A long 3 months have passed...
It has been almost three months since I updated my blogg. I am shit, I know. Forgive me. I'll try to be better. Ok, enough of this, I am here to tell you all that has happened since my short Belfast story...I will repeat again that the Belfast story 1,2 and 3 were the same as "From Norway 'til now" but in Swedish. I'm gonna continue writing in English though.
Anyhow, where should I start? Ok, about three months ago, Tore was looking for a job in Germany, UK, France etc. He GOT a job in Miami, US, but NO he didn't want to live in US again. HELLO, I WANT TO! I said. They could have gotten me a job at the same company, a big Norwegian company. They would help us with accomodation, but we had 4 weeks in a hotel to start with. AND they would help us with Visas and all that legal stuff. But NO.
So I continued to play WoW. That was kind of all I did for almost three months. That IS SAD! I was looking for jobs wherever he was looking, but if you want a job in the restaurant or hotel business their is a bigger chance of getting an interview by going and handing in your cv in person.
We fought almost every day. Horrible. But I can understand it. I mean, we were close to each other 24/7 which can tear a relationship apart. At one point we had a real bad fight and me and my drama, was thinking about breaking up with him and leaving the country. I sat up the whole night and the next day and finished updating my CV and then I sent it everywhere. A lot of jobs called within 2 days and I got a job as a Breakfast Supervisor in a small hotel somewhere in the middle of nowhere in England. They wanted an immediate start and I could start 3 days later if I wanted. As it was a live-in hotel I wouldn't have to worry about accomodation. I considered it, but by the time all of this, me and Tore were friends again.
I continued play WoW...I am ashamed to say that I could play up to 10 -14 hours per day. Fred and Tore said I was addicted. I said I just didn't have anything better to do. When internet went out for a few days I didn't feel the need to play, which must mean that I was right. I can actually skip like 6 weeks or something here because the days were all the same. Tore was looking for a job, I was playing WoW and looking for a job sometimes. We continued our fights though.
It was depressing, but I played WoW and met a few friends there. And I leveled my druid! At some point in the end of May I finally reached lvl 70!! Woho!
Ok, back to reality. In the middle of May he applied for a few positions at Blizzard, the creator of WoW. The positions were located either in Cork, Ireland or in a suburb of Paris.
It took a few weeks, but in the end of May, after three interviews, he finally got an email saying "You have been successful for one of the following positions..." and the three positions he applied for were listed. It didn't say anything else. He assumed that they would contact him within a few days with more information. After a week, he emailed them. No response. He tried to call them. No response. It was now the middle of June. The last of June was our last day in the flat. We had to move out by then.
Since he didn't hear anything from Blizzard, he applied for a position at Apple in Cork. It took them 5 days, and 3 interviews and then he got the job. Nothing from Blizzard, end of June. We started packing and THAT was stressful. We moved out on the morning 1st of July. My dear friend Karoline, very nice Swedish girl and ex-colleague, let us borrow her flat 'til we moved down to Cork.
3rd of July we took the bus down to Cork. And now the nightmare begins...
The bus left at 9.10. We had two big suitcases, 1 bag, 2 backpacks and 2 boxes to carry. That was hell! We came to the Europa Station 9.05. Thank god we made it. There is only one bus leaving to Cork every day from Belfast.
And Tore started complaining. They didn't use the AC so it was sooo hot! And the seats were to close so he couldn't sit in a good position. I just let him complained. We thought the bus ride would be around 6 hours and an express bus with no changes. It said so anyway. But no, the ride was TEN hours and there was TWO changes!
The first change was bad! To a little worse bus. Even closer seats. And just when we left Tore asked me: "Did you take the black bag?" And I realised I forgot it on the other bus when I carried all the other stuff! What the hell was I suppose to do now? I ran to the bus driver who stopped. I told him that all my medication were in the bag and that I just needed to call them so that they could leave it in the station and I could pick it up the next day.
He was sooo annoyed, but said "Run back and get it!" And I ran. It was only 300 m, but when you have to run with a bag that weighs about 17 kg, that is heavy! I made it though. Thought I was gonna die after that run. Need to do some workout.. :)
More complaints. Now about the driver as well. He was a crappy driver and things were flying in the bus. At some point I fell asleep (after a fight with Tore) and I woke up when we stopped for the second change.
