Exhausted

This week I started a new job. Yay. :-)

Little bit of background.. I came to Belgium and since there wasn't a lot I could do considering I didn't speak a word of Dutch, I started as a cleaning lady. I cleaned people's houses and did the ironing. The point was to stop doing that after a while and find something else that would earn more but... After 5 years I was still doing it ! Okay that sounds crazy to you, why would I do that when I could speak almost fluent Dutch after 1,5 years already? Well firstly because I liked my job a lot. I also met nice people (mostly), I was free to do my job, I was good at it, I got presents and I was appreciated. All those reasons were valid but the biggest reason was of course because I was still studying and with that job I was totally free to choose my hours. 

But anyway, a few weeks ago I decided to look for another job for the summer since I'd have to stop anyway before the fall cuz of my internship. Well I had a few calls where they offered me a full time job but since I still follow lessons at school I could only do part-time. Now two weeks ago they called me that I could be a temporary replacement of the assistant accountant for the summer while they look for someone full time for that job. BUT... I'd have to start right away. Actually during that whole week they kept calling me back to arrange for a meeting with the boss of the company, my head was going around and around. I was honestly really scared, what if they would choose me ? Then I'd have to quit my safety net, my safe zone, my job that I actually like ?? Well I can't be a cleaning lady forever, I understand that, but that I'd have to do it so quickly.... I had my doubts but decided to do it one day at a time and panic about it IF they would choose me.

They did. 

Panic.

I quit my job the same day but my term of notice is 2 weeks so I obviously had to do it first before I could start the new job. It was so sad at times when I realised it was the last time I'd see the children that I saw grow up for the past 5 years. But of course I was realistic, it had to happen one day that I would stop and take the next step in my life. 

This week I took that step. Exhausting. I thought working in an office is like sitting around all day, drinking coffee, browsing the Internet, doing some paperwork and then going home. That's my idea of that. Well it's all that but add a huge amount of stress and yapping and annoying colleagues and you've got it ! Okay I am exaggerating it a little bit. It's not that bad. At my work there's about 13 people working in that office. Some salesmen, engineers, managers, the finance (us !) and marketing. It's very relaxed there, it's just a small office.

It was a crazy week, as I already told above I am just a temp so I didn't even think anything else about that. But this week I already had a meeting with the senior accountant, the office manager and the general manager about the possibility of staying there and becoming the full time assistant accountant !!! Okay one step at a time again and we will see what happens later on, it was after all just my first week.

Boy am I glad that I have 4 days free now to clear out my head, focus on fun stuff and celebrate that I survived my first week !!!!! :-)

Here's some pictures of the few presents I received. (the other one is a design fruit bowl)