Track 3 And 3 Fishes

On Sunday a young couple appeared in the restaurant during the dinner. The boy was German and the girl was Finnish, they'd met while working here two years ago, and now they'd come back for a holiday. Suuuper nice people. She instantly started speaking Finnish, and never ever in my life could I have expected the following: I felt like I couldn't speak my own language at all anymore! I felt completely stupid hearing some really strange Finnish coming out of my mouth. I've only been here for two weeks, for god's sake! I can only imagine what it will be like after six months. Anyway, she invited me to join them in the pub later, and I agreed to go — I haven't been to a real pub since I was a baby! (I was in Ireland with my parents in case you were wondering.) I had the next morning off so that's what made it possible. The pub is called The Three Fishes, it's only five minutes away. It was more modern than I expected. Yago, the Brazilian guy who works at Chatsworth, kindly offered to show me the way since he was coming, too. He offered to wait for me, which might have been a mistake because I was left alone to set up everything for the following morning and, let's put it this way, it took me quite a while to finish. Elina, Hannes, Tinsley and Agnieszka were already waiting for us when we got to the pub. It was well nice there, not only having company, but having good company. And the drinks are cheaper than back home!

I spent more time with Elina, Hannes, and Tinsley on Monday and Tuesday. We visited HMV (I got 11 movies for £32, how about that), played cards in my room, and went to The Three Fishes again to enjoy the Steak Tuesday. They said my room is big compared to some of the others! I also got some inside information about what's going on between all the people in the hotel. It's like Big Brother. The staff work together AND live together. It's no wonder there is a lot going on behind the scenes. I knew some of it, but that was like 10%. Elina told me she'd been here for 10 days, and by that time Hannes and her had become a couple. 10 days! Mad but cute. They were convinced there will be someone for me too at some point, all I could say was "We'll see about that...". "That's exactly what I said", pointed Hannes out.

I had to make an appointment to finally get a national insurance number, really important if you work in the UK. I went to the nearest Job Centre thinking I'd speak to someone, book the appointment and that's it. Instead, I had to make a phone call AT the Job Centre to do that. I don't understand the idea. The lady on the phone sounded rude, especially when I didn't have the post code for the hotel. I had to call again, the second lady was very friendly and helpful. The appointment itself is in Brighton. Well, at least it gives me a reason to go there.

Doing my laundry for the first time in the laundry room: scary. I couldn't use the washing machine properly (I think no one can) though Kasia showed me the basic things. When I thought it was all ready, you know, nothing was happening and the "do not open" light had turned off, I opened it but it was still full of water. It was like a huge pot of soup. I was glad I only had the hotel's clothes in there, not my own! Right, close it again, push and twist every possible button. In the end I did manage to empty it. Then I dried the shirts in this super cool tumble dryer and voilà, clean shirts. I'll do better next time. Maybe.

Today, despite the unpredictable weather conditions, I went to the post office. I had to return the fucking Miranda DVD box for after happily opening the parcel it turned out to be a Michael McIntyre Stand-Up Collection, not the item I had ordered. Ouch, not a very good first impression of online shopping in HMV. I got some stamps at the same time so I can send postcards to my beloved friends. I also popped in a couple of stores in Montague Street, and now I have a mission: finding a perfect coat for winter.

The couple left Worthing today because they're heading to Finland tomorrow. The last thing they said to me before disappearing to the alley was "Wait for the boy!". Which leaves me no choice but to post the following song, track number three of the new Mumford & Sons album. And just to mention, this was not supposed to be the main subject of my today's post but it somehow came to this.

Mumford & Sons - I Will Wait

Quick And Clever Like The British Weather

Today the weather is finally what you would call "the British weather". It felt like autumn for the first time during my time here. It's starting to get colder and people are coughing. The girls told me it's going to get a lot worse, that in December we are like rats in here. There are radiators in the rooms, but for some reason they are not to be used. They're more like decoration. However, they told me not to worry, I could always buy one of my own. I (me whose friends are always freezing in my house) already sleep with three blankets so I might just have to do that. I've got no desire to go out in the grey wind and rain what so ever and I've got a couple of hours until the dinner service, so blogging it is!

Yesterday I had a mini heart attack. It was 6.20 in the morning, I had just got out of the shower like five minutes ago when suddenly the smoke detector started to ring. First I thought I had done something that caused it in my room, but after opening the door to the dark and empty corridor I understood it wasn't only me, all the alarms were screaming. People started to appear from their rooms pointing at the fire exit door, which it's right next to mine. I already pictured the whole building burning down. We got out, the staff and the hotel guests. There we were, standing in the garden opposite of the main entrance. I felt sorry for the old people wearing their pastel pyjamas. Thank god it wasn't my day off, that wouldn't have been a very pleasant way to wake up. Soon we were told to get back in, it had been a false alarm caused by a hairdryer. Later I found out it was Kasia's. After the incidence I was paranoid about drying my own hair — two false alarms a day would be embarrassing.