The third bus was the worst I've seen in service. It was really old, the inside completely covered in graffiti and the seats were broken and stuff! But the driver? That rude idiot! It started to rain just before we were entering the bus, and instead of opening the door to let us in, while he was getting ready, he left us standing in the rain. He took almost five minutes before he sighed and opened the door.
Finally on, Tore complained even more as you can understand. And the driver wouldn't have been allowed to drive a shopping trolley in Sweden. HE was completely crap. Two times we stopped to let people on, both times there were really old ladies with big suitcases. He didn't even bother to go out of the bus to help them opening the luggage door! Or to help them put the luggage in the bus!! Tore fell asleep which gave me some peace.
And then we were there. Cork. 19.15. 10hours and 5min. We had tried to find a B&B but could only find a really expensive one. But since it was late and we were tired we just took it. Tore had to be at work the day after so we needed to get some rest.
The B&B was ok. In the morning Tore disappeared for work while I had to go to the estate agency to sort out our accomodation and luggage for the day etc. One of the most stressful days in my life! When I went back to the B&B to check out and get my luggage, one of the staff was helping me with the luggage. It was on the first floor. And suddenly I heard a bad noise and a boom. I just wished. And ran out. It was the computer he had dropped down the stairs! I mean, how unlucky can you be? I was soo upset. But I got all the things out and in a taxi and somehow I got all the stuff to a luggage thing at the bus station. I bribed the taxi driver to help me carry the luggage to the drop-off. Thank god for that.
You may think that we had enough of bad luck now? No, never...
I called the guy who were gonna give us the keys in the afternoon and got an appointment with him around five at Arcadia Hall. I met up with Tore and we brought all our stuffs and went there. We had to call the guy, since he didn't meet up with us. His name was John and he was the caretaker of Arcadia.
We brought our stuff in to the campus and we signed the papers and stuff before he took the keys and showed us to our rooms.
To start with they misunderstood us and thought we wanted two single rooms, even though we asked for a double room. Anyhow, the flat we were supposed to get were not available anymore since one of the keys were missing. And that had been the "nicest flat" they'd told us earlier. This guy said "I'll take you to no 15, that is as clean as you can get it around here. There are three chinese people living there at the moment. He opened the door and I could just feel a strong smell of take-out food (no offence). But ok, let's be objective. We went into "my room", No bed. OK? Went into "Tores room" Someone had been smoking there. Went to the kitchen/living room. Trash and dish everywhere. Vodka and beer bottles all along the wall!! I just said "Sorry, can't live here" Tore felt the same way. John got a bit annoyed by our opinions and wanted to show us a few other apartments just to show us that this was the cleanest one.
We saw three other apartments, all equally bad and John got more and more annoyed. Finally he said "ok, this is a block where we don't let people move in since it's going through refurbishing, but I can let you move in there if you want to. He took us to another block and I was prepared for the worst. But I was soooo tired by now, just wanted to take my stuff somewhere and go sleep. He let us in to apt 28. An empty apt. Living room. No dish, no beer bottles. But some old food and it smelled really bad. I touch the table and there was a layer of fat all over it. Went to the bedrooms. We could choose since it was empty. We took C and D. The closets and desks were sooo dirty. The grey carpeted floor were full of pebbles. One of the bathrooms were horrible. The other one were ok. There was mould on one of the walls. Tore was horrified and said that he wanted to move somewhere else. I reminded him about our money problem and said that if we just moved in here, then I would spend the next few days to clean the place up. We finally accepted it and John calmed down.
I spent almost 60 hours in total on cleaning up the place. The whole kitchen/living room were covered in a layer of grease. I vacuumed one of the rooms twice and with special carpet cleaning powder stuff. With Jif and thick rubber gloves I cleaned window, desks, closets, bathroom and tv. After that I could finally move in the apt without shoes on.
Nice huh? And this was only the first 4 days in Cork.
