My first "real" job, you might say. Well, actually, let me start from the very beginning, the very best place to start.*rewinding*
"In the beginning, God crea...." Oops, not quite that far.
Lets start on Thursday, March 13th.
I was going about my school work as usual, when Mom popped her head in and told me that Henryk called and that I was being offered a job, translating for some Hungarian guy at a boat show. That's about all I knew; it sounded like it could be a great opportunity, so I said that I was interested.
I was suppose to go oven to Platon to talk to Henryk about the details. Platon is a language school, and the director, Henrik, though he isn't saved, comes to church, most of the time. Mom offered to drive me over to the Platon, and since it was raining, I obliged. I got to the school and Henrik called Mr. Labuda, the man who requested a translator, to ask about the specifics of the job. I was able to find out the vital information: when, where, and how much. ;)
As it turns out the boat show is on the other side of Warsaw, and I was going to be needed from 12-18, (12-6p.m.) Friday-Sunday. Well Sunday I couldn't do, but otherwise the terms seemed acceptable so I agreed to translate on Friday and Saturday. I then ran home--quite literally-- and checked where exactly the boat show was taking place.
Henryk had assured me that the best way to get there would be to take the train, because the station is within walking distance of where I needed to be, and a quick look at the map confirmed that. The Expo (The building where the boat show was to take place.) was practically right next to the train station, or at least that is what the map indicated.
Friday, March 14th.
The first day of work.
My work started at noon, and the train trip lasts 45 minutes, so to get there on time I had to take the 10:59 train. Since Mom kindly offered to drive me to the station I arrived pretty early and had plenty of time to buy my ticket and deal with everything that I needed to.
After Mom dropped me off I walked up to the booth and asked for a ticket to the Western Warsaw station. After shelling out the 2.50 zl ($1.08) required for passage on said train I took my ticket and sat down, waiting patiently for the train to arrive.
The station in our town only has two tracks, one going into Warsaw, and the other going away from Warsaw, so I wasn't worried about missing my train at all. When my train did get there then I got on and it chugged away, stopping every 5 minutes to pick up and drop people off.
Even though the train had frequent stops it did finally get to its destination, at precisely the scheduled time in fact. I got off, but now what? I'm at the right place, but I don't see the building, so it seemed to me that I might as well pick a side that seemed right and go that way.If you aren't familiar with large train stations then I'll try to explain what this one was like. All 14 sets of tracks (I think that this one had 14.) were pointing in the same directions, East-West; and since you can't walk across the tracks to get to the other side of the train station, which would be very inconvenient indeed, especially for people with large bags, they have an underground walkway where you can walk under all the tracks to get from one side of the station to the other.
I wasn't sure which way to go so I just guessed. I'll try left. I walked to the end and up the stairs to reach ground level again, but this side didn't look right. I was standing right next to a highway, buzzing with activity, with a bus stop to my right, and to my left, nothing but a sidewalk and street which seemed to continue on indefinitely.
Must be the wrong side I thought to myself, so I raced back down, and all the way back to the opposite side, but when I emerged on that side it seemed even more "wronger", if I may use that term.
It looked completely opposite to what the other side looked like. Rather than a street in front of me, there was instead, a large, desolate field. To my left, I found not an endless sidewalk, but a small kiosk. (Which is a small store type place where you can buy bus tickets, or magazines, or various knickknacks and gewgaws.) And to my right there wasn't any bus stop there was only a small, broken up sidewalk.
Not knowing what to do I walked back and forth a time or two and tried to get my thoughts together. Well, I had a map with me so I got it out and walked over to the kiosk to ask the lady inside for directions. Thankfully she knew right where it was; all I had to do was follow the small winding sidewalk and turn left when I got to where it joins another road. I thanked her and trotted off down the skimpy sidewalk.
I found the building with minimal difficulty, it was after all very large and had a crowd of people standing around. I called my contact and told him that I was at the front gate, and he said he'd be right there, so I just stood around for a while waiting for him to meet me. Well, he finally found the right front gate--wouldn't you know it that they'd have 3 front gates, go figure. Since we had never met before he didn't know what I looked like, so to pick me out of the small crowd, he called my cellphone and when I started to answer it he walked up and introduced himself. Pretty tricky. :P He led me to his booth where I met his co-worker, a nice looking young lady.
Anyway, here's the booth where I worked. We got a lot of people who commented about the booth, most of them were admiring the unique design and look, and some were even wondering where we got it. It is one of a kind though, because it was made by the founder of the company, and he only made one. (He is quite a handy man.)The man briefed me on who they are, and what they offer, so that'd I'd know a little about the business to get orientated. The company is a charting service, meaning, you can rent yachts from them and sail around all you want until you turn green in the face and get the chance to examine your half digested lunch. :) The company's port is located in Sibenik, Croatia, on the Adriatic Sea, over there close to Italy. They had a brochure so I read it pick up on any finer details that the man might have left out.
