Another Broken System

They have a saying in Belgium:

"The wheel turns, but it turns slowly."

This cannot be more true. Once you want to do something here it goes through a process explained by Douglas Adams in the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.

For those who doesn't know, I have stopped studying and will be starting to work early or in the middle of next month.

Sure enough, the school system threw me off balance and failed me on everything they possibly could for the most fubar reasons they could possibly find.

One of which "your English is on too high a standard to teach here"... yeah, I know right?

Now, getting a job here in Belgium is no child's-play.

One needs to go through the necessary proceedings to just be able to look for a job. You need to REGISTER for it.

Granted, being "registered" as "werkzoekend" (unemployed) gives you some advantages in some things. For example if you follow a course offered by the institute where you registered as jobless, you get a nice free bus pass. Also if you're below the age of 25 and live with your parents you still get children tuition.

This institute can be quite helpful and also quite useless at the same time.

In the sense of them actually being there to HELP you find a job they actually have almost no contact with you at all (save for the odd email about a job opening which most of the time doesn't even match your job profile).

But in the good sense being registered with them actually gives you an advantage when you actually GOT the job. End of the matter is that for at least a short while, you get paid more. And that's pretty great.

The job that I got is as a shop assistant and cashier, I will be paid a boat load of money for that.

Most of the money will be used to firstly buy myself a new laptop (damn screen croaked on me again for the second time and it's coming to the end of it's very long life), saving up with my bro for an apartment and of course taking extra courses in my free time to build up my resume.

All of this will obviously be revolving around being able to visit my girlfriend as much as I can and sometimes spoiling her rotten (we've been together for over 3 years now and it's still going GREAT and always will without a doubt).

Now of course everything runs back to the "system" (if you can call it that, since Belgium STILL doesn't have a ruling government and I think it's nearing 2 years now).

Of course I'm not a Belgian yet so thus I need a working permit to work here.

Trouble is applying for it, what you need, what type to apply for and what you need to send with it. Not even mentioning precisely WHO actually needs to apply for it.

For me it's a work permit B and my employer needs to apply for it.

No idea how long I'll need to wait for it but in the end it will be well worth it!

Further on, life is better than the previous year.

I have a lot of friends, my dad has a job again (after being unemployed for almost a year) and me and my bro might do the same job and be able to move into our own place soon!

I just love it when everything comes together, it might be a slow Belgian wheel, but hey, at least it's turning.

UPDATED:
[I'll be trying to post more on my blog from now on. As a matter of fact I'd much rather choose to let you all know about things on here than on Facebook...]