Table tennis

I drove to my grandparents' place 2 weeks ago for a nice lunch. My grandma tried to make us eat as much as possible - what else should grandmas do, right? - my grandfather tried to make us drink as much as possible - Jani, at least, since I was driving - and once we had stopped eating and had given the necessary update on our lives, we said that we should go. We still wanted to go biking back here. That was when my grandpa proposed that we should play table tennis.

I haven't played table tennis with my grandpa since I was 9. We used to go to the playground and use the tables there when the weather was nice. The weather was gorgeous that day: sunny and warm. Jani and I looked at each other and we said 'why not?'. I asked him some time ago whether he knew how to play and he said that he did, but he wasn't too good at it. I haven't played in ages. The last time that I remember was at the age of 16-17, when we played during the empty timeslots in school. My grandpa is 83. He has large lumps in his leg and walks quite slowly. I thought we were off to a little casual table tennis time.

I was completely wrong. Let's start with the fact that Jani is very good in table tennis, which I should have known because when he told me that he was an okay skater, it turned out that he was a great skater. I lost badly. Then, I played with my grandfather. And I lost again. The moment we started playing, he started jumping around and he literally bent it like Beckham. I hardly knew where to expect the ball to arrive. Then Jani and my grandpa played and Jani won 21:20.

It's was hard to believe that an 83-year-old guy was able to beat me in table tennis, but I was happy. This guy was a war prisoner in a gulag for 2 years, built his own house, worked his whole life and at the age of 83, he still starts his day with exercises, goes for a walk twice per day and takes the train to Zebegény to take care of the house and the garden. Quite amazing. I hope we'll have him around for long.

Career fair

The season of the career fairs has just started. Being new to this business and enthusiastic, I offered that I would spend my afternoon at our stand at the first large Autumn career fair.

My team leader tried to prepare me for the experience, but I guess you have to see it for yourself. Conclusion: (some) people are (really) weird.

There was this girl I was talking to. She explained what she was studying, told me she was interested in HR. I asked which part/area of HR she was interested. Her answer was: what areas does HR have? I thought I was going to scream. Then she told me she was going to graduate in 2012. I couldn't do anything but laugh and give her one recommendation: learn another language. These couple of months have taught me a few things and one of them is that if you speak two foreign languages, you'll always find a job. It might not be the one you really wanted, but you'll have a job. Better than prostitution.

There was also a woman who thought it would be a great idea to pour her emotions out on me about having applied several times and never being contacted. She maintained that she has always met the requirements and no one has ever got back to her. Apparently, she thought that her intermediate English exam will qualify her for jobs that require advanced language skills. WTF to the power 3.

But it wouldn't be fair to highlight the weirdos only. There were plenty of smart and interesting people at the fair and it was definitely worth going. I even arranged an interview with one of them. The guy I went with got tired and somewhat frustrated by the end. I, on the other hand, loved it.