And then what?

soooooow... it has been a little while since I made an attempt on starting a new entry here on sounds. I have not come much further with that one because, you know, things happen.

I have been settling in a bit in my new room (for the ones that also check my facebook page.. yes the photos of a thin matress on a marble floor that you see there is my current bed; but I folded the red matress once so that it added one extra layer...) but I pretty much live out of my suitcase still. I have a cupboard, but I'd have to clean it and this works just as good.

The last couple of days have been rather tough. On thursdaymorning I got some serious belly trouble that lasted well until friday. I think it came from some rice I snacked out of the fridge instead of reheating it first.. Then I thought I'd cleared my belly with a diet of boiled water, bananas and oat-porridge/soup on saturdaynight. But alas, when we went out to friends of my flatmates' and had food ordered I was again sitting on the toilet at night. Obviously, no fun.

On friday I had my first day "at work", this time in the DARAM store. Here I got a look at the fabrics and ready-made garments and I chatted a little bit with the staff and some customers. This was quite an experience. I had to get to understand what DARAM is about and how its organisation works (albeit in a very general sense). But my colleagues knew only little English, some even none. This is a challenge ;) When there were no customers I tried to help out with the maintenance of order in the shop; putting clothes back in the displays, labelling some Salwars (megawide pants) and I sorted the bills of the last month. Whenever customers came in of whom I suspected they could speak English (or who spoke English to eachother) I tried to find out a bit why they'd come; what attracted them to this store as opposed to others. One elderly lady threw a couple of life lessons in her answer as well ;)
But many were not interested in talking to me, or at least that was the impression they left.

Today I was supposed to go to the old city centre and visit some of the city's highlights, but I ended up staying at home because my flatmates had to work.. again. That was day 7/7. I really hope my work is not going to develop into such a working pattern!

And, well, other than the general not-so-comfyness of the place where I sleep, my belly (which seems fine now, btw), and the nervracking yelling of street vendors (will add that to the list shortly), we are having some serious internet issues here at home. So I do not know if I'll be online a lot in the evenings. But there's internet in the office, so I might just use that for other purposes sometimes than doing research ;)

hmm.. Quite many of you have been asking how I've been doing. I hope you got a bit more of an idea how the last days have been. But, hopefully, life will become even more interesting as of tomorrow, when the "real work" will start.

My sister said this morning: 15 weeks before you come home. I'd say: lets make the best of them ^^