. :) To Spain again, but this time to visit my Kike majo, better known as Enrique. The plan is that I arrive on Thursday, visit Madrid on Friday while he is at work, take the bus to Burgos, his hometown, in the evening and visit that city during the weekend. Sunday evening return to Madrid and Monday some more individual sightseeing followed by my afternoon flight home. Quite a short trip, but he has just found himself a job, so I can't go and entertain him for too long. :P It will be great though to see him back after almost exactly one year! At about the same time one year ago we were sitting in my garden doing a silly photo shoot. :)

It won't be my first visit to Madrid but I am looking forward to discovering more of the city and return to places I liked from my trip there last year. And Enrique always seemed extremely proud of "his" ( :P ) city Burgos, so my expectations are high. :)

My plans for after September still aren't anywhere near to being clear. Today I finished copying my final documents for my EU-application file and next week I can go and post it. Hopefully to hear back from them around the middle of November, otherwise most probably never. :P I also ordered a study-at-home course Spanish! My best friend Charlotte ordered a Portuguese one last year and she seemed pleased about it, even though she didn't decide it was worth taking to Spain with her. ;) She has of course less leisure time compared to me at the moment. Hopefully it will arrive soon though. I know myself, if it takes too long I will loose interest and my temporal motivation will diminish. I've also just discovered a ten day for ten euro gym-offer in my weekly Flair magazine! So if find some courage I will go there tomorrow and make some inquiries about the start date and possibilities. I should validate it before the end of august, so as my summer job ends the fourth of September, I will try the 31st of this month. That way I would be able to spend it before leaving to Madrid anyway.

Oh my, it's not even New Year and already I am making resolutions! :P

Ouch

True working life is hopefully not going to be part of my nearby future... The waking up early is one part, the other downside is the fact that you reach home so tired that you aren't able to enjoy your free time and before you know it, you go to bed and wake up only to notice that the next working day has arrived. Then again, I don't expect I will ever be employed for the kind of physical labour which my summer job consists of, so maybe I shouldn't worry about it at all. :P Weekend was good for me though, the tops of both of my middle fingers seem to be healed (they were red and infected due to scratching them too often against the cardboard) and I was able to relax and spend time on more enjoyable matters.

On Saturday we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean II, after having seen the first part again on TV friday night. I liked it. :) Especially Johnny Depp is as good as ever in his part, he totally makes up for Orlando Blooms characters silly interventions. ;) Personally I thought the film had a bit of a slow start, but moving on this changes so in the end it wasn't a disturbing factor anymore.

Yesterday on the other hand I actually did something reasonably useful. As some of you know, I was planning on applying for a translator internship at the EU-headquarters. For this I had to fill out a form on the internet and write down why I wanted to work for the EU and later on why I wanted to work as a translator. I understand they set these requirements, but in the end it is complete rubbish what you write in it. For my Erasmus I also had to write some kind of motivation, but back then five lines filled with twice as many lies or exaggerations would do the job. Plus it was in English, a language in which I feel I am allowed to use preposterous words as I just did. In Dutch however this is completely out of question. So after quite some struggling and backspacing I managed to write two to the point motivational texts containing only a few overstatements and fancy descriptions. I never quite liked my dutch writing skills. The grades of my essays at high school or university that were written in my mother tongue always were considerably lower compared to the ones in a different language. The french ones not included of course, they sucked in any case. :P
One more thing about the application. I do NOT expect to be hired! Apparently the standards for being taken in are quite high, so chances that I actually will make it are very small. Especially not at a first attempt, so this is just something I want to have tried, not something I will plan the rest of the upcoming year upon. It would be quite a job experience though, so I keep my fingers crossed that I manage to send all the documents on time and that they will like my application file. :)
Imagine....

Kat at the

The thieves, the thieves...

The filthy little thieves! Where are they with my Precious... ahum, KNIFE I mean! For my very rewarding job as a box opener at the pharmaceutical company, I was given a shiny brand new knife. It carried a tag with my name on it and as I need it during the entire day, I had gotten quite fond of it. As fond as one could become of a knife that is. ;) After my lunch break however, I returned to my 'desk' only to notice that my knife had disappeared, probably taken by some knifeless co worker who was attracted by it's shininess... The result of this thievery is that I now ended up with an ancient replacement, completely rusted and tiny. :( My vengeance will be sweet though.
If I ever get one.

Apart from destroying my fragile hands, feet and back, I have been catching up on quite a few films these past days and weeks. Several were must-sees according to some friends so, being the good girl that I am, I followed some advises and also my own feelings. I ended up watching these:
1) X-Men I: Really liked it, though it was way too short for a modern action movie. Made me want to see the rest of the series.
2) X-Men II: Even better than the first one! No actors with Aragorn-status, but the fact that I didn't miss any, must mean that it's a nice film whatsoever. :P
3) X-Men III: They still showed this one in the cinema, so we had to take advantage of that opportunity. ;) Still nice entertainment, but I missed out on quite a lot of things that made the second installment appeal to me. Again, too short and I felt that the makers wanted to focus too much on the action and special effects, rather than on the characters. Too many redundant deaths as well.
4) Sin City: Not really a film I would have come up with myself to watch, but I have to admit that I enjoyed it. Very different to any other movie I've ever seen, really interesting photography as well.
5) Spirited away: A truly wonderful animated film. I'd seen it for the first time during my stay in Finland, but it definitely was worth a second viewing. To all these people with false prejudices towards Japanese animation movies, go and see it! (And when you are at it, download the anime series "Full metal alchemist" :P Not comparable to the aforementioned film, but it's Japanese as well, so some people unjustly dislike the thought of it.)

