Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category

Weekend is here again. I slept till about 10 today. It was the best rest I had all week. Now that I’ve regain most of my energy, it is time to do some recollection.

I’m rechecking all my blogs – time to revamp and rethink about the contents. I hope after all that I would still have time to re-evaluate my Japanese self-study program. I’ve been slacking since Christmas holiday as workload has increased at the daycare and at home. I’m feeling tired every day.

I love my job but God knows how much I miss having plenty of time to do all the things I want.  Weekends are indeed precious times these days.

After a long break from watching animes or from watching anything else for that matter, for the past two days it was sort of a release. I watched all 26 episodes of ‘Busou Renkin’ and continued with ‘Witch Hunter Robin’. With all the cool anime websites around, at least I don’t have to figure out how to download youtube videos to watch for later this time.

I could catch Japanese phrases or words I understand. Feels good that at least there is some improvement even though my Japanese studies are going real slow as I am trying to learn in between work, home and family.

It is usually when the weather is cold and gray that I reminisce about the days when I was back home where it is either raining and chilly or dry and hot. I tend to get a little homesick sometimes regardless  of how many times I denied it when ever someone asked me the question of being homesick. Seems to me that if I said yes, the feeling would just get worse, so it was better to just lie.

In fact, if I feel the homesickness is a little unbearable, I would simply give a call back home. It is nice to hear familiar voices that you miss so much. Calls are cheaper these days, if only the signals are better. I think in one call session, I would be disconnected at least 2-3 times. Just made me think of getting a wilson booster for cellullar signal amplifier. Oh well, an interrupted call is better than no call at all right?

With the temperature outside being really cold and dark right now, I really wish I am back home where it is warm and sunny.

We had our Christmas dinner and gift exchange session with the in laws on Christmas eve. After the dinner, we spent a quite evening playing ‘Mancala’ and ‘Labrinth’. Our 6 year old was the happiest I suppose. She received at least 8 or 9 gifts last evening. For a 6 year old, that is overwhelming. She was so excited and it was a gift in itself to see her smiling and laughing and jumping with joy.

I gave her a little radio/mp3/cdplayer and a bottle of child perfume. Those were last minute gifts as I really had a little trouble finding her something. Especially with a limited budget. She likes them though and I’m glad. I was thinking of getting her a music instrument that she can start learn to play. A guitar or a violin or even a flute – I saw on an online store where they are selling a gemeinhardt 2sp flute at more than 50% discount at the moment. But since we don’t think she is ready for it yet maybe next time. Music lesson is indeed in our next agenda for her.

As for the adults, we only had one simple gift each – either chocolate, wine or biscuits. We’ve already informed each other that it should be a minimalist sort of Christmas for the adults. After all, it is not really the gifts that matters in this special holiday but the feeling of togetherness. In the end we all enjoyed ourselves. Tomorrow we will be visiting more relatives.

Have a Merry Christmas and may the New Year bring joy and prosperity!

The problem working with local employers sometimes is that they do not like to follow ther rules when it comes to employing people. Or they take it for granted. They think that people are desperate enough for work that they can do anything they like thinking that employees won’t leave. Well, that is true here I know.  Not only speaking for myself but also for my previous colleagues whom I worked with before.

I love working in kindergartens and daycares but my morale is pretty low right now following the knowledge that my current employer was trying to cheat me on no paying my healthcare and tax – I still doubt that they pay even now. For that, I am not going to linger if I can help it. If I had the money I’d venture on my own, be it selling eyelash growth products online or open my own daycare! Well, but the thing is, I’ve no money to go on my own. But at least I can really try to look for a different job. I’m trying to go for multinational companies this time. I am not sure whether they are better than local employers, but from what I heard from friends and acquaintance, at least they do things professionally.

So yes, I’m going throught the job search all over again now. But I am much more determined after getting 2 employers that lack in credibility. God help me. I really need an employer who has  integrity and believes in fairness.

