Hey!

Oops… It’s been a while again. I know I should have been written earlier, but I have pretty good excuses.

My  teacher Sari was here last Friday with her husband. They arrived 11th of November and came to my workplace almost directly. I had a morning shift at the time, so Jennifer Seib (Human Resources Trainee) and Sari picked me up from the kitchen to the hotel tour with them. I had had the tour twice already, but it was still nice to get that tour for the third time. And especially because this time I got to speak Finnish after a long time! Sari, her husband and I arranged the meeting to Sky Lounge after my shift and then we met there.

After the tour I went back to the kitchen to finish my tasks.

In the evening we met at Sky Lounge and discussed what to do next. The decision was (of course): food. So we ended up to some restaurant and ate pizza.

On Saturday Sari came to work to the hotel’s kitchen with me. To be honest: it was really nice but at the same time very strange 😀 But that’s only because I’ve used to be the only Finnish in the hotel and speak English continuously, and suddenly I got a chance to speak my language again and someone still understood what I said. It was so funny when my workmates asked if I really speak Finnish because it reputedly sounded so weird and they also wondered how we pronounce all the words and especially the consonants. But I’ve also questioned Dutch, because there are a lot of rough ”throat sounds” that I just simply can’t pronounce. And yes, I’ve tried to do that!

On Sunday we had a day off so that meant only one thing. A tourist day! First we went to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum – and that was really worth visiting. Those wax figures took us to their world and we took so many selfies and pictures with them.

After Madame Tussauds we got several options. Maybe Canal Cruise, maybe Anne Frank’s House? First, however, we decided to go eat.

We passed Anne Frank’s House but there was 200-300 meters long queue so we decided not to go there. Instead of that we walked to Magna Plaza which is a big shopping mall. There was a complete Christmas inside the building. After Magna Plaza we went to Kalverstraat, where I had shopped before.

On Monday we went to Heerhugowaard’s Horizon College. We met Jeroen after a long time and he showed the school to us.

We had a freedom to go in the school how we liked and also participate to the classes.

We ate lunch in the school’s student restaurant, where cook students did our dishes and waiter/waitress students served them. The food was very good.

The plan was that after visiting Horizon College we would go to Alkmaar, because I live there and I’d have shown the center and all the cool places but the pouring rain surprised us, so we said our goodbyes already in the train.

So Sari and her husband left on Tuesday afternoon 15th of November. Those five days were really amazing and I’m glad that they came here. Sometimes during their visit I noticed that I spoke English to Sari and Finnish to my workmates by accident 😀

And the second excuse! I’ve got only one day off (Wednesday) after Sari left and all the other days I’ve just worked in the kitchen.  So on Wednesday I went to the Alkmaar City Hall to get a BSN letter to my workplace. It’s kind of the same thing as in Finland we have an income-tax card. Otherwise if I don’t have the BSN letter, I have to pay 50% taxes from my payment. But of course no one told me that I have to make an appointment to the City Hall… So I’m going to take a new try on the next Wednesday with an appointment! Let’s see what happens.

I’ve been working couple days in Sky Lounge this week and I really liked it, because I got to assemble and also make all those new dishes. Chef taught almost everything to me and that was really great. Next week – and actually tomorrow – I have new tasks and new things to learn again.

I have now six workdays in a row (4 of them behind, 2 of them left), but that’s okay. I’m not tired at all (yet :D) because that work is just so nice and the people are really kind.

Many times I’ve been asked to speak some Finnish and I’ve also learned some Dutch words. My friend Jerry also taught me some Dutch swear words and my workmates have asked Finnish swear words from me too :’D

I’m so happy here because I can be myself and I don’t have to pretend anything. I can laugh and make jokes with others. I’m part of the team and I love that. This really is the best time of my life so far.  Five weeks behind, three weeks left and the sixth week starts tomorrow!

Until next time,

Sirpa