I took some teabags of this to work with me today for my first full day(!) as I noticed last week when I started that a lot of people kept teabags in their desks and I didn’t really want to be the weird new girl that brings in loose leaf tea right away… But I did hear people discussing different types of tea today, so I might ease into it! Lol.
Just to clue you guys in, as part of my course I am doing a work placement module. It was meant to be done in second year, but I didn’t find anything so am trailing it in final year. A lot of the reason I didn’t find anything is because I was so stubborn – I was adamant that I wanted one at a publishers, as that’s what I want to do and what good is it going to do me wasting 180 hours (the required minimum) doing something which is irrelevant when I could be studying? I was told several times to just get one at a library, or a charity shop, but I held out on the hopes of a publishing offer, which in the end didn’t come through. A lot of the major publishing houses won’t take anyone on for longer than a week, which means I would have had to find six separate placements. I was so frustrated with getting nowhere and worried about failing my degree than I almost caved and just worked in a library. I was about to send off that application when I got an acceptance email from the first placement I applied to this year – and the only publishers! The one I wanted the most!! So it’s more ‘experience’ than ‘job’ since I get graded instead of paid, but it’s a foot in the door and I’m super excited :D it’s amazing and scary being able to say that I’m going to work. I’m starting to feel like an adult, which I love, but it’s also making me wistful for childhood. So yeah, I started last week (I only do Wednesdays – my only free day) but only for 3 hours and mainly a sort of induction, whereas today I did the whole 9:30-5:30, getting up at 5:30 and reading on the commute (an hour each way). I was exhausted by the time I got back tonight after 7pm, having been gone for 12 hours, and I imagine it must get tedious when you get used to it, but for now I am loving it.
I made sure I was well-stocked tea wise, with a few bags of this in a zip-loc pouch, a graze box cake with an included afternoon teabag, and a travel mug of Butiki’s Killer’s Vanilla. I chose to review this as I was far too tired to pay enough attention when I was drinking KV this morning. I drank this while working, which (don’t laugh) I found amazing. The only “proper” work experience I’ve done before is in primary teaching, so you definitely can’t sip tea while you work there! Such a small thing felt like an amazing privilege. There weren’t any teaspoons so this oversteeped – I waited until it was cool enough to take the bag out with my fingertips. As a result, it was quite bitter and very astringent at the end. There was a sort of greasy sheen on the side of my mug from the top of the tea, and it moved when my tea sloshed around. This was disturbing, but I attributed it to the fact that the water from the kettle had been boiled a lot, came straight from the taps of hard-water Yorkshire, and that I was using the same mug I’d taken KV in earlier that day. The jasmine was a bit more muted than I’m used to, which allows the green tea to shine. I would have preferred a stronger jasmine flavour. And less of the green tea, but that’s just personal taste.
Disclaimer: I may be viewing this tea through rose-tinted glasses, since I was just super happy to have any tea at all.
Congrats on the “job!” Love the note.