Interview / Paris! / Advice?

This is a long one, but it's all good so bear with...

Interview

I know I've left you all hanging as to how the interview went last week. That's bc it took so long for it to come to some conclusion, and I wanted to wait until I had a final answer to let you guys know how it went.

I went in Wednesday morning for an interview with the Westminster Abbey Shop - the souvenir shop just outside the Westminster Abbey. Like it's the official shop of the Westminster Abbey and all the profits go to the Abbey. I was completely prepared for this. I had even done about a week's worth of research about the Westminster Abbey bc I read that I would have to answer people's questions about it as part of the job.

I met with Kirsty McDonald who was over all the shops associated with Westminster Abbey (coffee shop, souvenir shop, expensive souvenir shop, etc). The interview went pretty well and felt very comfortable. It had its highs and lows, but overall it went pretty well. My biggest selling point was all the retail experience I've had - I pulled my American Eagle and Ruby Tuesday experience into it. I left not really knowing how it was going to turn out. I knew that she had another couple interviews the next day, so I had to wait it out to see. She knew I was going to Paris for the weekend so she had just planned to e-mail me.

One issue that came up during the interview was scheduling. The employees work 5 out of the 7 days, and the 2 days we get off rotate through the week. I asked her how it would affect it if I wasn't able to work Sundays. She said I wouldn't be able to make it up another day. I would just not get paid for the Sundays I would be scheduled to work. I was fine with that and left the interview with that conclusion in my head.

I got an e-mail from her a couple hours later with corrective information. She looked up the policy on getting Sundays off and said that employees must give the shop 3 months notice before being able to get off on Sundays. In the meantime, they must work as scheduled. Well, the position only lasts 3 months. So what it came down to was that she offered me the position, but I would have to agree to their scheduling policy. And in a nutshell, my job was conditionial on whether I was willing to work on the Sabbath.

I want to point out the irony here, bc it's too... ironic. The Westminster Abbey - a church that teaches the 10 Commandments - wants me to break a commandment in order work for it.

I wrote her back an e-mail explaining that it's a religious standard that I hold to not work on Sundays. I also offered a counter-proposal that I was particularly proud of. They get a massive amount of vacation days here. It just so happened that I would have the same amount of vacation days as the amount of Sundays I would have to work. So I asked if it would be possible to use all my vacation days on those Sundays. And that's how I left it before going off to Paris.

While in Paris I went to an Internet Cafe and read her responding e-mail. Basically she didn't like the idea. So I thanked her for her time and politely turned down the job. And that's the end of the Westminster Abbey Shop.

Paris!

So I went to Paris for the weekend! I went with two other friends - both American. One's here on the BUNAC thing and the other's here getting her masters (there's a lot of Americans doing that). The one studying here had lived in Paris for a semester about 8 years ago. So she had a vague recollection of the way things run and of the language.

We went by an overnight bus which only cost 40 pounds roundtrip. It would've been just fine, but we had to stop like every 2 hours and get out - when checking in our passports at the border and when getting on/off the ferry. So we couldn't get into a deep sleep.

When we finally got to Paris we were like "Hooray! We're in Paris!!" We couldn't find our hotel so we asked a guy on the street. He looked at our address and said, "Oh, you're not in Paris." Crap! We were just on the border though, and he showed us where to go. It took us 2 hours to find our dang hotel, and we were all tired and hungry. And when we got to the hotel they told us we couldn't check in for another couple hours. Crap! So we went to McDonald's - our comfort place - and ate/loitered/slept there for 2 hours until we could go back to the hotel. Once we did go back we slept for about 5 hours.

After all that settling in and getting adjusted, we were finally able to enjoy the city. We went to the Eiffel Tower first and took mass amounts of pictures with it. It was kind of weird to see it in person. It looked like a posterboard picture in the background. At night it was lit up blue and had the EU circle of stars on the front of it. I guess they're promoting some kind of EU thing right now.

The next few days we saw all the other sights there were to see in Paris - the Louvre, Champs Elysees, Arc du Triomphe, etc. I saw the roundabout around the Arc du Triomphe that I remember them driving around in National Lampoon's European Vacation. It was a weird reference to flashback to, but it's what came to me. I never thought I would actually ever see all this stuff - at least in the near future.

