Many of the AIESECers that I have talked to have had their bike stolen three or four times in the past year. This implies that many people can't be bothered to lock their bike properly. I think I am starting to understand why they may do this.
There are two locks associated with the bike. One is a chain and padlock - you simply chain your bike to some fixture, such as a pole in the ground. The other is a lock internal to the back wheel of the bike. It is a mechanism, operated by a key, which goes through the spokes in the back wheel and prevents the wheel from turning. When you use this lock, you remove the key. To unlock it, you insert the key back into the bike.
After being careful with locking my bike for over a week, now, I can understand how it can be such a hassle! At the train station "bike park" it takes me over a minute to chain up my bike. I have to kneel down, amongst the other bikes, and chain the front wheel to the small metal slot where the wheel rests. (I'm not sure if you can imagine that - I'm finding it difficult to explain. I'll have to take a photo). Then, I must be careful to take the key pertaining to the other lock. You see, if you don't, then other people might take it, and then your bike will be useless. (Who knows why other people would do something like that?) All the while, I need to remove my gloves because, with them on, I have very little "grip" power. Then, my hands freeze off.
So, with all that hassle, you may understand why I am contemplating taking the risk of not locking my bike. I haven't yet, but the thought has crossed my mind.
posted by James 4:30 pm
I have been a little stressed over the past couple of days, because I have been thinking about my money situation. Each day, I have been living day to day through the cash in my wallet and if I needed some more money, then I could look to the emergency money that I have in my New Zealand bank account. Before my traineeship began, I put enough money in that account, I thought, for me to survive the time before I receive my first pay from work. However, things have been a bit more expensive than I had expected. I need to pay my rent by this Monday. It is usually 275 euro per month, but this time I have to pay 445 euro. This covers the first 2 weeks, the last month and an administration fee. I only have enough money to cover the rent. Of course, I also need money to pay for my food and transport to and from work, not to mention AIESEC events. So, I was really starting to wonder what I would do over the next few days as far as money is concerned.
After work, when I went to the supermarket to buy things for dinner, I was doing everything in slow motion. There was no AIESEC event organised for tonight and I had no reason to hurry anywhere.
When I got home, I noticed that I had received a letter from the bank in the Netherlands where I have my new account. It is all in Dutch. So, I decided to bike around to Steven's place. It is about 30 mins bike away, but I didn't mind. I needed to get some help with understanding the letter from the bank, ask for advice about how to pay my rent and use the internet to e-mail home. Steven has been great. He calmly explained what the letter from the bank was about (it concerned the PIN for my bank card which I will be receiving soon). He also explained how I should pay for my rent. I will do that at the bank tomorrow. He has also let me use the internet, and said that I could use it for as long as I wanted. It has been a stress-reliever to get through some e-mails and put this posting in my online diary. (The internet has been acting up at work, recently, so I haven't been able to do much there). It is good to know that I could just come around to his house, without warning, and he was willing to help me out.
I'm now finishing my second cup of tea here, and I'll probably start biking home soon. It's past 10pm, but biking home at this time seems quite normal. (Although, if I were back in New Zealand, I probably wouldn't go out walking at this time). The heater is on in my room, so it should be all warmed up for when I get back.
posted by James 10:03 pm
I have only been to work by myself three times, but I have already had my first instance of catching the wrong train! Actually, I'm surprised that it didn't happen sooner. At the Tilburg train station, there are four platforms. At each platform, there is a sign which regularly updates to show the time of the next train and the places that it will be stopping at. I always catch the 8:39am train from platform 1. There are no markings on the actual train to indicate where it is going, so I just rely on the integrity of the sign. In such a way, I caught the train that happened to stop at platform 1 at 8:39am. When it made its first stop, I didn't recognise it, and I suspected that something was wrong. When the ticket checker came around to look at my ticket, he confirmed my original suspicions - I had caught the wrong train. Fortunately, he was very helpful and told me which stop to get off and which platform to wait at for the train that would take me to s'Hertogenbosch. There was no extra charge. After this morning's detour, I arrived at work only 15 minutes late. Not too bad, but I'm hoping that it doesn't happen again (or, at least, not too many times!)
I almost had a similar experience yesterday. The train to s'Hertogenbosch kept having its departure platform at Tilburg changed! First, it was platform 1, then it was platform 2, and in the end, it was revised back to platform 1. The changes were announced via the loud speaker system, and I could only recognise the words "s'Hertogenbosch" and the number "two". (I had learnt a few numbers from Lia on Tuesday night). In the end, I had to ask someone whether I were at the correct platform. It's a good thing that many people understand English here!