Oh, the computer was broken by the way. Another lucky thing. The most expensive part of the computer broke, the graphics card. And we didn't have internet yet. But the apt was finally clean. Then the next chock comes. I'm standing in the kitchen when someone knocks on the door. I opens and a man and a woman enter.
They ask how I am and then they say "We're gonna have to move you on Wednesday". This was on Monday. I just sat down in the sofa with my head in my hands and said "And I'm just done with the cleaning here". I didn't want to move to another place. Not again. Another dirty student flat that I'd have to clean, and with students in it!
We spoke a bit and they asked if I wanted to take a look at a flat in Blackpool, they had a one-bedroom apt free there right now. Weird that they were so nice. But ok. I spoke to Tore and he was a bit suspicious since I didn't know who they were.
Anyway, our biggest problem now was to get internet. We needed John for that since he needed to get us user names and password, but we couldn't reach him. He finally answered and said he'd be there within half an hour. 75 min later he's still not there. We called again and then we met him on our way to his office and we started to talk.
We had been talking with the estate agency about only paying for one room since we could only use one room because the key to my room didn't work. John got a bit aggressive
"It states clearly that you pay per PERSON, not per room so you can't get discount here"
Tore: "That is not what we are saying, but.."
John: "Young man, I think you have a bit of an attitude problem"
Tore: "I think that was rude of you"
(I started to get pissed of right now, and it is not easy to get me really angry)
John: "You are two people and you have to pay for two"
Me: "That is not what we are saying! You do not know if I WANT to sleep in the same room as Tore. We don't have a choice right now since we just have one key. If we broke up, then I wouldn't want him to be able to snoop around my things! And therefore, WHY should we pay for two rooms when we can only use one?!"
(I was so angry that I could have killed him)
Then he turns to us and says: I was gonna be nice to you and give you internet today, but now I don't feel like it anymore. I'm off so I don't have too" and he starts to walk back to his office. ?? Both me and Tore just stops for a few seconds in chock. And then I explode:
"You gotta be kidding me?! So WHEN do you work? It says everywhere that we should call you on weekends and out of office hours, but you don't want to help us cause you don't feel like it?
"If you have any problems with this then you can talk to the estate agency"
"I can promise you I will!"
Me and Tore went back to our flat. I was so angry. Took me almost 10 min to calm down. Then it knocks on the door. I open, and John stands there and wants to apologize. He have the user names and passwords with him. We get the codes and he tries to explain that he is not himself and that he has never behaved like this before, jader jader.
We finally got our internet and everything was fine, but the day after I went to the estate agency and told them everything. Into detail. We also booked a viewing for the flat. Later Tuesday evening we went there. It was a nice top floor one bedroom flat with biig bathroom, with a bathtub!! Living room/kitchen was a bit small, but it was all new and top class. Nice tile floors throughout except for in the bedroom where we have a grey carpet. Since I said we, you might understand that we finally got it.
We discussed for hours later that evening, if we should or should not. But the chance to get a flat like that, so close to the city centre, with that modern standard and to the mere 850€/month would be slim to none. Blackpool is also very close to Apple and it is the only place where you can get broadband with 20mb! That is the fastest they have! Insane huh? So I am just telling you my dear Swedish friends: appreciate your quick,reliable and CHEAP broadband! We get our with tv for about 60€/month. But this company is the first of its kind. If we would go with any other of the big companys, we would have to pay around 240€/month for the same!!!
We moved in the 16th of July. And things are getting better. Now I just need to get a job and Tore need to get his pps-number and then we are fine.
I have been looking for so many jobs since I moved here, almost started to give up. And today I decided to send my cv to some recruitment companies and suddenly my phone called all the time. They had short interviews with me and asked me about what kind of jobs I want and what kind of experience etc. Between 4.30 and 5.30 I received 8 calls from different companies :)
And ONE of them offered me a job straight away. It's just for one day, but it's for a wedding as a waitress. At a five star hotel. That is super!! And if they are happy with me than they might get me a permanent job soon :) yey
And that is all right now. I have skipped a bit about the problem we've had with money and stuff, but that will hopefully sort itself. Otherwise, I don't know.
