The Deathly Hallows

A milestone. Paula and I have just finished reading the Deathly Hallows. All I can really say is: wow.

New job.

Well, I've spent a week and a half at Capgemini now. Very busy days. I don't foresee a lot of web-surfing and goofing off since there is almost always something to do.

For the most part I like the people I work with - some more than others, of course - and it's great being able to see Paula more often. We almost always go to work together, eat together and go home together. Tomorrow will be an exception and I don't know about Friday...

Not much else to say, really. We're workin'. When we get home we play on the computers until 2-3am and then hit the hay. It's awesome, really.

New job?

I've been intentionally quiet for a few days and quiet in general about my change of jobs. So here goes.

I've not been really happy with ESCS - being an English teacher - for quite awhile. Excuse me while I go into it a bit:

- When I first was starting I got virtually no support from Matt. That really ticked me off because I wasn't working with any other teachers, either. At the same time Matt was always ready to kind of criticize me or offer teaching techniques that would address a very specific, small problem but not any of the overall problems.

- In this last year I definitely started taking the job a lot less seriously because, basically, the students had never taken it seriously. It's hard for me to get fired up all the time when the students so rarely do.

- The situation with the building where we worked. I had the keys on and off. Sometimes I could stay late to work on lesson plans, other times I had someone waiting impatiently for me to leave the building. Sometimes I had to sit on the stoop next door and wait for someone to let me in. Often had to sit in reception while a class was going on. That sort of thing.

- A big thing was the hours. They were always, always changing. Each week, usually, something would change. Often they'd have me come in early in the morning for a class and late in the afternoon for a class. The schedule was often set up so that Paula and I would hardly see each other in the day. I'd get called in randomly, shit like that. I hate that sort of thing.

- Little things like the fact that I never got the pay raise that Matt told me I'd get ...how Beata always unplugged the power strip I used so I'd have to reach behind the cabinet and plug it back in ...just little irritating things like that.

So, moving on to Capgemini.

- I think close to two months ago now Paula talked me into applying for some IT job. I didn't really know anything about it but Capgemini called me and asked me to come in for an interview. I didn't really feel great about this job but I went in anyway. The interview didn't really go that well - the requirements were way beyond what was indicated on my CV which ticked me off a bit. They said they'd call me in two weeks. They never - ever - did call me about that job. Paula had to check in with HR a few times and finally with the guy that interviewed me only to find out that the position had been eliminated or the job requirements had drastically changed.

- I finally got Paula to get someone from "credit collections" - the job I originally wanted because the hours are so good (1430 - 2300) and it's just plain easy. I should be able to move up quickly. Anyway I did the first interview which seemed to go well. A few weeks went by and, as promised, I was called back and asked for a second interview yesterday. Paula happened to meet with both people involved in yesterday's interview, today, and it turns out that they have asked HR to offer me a position.

So, hopefully I'll be starting soon. I guess I'll be calling people and nicely asking them to pay up. Shouldn't be too bad and a good way to get my foot in the door. We'll see what happens but, at this point, I feel confident enough about the job to mention it here.

Gratitude

Ok, it's been almost a week. There's a good reason, though.

Well, I dunno what happened on Wednesday. Maybe I was busy, wrapping things up at ESCS. Thursday I was for sure.

Thursday night Paula and I drove to Belchatow and slept at her parents' for the night. Friday morning we drove to the Heineken Open'er festival in Gdynia. We set up the tent and checked the place out. Bought some shirts. Saw most of The Roots' show. Saturday we foraged for food, had digestive and poop issues and saw the entire Groove Armada and Beastie Boys' shows. GA was good. Beastie Boys' ...well even if it sucked it would have been great, and it was fuckin' awesome which means it was mind-wreckingly amazing. I have never been to a better concert. We caught a tiny bit of the Muse after getting food/drinks.

In between a lot of that it rained on and off which turned the already infirm-in-the-face-of-60,000-people grounds into basically a big mud hole. That is not so very bad when you are just walking around and a bit drunk. This is, however, far more of a concern if you drove there and want to leave sometime before the next festival in 2008. Sunday morning I was already a bit worried so we asked people at the info kiosk about getting out. They basically said "good luck." I walked around the grounds - there were now several places people could get out because some industrious fans had dismantled parts of the gates/walls, but still difficult. Finally I saw a free opening and fairly good lines, so I immediately went for it. We drove through most of the mess very quickly and in 2nd gear - the only way to drive through mud in a FWD car - and made it to the edge of the grounds but not in a "legal" area. We packed up our stuff and got out early, sadly missing the 2nd/last Beastie Boys show (instrumental). We did see their main show though, obviously.

We didn't take our cameras since we didn't think they'd be allowed in. Of course, security was tight but not that tight nor that vigilant. So, here are some photos other people took of the festival. There are photos on the festival web site but it's all in flash so it's impossible to link to them.

Sunday we drove back, listening to The Mix-Up by the Beastie Boys three or four times. It's quite good, really. We stopped in Belchatow again to shower and eat some of Paula's parents' food and then continued on our way. We finally got home around 1am, today, Monday.

It was expensive and tiring but very worth it. We'll consider going again next year if there are decent artists lined up.