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This has been a strange week, work just got really busy since all the new season stuff is coming in so lots of boxes and stock to deal. But I never find that too stressful as long as I can just go at my own pace and so do a lot of big orders then a couple of small ones, I'm pretty happy. Also, Nathalie, my supervisorish person wasn't in on Wedensday and Thursday, so I truly had control and was able to feel good about what I got done. Sadly she came back on Friday and went right into telling me what to do without even an aknowledgement of the good job I actually did. This is the main reason I have a hard time working with her since I rarely get any sort of praise or respect, I'm just the temp who's there to do the stuff that needs to get done and she doesn't want to do. So at times, I don't really want to do the job because she asked me. While if a department head says, could you keep an eye out for this order or let me know when this is done, I'm always glad to since most of them are truly grateful for what gets done. Basically I've just vented a lot of this to Rowan in the past half hour or so and he's told me to talk to Phillip, who runs Operations for Arthur Barnett Dunedin and I think a bit of Christchurch, and he's nice, busy and knows I'm a good worker since every time I try and get away from Arthur Barnett he pulls me back again. Things haven't always been quite this bad, especially when Denise was around, Denise is a wonderful woman who's worked at Arthur Barnett for 27 years and is nice and funny and thinks well of people. She's not here at the moment since she recently got shoulder surgery and is on sick leave. So I'm stuck butting heads against Nathalie and trying to get my job done without feeling too ordered about and just yelling and being annoyed in the elevator. Okay, enough bad stuff.
In good news, I talked to a classics professor at Victoria University, who's interested in orality and literacy too, which is what I want to do my masters and onwards about. We had a nice 15 minute phone conversation and then I ran out of money on my mobile phone. I just received from him a wonderful email full of people to talk to in New Zealand and the US and scholarships and lots of ideas about starting on the right road for graduate school. The full on searching won't really happen till I get back to the States since work leaves me with no energy for planning too much of the future. I feel hopeful though.
After this phone conversation that happened at the Percolator, Rowan and my favorite cafe in town, Rowan surprised me with a beautiful black jade pendant that I'm wearing now. Its very simple, just a circle, but it has depth and is unusual and lovely. Then we read (we're both currently reading books from Bujold's Vorkosigan series) and sat for a while. We then did something quite fun and silly and spent three dollars at the arcade, bopping crocodiles with a mallet and then playing a really old school simpson's fighting game. Bought candy with our tickets and went out to find some good videos. We watching Without a Paddle (if you liked Harold and Kumar, you'll like this, just other side of the country) and Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, a lovely, bittersweet Scottish film, I recommend it, but it helps to be holding someone you love while watching it. That's about it, we slept in late today and went and read in the sun since its Spring and then sat in the Botanic Gardens cafe and had crepes and tea and read more. I don't know what we'll do tonight, but I'm feeling better. Rowan is really good to me, because he listens to me talk about hard stuff at work and says, okay its bad, how do we fix it. Which is what I need to hear since I can be quite good at saying, well I won't be there much longer I can put up with it. So that's a challenge for next week. And its scary to think how little time I have left in New Zealand, but at least I know that there are possibilities and allies for graduate school here.
In good news, I talked to a classics professor at Victoria University, who's interested in orality and literacy too, which is what I want to do my masters and onwards about. We had a nice 15 minute phone conversation and then I ran out of money on my mobile phone. I just received from him a wonderful email full of people to talk to in New Zealand and the US and scholarships and lots of ideas about starting on the right road for graduate school. The full on searching won't really happen till I get back to the States since work leaves me with no energy for planning too much of the future. I feel hopeful though.
After this phone conversation that happened at the Percolator, Rowan and my favorite cafe in town, Rowan surprised me with a beautiful black jade pendant that I'm wearing now. Its very simple, just a circle, but it has depth and is unusual and lovely. Then we read (we're both currently reading books from Bujold's Vorkosigan series) and sat for a while. We then did something quite fun and silly and spent three dollars at the arcade, bopping crocodiles with a mallet and then playing a really old school simpson's fighting game. Bought candy with our tickets and went out to find some good videos. We watching Without a Paddle (if you liked Harold and Kumar, you'll like this, just other side of the country) and Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, a lovely, bittersweet Scottish film, I recommend it, but it helps to be holding someone you love while watching it. That's about it, we slept in late today and went and read in the sun since its Spring and then sat in the Botanic Gardens cafe and had crepes and tea and read more. I don't know what we'll do tonight, but I'm feeling better. Rowan is really good to me, because he listens to me talk about hard stuff at work and says, okay its bad, how do we fix it. Which is what I need to hear since I can be quite good at saying, well I won't be there much longer I can put up with it. So that's a challenge for next week. And its scary to think how little time I have left in New Zealand, but at least I know that there are possibilities and allies for graduate school here.