The first several people who came to the booth spoke English quite well so the man was able to answer their questions directly, without needing me to interpret. So that's how we did it for a little while, but pretty soon I knew the answers to most of the common questions: "What service are you offering?" "Where are you located?" "How much?" "What kind of yacht(s) do you have?" Questions like those.
Since after a short while I knew the answers to people's questions, I began taking over you might say. When someone would come up I'd start off in Polish and answer any questions, and that would work of probably 90% of the people, but if someone did ask a question which I didn't know the answer to, then I would ask the man or his co-worker to come up and either he or she would answer the question in English, and if the person didn't understand English then I would translate the answer into Polish. That system seemed to work out pretty nicely so that's what we stuck to.
Nothing unusual happened, I stood around answering questions, but it wasn't too boring actually. After work I took the camera and walked around the place and took pictures, some of them were posted before in this post, but here are some more.
There was an airsoft gun rack, which seemed a little out of place but I thought that it was cool. :)
Some of the stuff was for sale, like the kayaks and the oars, but the boats were mostly just on display.
Well, after walking around and taking those pictures, I found my way out and walked back back to the train station, since I had taken the time to walk around and take pictures I didn't have too much extra time on my hands, so with long quick strides I quickly lessened the distance from me to the train station. When I got there, I bought my ticket which cost me another 2.50 zl.
The next train was going to leave in 5 minutes, but I wasn't worried, I had enough time to find out what track my train is going to be on. Or at least that's what I thought, but when I checked the chart that they have hanging on the wall, I couldn't find my train at all!
I couldn't find any trains going to Otwock! (I was going to Jozefow, but the trains are listed by where they stop, and Otwocks is where my train would stop.) I frantically hunted all around the chart, but I couldn't see anything that helped, I scrambled to get my list of the trains out of my backpack, but that didn't help any either, it shows the time when the train is going to arrive, but it fails to mention on what track it will be on!
Well, I could forget about catching the 6:15 train, because it was already past that time. So I calmed down and thoroughly examined the chart hanging on the wall. But that stinking chart was no help at all!
Not knowing really what to do I wandered around aimlessly for a little while, until I figured that I was running out of options, asking someone would probably be my best choice. So I went back to the ticket clerk lady. The line was very long for one lady, but for the other lady there wasn't any line. When I got up close I could see why; in the window there was a "not open" sign.
A lady was sitting right there, doing something or other, not sure what, but she wasn't open. Well, I know that she wasn't open for selling tickets, but all I wanted was a simple answer to a simple question. A simple question shouldn't hurt her any so I decide to ask her.
I started with, "Ma'am..." but before I could get any further, right away she jumped up and snapped my head off, she picked up the sign and pointed to it and said, "Can't you read!? Give me some peace, if the sign says that I'm not open, then I'm not open..." You'd have thought that someone had just jabbed her with a molten iron rod, to get her so riled up. "But, I only want to ask something..." I interrupted with. "So what? It doesn't matter." She replied, and then proceeded to half mumble some more stuff, which I didn't catch. Well now, I was very upset. Not only did she not help me, but she didn't even just go, "Sorry, I can't help you." or "Sorry, this booth is closed." Like you might expect, but nooooo... she had to practically yell at me and tell me to give her some peace a quiet and to leave her alone. That was not what I needed or wanted right then, I was already pretty upset for missing my first train, and if I didn't find out where my next one is going to be then I don't know what I would have done.
Well, maybe the other lady is nicer, I thought, but the line was about 10-15 people long, and I only had 7 minutes until my train was suppose to be there. I didn't have time to wait in line, so I walked up right next to the window and waited until an appropriate moment for me to ask my question.After 2 people went through, I asked the next lady standing in line if I could cut in line just to ask a question, she said "Ok." So I asked my question. And wouldn't you know it, the clerk lady replied with, "I don't know." Well, that was just great, now what was I to do? I didn't know where to go, and the ticket lady didn't even know where to go, and you'd think that she'd know.
But fortunately God always looks out for his children; there was a guy standing in line and he asked if I was talking about the 6:45 train, and I said yes, and then he replied and said that it was going to be one the 2nd peron.
(In this picture, the middle part covered by the roof is the peron. It is a place in between tracks where you can board trains from. That is not an actual picture of the station I was at, I just found that picture on the internet.) I quickly thanked the man and rushed to the 2nd peron in anticipation for my train.I stood around growing anxious for my train to arrive, and at 18:45, precisely when my train was due, a train pulled up to what looked like the 4th peron. For a second I doubted the man and wondered whether that was my train, and possibly the man was mistaking, but he had seemed pretty confident so I decided to keep waiting. I waited a minute or two more, but I couldn't help wondering if that train over there, was indeed my train, and I was standing over in completely the wrong place, and going to miss my train entirely.
