Nashie's journey

 Récap. de mes 2 premières semaines :

Job = L    Flat = L   Nashie = J

Je suis arrivée à Edimbourg un matin ensoleillé d’avril (02-04-12). Quel beau début n’est-ce pas ?

J’ai pris le train pour Airdrie et tante Jackie est venue me chercher à la gare. Entre-temps le soleil avait fait place à la pluie (pour ne pas dire la drache).

J’ai passé 2 jours chez  Granny(1) ( Chapelhall , petit village dans la région nord de Lanarkshire).  J’ai été accueillie chaleureusement par granny et tante Jackie.  It really feels like home. 

Thanks Granny J

(1)    Granny=grand-mère. Il s’agit de ma grand-mère d’adoption; lorsque j’avais 4 ans, mes parents ont divorcé et papa a épousé une Écossaise (=Mum2).

Ik heb dan 5 dagen in Pitlochry doorgebracht om van de verbluffende landschappen en magische sfeer te mogen genieten. Ik heb voor een paar jobs gesolliciteerd – zonder succes (gids bij Blair Atholl / receptionist in een hotel / bediende in een tea room):  ofwel hadden ze niemand nodig ofwel was het net te vroeg (toeristisch seizoen pas begonnen).

Ik heb in een jeugdherberg gelogeerd (waar ik eerder al gelogeerd heb) en ik  raad ze  100% aan : het personeel  (Jack en Ryan) is super aangenaam en always ready for a good chat, de sfeer heel leuk en alles is er  super clean.  Meer info op http://pitlochrybackpackershotel.com/ (kan geboekt worden via hostelworld)

 view from Pitlochry on the Cairngorms 

I went then to Edinburgh where I stayed an entire week.  I had 2 appointments with recruitment agencies. They were both interested in my languages as they were looking for people to work in call centres.  I told them I wasn’t looking for that kind of job right now but I might consider it later (just for the record: salary proposed for call centre advisor with more than one language = less than 1000£/month which is pretty much what I earned in a call centre 14 years ago in Belgium!).

I also gave my CV to a few shops on the Royal Mile à still waiting for an answer.

I registered on both Edinburgh council and university websites and applied for a few roles. Unfortunately they don’t accept free applications (you need to apply for a job available on the website) à still waiting

It seems that the job process takes some time.  Most of the job applications have a start date (when the role is open) and end date (when it’s no longer possible to apply for). After the end date, there could be several weeks before receiving a response (in case you have been selected) and only then starts the interview process à it can take some time as well…

In the meantime I had registered to a few Meetups in Edinburgh (= different gathering groups in a city with a subject in common).  I joined the Edinburgh Walking and Travel Group and the Meetup Edimbourg français.  The meetup Edinburgh Walking and Travel Group had organized a walk on sunday  morning where I met a few nice people. It’s a really great way to meet new people. I truly recommend joining one of these meetups to socialize with people with the same interests.

Meetup group walking on Carlton hill

Puisque je n’ai trouvé ni flat ni job, j’ai décidé de retourner une semaine chez Granny.

Quel est le planning de la semaine :

Passer du temps avec  la famille, me balader,  lire (thanks granny for the great detective books) et écrire (le blog etc … (et oui Fay je pense à tes 240 pages… J) et surtout BRICOLER (j’ai fait des cartes car il y a quelques anniversaires qui arrivent bientôt - je les publierai au fur et à mesure que je les envoie à leurs destinataires J). Je suis tellement contente d’avoir consacré la moitié de mes bagages à mon matériel de bricolage.

Speaking of crafts: I will attend the Sincerely Yours Paper craft show on April 21st in Edinburgh.

I really look forward to it. I wonder how those kinds of fairs look like over here ?  I know they love crafts in general, so I’m sure it’ll be great.

My plans for the coming weeks:

Appointment with Job Centre on 21-04 to get a national insurance nr (necessary when you work in order to pay taxes)

Work in an orchard for 2 weeks:  I registered myself on Wwoof UK and I will be helping in an orchard in Bankfoot (near Perth) from April 22^nd till…  More info in the next posts

What about the weather?

The weather was pretty much the same during the 2 weeks:  CHANGING =  cloudy /rainy/sunny/snowy

À bientôt