The importnant thing is that I am happy. And I think I am. I WILL be on Saturday, when I work as a waitress again. Miss that soo much.
I'll try to update this a bit more often so that you don't have so much to read :)
I love you my friends!
Anyhow, where should I start? Ok, about three months ago, Tore was looking for a job in Germany, UK, France etc. He GOT a job in Miami, US, but NO he didn't want to live in US again. HELLO, I WANT TO! I said. They could have gotten me a job at the same company, a big Norwegian company. They would help us with accomodation, but we had 4 weeks in a hotel to start with. AND they would help us with Visas and all that legal stuff. But NO.
So I continued to play WoW. That was kind of all I did for almost three months. That IS SAD! I was looking for jobs wherever he was looking, but if you want a job in the restaurant or hotel business their is a bigger chance of getting an interview by going and handing in your cv in person.
We fought almost every day. Horrible. But I can understand it. I mean, we were close to each other 24/7 which can tear a relationship apart. At one point we had a real bad fight and me and my drama, was thinking about breaking up with him and leaving the country. I sat up the whole night and the next day and finished updating my CV and then I sent it everywhere. A lot of jobs called within 2 days and I got a job as a Breakfast Supervisor in a small hotel somewhere in the middle of nowhere in England. They wanted an immediate start and I could start 3 days later if I wanted. As it was a live-in hotel I wouldn't have to worry about accomodation. I considered it, but by the time all of this, me and Tore were friends again.
I continued play WoW...I am ashamed to say that I could play up to 10 -14 hours per day. Fred and Tore said I was addicted. I said I just didn't have anything better to do. When internet went out for a few days I didn't feel the need to play, which must mean that I was right. I can actually skip like 6 weeks or something here because the days were all the same. Tore was looking for a job, I was playing WoW and looking for a job sometimes. We continued our fights though.
It was depressing, but I played WoW and met a few friends there. And I leveled my druid! At some point in the end of May I finally reached lvl 70!! Woho!
Ok, back to reality. In the middle of May he applied for a few positions at Blizzard, the creator of WoW. The positions were located either in Cork, Ireland or in a suburb of Paris.
It took a few weeks, but in the end of May, after three interviews, he finally got an email saying "You have been successful for one of the following positions..." and the three positions he applied for were listed. It didn't say anything else. He assumed that they would contact him within a few days with more information. After a week, he emailed them. No response. He tried to call them. No response. It was now the middle of June. The last of June was our last day in the flat. We had to move out by then.
Since he didn't hear anything from Blizzard, he applied for a position at Apple in Cork. It took them 5 days, and 3 interviews and then he got the job. Nothing from Blizzard, end of June. We started packing and THAT was stressful. We moved out on the morning 1st of July. My dear friend Karoline, very nice Swedish girl and ex-colleague, let us borrow her flat 'til we moved down to Cork.
3rd of July we took the bus down to Cork. And now the nightmare begins...
The bus left at 9.10. We had two big suitcases, 1 bag, 2 backpacks and 2 boxes to carry. That was hell! We came to the Europa Station 9.05. Thank god we made it. There is only one bus leaving to Cork every day from Belfast.
And Tore started complaining. They didn't use the AC so it was sooo hot! And the seats were to close so he couldn't sit in a good position. I just let him complained. We thought the bus ride would be around 6 hours and an express bus with no changes. It said so anyway. But no, the ride was TEN hours and there was TWO changes!
The first change was bad! To a little worse bus. Even closer seats. And just when we left Tore asked me: "Did you take the black bag?" And I realised I forgot it on the other bus when I carried all the other stuff! What the hell was I suppose to do now? I ran to the bus driver who stopped. I told him that all my medication were in the bag and that I just needed to call them so that they could leave it in the station and I could pick it up the next day.
He was sooo annoyed, but said "Run back and get it!" And I ran. It was only 300 m, but when you have to run with a bag that weighs about 17 kg, that is heavy! I made it though. Thought I was gonna die after that run. Need to do some workout.. :)
More complaints. Now about the driver as well. He was a crappy driver and things were flying in the bus. At some point I fell asleep (after a fight with Tore) and I woke up when we stopped for the second change.