6) Howl's moving castle: Made by the same director of "Spirited away" and almost just as beautiful. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, just give it a chance at least. ;)
7) The constant gardener: During summer films are shown near the riverside here in Antwerp and this was one of them. I had intended on watching it for quite a while now, mainly due to the main actor, I admit that. ;) Quite a different film compared to any of the other in this list, but nevertheless very interesting and moving.
8) V for Vendetta: Great film which definitely lived up to my expectations. The photography was also really nice and together with the perfect acting performances it created a unique film. The only disturbing thing is finding out that Nathalie Portman still looks fabulous without hair. :P Life isn't fair. ;)
9) Batman begins: I expected some light entertainment and that is what I received. I enjoyed most of the other Batman films I watched earlier, but this one took itself more seriously I felt. A fine result I thought, only the looks of Mr. Batman himself were not what I'd expect of such a super hero. :P
10) Alexander: I can't say it's a bad movie, but still, I found it absolutely Boring with a capital B! Like watching a documentary for several hours and unfortunately a documentary was not what I asked for. Some pieces were nice of course but as a whole I look back on it as a much too long, elaborate and slow film with very short moments of too fragmented action sequences.

So far my update for today. If anyone has some ideas for either retrieving my knife or for watching other films, let me know and I'll consider giving it a go. :P Off to bed now, another long working day lies ahead. ;)

Thoughts on work and holidays

Yesterday morning I remembered again the downside of having a summer job...the horrible early mornings! Ok, half past seven is nothing compared to my waking up time of last years job (5.50!) but still, it was hard. My work itself seems quite uneventful but the other students were nice and the general atmosphere at the place definitely worked for me. Of course I don't know what my thoughts might be next week, when I will have to go there five days in a row, compared to this one with a weekend following immediately. :P

The main subject of talk with my fellow workers, two substantially younger guys (seems I am getting old in the world of summer jobs :P), were of course holidays itself. All of us were working to travel, although I was the only one who already had done some this summer. One of the guys was planning on doing a road trip with some friends through southern Europe, something I'd like to do one day myself. Not necessarily only through the south though, must be great to go all around Europe, a private driver included of course. ;) No way that I would drive myself, but I have always enjoyed being a passenger. At least then you can relax and enjoy the scenery, instead of having to stress over lunatics on the roads and traffic signs that don't make sense to you.

My co-workers were surprised about the diversity of the two places I had visited this summer, northern Norway and southern Spain. Somehow it doesn't really fit together, which I have to agree upon, but then again, for me it was perfect. The landscapes can not be compared, although I think some water added to Andalucia would do miracles for that part of the country. :P In Norway I met up with some friends (Tusentakk igjen Kristin og Solveig!) and enjoyed the magnificent nature. And I experienced the midnight sun, craziest thing on earth, seeing the sun shine vividly at three in the night, whilst having gloomy rain at three in the afternoon. :P

Midnight sun in Tromsø


Part of the coast in the north

The goal of my trip to Spain was to visit two people that mean very very much to me. ;) I'm sure both realised this when I met up with them and and I hope I will see them soon again. If Charlotte survives the coming months she should be back here around november, so I guess that's not much of a problem.:P And I know I'll see Carlos again as well, although that might take a bit longer.

Receiving a hug from Carlos at the camping

Me and Charlotte at the restaurant of Antonio Banderas (who, very unexpectedly, wasn't present :P)

I'm sure I'll post more pictures in case I keep on writing in this blog. Pics are great to remember moments, I always wish I had taken more.

To start

Today I felt like starting a blog. Why? Maybe having been slightly bored for the past week has something to do with it, even though that will come to a certain end tomorrow, when my summer job starts. In a way I am looking forward to that, as I will have something to do each day and I will of course be earning money, the true reason why students work in summer. :P Actually, the first two weeks I won't literally be earning money. I have quite a debt to my own savings account, which I somewhat had to empty due to two earlier planned trips. A good cause I would say, but I did intend keeping that money for more serious stuff in the future. So first repaying myself, then earning money for approximately two new trips. :) More about these past and upcoming trips in another entry though. I have to do justice to them after all. ;)

As the small text in my profile describes, I find myself these days in some kind of void. Finished my main studies and no idea what I will do after this summer. I always thought and said I would want to study for one more year, the only thing I never knew though was WHAT that study would be. I checked all the possible one year Master Degrees and none truly appealed to me. Other option would, of course, be looking for a job. That however really isn't my idea of my near future, so I hope my working life could be postponed for a little while at least. Even if I'd try to find a job, I suspect I would be unemployed for several months, so actually I wouldn't be missing out on anything. ;)
Life until now has always seemed very clear, referring to my annual occupation of Student that is. First there was junior high, then high school and afterwards I would go to university or something similar. At university I would study for a minimum of four years (ok, I did it in five ;) ) and then...? The big question mark. Too many opportunities and choices in a way, but at the same time the huge pressure of making the correct decision. I am absolutely sure that I am making too big a fuss about this, but it truly scares the hell out of me that I don't know where I am heading.

Tips are welcome at all times. :)