Call and Evil Classes
Today I called my former manager as I said I would. She said I should aim at the assistant-manager position, which was helpful. Tomorrow she’ll be visited by the region-manager, who’s her boss, so I’ll have to call her again tomorrow afternoon.
Tonight I had classes and I really messed up everything. I did some of the homework this afternoon, but I just hadn’t enough time left. I messed up my vocabulary quiz, so now I have like a 4 out of 10 and the essay I wrote is also pretty bad. I’ll have to work a lot on it tomorrow night to get it fixed. We also had a sample test for Linguistics, and that scared the hell out of me. We have to learn all the details in the book, that’s gonna take me God knows how long. I’m really scared for my exams in January, and I’m very afraid I don’t have enough time to study for them.
Work, Colleague and homework still
I’ve been working all day and I’ve told my colleague about my plans to go away. I was not really enthusiastic, but on the other hand, I’m never that enthusiastic when he tells me about his plans to go on a job interview somewhere.
It wasn’t really a busy day today; it’s just that my colleague and I were not really working together, but kind of past each other. We made appointments to have photo work ready at exactly the same time, so we had to disappoint some customers, which I hate. I tried to call my former manager this afternoon, but she wasn’t there, so I’m gonna try tomorrow again.
And tonight, I should have done some homework again, since I have to turn it in tomorrow, but I just watched CSI and I’ll have to do it tomorrow afternoon. So be it…
No Homework, but maybe New Job
I should have done a lot of work today, but I haven’t. I didn’t really feel like doing anything, so I chatted a lot with my boyfriend. I talked with him about me wanting a new job, another job. At the moment I work at the one-hour photo service, where I’m pretty happy. It’s just that I earn the minimum wages and I don’t have any chances of promotion. In a few years I would like to get married and perhaps move, and build a family, but without earning enough money I can’t save for these things. So I’ve been thinking a lot today about what I want to do. I still want to continue my studies of English, but it’ll take at least 7 years till I have my degree. I don’t want to stay working in the shop where I work now for all this time. But I don’t have any diplomas except for high-school and I don’t want to do any telephone-work, as in call-centres. After thinking and talking a lot today, I figured I might want to get a management job in a shop. I’m not quite sure I have the requirements it’ll take, but I do think I want to try it. I will follow an intern education, and I’ll start as an assistant-manager first, but it would be a hell of a challenge. I’m gonna call my former-manager this week, and ask her what the requirements are and if she thinks I can do it. And now I’m very excited about this idea, but still have a lot of homework to do.
New Printer and Cold
It is very cold outside over here. I have no clue how many degrees it is, but it sure feels cold.
I worked all day today, although I usually don’t work Saturdays. The large printer has been installed, an Epson 7800. We already have a Kodak/Kis 89 DLS system at my work. Now we can print pictures bigger than 20 x 30 cm (which is like 8 x 10 inches?), we can actually print on 60 x 90 cm, and also on canvas, which is both pretty cool. I’m only a bit nervous, because the guy who installed it explained who to print to me, but only to me. So now I have to explain it to my colleagues next week, and I hardly know how to do it myself. But I must say that I am satisfied with how the prints came out. We printed 3 photos and they looked really nice, especially since it’s just a very big inkjet printer.
I’m gonna throw my pizza in the oven and watch Idols, the Dutch equivalent of American Idol, and I’m just gonna relax tonight…
Library, no Harry Potter and then home
I’m not really sure whether this was a productive day. I went to the library this morning together with a classmate. We were there at about 11 o’clock, and we stayed there till 3 in the afternoon. I just didn’t really do that much. I didn’t sleep that much last night and I woke up pretty badly. I thought: “I have to work, I have to work, I have to hurry, I don’t have time.”, but I didn’t have to work today, but that’s a nasty way of waking up. I just read some literature and tried to answer the study-questions about them. I read the ‘Fairy Queene’ by I-forgot-who.
The weather is actually very bad here in the Netherlands, or it was today and last night. We had a lot of rain and heavy storms. Right now it’s getting better I think.
But through this weather I went to the cinema to go see Harry Potter, but I didn’t make a reservation, and it was sold out by the time I got there. I was kind of angry about it (
)
At home I watched the movie ‘Bride and Prejudice’, an Indian/multicultural version of Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’. I really enjoyed it; I didn’t have to think about anything.
Tomorrow I have to work again, I hope it’ll be busy, so that we make a lot of money.
Well, talk to you soon.
Autumn, Flea, Podsafe
Autumn has now really kicked off here in the Netherlands. We have a heavy storm over here tonight, so I just hope our house will stand the test.
