Waking up 5 days a week with the following thought "I should get ready for work" and turning around in my bed for another couple of minutes of sleep. Once I've woken up, I drag myself to the bathroom: shower and get dressed. I walk downstairs, make myself a cup a coffee and if I have some more time left, I watch one episode of 'Friends' on my television. At 10.58am I tell my brother: "We should go" and we get into the car, we drive towards Ham - Kwaadmechelen were the french fries are waiting for us. Every morning we get there around 11.15am and the first thing I always do is, get myself a clean apron and make some more coffee to get through the day. If the coffee doesn't help there's still Redbull - which tastes so much better than the one they sell in China. Once we get there, I always check if everything is refilled. Usually, the mother forgets about the little things and the little things make the difference. 5 minutes after I'm settled down there, the first customers already walk in and tell me what they want to eat. That's the start of my day, every day ...
1.30pm, time for lunch and around 2pm we drive back home for 2hours. I can't imagine staying in that place 11hours a day. My parents do, but my brother and me we always go back home for 2hours. He is playing a game on his computer, I watch Grey's or 'study' or watch some television. Surprisingly how fast the time goes, in a blink of an eye, it's already 3.58pm and I tell my brother the same sentence as in the morning: "We should go". 4.15pm is the time that we arrive at the french fries place - there is no English word for it - and before we know it, people are standing in front of me again, pointing to different kinds of meat and looking at me weirdly because there are Chinese people standing behind the counter. From that moment on, time goes by really quickly, people keep on walking through the doors and before I realize it, it's already 10pm. Time to close everything down and start cleaning. Because .. tomorrow is another exciting day! I come home around 10.45pm, watch an episode of my favorite show and I head to bed around 1.30am. 8hours later, my alarm goes off and the same day restarts. You'll probably all think 'Whuuut? She has 8hours of sleep every night!' I need 8hours at least, you'll feel in your legs after just one day of standing there. This goes on for 5 days a week. Except on Wednesday and Thursday, those days I luckily don't have to smell like french fries or burn my arms to the oil.
This is so much different than the life I was living barely 2 months ago. I'm not saying that I don't like to work, I was raised by my parents knowing that I NEED to work during the weekends, holidays, etc. It has been this way since I was 14. But when I got the chance to go abroad and study the language that I wanted to study. I forgot about the weekends that were filled with working. I started enjoying my weekends, I could go out till 7am and not having to wake up at 10.30am on a Sunday to start working till 9pm. I could wear tracksuits on Sunday and didn't have to do my hair because, who would care? Barely 2 weeks after I got back from China, I started working again in the weekends and also during the week. It was like I never left Belgium. I got sucked into my regular life in Belgium. My plans to study for HSK level 6 are just not possible. So I've decided to take it easy on Chinese and just focus on working for my parents till I leave Belgium again. This blog sounds so sad and depressing. Sorry guys!
It is true. Once you get back to your country after living or studying abroad, your life in your own country sounds and seems not challeging. I've heard this many times before from other friends who lived abroad and with that I can say, they're truly right. I'm still missing China like crazy. Thank god I'm busy every day, so I don't really have time to think about it. But I can not wait to go back there and do my own thing. Study some more Chinese and maybe start looking for a job over there. I'm turning 25 this year and I'm still not working, student for life, lol. My friends who are 25 all have a "great" job, dating and living by themselves. Me on the other hand, I'm still studying and I can't really imagine myself working right now, behind a desk, with a computer, at 8.30am in the morning with a grumphy mood. I'll prospone that for another year and in the meanwhile I'll just continue baking some french fries for another 2 months and head out to the East and discover what it has to offer for me. But before I continue my adventure in the East, I would like to start another adventure in the West. Not here in Europe, but somewhere further West, lol. I'll be spending some time in New York City within 3 weeks. Therefore, to get the money, I'm obligated to work 45hours a week. I just keep in the back of my mind 'NYC, NYC'.
I'll keep you posted!
Kisses from Belgium.
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