Lilac Colored Glasses

Which means the opposite of “werkloos,” which is what they call you when you’re unemployed in Flanders. Or you could also be called “werkzoekend,” which is what they call you when you’re unemployed and actively looking for work.

As of 2 o’clock this afternoon, I am neither.

As in, I finally, finally found a job.

Yes, I am now employed full time in an English speaking daycare in Brussels. By an enormous stroke of luck, a CYS worker at the information fair I went to in Brussels two weeks ago mentioned a chain of daycares in Brussels that only spoke English. A few days later I recalled the name while looking for other jobs online and I looked up the company, which is run by 3 people and consists of nine (soon to be ten) small daycare centers scattered throughout Brussels. Per CB’s advice, I called and scheduled an interview for the next day. The day after that I worked a trial day in one of the centers and this afternoon I signed a contract for full time work for a year. If I’m still there in a year and everyone is still happy (myself and my bosses), the contract will be extended indefinitely. My first official paid day is on Monday.

So, yaaaay! Korie has a job! Although there is an ironic twist here…which of course there is. It wouldn’t be my life if it weren’t laden in ironic twists. See, the goal of the daycare is to be English speaking and to cater to the international inhabitants of Brussels, most of whom speak English and are very very well paid. As of right now though, there is only one other English speaking employee in the company, and English is her third or fourth language. So I’m actually the only native English speaking employee and one of the two who speaks English at all. Everyone else? French speaking. All of them. And for anyone who doesn’t know anything about Francophones in Belgium (most of you I guess), French speaking people are about as likely to learn a second language as English speaking people.
So my Dutch is basically useless at my new job. Instead it seems I’ll have to learn some basic French, although it’s been made clear that I am to speak English with the babies and parents. Which I’m fine with. But seriously, I never guessed that I’d end up having to learn some French.

Anyway, on another note, after a trip to the doctor today, it seems very likely that I have an impacted bowel. I have to go for x-rays tomorrow morning to be sure, but if I do it seems I’ll have to have a Fleet treatment. Ugh.

you can fast forward to 1:20 and get my point.