(no subject)
So far Christmas has been pretty uneventful, but that's good, I guess! On Christmas Eve we went to Almere to my brother's house to have dinner with everyone together, which was fun. I always enjoy it when the whole family gets together, there are always interesting conversations and lots of laughter. Yesterday, on Christmas Day, Selmer and I went to Hoek van Holland to walk along the beach for a while, which was very windy, but nice. Then we cooked dinner and watched "Love Actually". Well, I watched "Love Actually" and Selmer pretended to watch while sneakily looking at his phone or e-reader all the time. :D
And today is Boxing Day (or second Christmas day as we call it in Dutch, "Tweede Kerstdag"), and tonight we're going to Selmer's aunt & uncle to have another Christmas dinner. After that Christmas is finally over and we can all go back to normal, thankfully!
With Christmas behind us I will also get started on the final preparations for China. It doesn't yet feel like I'm moving to China in three weeks, I've been so busy at work and now with all the Christmas stuff going on. But tomorrow and next week everyone will be going back to work, and I won't, so I suppose that's when it will hit me. I don't have an awful lot left to organize, just some paperwork and I still need to arrange my visa (minor detail...), and pack my bags. I also still need to buy a ticket, but I'm waiting with that until I've arranged my visa. I've been looking at ticket prices over the past couple of weeks and they've been pretty stable, so I think it's better to wait with booking until I know for sure when I can leave and I won't run into any delays. It's a little stressful for me to wait so long with booking a ticket, but I think there will be more stress if my visa is delayed and I won't be able to actually leave on my departure date!
My last week at work was good, I still had quite a lot of work to do, so I was busy until pretty much the last minute, but that was also because my boss gave me Friday off rather unexpectedly. Officially I had to work right up to Christmas break as I don't have any days off left (I'm using them all to not have to work all of January and still get paid!), but some of my colleagues felt bad I would be the only one working on Friday afternoon (everyone is taking time off), so they convinced my boss to give me the Friday off for free. Which is a very nice gesture, but also meant I had to finish everything a bit quicker than I had originally planned. :D Still, I did most of the things I wanted to do, only one or two minor things weren't done, but that won't be the end of the world for my colleagues after Christmas Break. :D On my last day I finished everything and then cleaned out my drawers and shredded a few final things, and then that was it. I had dinner with a colleague at the campus cafe and then went home, my last time on the train from Tilburg to Rotterdam. It's all a bit bizarre, really. I just spent four years of my life going back and forth between Tilburg and Rotterdam and putting most of my energy into my work, and now I don't have to do that anymore. I will miss the job and my colleagues, so I'm a little sad, but I do still feel like it was a good decision to leave. No regrets yet!
And today is Boxing Day (or second Christmas day as we call it in Dutch, "Tweede Kerstdag"), and tonight we're going to Selmer's aunt & uncle to have another Christmas dinner. After that Christmas is finally over and we can all go back to normal, thankfully!
With Christmas behind us I will also get started on the final preparations for China. It doesn't yet feel like I'm moving to China in three weeks, I've been so busy at work and now with all the Christmas stuff going on. But tomorrow and next week everyone will be going back to work, and I won't, so I suppose that's when it will hit me. I don't have an awful lot left to organize, just some paperwork and I still need to arrange my visa (minor detail...), and pack my bags. I also still need to buy a ticket, but I'm waiting with that until I've arranged my visa. I've been looking at ticket prices over the past couple of weeks and they've been pretty stable, so I think it's better to wait with booking until I know for sure when I can leave and I won't run into any delays. It's a little stressful for me to wait so long with booking a ticket, but I think there will be more stress if my visa is delayed and I won't be able to actually leave on my departure date!
My last week at work was good, I still had quite a lot of work to do, so I was busy until pretty much the last minute, but that was also because my boss gave me Friday off rather unexpectedly. Officially I had to work right up to Christmas break as I don't have any days off left (I'm using them all to not have to work all of January and still get paid!), but some of my colleagues felt bad I would be the only one working on Friday afternoon (everyone is taking time off), so they convinced my boss to give me the Friday off for free. Which is a very nice gesture, but also meant I had to finish everything a bit quicker than I had originally planned. :D Still, I did most of the things I wanted to do, only one or two minor things weren't done, but that won't be the end of the world for my colleagues after Christmas Break. :D On my last day I finished everything and then cleaned out my drawers and shredded a few final things, and then that was it. I had dinner with a colleague at the campus cafe and then went home, my last time on the train from Tilburg to Rotterdam. It's all a bit bizarre, really. I just spent four years of my life going back and forth between Tilburg and Rotterdam and putting most of my energy into my work, and now I don't have to do that anymore. I will miss the job and my colleagues, so I'm a little sad, but I do still feel like it was a good decision to leave. No regrets yet!