The Office

How many hours a day do I work, well lets see. Depends on where I work if I am in a union hospital I get mandated breaks in a 12 hour shift I will work a total of 11 hours plus overtime if any. If it is military or non union then I work 12 hours plus overtime with usually a 20-30 minute break, however I can not go off the floor easily, If I go to the cafeteria I spend about 10 minuites of my break time in line getting food and waiting for the elevator. Often by the time I get time to get a break the cafeteria is closed or there is not another nurse that can watch my children. Now obviosly there is down time but that doesn't mean that I am mentallly not at work still. So here in Spain I am having my taste at life in an office. although work here is very different. There is buisness occuring in the morning and then there is a coffee break everyone pilled into the bosses office after a meeting to eat a typical marzapan pastry....typical event to the US. However a few hours later I was asked by one of my officemates if I wanted to go get coffee. I actually don't drink coffee but I thought I should give it a whirl and time to practice speaking. So we went for a stoll and sat a had a nice cup of cafe con leche. About 30 minutes past and we got to go back to work. This is what I do every day I arrive at 9 or 10, drink coffee, do some work and then go for coffee, then kinda work then go home. So by the time I leave at 2pm I am fully wired since I do not drink coffee, so no siesta for me. Very familiar to most. This is when all the shops and stores and buisnesses takes a break from about 2pm-4pm. Then back to work for some not all and done around 6 or 7pm. I really need to adopt this rule, 30 minute chill time and a nap...hmmm I wonder if that would fly at home?

Retarded in a sense

This is a video from our first week in Toledo at the fundacion. This is our cafeteria where many so called spanish foods are served. Often there is food from a week ago that end up in the cold salad bar for us to pick at till it is gone. Jared as you know I am not a fan of recycled meals. This would be the perfect example of my disgust with left overs. Honey your left overs are much more tolerable!

Lets see it has been crazy and I have had little time to journal. My days are over almost before they begin it seems. because of the short summer session I have class twice in one day. I have class everyday but the weekend which includes Fridays. I will tell you a little about my job in Toledo at the Red Cross, this is my internship class. I work in a small office with 12 people. They find little odd and end Jobs for me to do while I am around but some days it has been a bit unorganized and there is nothing to do. Other times I think they are just creating work so I can do something. Because of my lack of completely understanding Spanish, it takes a few minute for them to explain what it is they want me to do. I ask a lot of simple questions to make sure I am doing what they want me to do. Which If I had said them in English you would think I was retarded. Anca explained that she wanted me to organize the files of volunteer application by the location. You would think this would be an easy task. But after I completed that I cam back and she explained to do something else, but I didn't quiet get the whole Idea, So I asked her in my best Spanish, "I put these in order yes?" She said yes, and then said something else that I did not understand and pointed to two matching sheets. Mind you these papers are from all the way back in 1993, not sure why they need them anyway. Anyway, so I asked her again just to be sure, So I put them in order then I match them and throw out the extra paper. She said what I thought was a definite," Bale!" Which is like saying yes here! So Off I went however some of the papers are photocopied so are those extra papers I can through,, Good grief I really was not sure what I was supposed to be doing anyway, but I had already asked her to make sure. So I organized the files with the copies still attached, ....I had to ask her about throwing the copies away, she did not want me to throw them.... I organized these papers by city, my red cross location and my year and I matched up all their paperwork.....When I finally finished doing this I was sure I had it right, She laughed and said that I was an over achiever because I had gone way above the organization she had intended..... Oh well I guess it filled my required time, why was I doing that I still have no clue...

Anyway that is not what I meant to go into a tangent about. But I thought It was funny how something that is so simple to explain in your own language can take so much extra time to explain to someone that does not get it in another language. Even after all the clarification, I still did not understand the fundamental concept of why I was doing the job they asked and what I was really supposed to be doing. Honestly I am still not sure 100% I did what she asked, but she smiled at me and said I did a good job so either I am all good or I am retarded!