So, until I have a much better understanding of the rail system, I may be better off confirming the train with people before I get on. And, I certainly need to find the Dutch translation to the following phrase, to put into my vocabs book: "Is this the correct train to catch to Tilburg/s'Hertogenbosch?"
posted by James 12:25 pm
I just scolded my tongue while drinking another "Cup-o-Soup".
posted by James 3:36 pm
It's my third day at work, and I am slowly getting used to the systems used in the office. I think I also have a better idea of their underlying reasons. Paul is just concerned about having a comfortable place where it is easy to people to do their work. That's why you need to put your files away every night, and it explains his concern for why my desk light wasn't working. Earlier today, he even said that I shouldn't look at the computer screen for too long, or I will get a computer headache. Good point.
During the rest of my first week here, I will adopt the stance of "If I don't know, ask". Paul is also encouraging of me to look around the files and the different rooms, so I'll do that also.
Last night, Lia came over to my place. She didn't know where it was, though, so I had to bike to the train station to pick her up. On the way home, we stopped off at the supermarket and bought some food for dinner. We ended up making one of Lia's favourite dishes. I can't remember the Dutch for it, but it was potatoes and sauerkraut with a huge sausage. It was so easy to make - just heating things up in saucepans. The potatoes were a powder which you added to boiling water - instant mashed potatoes! They turned out better than I was expecting. We made so much, that there is a saucepan full of leftovers in the fridge. This will probably be my dinner on Thursday.
That dinner was the first time I had used the kitchen at my new place. Before that, I usually went to an AIESECer's place, straight after coming home, as they would be giving me dinner that night.
Lia also bought me some towels (three big blue ones) and coathangers for Africa. After dinner, we went up to my room and looked over the first chapter of my Dutch language book. I would read the conversations, and Lia would correct my pronunciation. There are a lot of Dutch sounds that I haven't got the hang of yet. Many words sound different to what the spelling would suggest. However, by the end of the evening, I was going through the last conversation at close to normal reading speed, so I felt pleased with myself. This is the start of what I will be doing on Tuesday nights - Lia will come over, and we will look at the latest chapter of the book. There are 18 chapters to go through, so I may have a basic knowledge of Dutch as I near the halfway point of the traineeship.
posted by James 1:50 pm
I'm just going to take a little break from work to complain about my boss, so I hope he doesn't come over and see what I'm typing!
This morning, he complained about me putting my gloves, bag and jacket in the wrong place. It seems that there is an exact place for everything - I can't put my bag beside my desk, it must go in this special cupboard. My jacket needs to be hung by the front door. Later, I was doing work at the kitchen table, rather than my desk. I was more comfortable to do it there because there was heaps of space. However, Paul prefers me to work at my desk. This could be because he wants everyone to work in the same room, or he just wants to keep an eye on me. Or, he may be worried about the stock of "Cup-o-Soup" in the kitchen. I am quickly going through the stock in the cupboard - I have had three cups of it today! The latest thing concerns the lamp on my desk. The bottom part of it was broken, so I just moved it to the side of my desk. I think the light is pretty good in here, anyway, so I wasn't worried about it. Paul wanted me to fix it. So, for the past five minutes I have been figuring out what was wrong with it, found a screwdriver and fixed it.
In the long run, these are just minor things, but it shows some of the cultural differences between me and Paul.
posted by James 4:29 pm
I'm doing something at work that requires me to print out a lot of stuff. So, I thought I may as well multi-task and post something onto my online diary too.
Despite my best intentions, I got lost on the way home from the railway station last night. At one point, I took the first right, instead of the second right, so I found myself in unfamiliar surroundings. It's a good thing I bought that map. Although, it can be diffcult to unfold and read, and my hands get really cold after a while. (I don't have the hand coordination to unfold the map with my gloves on). When riding home, I also had a dillema of sorts. I could ride faster and get home (and out of the cold) quicker. But, riding fast would increase the apparent wind and the related chill factor. The choice was made for me, though, as I found it impossible to ride fast while carrying my bag around my shoulder.
I also got lost on the way to Steven's house. And this time it was even worse than the first instance. I was scanning the map for a long time, just to find out where I was, when I man approached me and started speaking Dutch (as everyone seems to do to me). Upon informing him that I speak English, he gave me perfect directions to find the road that I was looking for. He was really friendly and that put me in a good mood for the rest of the night. I almost got run over by a bike, though, as I was standing right in the middle of the bike lane as he gave me the directions. Sometimes the bike lane looks very similar to the footpath.
