Relief

So, I really, really do not want this to be a blog about work for many reasons, but briefly:

I LOVE MY JOB.  I really, truly love it.  I went in today for the first "real" day of work (which most people skipped - apparently, the Easter holiday is never ending).  I had a meeting with my supervisor, which was fantastic.  I got a bunch of work done on old projects, and started working on ideas for some new projects ... Overall, it was a great, great work day!

At 4 I had my first Spanish class.  They offer free Spanish classes four days a week for an hour a day where I work, which is pretty incredible.  I had planned to just briefly meet with the teacher to discuss what I would need to do to catch up with the class.  I talked to her briefly in Spanish and she told me she thought I'd be fine in the class (maybe even ahead).  The class went well.  I was nervous, but I understood almost everything that was going on.  The teacher is sending me a test to see if the class might actually be too easy - but we'll see how that goes.  My supervisor is also taking the class, and afterward he complimented me on my Spanish.  The teacher also said I had a great accent ...

Which gave me confidence to go to the market when I got home and actually talk to the owners.  Their refrigerator for their meat broke after the Easter holiday (the guy told me it worked all weekend - he came downstairs to check on it - and then this afternoon it just quit).  Anyhow, the chicken was being stored in their cheese section fridge.  So I asked him, in Spanish, if I could please buy some chicken breasts.  He then talked to me the whole time he was trimming them and slicing them thin for me.  I also managed to find some fish (although it is frozen).  I have also been looking for chicken stock and, miracle of miracles, I remembered the word for "stock" in Spanish (Thank you Notes In Spanish Podcast).  I asked the guy if they had any, and sure enough, hiding on a shelf behind some other bottles, there it was!  I practically danced to the counter, where his wife was waiting to ring me up.  She chatted away in Spanish while packing up my things in a bag (usually she makes me do this myself).  She even double bagged the frozen items for me.

I got home feeling really, really happy.  I even got invited to go out with some people Friday night, so I was even happier.  I put together some slides for another meeting I'm having with my supervisor tomorrow.  And I have Spanish again tomorrow!  So I'm going to study some more tonight and try to cook one of the things I cooked in Chicago (a super easy chicken with olives).  Hopefully, I'll have enough for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow!

I'm starting to feel more and more settled, and I think having this job to go to every day will make a huge difference.  I really do love what I do, and I have pretty much free reign here to do what I want to in terms of research.

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I totally forgot to post this before I cooked dinner.  There was a lot of improvisation in the meal, since I don't have flour, cumin, shallots or parsley.  But I do have a lot of other delicious things, and I cooked such a tasty meal!