Blog 06.12.19 - Popped, Locked, Stopped

Blog 06.12.19 - Popped, Locked, Stopped

Good evening.

I have just had a very Dutch experience. They apparently have bike cops. Who stop you and check your bike. And my bike, apparently, was not up to code because the lights are a bit too dim. Time to take the bike to the shop, I think. I'd rather not get fined or arrested, even? Dear lord, I hope they don't do that. 

So that was an experience I had, while cycling home from work this friday... Also it was raining. And I had to cycle roughly 6 km upwind. If it wasn't so absolutely hilarious, I might be a bit mad.

The weather that wasn't.

Anyway, let's chat about the work placement!

Smile, be nice to customers, get horrible back pains because of your horrible posture. These things ring true, no matter what country you happen to be working in.

As I've mentioned, our work placement is taking place at Hema in the city of Hoorn. Our first days were thursday and friday. If I recall correctly, we'll be returning there friday next week, and monday-thursday on the week after that.

Due to the inherent language difficulties present when working a primarily customer service position in a different country, our assignments consisted primarily of shelving goods and cleaning up. I don't really mind, because I got to do some light customer servicing on the side as well. Obviously, I could only help customers who were open to conversing in english, and even then the help I could offer was limited. But that's the way it is in any new job. You learn by doing, so that's what I did. By friday, I managed to help a couple customers out without assistance from the more senior staff, which was very satisfying.

As a chain of stores, Hema appears to be very tightly organized, all the different goods have a precisely determined spot on the shelves, which can be looked up with a handy PDA. The goods are organized first by section, then by shelf, and finally horizontal position on the shelf. Very convenient!

That's it, didn't have the time or the energy to do much else. Work is exhausting.

Weekend should be an Amsterdam adventure, if nothing goes wrong. Fingers crossed!

- Friendly neighborhood egomaniac, Tuomo