Darice de Cuba

Since January 14 I’m employed at PlusPort as Junior Web Developer part time. I work 20 hours a week by choice. Because of my health I can’t work 40 hours so I applied for 20 which suits me just fine. This is my first steady job since I’m no longer a student. I now work, get paid and pay taxes.

The job is just what I like doing, coding: PHP, XHTML, CSS, Javascript. Creating database structures and a bit of web design. PlusPort does more then just providing e-learning, we get to create custom made applications for large companies like AstraZeneca, Dura Vermeer, Mammoet, just to name a few.

The company has been around for five years and is growing quickly. Everyone is in their twenties and in their thirties, I can even say I’m one of oldest there. So it’s a very young and dynamic place to work. They also care for your professional development by stimulating you to set personal goals you want to reach within your job.

I always thought I wouldn’t like an office job, especially after doing two internship. But now I know it has more to do with the job itself. Internships where boring to me because it was mostly one project you had to work on for 5 months. Now I get plenty of different projects to work on so it doesn’t get boring.

Like I said the company is growing fast and they are looking to hire more people: web developers, designers. People with skills like PHP, ASP, XHTML, CSS, Javascript, ActionScript, Flash, etc. So if you are a designer or web developer living in the Netherlands and want to work by the sea at Scheveningen send in your application.

I’m also still open for freelance work, now that I have a steady job I can relax more knowing that bills are being paid and I don’t depend on getting a constant flow of clients. I just need to work out a marketing strategy for my focus group which is very different then the regular web clients.

And the last few days I’ve been playing with the idea to start a host reselling business. It won’t make me rich but it’s something to do on the side. I’m just not sure yet if it’s worth it considering the costs and the time it will take to sell enough space for a good win/lose margin. Something to think through.

When I’m feeling homesick, and I mean for my home back on Aruba. I browse on Flickr for photos of Aruba. Being a tourist island there is always lots of new photos uploaded almost daily. Some are real your regular vacation snaps and there are also some real good photos there.

You’d think after almost eight years living in the Netherlands that the missing would become less but I don’t think the missing will ever go away. As soon as one year since my last time on Aruba pass by I start to feel homesick, especially if it’s a cold winter day like today and all I can think about is the warm sun that is shining there and the beach within a 15 minutes drive from home.

So I was browsing Flickr on a search term for the tourist spot right by my home, see if I could get a shot. And I found one, just a vacation snap but you get the gist.

I mean the photo only explains why I would be feeling homesick in the middle of winter in my apartment in the city. The view those two people on the photo are enjoying is the view I grew up with, that is the nature surroundings I spent my childhood walking around, exploring and playing.

If I’m not mistaken that whole area has or will officially become part of the Arikok National Park, so there is no more house building allowed there. Our houses where built there 27 years ago and was the last ones to be build in that specific area.

I can tell you a lot of stories about this place, the countless of ghost stories as this place is called “The Frenchmen’s Pass” where supposedly a lot of Frenchmen’s and Indians died during the first colonization. Or all that water you see there comes from the lagoon that is right off the picture on the right. And when we get tropical rains that water rises so high that roads are flooded leaving us stuck at home. And we’ll spend the whole day watching cars trying to get trough the water and all failing because people never realize that it’s sea water.

And when growing up people would always comment “how can you live so far from town”. In Arubian terms far is a 15 minutes drive. Well I’d live there anytime over a 2 minutes drive from town. I never liked living in a town and never will. In my opinion we got the best spot to live on the island. Although there really are more.

I think I’ll make an effort and if circumstances allow I’ll be going for a vacation this year. But it’s home, my family is there so in thoughts I’m there.