During the breakfast service I got my first tip ever! Five quid for being "most helpful". To be honest, I don't even know what in particular I had done to earn that. Actually, I'm not even sure whether we're supposed to get any tip and so on, but it pretty much made my otherwise shitty morning. You could say my feelings come and go in waves. And no, I'm not an unstable person as far as I'm concerned! The mornings aren't always so nice: it's dark, it's cold, the idea of getting out of your warm bed is unbearable. It's gloomy in the bathroom. You've got many hours of working ahead. Those moments really make me miss my warm dog lying next to me, as weird as it ever sounds. At work I like the special events. You have to be extremely careful to make sure you do everything right, but overall people seem to be on a good mood, and we've got time to chat every now and then. The last two nights the hotel hosted a wedding. I was suddenly in the middle of something exactly like "Four Weddings UK". It was quite interesting. And for my luck someone else served the bride so I didn't have to worry about dropping a greasy potato on her white dress. The food for the late-night buffet of the first wedding looked and smelled sooo good (it's not always like that, no offense). Unfortunately I had other jobs to do after setting up the buffet so I didn't get to see the party people on the dance floor, they had a DJ and everything! Other jobs a.k.a polishing 260 glasses and the cutlery (FYI it's not just fork and knife...) for 60 people. Among other things. I'm glad we were two.

Rumour has it (actually it's more than a rumour, this info came from a rather reliable source) there's going to be new employees. Three more French people and.. drumroll please.. two FINNISH girls. Two fucking Finnish girls. Yeah, that was what I first thought. However, after some deeper pondering I came to a conclusion that it might be both, good and bad. I'm not going to be able to avoid Finland anymore, but who knows, we may somehow click. I can also pay back the French by chatting in Finnish right under their noses. Fingers crossed the Finns nice! By the way, LOL, Carlos seems to be very keen on me, he always wants to talk to me, probably cause I speak Spanish. I don't always understand half of what he's on about, but mayormente I do. For three days he's been joking about me looking more like Norwegian or German than Finnish, because one day I happened to wear braids in my hair. He finds himself very funny. It's alright, though, helps me keep Spanish alive. With the others it's mostly going fine, I don't want to flatter nor criticise anyone in particular in case some of you read this. (I knew You would, that's why!) Not that there was anything bad to say, of course...

Here's what it looks like at this very moment:

The buss station from my window

Cheerful, eh?

See the red leaf!

Rizzle Kicks - Even On A Rainy Day

Anything Could Happen

It's been a week. It doesn't feel like a week, though. It feels like anything but a week. It's a lot more than just a week and it's far less than a whole week — confusing. Like I'd been here for ages, but like this was just the very beginning (which it of course is). Know the feeling? I've seen and learned so much, but got so much to see and learn. For now I've been just fine spending most of my spare time on my own. As much as I enjoy the company of my lovely self, I'm starting to think I really wouldn't mind some other company, too. It's somewhat difficult to hang out with the other waiters because we all work at different times (when we're not ALL working) and I'm the only one of us living on the 2nd floor. We'll see.

As I told you, I had two free days. Ah, they were well needed! On Monday I wandered around the town realising it is located between green hills and the sea. Not bad. I was delighted to finally find my local HMV. It's for sure the kind of store I would marry if you could marry a store. There are at least two must-have albums going to be released in a month: Mumford & Sons, "Babel", and Ellie Goulding, "Halcyon". Luckily enough tomorrow is payday... It's crazy how many of the bands only few Finnish people know are almost mainstream in England. That is to say, pretty much every band I listen to. (Does that make ME English mainstream, btw?) I discovered Boots and some other basic stores. I grabbed fish & chips for dinner and was slightly disappointed for the people working in the Fish&Chips place weren't British. I'm starting to sound like a racist, aren't I? Well, I most definitely don't mean to! It's just.. hello? Great Britain, British people? No? 

In the evening, looking through the TV guide of The Daily Mail I had bought earlier that day I discovered an interesting romantic drama called Leaving on ITV1 and watched it on the internet. Surprisingly, the setting was a hotel and one of the two main characters was a waiter. There were Polish girls working. Even the toast racks were exactly like the ones we use. I was like what is this sorcery! It was clearly a sign, I was meant to watch it. Even if all British hotels were more or less the same. I thought I'd watch some more TV so I watched an episode of Miranda. Not many comedies literally make you laugh out loud but Miranda's one. I absolutely LOVE her. I'm going to buy a DVD box.

