Work work work...

It's Thursday already! One week ago today I arrived here :) Well, minus some hours and minus some sleep :) It went by quite fast because of all the new experiences, I haven't had a moment to be bored yet!

Monday I started working at my placement company. After a quick tour of the building and meeting the staff (they're all very friendly and witty, they seem a lot less distant than the Dutch do) I was sat down at my desk and told to start checking texts. I was a little confused as to what was actually expected of me, because I didn't even understand the system I was working with and hadn't been shown any of the programmes that I was supposed to be using. I was given the first chapter of a big, boring Norwegian book about the sea and coordinates and vessels and more boring stuff. Even though the material itself is quite uninteresting, the task of checking does seem to suit me! I kind of like comparing the English translation with the Norwegian source text and making changes in the translation (sometimes rather big mistakes, such as entirely different coordinates which could have resulted in someone getting completely lost at sea). After working there for a couple of days I've kind of gotten the hang of it, even though obviously there is a lot I still have to check (ha ha, very punny). Aside from the Norwegian monster book I've also been given some small projects to check, about 3-4 a day. These texts are usually Dutch to English or English to Dutch, some are even in Spanish (yay!) and a couple of them are in the most random languages like Chinese or Hindi. Anyways, I really like my work so far and even though I have to work quite hard and sometimes get a bit sloppy to be able to make the deadline, I do hope they keep giving me a lot of projects. After I had heard from previous students that they'd just been told to bring a book to work if there was no work for them to do, I was a bit anxious. But right now I can't keep up so I guess that's good :) 

I didn't do much outside of work this week, but I did have a Malaysian-themed dinner party with some locals and a colleague yesterday, which was really good and a lot of fun and of course we made waaaaaay too much food. I made a spicy sweet mango salad (which is an excellent lunch the day after as well). 

The last Monday of August is a bank holiday in the UK, so I'll have the day off then. Apparently it's this big tradition at work to have Fish & Chips Friday before bank holiday Monday, so I guess I'll HAVE to participate... The things I'll do for my education...