Well, I wrestled with myself a while longer until I convinced myself that that train must be my train, why else would it have ridden up at the exact time which my train was suppose to? So, I zipped back down the stairs, and over to the 4th peron, but no sooner had I reached the stairs leading up to the 4th peron, that I heard the roar of a train driving up and the squeal of its brake, from where I had just come from.
Well, I stopped dead in my tracks and rushed right back to peron 2, the very place that I had just left, but when I got there what did discover? I discovered that that train was heading in the opposite direction to what I needed. That was obviously not the train I needed!
Back I went, sprinting, and dodging the many people scattered in the pathway to get to the 4th peron
before my train pulled away, but when I got there I soon realized that my train wasn't there, it was one peron over, at the 5th peron. It was hard to tell before, because it was pretty far away and I couldn't make out which peron it was at, but from the 4th peron I could plainly see that my train was still quietly parked one peron over.With great determination I bolted back down and over, running and leaping over any obstacles. The picture above shows one of the obstacles which I had to jump over.
I got to the train, and asked a ticket checker standing on the train, where the train was going. Strangely though, he replied with, "I can't tell you that." Maybe he didn't understand my question or something, but it didn't matter, for one of the passengers aboard the train sticking his head out the window answered my question, "Otwock." was his reply. "Otwock" I thought to myself, "Thank you."
I stepped in the train, and plopped down in the first available seat. I had made it, sweating and panting, but I was there. I was in the right train going where I wanted to go. Que sigh of relief. I thank the Lord that I was able to get my train. So many things didn't go as planned, but God still pulled it out, it just goes to show how He really is in control of every little thing.
You might think that this would be the end of my day, all I had to do now was get off at my stop when the train got there. But it was not to be...
It was nice to be able to just sit back and relax. After the time I had just had all I felt like doing was "nothing". There was a girl sitting across the isle and opposite from me who was quite garrulous; she was chattering non-stop on her cellphone. I didn't pay attention for the most part,I sat in my seat and switched between looking out the window at the dark outdoors, and looking around the train cabin; there's not much to do on a train. I could have gotten out my math which but I did establish that she was a very outgoing and friendly girl.
Things were going well, I was in my train heading home, and relaxing after my first day at work. Our train made another stop, at first I didn't think anything of it, the train was always stopping now and then to pick up and drop of people. But this time, the train didn't start going again.
I didn't know what was going on, but I figured there was some sort of problem and it would soon be fixed. After 15 minutes of not moving though, I began to really wonder what was wrong, especially since some of the people were getting out of the train and walking.
I knew that I still had a long ways to go before I got to where I was going, so I just sat tight, and besides, during her conversation the girl had said something about gong to Falenica, I forget exactly what she said, but from what I heard, she lived in Falenica and that was where she was going.
Now, Falenica is a town/place that is not too far from where we live, it's not really close, but it's not too far. I had already decided that if worse came to worse, and everyone had to get out of the train, then I'd tag along with that girl and I'd at least be close enough to home so that I could call mom to pick me up.
The girl had stopped talking on her cellphone, and I thought about starting up a conversation with her to pass the time, but that's not really my style, I'm a very shy kind of guy, and I don't usually start any conversations, especially in Polish. But I did consider it. What happened was even better though, a guy in our cabin was walking past trying to look out the door to see if he could see what was going on. And he kind of started a conversation with the girl and sat down across from her and they talked. Which was perfect for me, I'll happily add to a conversation, but it's hard for me to carry one. So that's what I did, I would make comments and a few jokes, but for the most part the guy and the girl were carrying the conversation.
The minutes ticked by. I had called mom earlier when we were first stopped and told her that I didn't know when I was going to be back. Now she called me to ask me if I knew anything more, I told her I didn't know what time I would be back, but right as the words were coming out of my mouth I felt a bump, and we started moving. After being stopped for a little more than an hour we were finally back on the move.
We kept talking, and before we had to go our seperate ways I got their names, Michal and Monika, and also I took a picture. It's quite a bad picture quality wise, but I wasn't expecting much, considering that I was holding the camera at an arm's length, while in a moving train, which was not very smooth. Even though it's not good from an image quality standpoint, it's still an excellent picture, because it will always remind me of that train ride, and my frist job in Warsaw. :)
Well, that's about it, Monika was the first to get off, and then Michal and I talked some, he asked about what I do for school, and so I briefly explained Homesat, and DVD courses, something that is completly different to people over here, they've never heard about anything like it before, so it's always a challange to explain it because they have no context and it's hard for them to understand, but he seemed to understand pretty well after some explaining. We were then coming up to my stop so I said good bye, and got off the train. I called mom and she came and picked me up. I arrived at home a little after 21:00. (9:00 p.m. ) And that's how my first day at my job went. Sound like fun? :)
My second day was basically the same, except take out the getting lost, and not finding my train, and the train breaking down. :) So comparatively it was pretty boring.
