Ellen In Amerika!"MY EMIGRATION TO AMERICA AND MY ADJUSTMENT TO LIFE IN CALIFORNIA SINCE SEPTEMBER 2008"

After work I noticed that the wind was really hard again, but now from the dessert. The so called Santa Ana wind was kicking in. This wind is hot! Really, it stings on your skin. You have to have sunscreen on then, otherwise your skin will burn.

At home, I checked the voicemail and I had another big surprise! Last year, I had done a series of examines/tests with the School district here. They offered some positions as an instructional assistant for the Elementary schools. The skills they asked were in my reach, so I applied. I did the first tests with 200 other candidates, and to my surprised, I stayed in the race till the end. I was the 4th in range with the highest grades and they put me on a list, for if they need me. I was glad with the results, but not that I was not higher, because I did not have the job  Anyway, I did not expect to hear from them anymore. But life has always surprises, so as today! The HR of the school district had left a voicemail, that, if I am still interested, they wanted to offer me a position as a Substitute Instructional Assistant. I called them, and explained that I just accepted a job at the hospital, but that it is an on call position for now. She said, that this job is actually the same, and lots of other SIA’s have two jobs. Oh, than I am interested! She told me I had to come in and do some paperwork. I quickly changed clothes and went on my bike to their office. You have to drive through a bit of an edgy neighborhood, but all went fine. After a short interview and filling some papers, she told me I had to make an appointment with the Police department for fingerprinting. I called them right away, and I was able to make an appointment right away. The police woman was very friendly and after she filled some papers also, I drove back to the school district office and handed over the papers. Now we have to wait till the results of the fingerprints come back, then I will be introduced to the board of the school district and then I have another job!! Isn’t this incredible? Me, a woman, just in the country,  looking seriously for a job for about 14 months, having one job for sure, and another on the way! I feel so immense grateful.

This afternoon was much different than I expected it! After biking home again, I had to do some things here. One of them was, canceling our LA times account and trying to send an email to Skype. We have Skype to go account. That costs us about 26.50 Dollars every 3 months and we can call unlimited to all landlines all over the world. This is a pretty good deal. You have to dial first your own access number and then the country code and so on. It is very user friendly. Only, today we discovered our access number was disconnected. It took me a long time to finally find a way to send an email to their customer support center. I hope they will fix this problem, because we have paid our bills promptly.

For dinner I made boerenkool met worst, Kale with mashed potatoes and smoked beef sausage. It tasted as if it was made in Holland 

We supposed to go to the gym today, but because of our though hike of yesterday, and my biking all over town today, we skipped it 

Because I had not heard back from my supervisor about my training schedule for my new job, I decided to go volunteering at the surgery waiting room, as I always do on Monday mornings. I am glad I did , because it was very busy. A lot of families of patients were there, and although I had to send some to the main lobby because they had little children with them, or they were with too many family members,  they all stayed cooperative and kind. That makes the work there so fulfilling.  I had the feeling, that the person, who will train me, would call me this morning. And because I have no cell phone reach in the hospital, I forwarded my phone to Dan’s cell phone. Lucky I had done that, because she indeed called and Dan could tell her that I was at the hospital. So she called me there, and now my training will start tomorrow morning from 9.00 AM till 1.00 PM. I am glad this is finally going to start.

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After work I noticed that the wind was really hard again, but now from the desert. The so called Santa Ana wind was kicking in. This wind is hot! Really, it stings on your skin. You have to have sunscreen on then, otherwise your skin will burn.

.

At home, I checked the voice mail, and I had another big surprise! Last year, I had completed a series of examinations/tests with the School district here in town. They offered some positions as an instructional assistant for the Elementary schools. The skills they asked were within my reach, so I applied. I did the first tests with 200 other candidates, and to my surprise, I stayed in the race to the end. I had the 4th highest grade, and they put me on a list in case they needed me. I was glad with the results, but not that I was not higher, because I did not have the job . Anyway, I did not expect to hear from them anymore. But life always  has surprises, so as today! The HR of the school district called and left a voice mail on my phone and said that if I am still interested, they wanted to offer me a position as a Substitute Instructional Assistant. I called them and explained that I just accepted a job at the hospital, but that it is an on call position for now. She said that this job is actually the same, and lots of other SIA’s have two jobs.

Oh, then I am interested! She told me I had to come in and do some paperwork. I quickly changed clothes and went on my bike to their office. You have to drive for a part through a bit of an edgy neighborhood, but all went fine. After I had a short interview and filled in some papers, she told me I had to make an appointment with the Police Department for fingerprinting. I called them right away, and I was able to make an appointment for 4.00 PM. The police woman was very friendly, and after the finger printing,  she filled some papers I had to bring back with me . I drove back to the school district office and handed over the papers. Now we have to wait till the results of the fingerprints come back, then I will be introduced to the board of the school district and then I have a second job!! Isn’t this incredible? Me, a woman, just in the country,  looking seriously for a job for about 14 months, having one job for sure, and another one on the way! I feel so immensely grateful.

.

This afternoon turned out to be much different than I expected! After biking home again, I had to do some things here. One of them was canceling our LA times account and trying to send an email to Skype. We have a “Skype to go” account. That costs us about 26.50 Dollars every 3 months, and we can call unlimited to all landlines all over the world. This is a pretty good deal. You have to dial first your own access number and then the country code and so on. It is very user friendly. But today we discovered our access number was disconnected/canceled. It took me a long time to finally find a way to send an email to their customer support center. I hope they will fix this problem soon, because we have paid our bills promptly.

.

For dinner I made boerenkool met worst, Kale with mashed potatoes and smoked beef sausage. It tasted as if it was made in Holland

.

We were supposed to go to the gym today, but because of our tough hike yesterday, and my biking all over town today, we skipped it! I know, not smart, but sometimes…..