The third bus was the worst I've seen in service. It was really old, the inside completely covered in graffiti and the seats were broken and stuff! But the driver? That rude idiot! It started to rain just before we were entering the bus, and instead of opening the door to let us in, while he was getting ready, he left us standing in the rain. He took almost five minutes before he sighed and opened the door.
Finally on, Tore complained even more as you can understand. And the driver wouldn't have been allowed to drive a shopping trolley in Sweden. HE was completely crap. Two times we stopped to let people on, both times there were really old ladies with big suitcases. He didn't even bother to go out of the bus to help them opening the luggage door! Or to help them put the luggage in the bus!! Tore fell asleep which gave me some peace.
And then we were there. Cork. 19.15. 10hours and 5min. We had tried to find a B&B but could only find a really expensive one. But since it was late and we were tired we just took it. Tore had to be at work the day after so we needed to get some rest.
The B&B was ok. In the morning Tore disappeared for work while I had to go to the estate agency to sort out our accomodation and luggage for the day etc. One of the most stressful days in my life! When I went back to the B&B to check out and get my luggage, one of the staff was helping me with the luggage. It was on the first floor. And suddenly I heard a bad noise and a boom. I just wished. And ran out. It was the computer he had dropped down the stairs! I mean, how unlucky can you be? I was soo upset. But I got all the things out and in a taxi and somehow I got all the stuff to a luggage thing at the bus station. I bribed the taxi driver to help me carry the luggage to the drop-off. Thank god for that.
You may think that we had enough of bad luck now? No, never...
I called the guy who were gonna give us the keys in the afternoon and got an appointment with him around five at Arcadia Hall. I met up with Tore and we brought all our stuffs and went there. We had to call the guy, since he didn't meet up with us. His name was John and he was the caretaker of Arcadia.
We brought our stuff in to the campus and we signed the papers and stuff before he took the keys and showed us to our rooms.
To start with they misunderstood us and thought we wanted two single rooms, even though we asked for a double room. Anyhow, the flat we were supposed to get were not available anymore since one of the keys were missing. And that had been the "nicest flat" they'd told us earlier. This guy said "I'll take you to no 15, that is as clean as you can get it around here. There are three chinese people living there at the moment. He opened the door and I could just feel a strong smell of take-out food (no offence). But ok, let's be objective. We went into "my room", No bed. OK? Went into "Tores room" Someone had been smoking there. Went to the kitchen/living room. Trash and dish everywhere. Vodka and beer bottles all along the wall!! I just said "Sorry, can't live here" Tore felt the same way. John got a bit annoyed by our opinions and wanted to show us a few other apartments just to show us that this was the cleanest one.
We saw three other apartments, all equally bad and John got more and more annoyed. Finally he said "ok, this is a block where we don't let people move in since it's going through refurbishing, but I can let you move in there if you want to. He took us to another block and I was prepared for the worst. But I was soooo tired by now, just wanted to take my stuff somewhere and go sleep. He let us in to apt 28. An empty apt. Living room. No dish, no beer bottles. But some old food and it smelled really bad. I touch the table and there was a layer of fat all over it. Went to the bedrooms. We could choose since it was empty. We took C and D. The closets and desks were sooo dirty. The grey carpeted floor were full of pebbles. One of the bathrooms were horrible. The other one were ok. There was mould on one of the walls. Tore was horrified and said that he wanted to move somewhere else. I reminded him about our money problem and said that if we just moved in here, then I would spend the next few days to clean the place up. We finally accepted it and John calmed down.
I spent almost 60 hours in total on cleaning up the place. The whole kitchen/living room were covered in a layer of grease. I vacuumed one of the rooms twice and with special carpet cleaning powder stuff. With Jif and thick rubber gloves I cleaned window, desks, closets, bathroom and tv. After that I could finally move in the apt without shoes on.
Nice huh? And this was only the first 4 days in Cork.
Oh, the computer was broken by the way. Another lucky thing. The most expensive part of the computer broke, the graphics card. And we didn't have internet yet. But the apt was finally clean. Then the next chock comes. I'm standing in the kitchen when someone knocks on the door. I opens and a man and a woman enter.
