my first thanksgiving

its official

i have officially been accepted to the graduate program in projects in interior architecture. and i have officially moved to my new apartment in an awesome neighborhood. i still officially dont have a job for next year, and my best gringo friend here has officially left.

so officially im neutral. the good and bad have balanced themselves out today.

surviving frustration

so ive just survived my first working-world-fuck-over. this past week has been one of the most frustrating and disenchanting of my life. i found out that at the beginning of my contract my employer had original put me in category 2 on the payscale, and i trusted them so i let it be. 9 months later i find out that when someone has a university degree they automatically start in category 4, and with my previous experience i should have been put in a category 5. that means that over the past year, my employer has neglected to pay me over 2000 bucks, which is almost 4 million colombian pesos, which could pay my rent for the next 2 years. i felt extremely disheartened and "engañada" (its a strong word for tricked) when i found out, but now im alright. i have learned an extremely valuable lesson through all of this: never EVER let anyone make you feel like youre not worth what you get paid. truth is you are worth more than what theyre paying you but theyre being stingy by trying to trick you into think youre not worth as much as you are.

im glad i learned this lesson now, in a job that i have already decided to leave because they wouldnt let me have a life outside of the institution because im a foreigner. (long story short, i had a meeting with the bosses to try and negotiate my contract so that i could work less hours and study my specialization, at the end of which they told me flat out no and that if i worked there they had to have the option to own me and have complete control of my schedule).

onto the next adventure...lets see what i learn this time :)