Friday, October 19, 2007

Bo(red) and 2 hours from Weekend

Right now I'm sitting in the office I intern at, doing relatively nothing. I've finished the top three things they wanted me to do while they were gone in London (oh yeah, I should mention that--they went to London for a thing and I stayed here to babysit the office and plants). I've spent so much time staring at the director's computer screen that I'm getting sick to my stomach, my vision is swimming, etc. I had to send out individual emails to each member, asking them to double check the contact information on the website (which I corrected if it was wrong or needed updating) and asking them when their birthdays were (so they can, in the future, receive birthday greetings. Some people were happy someone asked when their birthday was (ex: "P.S. does this mean I'll get a present?") while others weren't pleased at all (ex: "...this is a personal matter. Please respect my wishes." etc.).

Then I got to call EVERY SINGLE foreign embassy in Riga to ask for the ambassadors' personal contact info for future invites. Wow. That was...interesting. I had my speech so memorized that I literally stopped thinking about WHAT I was saying and started listening to HOW it sounded. It was an interesting skill to put to use, I guess, listening to yourself talk. I even got to speak to the personal assistant of the German Ambassador--in German. We started out in English, but then I decided to switch and she goes, "Oh, you speak German." and continued in German. I was so excited that I got to speak German again that my hands were shaking when I put down the phone.

I also had to update the website, check it for grammatical errors and so on. That was easy.

The last task I'm saving for Monday, otherwise I'll have to sit here alone again with nothing to do. Luckily, yesterday, a relative passed on another translation job to me--this one was a booklet on Development Cooperation (big UN and EU aid effort thing) that was supposed to be done by Wednesday, but somehow wasn't. So at 3 P.M. on Thursday I get a call, take on the job, promise it will be done by noon today (Friday). But after work I had English lessons again, and there's always traffic to consider.

Can anyone guess how many hours of sleep I DIDN'T get last night? I'm not exhausted yet, but I'm toying with the idea of curling up in a corner on the floor and taking a quick nap.

But the booklet (6 pages plus last minute search-and-find revisions courtesy of the organization) is finished and sent off, I feel pretty good about it, I guess. They can always cross check the information on all of the English language websites listed in the booklet. Kaija's rolling in the money, it seems. This week I was paid for last week's and this week's English lessons, plus one conversation workshop lesson--a total of...36LVL, which in a way is just like $36, but is actually more like $72. SHAZAM! It definitely pays to make some money here and then convert it to $$ later, if necessary. These puppies are going to the bank, though. But, oh, goodie, I have some kind of income!

Since I didn't get a day of at all this week, I'm hoping I can convince them to let me take at least 1.5 days off next week. Especially Friday. Because there's a concert I'm going to. Yes, going to, I've made up my mind. But this weekend will be absolute relaxation weekend. No grocery shopping (unless absolutely unavoidable, which I don't think it will be), no other stuff shopping, no nothing. Sleep and books and sleep.

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