Lately I've written a lot about politics, policies and anti-human trafficking propaganda. It's one of the things I both feel obligated and want to talk about, since there are so many things happening out there that I want to discuss here to get out the truth. But simultaneous I also want to write more from my perspective as a prostitute, just how this industry works, and how it is to be in prostitution, to raise awareness about the industry itself. Though I find it difficult to write about myself, since things that perhaps may appear to be strange or interesting to my readers, are very normal to me. That's why I like it if people sometimes write to me what they want to hear more about. This post is at the request made by one of my readers who had a question. His question was how an average day looks like for me. So here goes:

Usually I get up between 12 and 2 'o clock in the afternoon. I'll first drink a coffee, since without coffee I don't function very well, while watching some TV. I have a satellite dish to receive Romanian TV, since on the Dutch TV they talk much to fast for me to understand it. After that I'll start cleaning up the house, the usual stuff, vacuum cleaning etc. This is how I spend most of my afternoons until my boyfriend comes home from work.
Usually after that we go out to shop for groceries, or in the summer to sit on a terrace to drink something. Sometimes it's just me and my boyfriend on the terrace, but we'll often meet up with other girls from my work to drink a coffee or some ice tea there. Most of my friends from work are Romanian and Bulgarian, but even if we're there with just Romanian girls, we'll talk English so my boyfriend can also follow the conversation.
Around 6 or 7 'o clock we'll usually be back home and have some time for each other, before my boyfriend will start cooking dinner. This is for me the time I usually start making my make-up for work. We eat around 8 'o clock, while we're watching Dutch TV or sometimes a movie, depending on our mood.

Around 9 'o clock I'll go to the office to pay for my room and pick up my key for my room. Sometimes I'll meet a girl on the way to work, and we'll stop to have a talk. I'll usually be at the office around 21.30 to pick up my key. At the office I have to show each day my ID card, with my working permit and my registration papers. I'll usually make a little small talk with the people working at my office, and the girls that are there at the moment, before leaving the office on my way to my workplace.
When I get to my workplace sometimes I'll stop to talk with some of the other girls. After that I go inside, and I'll get my stuff out of my locker. These are things like my working costume, my shoes, condoms, hair styling products, perfumes etc. After that I'll usually sit down to smoke a cigarette, relax a little bit, sometimes I'll go to one of my colleagues working next to me to talk with them.
After that I start changing my clothes for my costume, and I'll start to do my hair. And after I'm done with my hair, which is usually around 10 'o clock,  I'll open the curtains to start to work.

Each day at work it's different. After I open the curtains I'll first look around to see what kind of people there are outside. Sometimes I'll get a client straight away, sometimes it takes a long time, half an hour, an hour, sometimes even one and a half hour before the first client comes in. While I'm standing there I'll usually smoke a cigarette, or drink something, like a bottle of water or Red Bull.
Actually a large part of my work revolves around waiting, so not to get bored I'll usually call with one of my colleagues to talk with them on the phone. A lot of people always think we're on the phone with our pimp, but that's really more of a myth. Think about it, if you would just stand all day at work, doing nothing for a long time, wouldn't you want to talk to someone else? Well, we're no different in that, so we call each other on the phone.
The idea that girls are always on their phone with their pimp is also a little bit of a weird thing, since when you're on the phone, people will usually not come to you, because they think you're busy on the phone. So if a pimp would want you to work for him, he would definitely not want you to talk on the phone with someone, since that's how you loose customers.
And sometimes I also call my boyfriend when I'm feeling bored, to talk to him. That's not because he's my pimp, or he's checking how much money I make, but simply because I'm bored and I want to talk to him.
And if one of my collegues next to me is free, I'll also go to them, or they'll come to me to talk, and then we stand both behind one window. Sometimes then people will also come to ask us if they can also have a threesome with the two of us, or two guys will come to ask if they can each get one of us, and that's how we work.

