Now this is weird.
You join me in my old office in Mainz-Kastel, sitting at a desk directly opposite where I spent two and a half years of my life slaving away in the world of financial translation.
My old company are obviously struggling for capacity at the moment, so they've invited me down for a fortnight of on-site work. Naturally, I jumped at the chance: they're paying me well enough, I get to stay with Eddie and Kate and catch up with my Mainz gang, and - best of all - I get all the office gossip. :-)
Seriously though, I wasn't sure how I would or should feel about going back, albeit as a free agent this time. It was certainly a strange sensation walking "to work" for the first time since last April, but I'm already right back into the swing of things and actually feeling unexpectedly cheerful and smiley about it all... granted, though, that's probably because I know I'm only here temporarily! It helps that the current members of the English department (most of whom I'd met before, though I've only actually worked with two of them, which gives a good indication of the level of staff turnover in this place) are a suitably cynical and humorous bunch of people, making it a good environment to work in. And after what's been a pretty tough January, it's actually quite nice just to have some human contact and some kind of routine.
Of course, as soon as deadlines start approaching or Customer X sends the fifth set of changes to the section I'm translating, I'm sure it'll be a different story...
My old company are obviously struggling for capacity at the moment, so they've invited me down for a fortnight of on-site work. Naturally, I jumped at the chance: they're paying me well enough, I get to stay with Eddie and Kate and catch up with my Mainz gang, and - best of all - I get all the office gossip. :-)
Seriously though, I wasn't sure how I would or should feel about going back, albeit as a free agent this time. It was certainly a strange sensation walking "to work" for the first time since last April, but I'm already right back into the swing of things and actually feeling unexpectedly cheerful and smiley about it all... granted, though, that's probably because I know I'm only here temporarily! It helps that the current members of the English department (most of whom I'd met before, though I've only actually worked with two of them, which gives a good indication of the level of staff turnover in this place) are a suitably cynical and humorous bunch of people, making it a good environment to work in. And after what's been a pretty tough January, it's actually quite nice just to have some human contact and some kind of routine.
Of course, as soon as deadlines start approaching or Customer X sends the fifth set of changes to the section I'm translating, I'm sure it'll be a different story...