Night Owls
I know, I know. Long time since I let you know I'm alive. But it really is not my fault! First, I did not have Internet (well, I still don't, I'm still getting it from some neighbour - thanks! -, but I've already ordered it from a place one of my friends says is trustworthy. However, two weeks have gone by, and I'm still living on borrowed internet). Then, I had family visits. I had to go back home for a few days for not-so-pleasant reasons (in case y'all are wondering, the last post was about my grandfather, who passed away in August, a few weeks after I had just gone to Portugal for a visit), and I didn't have much heart to write. Then I really went on vacation to Portugal, where I spent a great weekend making wine in my cousin's vineyard in the Douro (simply wonderful, I missed the North of Portugal something terrible. The Douro brings back great memories with the grandparents!
It was fun, fun, fun. Except on the first day when I got to the vineyeard. That I had a massive cold, I could hardly move, but it was practically miraculous how I recovered for the next day!
The days in Lisbon were pretty much as usual. Running to everywhere all the time. Dinners, luches, appointments with family, friends, hairdresser (hey, I'm only a girl, and it's sooo much cheaper in Lisbon... mostly because there, it's all paid for by mom!!!)... Before I knew it, it was time to get back to reality. One of the funniest moments of my vacation was in the North. I stayed over at a cousin's house. Actually, he's my dad's cousin, and he has 3 kids, who are 17, 15 and 8. And it had been AGES since I'd seen them. For all practical effects, we were complete strangers. So, the second day at night, while my cousins were all studying Math (and they're really good at it, too), I got out my Italian books. The thing is, since I bought them here in France, I'm learning italian from books written in yet another foreign language. My 15-year old cousin was soooo impressed that I was studying something by a foreign language book without being forced to learn it! Well, I remember at her age I wouldn't study if I didn't have to. But she looked at me like I was a genius or something!!
Anyway... starting tomorrow, I'll be working on the night shift. Meaning I'll stay up all night, like a little owl, from 22.15 to 8.15. In between, there's time for everything... work, card-playing, music-listening, and just joking! The bonus at the end of the month is also a very nice thing. Very nice is also the fact that I'm slated to do 2 formations to also be able to go to the Conciergerie. I'm moving up, that's pretty cool! What's not cool about the job, is the fact that once in a while, someone goes away. Either from the hotel, from Disney, or from France altogether. I'm getting used to it, but it's always a little sad... On the other hand, there are always new colleagues coming, and that is always nice. It still feels a little weird (but good-weird) when they come to me asking me questions. I still feel like I just got here, even though it's been a bit more than 6 months! Now there are a lot of German and Dutch people.
One of my favourite colleagues is one of the new German girls. She's actually russian-german, and she's really sweet. And for reasons that are unkown to me, she reminds me so much of Angie... And the reasons are unknown because they don't resemble each other physically, and I don't know Katya well enough to know the rest. But there is something in her smile that always makes me think of Angie. And it's not as hard as I'd always thought it would be... thankfully!
Finally, I'm getting very good at both the "QWERTY" and "AZERTY" keyboards, that I use at home, and at work. At the beginning, it was hell, I'd wrtite compltete sentences without almost looking at the keyboard... and then I'd have zillions of "Q"'s instead of "A"'s, and ","'s instead of "M"'s, and I'd get really annoyd that I'd have to erase everything, and re-write. Nowadays, it almost doesn't happen. And I feel so proud of myself! (That was the random moment of the day)...
One final note for today: How many times do I think I should go back to Lisbon? Some. Especially when I'm all alone, or when my grandmother calls me. Especially when my grandmother calls me. Then, I always feel a little guilty not to be able to be more with her, because now she's all alone, and I'm afraid of what can happen. Other than that, all is great, and I'm really not thinking of leaving so soon...
Nähdään myöhemmin!! (This means, approximately "See you later" in finnish. The new language I'm learning with a colleague. She thinks I'm gifted for it. Why not?)