Lost in translation?

Many things happened since my last post. I got a job, resigned from the job, then got a job at the same company given by the same agency. When I first heard about it, it felt like some strange joke. Very ironic. After quitting the first job, I thought I'd never go to this place again, never see those people again and whenever I'd smell freshly cut wood, it would remind me of a bad job... possibly of a mistake.

I returned to this work place now, but I don't need to shovel dust, lift wood boards all the time or understand how to do packaging processes while it's a freezing night and the wind is blowing hard, blowing away the paper that's supposed to be wrapped around the laths, boards, sticks, whatever. I'm a translator for some Canadian engineers. So far the job is cool, sometimes boring, but not physically demanding yet.

The vocabulary is a little difficult. There are words you just don't learn in school: photo-eye, grade mark reader, grader, planer, stacker, revolver lug loader, and so on. I need to understand some of the processes so that translation makes sense. But so far everything is okay and the job is well-paid, too. If it stays this way and I can cope with it, it will keep me alive until the end of the year. But that doesn't mean that I don't expect bad things to happen. The train strikes can make it impossible to get to work, the agency I work for has strange terms and unfriendly personell, the engineers can say complicated things and ask me to understand things quickly that are just too much for me to understand. It will show how much I can handle. Right now I only wish that life itself will be very balanced so I can believe in what I do and why I do this.

I wouldn't have thought that, by the end of October, I would already have resigned from a job and gotten another one. Well, that's what happened and it's strange. There is only one thing that matters, though. And that is how much money is left after each month. Momentarily I'm in a good position. My expectation was that I would only be working in October, but not in September already. But I already worked in September and got some money. October is not over yet but I will earn some money for October that I will receive a month later (one of the bad things in this job).

The days are very long. I get up shortly before 5, and when I get home it's pretty late. I'm not sure but I think it takes about 1 and a half hours to be home when I leave my work place. That has to do with waiting times for the train, with walking, waiting again, taking the bus, and walking again. But it's basically okay. I still feel sane and emotionally stable. What I really need to avoid is that it ever makes me feel homesick to work.

Let's hope that things will be okay. I don't know what the money I earn is good for. I look at it as a reserve. It helps me pay things that come up... possible dentist bills, flight tickets, all those "only once" costs. If I live in a place of my own, it will also be a reserve for buying food. Even now I need to pay for food and transportation tickets myself. But I'm handling it.

That's it for now... I will remember that this is for making something good happen.