A Normal Day At The Office

Okay, I got through my first week at the 'new office'. Yes, because I have never ever mentioned the places where I work by name and I don't have intention to change this now.  But it is a very nice kind of exotic spot to have my office at. But being a newbie at such a place is sometimes hard work.

This week was quite intense and also there were a few moments that I did wonder if this was just week 1 or that we perhaps already had got to week 15!  Being a newbie means that the first week seems to last an eterinity or at least that what the sensation is.  Now being sunny Saturday I feel for sure what I have been through this week. My body tells me that it is exhausted. Not that I did not expected that to happen.  Because going back to work after 2 months of summer is like detox in a way.  Painful and rather hard!  Just this year it was just a bit harder.

I do feel at home where I am now and I already had some very nice moments with pupils.
I am still the same Stallie if it comes down to finding my way around and I did stumble almost over a chair just the moment before going on to stage during general assembly.  Everybody has seen me you can be sure about that.  Then there is my accent that for sure gives me away. It also confuses a few people. 'You are not Belgian. You are Dutch.'  'No, I am Belgian but I was born close to the border with the Netherlands so that is what you might pick up. I am a border-child so to speak!'

So right now I am in the middle of the process of deleting info that I needed daily in my previous job and replacing it by new data.  This causes me headaches and when I get home it even feels like I got hit by truck.  Just very little things like:
-where is the closest toilet you can run to when you need to go
-what paper do I need to fill out when I am in need of  paperclips
-where do I find a list of all the new pupils with pictures because I need to remember all the names of upper Primary in a record time.
-what to wear now that denim jeans is something that I need to ignore and need to follow a more businesslike dress code.
- swapping languages constantly and not trying to mix up words when you speak or teach.
-how to put my lunchmoney on my ID-badge in order to obtain food in the school cafetaria.
-what button to push of a copy machine after being 14 years not been allowed close to one.
-what the meaning is of many abreviations or words are.  
-who is who and still mixing up names or not even being able to remember the most of those by lunch time.
-trying to remember where I have left one of my personal belongings after being all over campus. I seriously thinking about labelling all my personal things just like my pupils.
- keeping up with S, who is a linguestic miracle with her knowledge of 7 languages and impresses me daily with her teaching style.  She is one of a kind person and I love her already to bits for the energy and the inspiration that is pouring out of her. 
-getting used to working on a qwerty-keyboard between office hours.  I am very sorry in case that you get a message of me with many spelling mistakes but chances are then that I then am mixing up keyboards.
-getting to be used being called by my first name by all people at work, including the pupils I work with.
-singing and dancing being part of your lesson plan and trying to take yourself serious.
-etc

I guess you are getting the picture here and that I need some time to get my head around these things and that the list first will be come first even longer before I can tick off a few of them. But I guess I better the devil I know because they are all essential in order to get through a normal day at the office. The singing and the dancing I do for the moment consider the hardest! Not kidding!