Working in Iceland: the beginning of my story :)

Until now I haven't told you much about my work experiences in Iceland.
I waited 2 long winter months to get my first job opportunity in the wonderful land of fire and ice. So let's come back to the Icelandic wintertime for a while.


'WELCOME TO HELL!'

In the first decade of March I was proposed to work in the hotel with breakfasts. As I already had the experience of being waitress at very popular restaurant in Barcelona in my students times, I thought it would be quite easy job, only with breakfasts. I tried it out only for one day.. and immediately realised what was it all about!!! When I came to the hotel kitchen on Tuesday early morning the big guy who was washing the dishes (and appeared to be a funny Polish guy later on) greeted me with this sentence: 'Welcome to hell!'. And he was damn right!
Not enough staff to deal with more then 300 people coming to the breakfast every morning. It was very hot in the kitchen and the work had no end.. running, cutting, cleaning.. on and on and on.. for 8 hours non stop, only 1 break for the meal. At least the staff were nice: Slovakian girl working at the same hotel for 5 years, the big Polish guy, Spanish guy and Romanian woman. And me as an additional help at the beginning.

The work supposed to be from 6 to 14, also on weekends, so it would be extremely tough for me as I like to sleep long in the mornings and mostly travel in Iceland during the weekends. And my legs hurt so badly after long running hours with the fully loaded tray.. Even the hotel was only 15 minutes walk from my flat. In that moment, I thought that I would not have a choice, but fortunately during the same week, just before I started the scheduled job at this big and popular hotel I got another proposal!! And I went for it!

 





MY FIRST JOB IN ICELAND

I got a job as a housekeeper at the residency of very friendly and distinguished couple, the French ambassador and his wife. Service, ironing, cleaning..  and French style, silver cutlery and dishes, huge old house. I really liked this big old-fashioned house, around 400 m2 big I guess.  It was only 4 hours in the morning and all weekends free. I was so happy to accept this job and refuse the hotel one! I even photographed that house in January, much before I got that job, it looked somehow attractive..
And in the same week when I started to work there for a trial month I got another perfect proposal!!! I was feeling so happy! I couldn't believe my luck!!!
I started the housekeeping on Wednesday and already on Friday I got the interview to work with school kids during after school classes in one of the most prestigious and multicultural schools in Reykjavik! Just 3 minutes distance from the place where I lived! One of my close Polish friends was leaving this fantastic work and recommended me. So I started the new job just after the weekend, since Monday, March 17 :)))

And so the story goes. For one month I was having both works going on bike from one place to another, as I had less then 1 hour to get back home at Grettisgata, change my clothes and had something for lunch. The job at the residency ended just few days before Easter as the trial period came to the end. I felt quite sad but relieved, because it was really tough and I was always in a hurry with more and more tasks..
Fortunately, I got also some extra hours as a waitress at the French-Icelandic 'Le bistro' at Laugavegur, the main street, and also some French banquets. I've been working there from time to time, mainly in the mornings.

FREE TIME IN FRISTUNDA

I am very fond of my work with kids, it so creative! It's a big pleasure and fun! I am learning Icelandic with them, sometimes speaking English or even Polish with some of the kids. It's kind of leisure centre offering a lot of nice activities for them with very friendly and loving staff. I really enjoy the positive atmosphere there, we are almost like family. My colleagues are mostly Icelandic although one of my closer soul mates is Lithuanian girl, artistic photographer. Other crazy girl from the States is a film maker. We are a pack of interesting people though :))
Thanks to this work I am developing my artistic skills and getting more involved in the Icelandic society. Just look at the examples of my funny work, elephant and turtle, the work is just about having fun and doing nice things! :)

And as I am working for Reykjavik City Hall, I have free access to all the city swimming pools, museums and some other nice social benefits. Yep, here we have Scandinavian social welfare system ;)

The school year is finishing soon, around June 6th. So there are about 3 more weeks of work still to go. And this week I should know more about my summer work in one of the restaurants, the neighbour one with big logo of heart, Moroccan interior design and nice chill out music.

And the good news is that I already know  I will be continuing my work at school with kids since the beginning of the new school year which is around 20th of August!!! I am very happy about it :)))







 MY FILM CAREER ;)

And yes, there's still one more interesting work experience to write about.. I worked at the film set in the end of April, they were shooting commercial for one of the biggest companies in the world and I was doing extra on the set. Only for one day. They took us, colourful people from all the continents, to Keflavik airport to play passengers there.. And we were having a lot of fun on the set, eating nice food and having chats! I hope to see the results of this work soon, for sure I will share them with you, my readers :)



This is the photo done just after the closing of the film set, that's one of nice Icelandic guys I met there.
More news coming soon.. :)