When I got to Steven's house, I was late and dinner had already been served. That suited me, as I just sat down and ate. I was so hungry! I also brought my last bottle of wine, so that made me popular with everyone at the table. I made more of an effort to involve myself in the conversation and it paid off. Often, the people at the table would still speak in Dutch. When I was concentrating more on my dinner, at times, it was easy to tell when they were talking to me, because the language would change to English!
posted by James 1:54 pm
I'm still at work. I've just been told to study all of the information that I can find about one of the firm's clients, so I'll be doing that over the next few days. Paul made it clear to me that I should study it, not just read it. He will be asking me for my opinion about things such as the business plan and the financial forecasts. The business plan is about 100 pages long (aye corumba!) and I am just waiting for it to finish printing out.
I think this will be the sort of job where I will have to use my initiative and work by myself often. I will also be learning a lot about the clients of the firm - mostly small and medium sized businesses which are looking to grow bigger.
posted by James 2:31 pm
I'd just like to clarify that I was sampling the McDonalds in the Netherlands merely for cultural research. Nothing else. OK, I was hungry too. But, nothing else! Perhaps if other people, for instance, those currently on a traineeship in Brazil, would take the opportunity to try their local McDonalds, they may be surprised by the differences. In the Netherlands, you get mayonnaise with your fries, and I preferred this to tomato sauce.
posted by James 12:47 pm
I just started work today. In fact, I am at work right now! Luckily, it's just my first day, and I'm not expected to know anything, so I can spend some time posting my latest update. But, as Vanessa has reminded me in her latest e-mail, I will have to learn to be more concise. I'm not sure how much time I will have available to post this sort of stuff, now that I am no longer living at a place with free-flowing internet.
That's too bad, because I have so much to say about the last day!
Last night, I had dinner at Charissa's place. Ilse, Anne (pronounced "Honour") and Steven were there too. We had so many pancakes with icing sugar and this syrup called "Stroop". As a sweet-tooth, I can handle having this sort of stuff for dinner. I was a little annoyed with the AIESECers and frustrated too. Most of the time they just talked in Dutch, so I just sat there staring at them (hoping, perhaps, to learn some tips for pronunciation). When they did speak in English, the whole conversation was just gossip about this girl I don't know. There was no way for me to contribute to the conversation, so they may as well have been speaking in Dutch. So, even though I was at this place for dinner, it was pretty lonely. I need to think of some questions that I can ask, so as to direct the conversation my way.
I also moved house. I now live about 10 minutes cycle from the train station, closer to University. The place is a family home, and they are renting out the upstairs rooms for students. There are three other students staying there - one from China and two from Poland. I haven't spoken to them much yet. My room is at the absolute top of the building. It is an attic. The floor area is huge - almost twice the size of my bedroom back home. But, the ceiling dips a lot towards the sides. There are also huge wooden beams at chest height that you need to be careful of. Consequently, I need to do a lot of ducking when I move around my room and my back gets a bit sore. And, yes, I have already hit the back of my head on one of these things!
My work is in a town called Den Bosch - it is about 15 minutes away from Tilburg by train. A return ticket cost me 6.20 euro, but I will investigate the cost of a monthly pass. I have to cycle from home to the train station, and I leave my bike there among hundreds of others. (I hope I can find my bike when I get back! They are all so similar looking!) The office is actually the ground floor of a house very close to the train station. It is very nice - everyone works in a room which looks like it used to be a dining room. I have had a meeting with Paul Smeets who is my boss. He is a friendly person and has had a long history of taking trainees through AIESEC. Today, I am just exploring around the systems at work and getting used to the daily schedule. Later, I will be reading through the business plans of the clients that I will be working with.
I will be finding my way home by myself tonight. Hopefully, I don't have a similar experience as Fernando had when he was in Auckland, just starting his job.
posted by James 12:42 pm
I have been sitting on the couch with Saturday's newspaper, just reading it out loud for pronunciation practice. I think I have got it pretty close to how the book describes it, but I there is no way of being sure until I get a native speaker to listen to me. It's tiring to speak for as long as I have, especially when I need to analyse each syllable to make sure I'm pronouncing it correctly.
posted by James 4:47 pm
I just realised, it still hasn't rained yet!
posted by James 1:19 pm
Today has been great so far - I just got back from an enjoyable two-hour cycle around the city. I cycled a huge loop, going east, around the northern edge of the city and headed back home from the west.