I actually had to go through this weather from the university to home tonight. I handed in my essay, and I must say, I am very happy to be rid of it. I will have to edit it next week when I have the feedback of my tutor, but I won’t worry about that today. The lectures were pretty boring, as I didn’t read the poems I should have read. Something with Donne I remember, and a poem about sex and a flea, but that’s kind of it. Here’s a link to the poem:
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/flea.htmAnd I was kind of happy while listening to the podcasts; I actually begin to recognize some podsafe songs, which I think is really cool. Like ‘There you go’ by Brother Love, I can actually hum along and I know some words. Or this just means I listen to too many podcasts…
Work and Essay
Today I have worked all day, and when I came home tonight, I still had an essay to finish.
In the shop it was kind of hectic today; my colleague and I were working a bit hectically, so I felt like I was running after myself. I work in a one-hour-photo service, so we make the appointments with the customers when they can come back to pick up the photos. We scheduled some things too tightly and that’s why it didn’t quite work out. But after 3 o’clock it was pretty quiet, so we could catch our breath. We did have a good turnover today.
So, like I said above, when I came home, after dinner, I had to finish my essay. It is an assignment about the power relationship between Faustus and Mephastophilis in The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (whoever thinks of these assignments…) I had a lot of difficulty putting the essay together, but I think I did a nice job in finishing it tonight. I have to hand it in tomorrow-night, but I’ll receive it back with feedback next week, so it’s not for any grades yet.
I’ll go to bed now, very soon at least, because tomorrow will be another long day with working and going to the university in the evening.
Pilates, Homework, Bad Mark
Well, then a quick note about today. This morning I went to Pilates. I still love this kind of sport. It’s not too quick or too heavy, and since I’m the youngest participant of the group, I can follow the classes very good
For those of you that don’t know Pilates, the easiest way to describe it, is as a kind of Yoga, but then differently. I just do floor-exercises in which I strengthen en lengthen my muscles. It feels really good afterwards, also because it’s very good for my back. Here is a link for some more information:
All About Pilates.comAfter Pilates I felt really bad, in contrary to me feeling so good after it usually. I have a cold and I was really tired, so I went to bed and slept for about an hour. In the afternoon I did some homework and tonight I went to my classes at the university. I got back my writing assignment of Language Acquisition, which I handed in last week. I only got a 6,5 out of 10, so I’m not too happy about it. I just don’t agree with what my teacher says about my work. She focused on the structure and the topic sentence and such things, and I think it was pretty OK in this piece of writing. I just feel I deserved a higher mark.
I gotta go to bed now, I have to work tomorrow, and I’ll post again soon.
Hutspot
Because I got some reactions to yesterday’s post, here’s a description of ‘hutspot’. It is made of 500 grams of potatoes, 250 grams of carrots and 250 grams of onions. It’s a typical Dutch meal, and it’s especially eaten in the winter, and it definitely feels like winter over here. Here’s a link to a Dutch website with the recipe in Dutch:
http://www.dekooktips.com/recepten/hutspot.htm
After a long day's work with a cold
After a long day’s work with a cold
Well, I’m back home again. I had a nice dinner which my boyfriend made and after that I watched some stupid game-show on TV. It was a pretty long day today. I started working with the owner of the shop, who’s really tiresome. After she left, I had to work for an hour to get everything back on track and to get an overview of what still had to be done. I felt pretty bad in the morning, and in the course of the afternoon I developed a cold. So now I keep sniffling and blowing my nose and I feel pretty bad. Tomorrow morning I have Pilates classes and in the evening I have to go to the University. I should do some homework now, but I don’t really feel like it. Guess I’ll just do it tomorrow afternoon.
I hope I’ll get some nice sleep tonight and feel a bit better in the morning.
New Harry Potter and the Richest Boy of the UK
With me being a huge Harry Potter fan,
(well, ‘huge’ may be an overstatement, but ‘big’ will do), I can hardly wait for the new movie to enter the Dutch cinemas next week. It wasn’t a very big surprise when I just read that Daniel Radcliffe is the richest boy in the UK. He has made 15 million Euro of only the first 3 movies, and there are still 4 to come of course. It’s more money than I have ever seen
I don’t even know when I’ll be able to go to the cinema and watch this new movie. I have promised myself I will go, just have to find some spare hours. I have already read the new book. The Dutch translation came out this weekend, but I don’t have to read it. They translated the words really weird; like ‘Hogwarts’ is translated with ‘Zweinstein’, which is really bad. So I already know who’s the character that dies in the last book...
First post about me
Hello everybody!
As you can read in my title, I'm a 23 year old girl from the Netherlands. I am a student of English at the University of Leiden and I live in The Hague. My English isn't perfect, but I hope to improve it during the course of my study and by writing a lot on this weblog :)
I am very interested in the news. I hope to comment on it now and then. I will also keep you up to date of my studies. Which literary works I have read, about what subjects I have written an essay or assignment and how I keep up with everything.
Apart from these subjects I will also tell you about my everyday life. I live together with my boyfriend and work in a one-hour-photo service.
I hope you stick with me, and I hope I can keep updating this site.
Love,
Yelda
