What's Goin' On

[cimorene]

There's no new fandom content in the House of Cim'n'Wax. I've been reading books, occasionally watching things, and devoting a few hours here and there to keeping up with all my usual sources of shoes, in case something exciting came up with the new season (there are no new shoes I desperately want, really).

§ Dream Job! But interestingly enough, on New Year's Eve quite late at night Wax was surfing the Employment Bureau website and found my dream job - one of Turku's international daycares, located within about 20 minutes' walk of here in the Student Village and feeding into the local international school (partly because I quite want to work with other immigrants - preferably ones who are rather more adrift in Finland than I am, and whom I might be able to help a bit, and partly because I just do want to work with little children. You see, older children I find more assholey and generally unmanageable, but little ones are still charming even when they're bad - well, it's just a matter of preference, I guess, but preschoolers have always been my favourite age).

Anyway, in Finland a teaching certificate is required for kindergarten teachers, a special one, and another kind even for preschool teachers (it's a 2-year technical degree in being a 'carer'); so, the daycare seeking a permanent staff kindergarten teacher, I obviously couldn't do it. I mean, it's illegal to hire a permanent salaried employee for these functions who's underqualified. But there's a kindergarten-nursery school staff shortage on in Finland just now, which means unqualified substitutes are hired temporarily; so Wax told me to apply anyway, and I did. Despite having forgotten to translate my CV into English and forgetting even to attach it to the first email, I got a call yesterday from the daycare. They appear to be quite desperate, because the lady said, "Um... how soon could you start?" So I'm to report there at 9am Monday for an interview, but if she likes me, and I quote, "Could you start right away?" So. Um. YAY! But I'm also nervous about it.

§ old recs So that's what's goin' on. I've also been rewatching Austen adaptations and making icons of them, in between reading; and furiously transferring the last of my old recs page to delicious, having now got all the way through the Star Wars page, and most of the way through the "Miscellaneous" page. All my old Jeeves & Wooster, Jay & Silent Bob, Master & Commander, The Sentinel, etc are now on delicious; I'm in the middle of Smallville now. (And let me tell you - curiosity compelled me to look over the Jay & Silent Bob ones again since I haven't read them since, oh, 2003, when irisbleufic and I got into it at approximately the same time, and each wrote one ficlet, and then in a fit of UTTER insanity I actually wrote Kevin Smith/Jason Mewes RPS, too. My dark past! - But anyway, curiosity, and oh, dear, the offerings there were actually worse than I remembered. Which is hard to achieve! Because I hadn't forgotten the cringing! And I was compelled to leave some of them off because they were just too awful. Maybe I'll ask for some in Yuletide next year...)

§ Rewatching the original Star Wars Which reminds me that Wax said she DIDN'T WANT TO watch the original Star Wars trilogy with me. "I'm not a HUGE fan," she said. "You don't have to be a huge fan to watch it once every ten years," I said to no avail. Will someone else PLEASE watch with me?

Comments

[bluesbell.livejournal.com]

Wheee, dream job interview! How exciting! *crosses fingers and toes*

[anglepoiselamp.livejournal.com]

That is so, so cool about the job! If they have any sense at all they'll hire you right away. :)

And I could totally watch Star Wars. I do that several times a year anyway, when it's up on mom's re-watching rotation list. (Alas, the copies we have are the digitally remastered ones with annoying extra sparkliness and I'm not quite obsessed enough to buy a second set just to get the original versions.)

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I bought the un-retouched versions a couple of months ago when they finally came out, but I haven't watched them yet.

[vass]

Good luck with the job!

[sophiawestern.livejournal.com]

That's awesome! maybe if they like you well enough, they'll help you get your 2 year certification?

Two questions for you - how long did it take you to become fluent in Finnish (as I assume you are by now); and, are you technically a citizen there?

[cimness.livejournal.com]

No, I'm not. My Finnish is abysmal in fact. I am fluent in Swedish, which is my partner's native language and the language of the university I was at until a little while ago. It's also the second official language of the country, but that doesn't mean it's particularly easy to get by.

And I'm afraid they can't help me, because to take the certification in Swedish I'll have to move up the coast to the Swedish-speaking area of Ostrobothnia where it's taught in Swedish. Even assuming that I learned Finnish to the point of competency in the next couple of years (which I intend to do), I doubt my fluency would be sufficient, without more immersion than I'd have access to (without a huge personality transplant), to study at the university level, since Finnish is a non-Indo-European tongue.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Oh! And no, I'm not a citizen. I am a permanent resident now, though, as of quite recently. So I have social security (which is excellent in a socialist country like Finland) and can vote in municipal elections.