The first part of the cyle confirmed my conceptions of the city housing. It is almost all ten-storey appartment buildings and semi-detached houses. It is all brick, so it tends to be all the same orange-brick colour. It was not until I got to the edge of the city when I began to see actual houses of the sort that you may see in a New Zealand suburb.
Either I am getting used to the temperature, or it was a warmer than usual day today. I had to stop at one point and remove a jumper and my scarf because I was feeling too warm! It was probably just all that cycling.
About halfway though the cycle, I spotted a medium-sized pond by the side of the road. It was surrounded by naked trees whose former leaves had blanketed the ground. I wheeled the bike partway through this group of trees, carefully placed it on the ground, and walked the rest of the way. As I suspected the pond was frozen over. Being of a curious frame of mind, I decided to carry out some experiments with the ice. I was disappointed, at first, because I couldn't find anything heavy to throw onto the ice. (I was not about to sacrifice my bike at this stage of the trip). So, moving into "fool" mode, I decided to stand on the ice, myself. It bore my weight for about one second. Then, I heard a loud crunching sound, the ice cracked in about four directions from where my foot was placed, and icy water started flowing up from beneath. In that split-second, I jumped back onto the bank without getting my shoes wet. Out of interest, I picked up one of the bigger shards of ice to see how thick it was. After taking off my gloves, the ice was as thick as two of my fingers.
I later stopped at a frozen over canal. I figured the ice was probably of the same thickness here too, so I decided not to try any of my "stand on the ice" experiments. There were heaps of "ice-blocks" on the surface, so I couldn't resist going down to the edge, collecting some and throwing them against the ice. Ice being thrown against ice makes a really cool sound - sort of like firing a gun on a space-related computer game. I picked up a larger piece and skimmed it along the ice. It broke into myriad pieces and each piece skidded along the ice for a long distance as there was hardly any friction. I balanced my camera on the frozen surface (as you do) and took a photo of myself on self-timer. I have no idea how it will come out. I saw two kids by the canal and one of them was testing the strength of the ice by kicking it with his heel. Eventually, the ice broke and his leg was submerged past the ankle. Shame! I used the opportunity to pick up some more ice and biff it at the canal. I enjoyed this simple, but cool fun.
During the later part of the cycle I found myself riding down really long stretches of road lined with tall trees. It was really picturesque. If someone else were there with me, I would have asked them to take a photo of me riding down the road. (There will be plenty of time for that later, I guess).
On the final leg home, I stopped off at another frozen canal and threw off my jacket, scarf and gloves. I wolfed down half a King-size bar of Black Forest chocolate in about one minute. Reenergised, I looked at the ice and felt satisfied with how the morning had gone. I thought I would stop off at the supermarket and buy something hot and bready - to top off the morning. But, the supermarket was closed. I forgot about this - I think most things are closed on Sunday.
posted by James 1:12 pm
Last night, I had McDonalds for dinner. I can't believe it only took me three days to cave in.
I was reading Fiona's online diary last night and she mentioned how it was a relief to finally start going to work and get into a routine. I will be doing that over the next two days - tonight, I am moving into my permanent accommodation, and tomorrow, I start work. It will be nice to have some structure. I will be earning a consistent income, and I will be able to do some more long term planning for my traineeship. At the moment, I am living day to day, just making sure that I don't spend all the cash in my wallet.
I began looking at the Dutch language book last night - just the pronunciation page. I have discovered that there are many sounds that have no English equivalent. For instance, "uu". You need to say "ee" (as in seek) then keep your tongue in the same position and round your lips. The Dutch "w" is pronounced somewhere between the English "v" and "w". I don't have the tape that goes with the book (curse my fortunes!), so I will need to find a Dutch speaker to help me with pronunciation. Hopefully, an AIESECer will have time in this regard. I wonder how much Dutch I will be able to learn in a year? I want to be able to hold a basic conversaton, but it pays to be realistic. Especially seeing that I can't pronounce anything properly yet!
I'm not sure what's happening this afternoon. I know that I'm going around to Charissa's for dinner, so I figure she won't come around until late this afternoon. I'll probably go for another exploratory bike ride and see if I can get lost before referring to the street map. I may look for an isolated park and practise playing the harmonica. I'll try not to get my lips frozen to its metallic playing surface.
posted by James 9:25 am