At work I get a lot of people coming to my door. Sometimes they're people I don't want to let in, because I don't want to work with them for whatever reason. Most of these guys are Moroccan guys, who have a bad reputation of being extremely aggressive towards prostitutes, which I've experienced a couple of times myself. It's nothing against Moroccan people, but way too many girls have had bad experiences with them, and so did I, so a lot of girls won't let them in. Of course there are some other groups that have bad reputations that girls don't let in, but the Moroccan guys are the most notorious. Sometimes they'll keep hanging around my door, hoping I'm going to let them in, but usually after a while they'll move away when they realize I'm really not going to let them inside.
The people I do want to work with I open the door for them when they come to me, and they'll start to ask me things. Most people ask me how much the price is, what I do for the price, how much time they'll get for the price, where I'm from. Sometimes these people will just walk away after that and go to the girl next door to ask the same questions, sometimes the guy will come inside.
A lot of times people will try to negotiate a lower price, but I'll tell them I don't work for less than 50 euro, since that's the minimum price here. Some people will accept that, others won't and I'll usually see them walking around the whole night trying to negotiate for a lower price. Especially in the weekends there are people who will try to negotiate a lower price, since they've spend most of their money in the bars and coffee shops, and you'll have more people walking around all night to try and go inside with a girl for less than the minimum of 50 euro, because they don't have anymore money.

Between 2 and 5 'o clock slowly the streets will start to become more empty, as people are going home. slowly you'll see one by one the other girls working in the Red Light District going home. Sometimes they'll come over to talk with me about the work, about how good or bad the work was, depending on the work that night was. When the work is bad on a night, you'll see a lot of girls sometimes going home very early, sometimes even around 11 or 12 'o clock. I don't think if you're forced by a pimp he would allow those girls to go home that early, yet many girls won't stay all night long if the work is bad.
There's no girl that I know, that's never gone home earlier if the work was bad on one night. So when people ask me how I know those girls aren't forced, I always ask them why these girls go home earlier if the work is bad. Shouldn't their pimp be forcing them to work all night long?

If I feel very tired or bad, I'll go home earlier. If not, I'll try to work as much as I can, until it starts to quiet down in the streets, and I can't make anymore money with customers. This doesn't mean that there won't be anymore people in the streets, but usually these people are people that don't want to pay the minimum price of 50 euro's, or they are people I don't want to take in, and you'll usually have a lot of the same people hanging around every night, who no girl wants to let in, because everybody knows they're trouble.
Than I'll close the curtains, I'll start to change my clothes, I'll put my stuff back in the locker and I'll leave the key in a box for the people from my office to pick up later.

When I walk home there usually are some guys who will try to talk with me, they do this with all the girls. Some Moroccan guys will follow me to try to steal the money I made that night, because they know we make a lot of money, and they wait until the girls are finished with their work, to try and rob them. A few months ago for instance a Moroccan guy came after me and he told me to give him 120 euro, because he doesn't have any money and for me 'it would be nothing'.
Fortunately I've never gotten robbed, and I know how to protect myself. Some other girls are more scared, and they'll have their boyfriend come and pick them up, which of course other people would see as a pimp picking up his prostitute, but that's not the case.
When I get home, I smoke a cigarette, I drink something and after I'll take off my make-up and take a shower, and hit the bed after that. And that's kind of how every day repeats itself over and over again, until I get to my free day when I don't have to work.

So that's kind of how an average day in my life looks like. In my opinion it's not very shocking or interesting, since it's not that different from people with other jobs. I think a lot of people have a very different idea about my job, that's it's much more interesting or exciting than it really is. Especially people who claim 'many girls are forced' seem to have a very different idea about this work is, than it in reality is. Funny enough they'll often claim that people who support prostitution 'romanticize' this job and that reality is very 'different and terrible'. Yet truth is that it's often very different from how they claim it is, and they are the ones telling stories that are very different from reality.
Of course this is just how an average day in my life looks like. Other girls who work here can have a different view over this, although I don't think they'll tell very different stories about our work. For girls who are victims of exploitation or forcing, it's of course very different I guess, but I've still got to meet the first girl who's forced or exploited.

Dutch version