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. :)