It took almost four months, but after a lot of applications and a number of interviews I ended up with a job for a green/sustainable energy organisation in my hometown of Basel. They really wanted me, which was lovely, the team is very nice, and I’ll be involved in an issue close to my heart: creating a future where we only use ‘clean’ energy.

I’ll be the office administrator and also help organise guided tours through participating energy plants starting in May. That’s very soon, so I spent this week running around Basel viewing flats. Very exhausting, but hopefully one of the applications I sent in will pay off and I’ll be able to move in a few weeks. I’m just glad I’m still with my parents in April, because my dad had some bad news about his cancer and needs another operation. This way I’ll be around, visit him in hospital and support my mom.

Altogether I’m very excited about starting this new phase – in a way it feels as if my grown up life only begins now. For the past few years I’ve always been in flux, always known that my situation would change in the not-too-distant future: uni graduation, internship, New Zealand, first real job that I knew would be temporary, Haiti, back to the parents… I never allowed myself to put down roots.

Now, I can look forward to building a more stable life for myself, with a permanent job, a nice flat (two rooms!), in my home town where most of my friends still live (as does my brother).

Following my dad’s suggestion I turned my Haiti blog into a booklet of sorts – he’s not that comfortable reading on the screen, so he wanted something printable. I even added some pics to break up the text. 🙂

Download: pdf, 1.2mb

Tomorrow I will go see a doctor – not because of my health, but because his secretary won’t be able to work for a month or two and I might be hired part-time to fill in for her. If it works out, it’s both good and bad. Good, because I’ll be able to earn some money instead of having to sign up for unemployment, and bad because it will probably take some focus away from finding a permanent job. Still, it’d be pretty stupid to throw away a chance like that – working in a doctor’s office definitely is on my list of ‘jobs that make sense’. 🙂

In other news, my dad wanted to put together my Haiti journal as a booklet of some kind to show people that are interested (ie. family members *g*). But seriously, my dad’s computer skills are very limited, and I simply could not face the prospect of my dad shoving nasty website print-outs in people’s faces (sorry, Papi!). So I offered to put something together myself, with pictures and everything.

I’ve barely started, but already the temptation to start editing and adding is very great. I’m determined not to do it, though, to let my journal stand as it is, just prettified with some of my photos. And possibly a map or two. And reading recs. But other than that, NOTHING, I tell you, nothing! *g*