Quitting the studies to travel.

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

I have big news! I have decided to discontinue my studies, to go and travel the world!

I have been struggling too much with Accounting and all those other boring subjects, while I tried to silence my Communication brain. It has been really hard. While I was struggling with this diploma, the wanderlust in me has taken over and it has been nagging at me for the last few months. I have been planning 2016 for a while, I was planning to Au-pair in the Netherlands, so that I can tour Europe in my spare time, but then life decided that it has to be NOW! I have to travel ASAP!

I have been contacted by a travel agency on Facebook, who wants to me to blog for them overseas. I will be blogging on their site, but I have free reign on my blog about what I blog about my travels. Guess my blog will be transformed into a travel blog!

The amazing deal includes that they will pay for my flight, my accommodation and meals, wherever they send me, as long as I blog for them, rating the place's stay. And I still earn a salary per month! My first stop will be Ireland, since I don't need a Visa to enter the country, thereafter we will arrange Visa's as we go.

My parents are not really happy about this decision. They feel it is a bit rash and I should think it through. My mom feels that I should first finish my studies, before doing this. But an opportunity like this only comes around once in a lifetime, whereas studies can always be completed later on. After all, traveling has been my dream for many years! I will join my parents in San Antonio in June, which I'm also looking forward to!

My flight takes off on the 11th of April. I am going to live the dream. I cannot wait for this amazing adventure to start! It will be so much fun!

How to be an employee from hell

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

Holiday jobs always have their ups and downs. This job was the best holiday job that I had, by far! But I had to train the new girl who is going to replace me and she is THE EMPLOYEE FROM HELL!

So this is how to be the employee from hell:

• Go for the job interview in tracksuit and slipper shoes.

• Be smarter than everyone in the office that has been working there for years.

• When the boss asks for coffee, say NO because you are busy with the work that he gave you.

• When your colleagues offer you lunch, say you are fasting for no apparent reason

• Smell like sweat.

• Smell like cigarettes.
• Climb on the hip of the person training you, who accidentally hates the smell of cigarettes.

• Wear jeans and slipper shoes the whole week, even though Friday is the only day that jeans are allowed.

• Say that you get the filing system and no help is needed anymore, stuff it up, just so you can get the person, who is training you, in trouble.

• Say no to colleagues when they ask you to watch out for their fax, because you are busy with the machine. 

"Like yeah, I'll quickly call the people who is sending the fax and tell them to hold it, so that Your Royal Highness can finish your job."

• Smoke a packet of cigarettes per day, but tell everyone how poor you are.

• Tell your colleagues that you and your sister have a good relationship and you sort out your problems by hitting one another.

• If a colleague asks you to do something, ALWAYS have a reply ready to reject their request.

• Do not. I repeat: DO NOT GREET ANYONE IN THE OFFICE.

• Tell people you are going to the loo. Come back smelling like smoke and glasses that went shady because you were outside. (Didn't know she found a longdrop?) 

"You know there is toilets on the inside of the building, right?'

'Yeah, but I prefer the longdrop that makes me smell like smoke."

This pretty much explains my experience when the training the new girl at the company. I won't be there to save her butt if she messes up anymore, so good luck in keeping that job! I'm sure people are thrilled with you being a:

*Memes made on Meme Generator Free. Available on Google Play.

Babysitting two girls

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

We struggle to find things to do for my baby sister during the long December holidays. The schools and holiday care at the school is closed for the festive season and we are running out of ideas, so my sister's best friend came to sleep over, last night, and she played here for the day.  This is roughly the summary of my babysitting adventures:

Coloring in Tinkerbelle

Painting ceramics

A letter to the Tooth Mouse/ Fairy

My sister had lost her tooth, because she refused to take it out, only to later realize that it wasn't in her mouth anymore. We had to write a letter to the Tooth Mouse, asking forgiveness and asking him if he would be so kind as to search for the tooth and to still give my sister money for it.

Pizzas for lunch

 I made the girls delicious, little pizzas after they nagged me for it, only to change their minds that they want pasta and I ended up eating it.

Playing dress-up 

Clay play- making all sorts of interesting things

Man, kids are different kinds of species and hard work. I am waiting another 20 years before I get my own children. Babysitting is hard work and I have mad respect for all the teachers, babysitters and nannies out there.