On Sunday we found our way to church and happened to make it in time for an English Sunday School. I think the entire class was visitors, and half of them were some BYU group that passing through. And they all looked like they went to BYU. There's a look. Next was Sacrament Meeting held, of course, in French. We grabbed headphones for translation but none of ours worked. The bishop was American... which I didn't realize until he translated what he had just said in French into English. We pretended like we knew what we were doing when we sang the hymns. It was a fun experience.

I was surprised at how much French came back to me, and how much I was able to pick up, just from having taken a year of French my junior year of high school. Most of the people were able to speak English to some degree, so we were able to get by. But the language barrier was an annoyance. When buying stuff it usually involved pointing and grunting. Our last day there, we met up with a friend of one of the girls who had been living there a year. Her French skills opened up a whole new world of enjoyment for us. If I ever go back, I'm taking someone who speaks French!

Advice?

Alright, so I need y'all's opinions since I hate making decisions on my own/seem to be unable to do so. I was looking back to my original plans when coming over here and realized how much they've changed. And now I'm kind of unsure how to proceed.

My original plan in coming over here was to use this 6 months as a way to get in with a company, so they'd decide they like me enough to sponsor me for a longer work visa. Of course, I knew there was a slim chance with this, so I figured I'd be happy to just get a good start to a career with 6 months business experience in London and see what doors would open from there.

It didn't take long to realize the first option was practically impossible. The second option I held onto for a bit, but there's like a 1% chance of it actually happening since I lack any real experience. Also, I'm 6 weeks into my work permit already, so the most I could look forward to is about 4 months of work. Well, Scott's wedding would cut that back to about 3 months. So I doubt there's any business possibilities for working for only 3 months.

About a couple weeks ago I started expanding my job searching to general jobs, like the Westminster Abbey Shop. And admittedly, that would have just been a really fun place to work at. But now I'm at the point where I'd only be searching for a job like waiting tables somewhere.

Looking back at my original goals, I've completely gone off track job-wise. Whatever job I could get at this point would only pay enough to hold me over until I went home, and the only advantage would be that I'd be living in London. That's no small advantage though. I really like this city and the friends that I've made here. But the joint advantage of starting a career in London has become split. Now it seems I can either go home and start a career or live in London and delay it. I can't seem to do both.

Option 1:

I decide to just chalk it up for experience and go home to start a real career somewhere. There would be about a 2-week delay before the plane tickets become cheaper. So I'd have a couple weeks to get my last touristy jollies in before leaving. If I went this route, I could be home for Thanksgiving if I make a final decision in about a week's time. And, of course, this would put me home for the holidays.

Option 2:

I just look for something simple to hold me over financially. I'd probably wait tables somewhere until around the end of January or whenever Mom and Tammy would be coming out. This would just let me delay my trip back home a few months and enjoy London a little bit longer. Of course, there's no guarantee that I would even be able to find even a small job that would want me for only a few months. So this option is based on the possibility that I would be able to find such a job.

Option 3:

I win the lottery and I have enough money to do whatever the heck I please. No more job searching. Just eating out all the time and living the dream.

Any other option inputs are welcome as well. Please let me know your thoughts so I can make a more informed decision. Many thanks...

Bath/Stonehenge

Thanks, Mom, for reminding me to write about this trip. I had planned to, but it completely escaped my memory.

Last Saturday I went on a trip organized by BUNAC to Bath and Stonehenge which was set at a price I just couldn't pass up. We were all crammed into a double-decker coach, but I had some fun neighbors and the sleeping came easy. I went with another girl here who's LDS who's also doing the BUNAC thing and a fresh new boyfriend of hers. Luckily they're both really cool, so it ended up not being too awkward being a 3rd wheel (despite the fact that I was the first one to sign up anyway).

Apparently there was some miscommunication between the bus driver and the BUNAC people hosting the trip. We were supposed to go to Stonehenge first, but the driver took us to Bath first. This is going to come back later...

So we went to Bath first. The town was really pretty. All the buildings were yellow-ish and seemed to have a real Mediterranean feel to them. And the town was big enough to have everything a town could want, but it was still small enough to feel at home. It was nice to step outside of London for a bit. There was plenty of stuff to look at anyway, i.e. parks, architecture, landscape, river. But the main attraction of the city is the Roman Baths. During the Roman occupation of Britain (didn't know there was one) they built a few baths around a hot spring. Sounds like a great idea to me! :) Apparently it was more for worship than recreation. There was even a high priest actor there welcoming us to worship Minerva. The whole building has Roman statues and architecture. Those Romans were pretty smart! They had pipes that carried hot water from the spring to the main bath to keep it warm. They also had a really interesting method of heating houses which requires too much explanation. But it was all really neat to see and learn about. If you want to read about the city: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath,_Somerset

There's a Jane Austen museum there.

