Happy Halloween!

30 October 2016

I’ve had a nice, relaxing weekend and managed to get some sun tan too while walking outside yesterday! During daytime, the most appropriate outfit here for the weather is still shorts and a T-shirt.

This week at work we had two entire days of training about trademarks. Really interesting and lots of new information! I feel really privileged to be paid to learn.

Speaking of learning, now my Spanish classes begun. I skipped the very beginners’ class and was a bit nervous about how I would cope in the a-bit-more-advanced class. Luckily, I cope just fine and maybe the beginners’ class would have been even too easy, as I’ve learned already quite a bit on my own. The Spanish classes are actually quite fun and the teacher makes us talk a lot which I find quite efficient for learning.

Because of the daylight saving time, this weekend is one hour longer than a normal weekend and also Tuesday is off because of Halloween. That’s good because I really need some rest after my brain having been in a state of total overload like 90 per cent of my time here because of the challenging tasks at work and all that learning and all those languages, jeez.

I had no idea Halloween would be such a big deal here as it seems to be. Friday we went out with other trainees and lots of people were dressed up and now all stores and restaurants and even the EUIPO cafeteria are decorated with some pumpkins and fake spider web and stuff. And now one can’t help noticing, Christmas is coming too.. Christmas chocolates and decorations have invaded the best shelfs at supermarkets and El Corte Ingles also put up their Christmas lights. It’s funny, because to me it’s still summer! The shop windows are also quite funny with their winter coats and woollen hats and gloves and all that.. Especially as to me it doesn’t seem that the locals find the weather cold either and they still walk around in their summer clothes, but I don’t know, maybe winter comes here then like all of a sudden during one night, we’ll see..

With love,

Noora   

Sunshine and Hard Work

23.10.2016

 

Greetings from sunny Alicante! It’s still 25 degrees here, very nice :)

So now I got to really begin at work, after numerous trainings and introductions, it has now been a few days of actual work for me. And I couldn’t be happier with what I do! When I first came here, I was afraid that the trainees would only have non-legal or secretary tasks but no way: I get to really be part of the board that I work for and really participate, I have a lot of responsibility and I get to say what I think and I get to write legal texts. It’s hard work, but so interesting, and I learn an incredible amount of things about trademarks every day.

I guess I had some good luck to have been assigned to the Boards of Appeal, because some of the trainees work for example for the human resources department or a department which organises trainings for the staff here, and their tasks, I think, are mostly non-lawyer tasks.

Also in terms of working conditions, EUIPO is really great. We have reasonable and flexible working hours, nice restaurants – and a bakery (:D) in the building, we get to use the EUIPO gym for free, and everyone around are smart and helpful. Although, I still have to get to used to the fact that I am not allowed to do anything else myself than my actual work. Before, I have mostly worked for small entities and have been used to that if I want some office supplies, I’ll go to the store and buy some and if I want to use a computer, I’ll install it and the programs I need myself. Here it is different: There’s a guy to install your printer and a guy to bring you some office equipment if you need some, and believe it or not, but there’s guy to adjust your table height :D

I’ve spent quite long days at the office now, but it’s not all about work: during spare-time we’ve done all kinds of fun things with the trainees. We are about 80 trainees now, of I guess almost 20 nationalities, and all of us only began this autumn, so there’s always someone to accompany you if you want to come up with something to do. We’ve been out having some tapas together, had some house parties, been on the beach and so on. There have also been group sports activities – which I though unfortunately couldn’t participate so far because this cold I have been having, but later on I definitely will. I think my cold is now finally getting better. I believe now, that I know what caused it: the air humidity, which is something entirely new for me. Even if it so warm here, it’s so humid that often it feels like I’m wearing completely wet clothes. And so, even on warm weather I might feel a bit cold.

By the way, my Spanish classes begin on Tuesday, I’m excited :-) By far, it’s still been that basically every day I use some English, some French, some German, some Spanish and some Finnish. Which is great of course and I really enjoy practicing all of my languages. Still I hope to use more and more Spanish now every day and actually, I am improving. All everyday arrangements, shopping etc. I already manage in Spanish with no problems. Yesterday for example, I discovered that a cell phone cover I had bought earlier, did not fit my phone as well as I would’ve wanted it to, so I returned it – managing to successfully explain this to the clerk in Spanish made me kind of proud of myself!

With love,

Noora

First Days at the Office

12.10.2016

So, I had my appointment for the foreigner’s identification number. It was awful. I’m telling you, the way they treat people there is really inappropriate. But well, long story short, I finally got the identification number and that’s the most important thing.

And now I’ve also had two days at the office! The office building is really nice and newish although the air conditioning there is heavy duty, so I’ll take a scarf tomorrow to finally try and get rid of this sore throat. By now, it’s been all kinds of preparations, among other things we had a tour in the building, they showed us where we are going to be sitting and introduced us to the people at the office, we had this ceremony for the last day at work for the now leaving trainees of last year and all these kinds of things. Tomorrow is my first day of actual work and my supervisor already promised me some tasks, so I’m looking forward to getting started.

All trainees are assigned a supervisor, with whom they act in close cooperation. I was lucky to get a great supervisor and besides, he’s German, so I’m hoping to get to use some German at the office. As a whole, the office experience by now has been quite a melange of languages - I love it! Only yesterday, I spoke French with one of the trainee supervisors (she gave us a tour in our department in French because it seems, almost everyone around speaks it), English with the other trainees, Spanish with the IT-guys installing my computer and a little bit of German with my own supervisor.

About Spanish: We get to attend language courses organised by the office, so naturally, I signed up for a beginners’ Spanish course, vamos! I really want to learn the language now that I have this great opportunity to learn on the spot. Although, it’s not like I wouldn’t have been doing just fine even without it. It’s true that the locals don’t speak much English but if you have some imagination, you’ll cope. I admit that at the foreigners’ office, some knowledge of Spanish would have been helpful but anywhere else, using French words, hand gestures and sometimes drawings has been good enough. Besides Google translate is there for anything more complicated. Among other things, I chatted with an internet service provider’s tech expert about my internet connection in Spanish just using Google translate and got what I wanted. I still don’t have any flatmates, so I’m secretly hoping to have a Spanish one to have someone to practice my Spanish with.

So the past days have mostly been meeting new people. The other trainees are among other countries from France, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic, Poland, Macedonia, Finland, UK, Serbia, Lithuania and so on.. It’s a unique opportunity to get to meet people from different countries and everyone seems really nice, so I’m expecting a great year!

With love,

Noora