Me becoming a lawyer?

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

I am always a sucker for a December holiday job. Most of the time I use the money to buy Christmas presents or to put into my study fund for next year.

Previous holidays I have babysat, i have worked along with Cinderella in shoe stores and I did interning at my dream job as a Public Relations Officer... Yes, I have worked in a huge variety of jobs...

One of the motto's at the shoe store, where I worked

This year, I'm working at a law firm, where I have to answer telephones and help the people with requests. My first day went pretty smoothly. Except for the power that went out, me being alone in the office, finding out that I'm deaf and struggle to hear the people over the phone (making them repeat their case a million times over) and getting a few things wrong, but what is a first day without those glitches and itches?

At the end of the day I wanted to give people legal advice and wanted to charge them a consultation fee (Just kidding! Or am I?).

In a very professional company, I also drank out of a Winnie the Pooh mug and felt very rebel, but it's the firm's mug, so I'm in the clear.

My very professional coffee mug!

All in the day of a phone answering person at a law firm!

I always appreciate a bit of extra bucks over the holidays and also to add more jobs to my CV.

Funnies while working at Aardklop

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

Aardklop is an Afrikaans musical festival here in South-Africa. But with every music festival, you get funny people, drunk people, angry people, they come in all shapes and sizes.

The awesome team I worked with

As part of our work, we were responsible for tearing the tickets, keeping late-comers out and showing people to their seats. Easy enough... That's what we thought...

One day, we were sitting outside while a show was already on for an half an hour, when a woman came storming up to us, furious. She was demanding that we let her in, but our job is to keep late-comers out. Her excuse is that we were supposed to fetch her in the car before the show started. Like I said our jobs entitled us to tear tickets, keep late-comers out and show people to their seats. Not to fetch them in their cars. My mom also taught me not to go close to strangers when they are sitting in their cars, that's when kidnappings happen...

My favorite artist, Karen Zoid

We also worked at the festival's main stage. We were responsible for checking the tickets of the Golden Circle audience. A man, three times my size, came to us, saying he wants to be in the Golden Circle, because the people at the gate charged him double for normal standing tickets. I told him that we cannot do that, because the people who actually paid for it, had allocated seats. He then attempted to climp over the rails. I went to stand in front of him and said, "Try me!", he then looked me deep in the eye and scoured away. I was scared of this huge man, but apparently I'm fierce.

We made the newspapers

The artist, Steve Hofmeyr, is very popular under the ladies for some unknown reason. The shows usually started at 7 pm at the main stage, but on the day of Steve Hofmeyr's performance, the ladies already took their seats from 9 am that morning. When he finally came on stage, the ladies went wild! They were screaming like crazy people. He then decided to walk between the audience, the ladies were touching him and when he came back on stage, he easily had 10 bras in his hands and over his head.

My friend, who worked with another group, was assaulted by a woman. She was an hour late for her show, but still demanded to be let in. The poor guy had a black eye to show for his bravery.

All in all, it was loads of fun. It was the best holiday job I ever had and the payment was also not bad. I, also met great people who became friends.

Feeling like a broken toy

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

As I have mentioned before in a previous blog post, I struggle with stut-stut-stuttering.

Super Girl

Recently, my stuttering started up again. My stuttering is stress-related and I believe it started again after my vacation job at a shoe shop. The job was stressful in its own way, with a boss who was very demanding and she worked on every wrong nerve there is.

I hate it when I stutter (well, who doesn't?), because people sometimes lack patience when I start to stutter and will lose interest in what I'm about to say. Sometimes I want to tell people something, but decide against it, because I stutter. I REALLY HATE TO STUTTER! I feel like a broken toy.

Every rose has its thorn. Mine is stuttering. I once met this beautiful girl, but she was like drop-dead-gorgeous and she had the best personality anyone could ask for, but her thorn was that her IQ was so low, she struggled to pass in school. She is an inspiration to me, because she now owns her own beauty salon and she is doing well for herself.

Every time, I start stuttering again, I try to think of everything my speech therapists have taught me. Yes, it works sometimes, but mostly I have to take a deep breath and try again.

There are different types of stuttering. Some people stutter on sounds, some on words and like me, on sentences. Yes, a person can stutter on sentences. I'm one of those.

There are also different triggers for stuttering. Mine is stress-related and will come and go. Other people stutter permanently.