On Tuesday I had decided to finally clean and organize my room. I rubbed the filthy sink and dug out someone else's long, brownish hair, disgusting, hoovered the carpet, even washed the windows. After that I took every last thing out of my suitcase and placed it somewhere. It's a thousand times nicer in here now and it feels more like home! And so it is, as it hit me one day, I'M NOT A TOURIST. When I had finished my room I rewarded myself by walking to the pier to see the sunset for the first time. It was ridiculously beautiful, and I was more than happy not having listened to the little voice inside my head telling me not to bring my camera along.

Somehow I feel frustrated. Perhaps I should go outside right now, it's still sunny. It's such a horrible waste to be inside while it's relatively warm out there cause it won't last for long. I'll probably regret it later. I have time and (compared to last week) energy. The reason why I'm not rushing out the door all the time is that I don't exactly know where to go. The pier again? M&S? I do need groceries. I mean, I could go to loads of places not having seen all of the town yet. But it would be just aimless wandering around, looking lost. Not to say there's anything wrong with that. Anyway, not today. What I'm really trying to say is that it's in my own hands. Sitting in my room for the next six months doesn't necessarily get me very far. I need to get out. Because only then...

Ellie Goulding - Anything Could Happen (kersaystävällinen versio)

Surroundings

Yesterday I forced myself (that probably came out wrong, I enjoyed it) to step outside with my camera in order to show you some of the things I've seen here so far. The weather was lovely, right now the sky actually looks like it might start raining, there are some quite angry-looking clouds up there. I'm finally off tonight so I don't have to do the dinner. One day I heard two of the guys joking about not having to do the dinner service: "Did you get laid last night or why are you on such a good mood? I can't think of any other reason!" "Nah, I don't have to come back for dinner." "Oh, that's even better actually...". That must say something, right? Tomorrow I'm off the whole day, as well as the day after tomorrow. They say next week's going to be more quiet so that's why. It's funny by the way, I should've said "this week" because here the week starts on Sunday, not on Monday. Errrrrm wtf.. I just saw a seagull sliding down the buss station roof on it's two feet — English birds, bloody hell! XDDDD Now, stop with the chit chit, stop with the chatter, here we go people, the first photos! :)

To get you in the mood while watching, this is exactly what it sounds like here, I mean the birds:
Metronomy - The English Riviera

Warwick Street

The Worthing beach

Marine Parade

Worthing Pier

My street

This Is Now My Home

Yes! I’m officially a Chatsworth Hotel waitress, with a name badge and a uniform. You’ll get to see some photos of that gorgeousness later. Here’s my Challenges Top 3 List:

1. Carrying big, heavy and what’s worse hot things.

2. Telling all the old ladies from each other to be able to give them the right dishes for they all look the same, dress the same and sound the same.

3. Remembering everything they teach me.

For starters, let’s go back a couple of days. Leaving home. One word: TERRIBLE. Luckily it got better very soon, sooner than I thought. I haven’t been feeling homesick at all yet. On the aeroplane I sat next to a very annoying-seeming guy who was a couple of years older than me. He was sitting with a woman whom I assumed to be his sister (it couldn’t have been his girlfriend???) They kept arguing over money. I spent the 2 hours and 50 minutes in some sort of not-sleeping-yet-not-awake state. From Gatwick I took the train to Worthing, following a nice old couple who told me where to get off. I later realised it would have been really easy to tell anyway. Then I got in a taxi, the driver spoke so bloody fast I didn’t understand a thing, he might have said I’ll be sound in Chatsworth. Once I stepped into the hotel (actually even before that, on the stairs) everyone was being so nice to me. “D’you need a hand with your machine gun?” The man was talking a about my guitar and helped me carry it. The first taste of the British politeness.

