Wednesday, May 23, 2007
4:30 a.m.
I don't know why, but I woke up at 4:30 this morning. I just had some things on my mind, and I guess I'm not very tired anymore so ...here I am! What better way to get back to blogging!?!
It's May. I haven't posted for almost 2 months. I don't even know where to begin.
First, I quit the driving/nanny job with Tom at the end of April. My goodness--am I happy to be out of there!!!
Second, I moved to Newton Center, a wealthy suburb of Boston well connected to the city by trains. I live in a great house with three roommates and my boyfriend, Talgat. The whole house is Khazah, except me. It's been great living here, and I really appreciate them letting me move in on short notice, but I continued looking for my own place and found one in Allston just blocks from where I work. I will be moving ...again, June 1st. Actually, I am looking forward to it. I don't like not having my own place--I think I need the independence.
Third, work is going great. I am busy all day, every day. I love my most immediate co-worker. Her name is Tayna and she is just 19-years-old, but we get along great and that is the most important thing because we spend the whole day together! She is easy-going, mature, and a really hard worker. I know that finding co-workers you like is invaluable, so I feel lucky.
Unfortunately, in the last month I realize that I was not trained well. In fact, the training for this job was horrible. Basically they guided me through the first week very well, and then let me loose completely. No one had time to spend with me, and I knew enough to do a few things so I just did as I had been taught. I learned how to pour a foundation, then no one stuck around to help me build the house.
Needless to day, the next month of "learn from your mistakes training" was terrible and I spent a lot of my day re-doing work that I had done wrong. I got pretty frustrated because often I had to call students asking them to bring back contacts, receipts, and other paperwork that I had send them off with because there was a tiny error. It was humiliating and one day, after having to call back three people right in a row for very small but different errors in the way I made a receipt, I got upset at my supervisor, Caroline, saying, "How can you expect me to know things you haven't taught me?" She understood my situation and I got at least a little more guidance throughout the day.
Now, because Caroline is on vacation for the month of May, our technology-guy Alex just got a new job and left the company, and our director is usually at the hospital with her step-father, it is just Tayna and I running the business most the week. Tayna just started in February, so I think we're pretty amazing.
I have other news, like I joined a Japanese softball team and we are pretty good. I have started learning Turkish and Russian, but I'm giving up on Russian because no body is helpful in teaching me. I'm still teaching English privately a few days a week, but I'd really like to get out of that business. Recently I had married man ask me to be his girlfriend---you know, the same old stuff.
I'm going to try closing my eyes for another 30 minutes before it's too late. Hey, stop in again soon, maybe I'll have some pictures to share!
It's May. I haven't posted for almost 2 months. I don't even know where to begin.
First, I quit the driving/nanny job with Tom at the end of April. My goodness--am I happy to be out of there!!!
Second, I moved to Newton Center, a wealthy suburb of Boston well connected to the city by trains. I live in a great house with three roommates and my boyfriend, Talgat. The whole house is Khazah, except me. It's been great living here, and I really appreciate them letting me move in on short notice, but I continued looking for my own place and found one in Allston just blocks from where I work. I will be moving ...again, June 1st. Actually, I am looking forward to it. I don't like not having my own place--I think I need the independence.
Third, work is going great. I am busy all day, every day. I love my most immediate co-worker. Her name is Tayna and she is just 19-years-old, but we get along great and that is the most important thing because we spend the whole day together! She is easy-going, mature, and a really hard worker. I know that finding co-workers you like is invaluable, so I feel lucky.
Unfortunately, in the last month I realize that I was not trained well. In fact, the training for this job was horrible. Basically they guided me through the first week very well, and then let me loose completely. No one had time to spend with me, and I knew enough to do a few things so I just did as I had been taught. I learned how to pour a foundation, then no one stuck around to help me build the house.
Needless to day, the next month of "learn from your mistakes training" was terrible and I spent a lot of my day re-doing work that I had done wrong. I got pretty frustrated because often I had to call students asking them to bring back contacts, receipts, and other paperwork that I had send them off with because there was a tiny error. It was humiliating and one day, after having to call back three people right in a row for very small but different errors in the way I made a receipt, I got upset at my supervisor, Caroline, saying, "How can you expect me to know things you haven't taught me?" She understood my situation and I got at least a little more guidance throughout the day.
Now, because Caroline is on vacation for the month of May, our technology-guy Alex just got a new job and left the company, and our director is usually at the hospital with her step-father, it is just Tayna and I running the business most the week. Tayna just started in February, so I think we're pretty amazing.
I have other news, like I joined a Japanese softball team and we are pretty good. I have started learning Turkish and Russian, but I'm giving up on Russian because no body is helpful in teaching me. I'm still teaching English privately a few days a week, but I'd really like to get out of that business. Recently I had married man ask me to be his girlfriend---you know, the same old stuff.
I'm going to try closing my eyes for another 30 minutes before it's too late. Hey, stop in again soon, maybe I'll have some pictures to share!