It is not easy to be a stutterer, but everyone has to embrace their thorn and make it part of their self-confidence. I am Super Girl. Nothing will get me down, not even my stuttering.

What is your thorn?

2013 in review

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen




1. What did you do in 2013 that you’d never done before?

I have changed my style in clothes


2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?


Yes, one. I wanted to get better grades at university and I did!


3. How did you spend New Year’s Eve?

With one of my best friends, Melanie, at the Vaal River!


4. Did anyone close to you die?

Luckily not.


5. What countries did you visit?


None, I was in South Africa the whole time, but 2014 will have a different answer :)


6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?


Better relationships with friends, guys and family


7. What date from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?


February 16, I decided to end a relationship, because it was holding me back from my bigger dreams.


8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I learned to say no and I also got better grades than 2012.


9. What was your biggest failure?


Letting the wrong people be part of my life, when I should've spent more time with the right ones...


10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Yes, I slammed the car door shut on my finger. Took 6 months for it to recover.


11. What was the best thing you bought?


My gorgeous, blue Mica hair straightner


12. Where did most of your money go?

Sushi and buying groceries.


13. What song will always remind you of 2013?


Wake me up-Avicii


14. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Exercised and I wish I had more adventures


15. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Loathed


16. What were your favourite TV shows?

Vampire diaries, The originals, Reign, Game of thrones


17. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?


Hate is a strong word, I just dislike them very much...


18. What was the best book you read?


The Help from Katheryn Stockett


19. What was your greatest musical discovery?


Dans dans lisa (An Afrikaans band), Imagine dragons, Ed Sheeran


20. What was your favourite film of this year?


Monsters university and The heat


21. What did you do on your birthday?


I spent it with great friends at an Irish pub, Brazenhead and the next day with family.


22. What kept you sane?


Music, great friends, good times and my awesome family



23. Who did you miss?


My uncle, Anton and Aunt, Ronel, living in the UK and my other uncle, Wynand, living in Texas.


24. Who was the best new person you met?

Mmm, I don't know?


25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013:

• Happiness is an inside job 
• No is no.

Last day at shoe shop

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

Like I have mentioned before I was working in a shoe shop. But all good and bad stuff must come to an end.

I have learned to work with customers nice or rude. Some come in already, ready for a fight and others will be so friendly that you are almost stunned... I have also lost a bit of faith in humanity because most customers don't even acknowledge you, after you have greeted them heartily and they can really be unreasonable for no reason at all.

I have made new friends with my colleagues, they welcomed me with open arms and we really had good times in the store. We had a good laugh at customers, who went crazy or started shouting at us for a pair of shoes... If shoes ever become so important to me that I start shouting at the shop assistants, then I must know that I have totally lost it... It was fun knowing them and I'm going to try to make regular visits there.

We have also established that i can't dance, especially not to house music... But i have known it for a long time now!

Also one of the perks of working in a shoe shop is that we have first pick at what shoes we want. If we get more stock from the suppliers and open the boxes and there is shoes in them which we like, we get to buy them first, before they are even on the selves!

Today was my last day in the shoe shop.

All in all, it was yet another great year and now I have money to show for my slavery in the shop. But that money is going straight to my study fund for 2014!

How retail works in a shoe shop

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

Many people walk into a shop, buy the shoes and walk out but never realize what is going on in the background. I thought I would share this with you, because it was even interesting to me. And like I have mentioned before I'm working in a shoe shop for the holiday season to earn some extra money for 2014. 

Kgomotso and me working

There are so many things that it is even hard to know where to start.

If a customer comes with a shoe that was on the display and asks for a size, there is a sticker in the shoe. The sticker has a name on it and the bar code. Then we look on the boxes for the same name, then we have found the shoe! So next time, you're looking for a shoe, you can do it yourself ;).

Shoes sell so fast that everyday we have to put new stock in the empty spaces. Every second day we receive more or less 90-100 boxes, which can almost immediately be put into the empty spaces. A box contains more or less 12-20 shoe boxes. That means 1200-2000 shoe boxes that we get every 2 days.

Customers make it hard when they put the shoes back in the wrong places, because there is so many types of shoes. If a customer puts the shoes in the wrong place, we struggle to find it when it was supposed to be in the assigned row, but it's not there. The shoes can sometimes get lost that we only find it months later.

