I'm still looking for work, it's harder than I expected, the job market has less of the types of jobs I could easily do and being that bit older, I am less employable in a job market geared towards graduates.
It's never been a breeze to find work for me anyway, I don't have a degree, which has always held me back. Plus of course, the language barrier. I got told today that even though my spoken dutch was good, it wasn't up to call centre standard - I thought that was a bit much knowing some of the calls I've had to call centre staff - the job was a call centre for a national service as oppose to an IT product, which I guess makes all the difference. In my experience, the service you offer is as much in the listening as to the speaking if you really want to offer a good service.
Today I've applied for jobs delivering post, working in a supermarket and being an assistant shop manager in a phone shop. I'd be happy with any of them, although the first is only part time.
Last week I applied for a job as a teaching assistant at the ISU (International School Utrecht) it would be right up my street. My Mum's said she will put in a good word for me too, I don't know at this stage how far into the solicitation process they are so I have no idea if my chances are real. The cat is still alive until I open the box, so to speak.
We met a mum with a baby and a boy who looked about five in the lift this morning, they live on the 7th floor. I got Reuben to repeat in Dutch "welke verdieping wonen jullie?" and "wij wonen op de 4de verdieping". His pronunciation was really good.
We dropped the boys off for their second day at their new school, they are enjoying the ride to school. I must say even during rush hour, the traffic is so much better managed, we ride along the inner ring for about 2/3 of the journey, through at least half a dozen sets of dedicated lights. It's stress free and straight forward, there are plenty of riders around us, from other kids with parents, to blokes on road bikes in Lycra who silently speed away past us once the lights change.
Both boys have been moved up a class, the teachers needed to assess which class would best suit, based on their age, size and ability. They are now up a class and we shall see how they get on. Leon looked happier, all the kids were almost exactly the same height but you can guess based on their geographical DNA, that the ages were going to vary, as each kid was at the very least from a different continent to the kid standing next to him. I'll be interested to hear today at pick up what Leon has learnt about his class mates.
