May 2002 Archives
I have been working now for four days in the international departement, and so far everything goes really well. The first two days, my colleague explained me all the ins and outs of FrontRetail, one of ICG's applications. And now I am working hard on the Dutch translation of this application. Must be easy for me, not? Indeed, not! Translating is a lot more difficult than I expected. Partly because the structure of the two languages is different, partly because I started with a badly translated version, partly because some words have more meanings, but most of all because my lack of knowledge of accounting.
Furthermore things go great. The office is absolutely beautiful (I still have to try out the swimming pool in the garden), my colleagues are helping me a lot and I am helping them (being the only tecnician in the office). The small problems every new office have like the absence of a coffee machine and an airco that works as a freezer will be solved soon.
I have been working a little bit more than six months now for Ricomack. During this time I have got to know Ricomack and the mother company ICG. I also have been able to transform myself from AIX/UNIX oriented into a generalist, since I have been working with Windows 2000, Windows XP, RedHat Linux, routers, networking, Point-Of-Sale systems, printers, the ICG software, ... I have to say that I really like my work, although sometimes the work is not exactly what I like to do (like repairing 10 year old PC's). But anyway, I feel comfortable in this company.
But last Friday I got an offer I couldn't resist. ICG wants me to be in their international 'department'. At this moment this department is operated by only one colleague, who is responsible for both the international sales and support. And that combination sometimes is a problem, because it is hard to support other clients being on an international sales visit. So now I am going to help in the support.
This morning I packed my new PC and went off to the new office. Let's see what we can do here...
That's it, it is over now. The Aplec del Caragol has finished. The aplec is a big feast with 'eating snails' as a central theme. But in fact it is a lot more. It is about eating, drinking, culture, meeting old friends, music, ...
On the applec groups of people (collas) spent one weekend together on the festival terrain. There are about 120 collas, with each 50--100 members. Members pay an amount of money, for which they can eat and drink during the whole weekend. Every colla has it's own space on the terrain, provided with a small bar, tables and chairs, BBQ's and usually also (live) music. Every members wears the shirt and the scarf of his colla. Some numbers: besides the 12.000 members of the collas, another 200.000 people have visited the aplec. In all, 12 tons of snails have been consumed!!!
The family of MJ is a member of colla 'Picarols' and I was lucky enough to be able to join their colla. Also to my luck, this colla wears white shirts with a blue print as oposed to others which wear white shirts with pink dots, purple shirts with green print...
It was a great pleasure to pass all the collas and watch how every colla has it's own way of passing the weekend. Another thing which I like a lot, is that it is an activity for everybody. Sometimes three generations of one family are present on one colla.
There is only one backdraw: I think that if your not within a colla, it might not be as much fun. But maybe the 200.000 visiters think different about it... I enjoyed it a lot at least.
This week we are in the middle of two major parties in Lleida.
Last weekend we celebrated the 'Festa Major', because the patron of Lleida, St. Anastasi has it's day om May 11th. There were plenty of activities organised through the whole weekend. For MJ and I, the weekend was even more special, because we had some visitors from Holland to join us: Berry and Manon.
On Friday night we started calmly. After having supper in a restaurant we went to the Camps Elisis. There was a big festival terrain with some big bars outside, a luna park and a hall for concerts. OK, I have to admit that the concerts were not so good, but maybe that's only because I'm not a big fan of Boney M.
On Saturday we did some sightseeing (La Seu Vella) and saw the children in traditional clothes offer flowers to St. Anastasi. In the evening we went to see the 'correfoc' (difficult to explain, but it has to do with jumping and a lot of fireworks).
Sunday we saw the 'Moros i Cristianos'. First the presentation in the streets of Lleida and later the show at La Seu Vella. Their clothes were really incredible.
The coming weekend there is another party, the 'Aplec de caragols'. If I have time I will write about is next week....
One thing I noticed over here is that there is more paperwork. Maybe I only have this impression because I am an immigrant, but I think that in general people use more forms and official papers.
I am living in Catalunya for half a year now (yes, time flies) and today I received a notice that my request for a residence card is honoured. can you imagine: 6 months for reading a request, finding out that I'm from the EU and approving it!!
The letter which told me all this was completely unreadable, because all the references to the different laws involved. Anyway, I am ready to collect my residence card.
All I have to do (if I understand it right) is take the blue form (type XXX, model XXX, approved by XXX and of course with four copies), go to the bank, pay 5,06 euros, take the signed blue form, the yellow form (type YYY, model YYY, approved by YYY, signed by my boss and of course with four copies), 3 foto's and the unreadable letter (number ZZZ, approved by ZZZ, and hey, without copies?) and bring it during working hours to their office.
Luckily MJ knows the procedure, and also knows that the address on the letter is not the right one. I love paperwork!!!!!!
Ah, and the best of all: after a procedure of 6 months I will receive a card that is valid for 4 months. In other words: I should have asked the next card in February!