Also, because we sell so many shoes, the shop's shelves looks different almost everyday, because we have to make space for the new boxes and also fill in the spaces. It is hard work, because if you move one row, you have to move ALL THE ROWS! No spaces are allowed!

Tomy takkies

The photo above shows Tomy takkies. They are very popular and everyone from young to old can wear them and not look strange. Well, these shoes are so popular that they make 40% of our budget. Yes, that is how popular they are.

Customers love to ask if we have any more stock in the stockroom and they hate it if you say no, because you didn't even go and check, but what they don't know is that we work day in and day out in that store and we pretty much now the store in and out. But sometimes I can see that the people are not nice so I sometimes just pretend to go in there, wait a while and go out again, telling them there is nothing. I know it is wrong of me, but like people always say: "The customer is always right".

I always laugh at the families coming into the store. The dads usually goes and sits on the nearest bench they can find in the store. The moms usually run around and try to find shoes even for the husbands. And the children usually run around and play games. The best is when the wives asks how the shoe looks to their husbands, the reply is always: "It looks fine, honey, buy it so we can go." MEN DO NOT LIKE SHOPPING!

Customers also ask why we do not extend the mall's trading hours. Let me tell you why, You may be with your family in the mall, shopping. But, we have lives and families as well, so we would like to see them before 12 o' clock at night. The hours are there to accommodate the employees.

The next time you walk in to a store, please be friendly to the shop assistants. We really appreciate it to be greeted friendly. We are also people. We also have feelings.

Also, see my post For the love of SHOES!!!!!

Please feel free to leave a comment. Tell me what store has the best customer service and what you as consumer expect from people working in stores?

Working in a shoe shop

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

Can we please have shoes?

As a student, we discover that money does, in fact, not grow on trees. Therefore, I got myself a holiday job to pass the time of a three month holiday and to earn a bit of money.

 I have worked at this shoe shop before and retail is not the best or most fun job in the world, but at least it's money.

Most of my co-workers are black and over this period of time that I have known them, they have taught me a lot. They are teaching me Zulu and Tswana, which is a lot of fun, because when I greet the people in their home language they immediately light up and talk to me, which is not so fun ( Because so far, I only know how to greet).

We are also trading food at work. They find my food very interesting. I have eaten chicken feet (which are not bad, it just doesn't have a lot of meat) and many other things I am still learning to pronounce and spell! WATCH THIS SPACE!

They always thought that white and indian people automatically have cancer, because of our immense hairloss (when sweeping the floors, there is a lot of hair lying on the ground).

Another thing they observed is the ring on my middle finger and asked if I was married. To them wearing a ring before marriage is a curse, which means you will never find a husband. And a ring on any finger means you're married or either looking for bad luck.

They are also trying to teach me to dance. Which in my opinion is a lost cause, because I have no rhythm and will never had. It seems that they automatically have the best rhythm!

These guys are making the job worth while and I am never without a smile when they are around.

Eager beaver for holiday jobs

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Who's the poorest of them all?"
"Students!"

I never understood it when people said that students are the poorest of them all, up until I became one of them. Counting change has become a common habit between me and my friends.

I am not a lazy person and I love to earn my own money. I had been doing holiday jobs, since I was 16. My first holiday job was at my baby sister's daycare. I had to look after kids between the ages of 6-10 years old. I was responsible for their holiday program and looking after them.

I am currently working in retail at a shoe shop. It is hard work, but I keep telling myself that it is good money to help out with my studies.

I also occasionally babysit a couple's daughter. She is a real sweetheart and she is not difficult when it comes to bedtime. In fact, when she's tired, she climbs in bed. She doesn't need bedtime stories or lullabies. She just sleeps.

This past September holiday, I worked at a festival called Aardklop. It is a Afrikaans music and culture festival. It was the most fun job I ever had. We also met a lot of local stars. See the photo above of me and Matthys Roets.

Next year, I am starting to work at my university's Reading lab. This reading lab is set in place for first year students to learn to read. The shocking thing is that people can't read anymore. This reading course is compulsory to all the first year students. You have to pass the subject, in order to get your degree. I will just be an assistant in these reading labs. I am very excited!

With these holiday jobs, I have paid for a lot of things, including a French tour to Paris.