I went out with a friend today. She wanted to watch the 3 musketeers so I accompanied her. The movie was oookaayy… but not that good in my opinion. To me cool effects doesn’t mean a movie is good. Just okay. The storyline is too simple and predictable.

After movie we had lunch and did some shopping. I wanted to get some Fimo clay. Though we started out carrying a few things at the hobby shop, but ended up buying not even half of what we picked up because they had a little problem with their POS system as they could not key in the prices of some merchandise. Too bad really.

I was out with the friend for nearly 6 hours. The feeling of being single – child at her grandmother’s and husband at work. It felt good.

It has been rather foggy today after the storm we had last evening. A pretty scary storm it was, especially when you are living on top of a hill on the top floor of a 4 floor apartment building. Well, the howling of the wind and watching how the trees swayed wildly was scary. I’m just glad there no thunder or lightning.

Other than that, it was not such a bad day. I was at home half of the day, then later had to buy something for the daycare and tutor in the evening. The other half was a home too. He has been staying home for nearly a week now since he lost his job. Well, the company had no money. So he has been looking for a new job. There is a job prospect as his ex-boss recommended him to another company. So fingers crossed for him. We all hope that he would find a job soon as there are bills to be paid and car needs to repair – back light has to be repaired but the shop didn’t know how much they would charge us just yet. Wish they had an auto shop software that they can give an estimation immediately. What ever it is, my salary is simply not enough to pay all. It would be help but still won’t be enough.

I hope tomorrow would be a brighter day and that we would get some sort of good news.

After 2 months of searching, 3 interviews, I found a new place to work at. A daycare that just started up. I need to travel at least 1 hour to work and an hour back. But I only work 3 days a week. For now at least. The salary is low for now, but will increase when I work more than 3 days a week and again after 3 months probation and completion of daycare management course and health check up. Even so the salary isn’t that good in general, not that I can even buy Polaris Ranger Accessories with my monthly salary. As an American friend said, Hungary is not really a place to make money but is a good place to spend it. It is true. So many things to do and see and spend money on – museums, events, clubs,  concerts – but the average salary is quite low by European standards I think.

Anyway, at the daycare we have 3 children. They only been there for less than a month. The routine is simple everyday. They arrive between 8:30 a.m to 9 a.m. I have to prepare and give them morning snacks at 9. Then they can have a little freetime play. At 9:30 a.m, either I or another teacher will have to conduct the circle time. At 10 a.m it is eating fruits time, then  we go to the park. Be there for an hour or an hour and 15 minutes. 11.30 is lunch time, and 12 they go for nap. At around 2:30 they got up and a little snacks and free play. Parents come between 3 – 4 p.m.

That is pretty straight forward. I love this job. I can only wish that they pay more.

The internet has become such an important component in many peoples’ lives that it would be really hard to live without a good connection. I recall the days when we had to dial on to the internet and it would take ages just to connect, and slow loading of pages is not something uncommon. Yet we thought that was good enough.

Now that sort of connection would be unbearable. Exactly the sort of feeling I’m going through now. I’m only using my mobile phone as a modem to connect to the internet. Though it is extremely slow, but it is keeping me sane. We just moved to our new place, and there is no wifi internet yet. So I’m pretty much dependent on my mobile internet. I am thankful I got it. Though tomorrow the people are coming over to connect the internet. Too good to be true, but we still hope it is true. Compared to the current connection, browsing with wifi connection would be like driving a car with extremely good auto wheels – smooth.

Hopefully will be updating my blog with a better connection soon!

After weeks of living with boxes and luggages, we finally got the key to the new apartment today. So tomorrow or the day after we will be sending some of the things over to the new place.  Most of the stuff that we won’t be needing now at least. Books, some of the clothes, pots and pans, soft toys and my printer  that will be stored up – it is Hewlett packard’s region 2 printer that I need to order original hewlett packard toner cartridges from the US or SouthEast Asia. So won’t be using that printer for a while.

Tomorrow is public holiday here. So most probably they will close the bridge due to the firework show at night. So may not be able to do everything tomorrow.  What ever it is, I am glad that finally there is some moving to do.