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Update on how things have been going on my end.
4 years ago
General
Man, it's been forever since I last wrote a journal in here, hasn't it? A handful of years since I opened up a bit here in FA. I don't even know where to start... Let's see...
I guess we should start with my degree. I finally finished studying it, and am officially a mathematician. Woo! Finally finishing that degree sure felt good. It was as if I had been relieved of a huge weight on my shoulders. After finishing that degree, I went back to Gran Canaria to take a few months off and rest for a bit, although when December came, we started making plans on my next move.
I traveled to the UK, trying to look for a good spot to settle temporarily while I found a university to study a Master's degree to complement my Maths degree, although soon I found a bit of a problem in the form of me not having an adequate certificate proving my level of English. So! I studied for a few months for the IELTS test and in the end I got a pretty solid score of 8/9. Now with that I could get into a university, hopefully. During this time, my mother had begun a new project all the way across the pond, in Colombia, no less. She wanted to build a hotel of her own. I was looking about for a university to study my Master's degree, as well as a job to help myself stay sustained while I searched, and between one thing and another... Well... The Covid crisis came back in 2020.
I couldn't find a job nor a uni then, had to stay indoors for a long time, crossing my fingers hoping that whatever money I had remaining would see me through. My mom and family had their own money problems too, so I couldn't get as much assistance as I would have liked. Eventually after some time, and once the border opened up again, we managed to save up enough money to book a flight back to Gran Canaria.
I thought things would be better there, but... They really weren't. There was a ton of unemployment in that island, specially considering the fact that the main economic engine of the Canary Islands is the tourism. And Covid kinda killed tourism, so... Plenty of people lost their jobs and closed down their businesses. I tried to look online for an employment and didn't find anything. I tried signing up as an employment seeker in (I believe was a government building?) but those didn't have the kind of employments I could do. They asked for a lot of nurses, and I'm sure as heck not a nurse. So... After a couple of months like this, eventually my mother lost her patience and told me to go to Colombia to help her out with her project.
The hotel is a bit of a rural-like building, one single floor, with the rooms spanning across a corridor that goes around the pool area. It's kinda pretty. It used to be a pretty old building in ruins at first, maybe about 50-80 years old. It got remodeled and renewed, turning it into a hotel in the span of one year. It was a costly project, more so in the middle of the Covid crisis, but it was mostly finished by the time I reached the country.
I arrived to Colombia a bit over a year ago, and being here has been... A constant struggle, to say the least. Workers not building stuff correctly, things getting broken, or lost, or not properly designed... Ever seen a shower or a bathroom sink without a drain? Me neither until I got here. Some of the people that have worked here were less than honest, and fixing those mistakes has costed us even more money. Eventually, the place was finally up and running! Although... It ran awfully slow, all things considered. If normal hotels were already struggling with the lack of people coming over, imagine a brand new hotel that nobody knew existed to begin with.
We've started to pick up now though! Surely we've had plenty of ups and downs over here, and over the last year I've been working as a receptionist in the hotel, the only one so far, and the one and only person to speak fluent English, which is a shame because 90% of our clients only speak English and don't know a lick of Spanish. And this is where I am now! Just giving a hand here and there whenever I can like some kind of assistant manager, trying my best to patch whatever hole I can find.
So there we go. In case anyone's been wondering how it has been for me as of late, there's an update for those interested.
Stay safe out there!
I guess we should start with my degree. I finally finished studying it, and am officially a mathematician. Woo! Finally finishing that degree sure felt good. It was as if I had been relieved of a huge weight on my shoulders. After finishing that degree, I went back to Gran Canaria to take a few months off and rest for a bit, although when December came, we started making plans on my next move.
I traveled to the UK, trying to look for a good spot to settle temporarily while I found a university to study a Master's degree to complement my Maths degree, although soon I found a bit of a problem in the form of me not having an adequate certificate proving my level of English. So! I studied for a few months for the IELTS test and in the end I got a pretty solid score of 8/9. Now with that I could get into a university, hopefully. During this time, my mother had begun a new project all the way across the pond, in Colombia, no less. She wanted to build a hotel of her own. I was looking about for a university to study my Master's degree, as well as a job to help myself stay sustained while I searched, and between one thing and another... Well... The Covid crisis came back in 2020.
I couldn't find a job nor a uni then, had to stay indoors for a long time, crossing my fingers hoping that whatever money I had remaining would see me through. My mom and family had their own money problems too, so I couldn't get as much assistance as I would have liked. Eventually after some time, and once the border opened up again, we managed to save up enough money to book a flight back to Gran Canaria.
I thought things would be better there, but... They really weren't. There was a ton of unemployment in that island, specially considering the fact that the main economic engine of the Canary Islands is the tourism. And Covid kinda killed tourism, so... Plenty of people lost their jobs and closed down their businesses. I tried to look online for an employment and didn't find anything. I tried signing up as an employment seeker in (I believe was a government building?) but those didn't have the kind of employments I could do. They asked for a lot of nurses, and I'm sure as heck not a nurse. So... After a couple of months like this, eventually my mother lost her patience and told me to go to Colombia to help her out with her project.
The hotel is a bit of a rural-like building, one single floor, with the rooms spanning across a corridor that goes around the pool area. It's kinda pretty. It used to be a pretty old building in ruins at first, maybe about 50-80 years old. It got remodeled and renewed, turning it into a hotel in the span of one year. It was a costly project, more so in the middle of the Covid crisis, but it was mostly finished by the time I reached the country.
I arrived to Colombia a bit over a year ago, and being here has been... A constant struggle, to say the least. Workers not building stuff correctly, things getting broken, or lost, or not properly designed... Ever seen a shower or a bathroom sink without a drain? Me neither until I got here. Some of the people that have worked here were less than honest, and fixing those mistakes has costed us even more money. Eventually, the place was finally up and running! Although... It ran awfully slow, all things considered. If normal hotels were already struggling with the lack of people coming over, imagine a brand new hotel that nobody knew existed to begin with.
We've started to pick up now though! Surely we've had plenty of ups and downs over here, and over the last year I've been working as a receptionist in the hotel, the only one so far, and the one and only person to speak fluent English, which is a shame because 90% of our clients only speak English and don't know a lick of Spanish. And this is where I am now! Just giving a hand here and there whenever I can like some kind of assistant manager, trying my best to patch whatever hole I can find.
So there we go. In case anyone's been wondering how it has been for me as of late, there's an update for those interested.
Stay safe out there!
