Day 2: My job

When I first got my job as personal assistant to an important, world-travelling architect I kind of imaged my life would be like Ryan Reynolds' in "The Proposal" or Anne Hathaway in "The Devil Wears Prada"...minus the whole boss being super evil part.  Turned out not to be the case.  I've spent most of my time being super bored and feeling totally worthless.  However, today was a great day, job-wise. I took minutes during a very important meeting with some clients from Turkey; I translated a presentation by one of the partners to a group of students from Washington State University; I had some good one-on-one time with my boss...bonding time if you will; gave another presentation to a group of students from Nebraska; hopped in a taxi and visited one of our completed works with the students; hopped back in the taxi to go home and had some good conversation with my boss on the way.

I actually felt valuable, and important, and necessary.  I felt like I was serving a purpose, and being active, and it was great!  I genuinely enjoyed showing off the gallery, presenting OAB's works, and visiting the Roca Gallery.  I work for a super talented group of people and my boss and the other employees are genuinely nice, good people.  At Christmas, my boss didn't even get a tiny bit mad that I ended up coming back to Barcelona 2 days late...instead, he rewarded me with an extra couple of days off.  If I'm ever going to be late for anything or need to change my lunch time, or anything, he's totally cool about  it.  I am sooo lucky to have this job, and to have the boss I have.I really like all the other people that work in the office too, especially one girl who I've gone out with multiple times.

In addition to all that, my office is beautiful.  I work in a world-renowned architecture firm, so it's like a given that their office should be amazing.  I have pride in what they do, and I think that's important.

I have always felt as though the Lord has placed me in exactly the jobs I need at exactly the right moments in my life.  I am lucky to even have a job right now, especially in Spain.  Unemployment here is at 23% nationwide, and about 50% for my age group.  Many of Yago's friends have been looking for a job for months and still have nothing.  Yago's sister, Raquel, who has her master's degree in something crazy like biotechnology and genetics or such, spent the last 2 years looking for a job.  She finally found one a couple months ago.  We work the same amount of hours per week.  I make considerably more money than she does.  And I don't have a master's...

So as much as I always complain about work, or worry about finding jobs, I have always been blessed with more than I could hope for.  And while everyday is not as awesome and fulfilling as today, it's still a huge blessing.  How lucky I am to live in Barcelona, to have a job in Barcelona, and especially a job that's not completely awful like tele-marketing or teaching English like most other English speakers here.  How grateful I am for the job that I have.

Just in case you're interested, OAB's (Office of Architecture in Barcelona) website is here.

And here's a photo I took from our Roca Gallery field trip today:

Also, I'd like to make a disclaimer.  My photos on here will not be works of art.  Most of them will be quick snapshots.  While I hope to work on my photography during this time, I mainly just want to get back in the habit of taking pictures.

That is all.