So here I am, sitting in my own little room. It’s meant for the hotel staff so it’s definitely not luxurious but it’s alright. I need to tidy it up myself a little bit when I’m not this tired. They told me I’m the only girl on the 2nd floor, however, I’ve only met my next door neighbour, Carlos. He’s a kitchen porter and Spanish. I was hoping for Spanish neighbours but he’s a bit old, haha. I think he’s on the computer outside of his room in the corridor again for apparently he hasn’t got a functioning WiFi in his room. Lucky me! From my window I have a lovely (you should know I’m sarcastic) view to a parking lot where the Union Jack patterned double-deckers are left to rest every night. I can hear the seagulls and smell the sea so I know I’m on the seaside. I like to keep the window open so the room stays fresher, gotta love the wall-to-wall carpet. I can hear the cars, music floating from other people’s windows (right now it’s Adele, someone seems to be feeling blue, Someone Like You is playing for the second time in the last 15 minutes), and what’s best, I hear British people. The thing is, 90% of the staff are not local. Even the two managers are of foreign background and their English is broken. One of them is Spanish so that will certainly do but, to be honest, I’d rather be told what to do in an authentic British accent so I could catch it. I have fellow workers from Poland, France, Brazil and Spain. And one English lad. ONE. He said I sound like I’d been living in Cambridge for ten years. I don’t know whether that’s good or bad. He says it’s good, though. All of them are very friendly and got sense of humour, which is a relief. But for now everyone’s just “trying to be British” (or not) and making fun about being British, just like myself: “LOVELY, INNIT BRUV?” I’d like to get to know locals so bad but I guess the time will come later… I’m staying positive.

The work is hard. It would absolutely kill you if the fellow staff weren’t so nice. This is my third day and I’ve already gone through three breakfast services and two dinner services. In the morning I get up before six and work till twelve. In the evening we work from six to ten. It’s difficult to get more than six hours of sleep. It’s the same routine every day. Between the two shifts I have spare time, but for now I’ve been so exhausted I’ve barely left my room unless I wanted to go to the toilet. It’s not that I don’t want to, but it’s physically impossible. On the first day I took a short walk to the beach, which is only about 100 meters away cause I had to get at least some idea about where I am. Then I found a Tesco and bought something to eat in the mornings so I wouldn’t have to work for 5 hours with an empty stomach — the staff gets to eat AFTER the breakfast service. I also bought a Company Magazine for £1, in Finland you have to pay 5,30€! Madness. I’m looking forward to my first day off so I can do some exploring. There are still so many things that need to be taken care of, mostly paperwork and shit. But what I really need is a decent night’s sleep. Please, thank you!

I'll get back to you,

Vilma

Ed Sheeran - This City

Tonight's The Kind Of Night Where Everything Could Change

I’ve never been a blogger. However, this feels like the right time to start being one. Most of you reading this already know me, but for those who don’t: Hello, nice to meet you. Although it’s actually you meeting me and not the other way around. The people who know me are also very aware of what’s going on, but for those who aren’t: I’m swapping Finland for England. I like the poetic sound of that. By the time you read this I will be heading towards my new home/workplace, a hotel in a seaside town in East Sussex. I fly to London’s Gatwick and take a train to Worthing. I’m hoping it won’t rain, that would be a very unwanted extra to my biggest concern of the moment, which is, dragging along all my stuff. A suitcase, a huge backpack, and a guitar. So Mother Nature, watch your trollface.

My feelings are (excuse my language but lighter expressions wouldn’t be descriptive enough) fucking mixed. On one hand it’s so unbelievably relieving to get out of here for a change because I could totally use some new, fresh seaside air. On the other hand it’s almost heart-breaking. Not the actual being away part but the saying goodbye part. I don’t like doing it, I’m not good at it. Besides, I’m only going to be away for half a year so it shouldn’t be too much for anyone to bare! We all know how fast the time ticks after all. Still, I'm not underestimating it. It is, without a doubt, slightly (more than that to be perfectly honest) frightening to leave everything I know. My friends, some of whom seem to think living in England equals non-existence. My family, for 3 weeks is by far the longest time we’ve ever spent apart. My LIFE — yet sometimes I feel like there’s nothing for me here. The first few weeks in England are not going to be easy, that’s for sure, but I’m trying to keep in mind how much I’ve wanted to do this. A LOT. Everything still feels surreal. But first of all I’m excited! Always use the word excited instead of nervous.

So, as you might have noticed, this is basically my public diary (sorry folks, I do have a PRIVATE one as well!) and probably the easiest way of keeping a bunch of people updated of my moves on the foreign shore. I’m not sure how many people are going to be bothered reading my stories, but I hope I can call it a bunch! Thank you, my friends, for all the nice words and thank you Linda for the CD, I’ll be listening to it on the train. Also Kersa, I think you should keep posting about your life on Blogspot! Finally, I have a little wish. There’s going to be music related to each text and I’m asking you to always take a listen for it’s an important part of the post.

No matter whether we know each other or not, I warmly welcome you to join my journey,

Vilma

Noah And The Whale - Tonight's The Kind Of Night