Pictureless Post

We don’t have oodles and kadoodles of exciting pictures and adventurous tales right now (as you may or may not be anticipating) because REAL LIFE HAS BEGUN! Tuesday was my first day of work, and Lowell’s first day back at his (distance) studies.

If I were to sum up this first week of work in one word, that word would be OVERWHELMING. I know that most jobs are overwhelming at first, but I shall provide you with a list of the factors that contribute to the overwhelmingness:

1. I’m in a brand new country.

2. I’m working with a whole different population (age 65 plus as opposed to my preschool experience last year) doing both communication and dysphagia (swallowing).

3. I’m working out of TWO hospitals, so that doubles the amount of names to learn and hospital-y things to become familiar with.

4. My job is 100% community service (i.e., home visits) all around Auckland. Auckland is a giant city, and I am a geographically challenged individual with no prior experience driving on the left side of the road.

5. The hospital cars that I am expected to drive are STANDARDS (or ‘manuals’ as they refer to them as here). I’m familiar with driving a standard at home (and actually prefer it), but this could get pretty interesting pretty quickly with my (less than competent) left hand controlling the stick.

6. NZ lingo is different, and it’s tricky deciphering the accent at times- especially when it’s an elderly person with speech and language difficulties.

7. One of my mentor/supervisors is only a few years older than me but is SO SMART and SO COMPETENT which gives me a slightly panicky feeling in the pit of my stomach because I want to be that smart and competent…NOW.

But, it’s not all gloom and doom, no siree. There are also positives:

1. My colleagues are super nice (and have wicked awesome accents to boot).

2. Orientation is THOROUGH. Like, 3 full weeks of shadowing each discipline involved with community care (social work, OT, PT, nursing, dietician…)

3. I have every Monday off.

4. I love old people.

5. WE HAVE A GPS. I don’t know what I’d do without Jill (the GPS). With her traveling with me, I can focus on all the lefty loosey goosey craziness.

6. I have an extremely amazing husband to come home to.

7. I haven’t made a complete idiot of myself yet, but there was one close call:

Me: Oh, are those pictures of your kids?

Colleague: Sure are!

Me: So you have 2 sons then?

Colleague: No. That one’s a girl.

Me: Oh… .... ... she’s cute!

What the heck. Who says that? It’s really tricky to recover from those awkward types of comments, but it was a good thing that Rachael is so super cool and fun and it didn't seem to faze her. (Whew!)

Hopefully next post will include an abundance of pictures and exciting adventures (or at least one of each). Until then...cheers!