They ask how I am and then they say "We're gonna have to move you on Wednesday". This was on Monday. I just sat down in the sofa with my head in my hands and said "And I'm just done with the cleaning here". I didn't want to move to another place. Not again. Another dirty student flat that I'd have to clean, and with students in it!
We spoke a bit and they asked if I wanted to take a look at a flat in Blackpool, they had a one-bedroom apt free there right now. Weird that they were so nice. But ok. I spoke to Tore and he was a bit suspicious since I didn't know who they were.
Anyway, our biggest problem now was to get internet. We needed John for that since he needed to get us user names and password, but we couldn't reach him. He finally answered and said he'd be there within half an hour. 75 min later he's still not there. We called again and then we met him on our way to his office and we started to talk.
We had been talking with the estate agency about only paying for one room since we could only use one room because the key to my room didn't work. John got a bit aggressive
"It states clearly that you pay per PERSON, not per room so you can't get discount here"
Tore: "That is not what we are saying, but.."
John: "Young man, I think you have a bit of an attitude problem"
Tore: "I think that was rude of you"
(I started to get pissed of right now, and it is not easy to get me really angry)
John: "You are two people and you have to pay for two"
Me: "That is not what we are saying! You do not know if I WANT to sleep in the same room as Tore. We don't have a choice right now since we just have one key. If we broke up, then I wouldn't want him to be able to snoop around my things! And therefore, WHY should we pay for two rooms when we can only use one?!"
(I was so angry that I could have killed him)
Then he turns to us and says: I was gonna be nice to you and give you internet today, but now I don't feel like it anymore. I'm off so I don't have too" and he starts to walk back to his office. ?? Both me and Tore just stops for a few seconds in chock. And then I explode:
"You gotta be kidding me?! So WHEN do you work? It says everywhere that we should call you on weekends and out of office hours, but you don't want to help us cause you don't feel like it?
"If you have any problems with this then you can talk to the estate agency"
"I can promise you I will!"
Me and Tore went back to our flat. I was so angry. Took me almost 10 min to calm down. Then it knocks on the door. I open, and John stands there and wants to apologize. He have the user names and passwords with him. We get the codes and he tries to explain that he is not himself and that he has never behaved like this before, jader jader.
We finally got our internet and everything was fine, but the day after I went to the estate agency and told them everything. Into detail. We also booked a viewing for the flat. Later Tuesday evening we went there. It was a nice top floor one bedroom flat with biig bathroom, with a bathtub!! Living room/kitchen was a bit small, but it was all new and top class. Nice tile floors throughout except for in the bedroom where we have a grey carpet. Since I said we, you might understand that we finally got it.
We discussed for hours later that evening, if we should or should not. But the chance to get a flat like that, so close to the city centre, with that modern standard and to the mere 850€/month would be slim to none. Blackpool is also very close to Apple and it is the only place where you can get broadband with 20mb! That is the fastest they have! Insane huh? So I am just telling you my dear Swedish friends: appreciate your quick,reliable and CHEAP broadband! We get our with tv for about 60€/month. But this company is the first of its kind. If we would go with any other of the big companys, we would have to pay around 240€/month for the same!!!
We moved in the 16th of July. And things are getting better. Now I just need to get a job and Tore need to get his pps-number and then we are fine.
I have been looking for so many jobs since I moved here, almost started to give up. And today I decided to send my cv to some recruitment companies and suddenly my phone called all the time. They had short interviews with me and asked me about what kind of jobs I want and what kind of experience etc. Between 4.30 and 5.30 I received 8 calls from different companies :)
And ONE of them offered me a job straight away. It's just for one day, but it's for a wedding as a waitress. At a five star hotel. That is super!! And if they are happy with me than they might get me a permanent job soon :) yey
And that is all right now. I have skipped a bit about the problem we've had with money and stuff, but that will hopefully sort itself. Otherwise, I don't know.
The importnant thing is that I am happy. And I think I am. I WILL be on Saturday, when I work as a waitress again. Miss that soo much.
I'll try to update this a bit more often so that you don't have so much to read :)
I love you my friends!