The program used for this blogging site is really bad, so I don't know how to organize my pictures than that.

So after Bath we got in the bus and headed over to Stonehenge. We got there at 4:55. It closes at 5:00. They wouldn't let us in, so we had to take pictures from outside the gate. We got a 5 pound refund, but that's still lame. We could only see one side and from a bit of a distance. I blame the bus driver. So I took what pictures I could. Stonehenge was really neat though. I've heard a lot of people talk it down saying it's just a pile of rocks, even our BUNAC host said that. But I was really fascinated by it! It's an organized pile of gigantic rocks out in the middle of a rockless field! Pictures just can't do it real justice.

My Competition

"Unemployment in London Reaches 300,000" - That's what the headline was for a local newspaper. Upon further reading the actual number is 304,000. I'm up against some heavy competition! I'm thinking my timing couldn't have been worse for coming over here. Of course, I couldn't help it. It had to be right after I graduated or not at all.

But on a positive note, I have an interview to work in a souvenir shop next Wednesday. It's just a little retail job, but it's full-time and pays well enough to hold me over. So hopefully I get this job and I'll be able to stay! And it's not just any souvenir shop... it's the Westminster Abbey Shop. So I'd be working in a shop connected to the outside of Westminster Abbey. That'd be pretty fun. I walked through it yesterday to scope out the place. It looks like I'd be on my feet all day, and I might get bored out of my mind. But I'll find ways to entertain myself. I'm looking forward to it. I hope I get it.

And I'm going on the Stonehenge/Bath Tour tomorrow and next weekend a few of us are going to Paris. Believe it or not I'm pretty sure I'll be spending less money spending the weekend in Paris than living in London. Someone's got connections so we'll be able to stay at someone's place there. And I think it's one of the 70. That's what I heard, but don't quote me on that.

Bad Luck

I figured I was long overdue for an update, but I was hoping to wait until I had some good news for an update. Unfortunately I've had nothing but bad luck. I think I need to go buy a rabbit's foot or hang a horseshoe above my hostel door.

I've had lots of help from all the people here... more than I ever would have expected. I've been surprised at how concerned a lot of the people have been in helping me find a job. One person who has helped a lot was Marianne, who was my connection back at CPLG - the company I worked at over the summer. She's the one from Alabama and who arranges for interns to work there over the summer. We became really good friends through all that. She has a husband (Jason) who works at Arch Insurance, and she really talked me up to him. He was impressed by how much she was talking me up and talked me up to his company saying they should hire me in a position that had just opened up - payroll processing, etc. The way he made it sound, I was about 95% guaranteed in the spot. He had me come in for an interview on Thursday morning. He said he hoped it was just a formality for them to meet me and explain the position to me. He was rooting for me, but it wasn't his call. I met with an HR person and the finance person I'd be working under. I wasn't expecting an actual interview. I thought it was going to be just an information session like he said, but it was a full-blown interview. So I wasn't really prepared at all, but it actually worked out pretty well. I felt comfortable with how things went.

I got a call a couple hours later from Jason who said they were impressed with how I presented myself, but they're turned off by my lack of experience in the field and the short duration of my work permit. I can understand that from their end. It just doesn't help me out any! He said they'd keep the position open for another day to basically see if anything better comes along.

Also that day I found a really nice flat I'd be able to get. I talked to the owner and he was totally cool. I explained I'd be hearing about a job the next day and I'd be able to give him a definite yes once I hear back.

So the next day (Friday) I had nothing to do all day except wait for Jason to get off work and call me. I went to Greenwich and distracted myself. Of course it was always playing in the back of my mind. I was supressing any hope, bc I didn't want it to be a big blow if it didn't work out. If he said I was in, then I would have both a job and a flat before the day was over, and a real life would finally begin. I was in the tube when he called so I didn't have reception. I got his voice message after I got back above ground. I could tell by the tone of his voice it wasn't good. He said they decided to hire someone with a bit more experience. Crap. I can completely understand it from the company's end. But now I'm still jobless with no more prospects than I came here with. And I called up the guy to cancel the flat.

So I'm still in the hostel with no job 3.5 weeks later... and my supply of steam is running out. And that's my bad luck. I'll go in Monday to see about a telemarketing job. They actually pay decent money, and I might be able to word it well enough on a resume for it to sound like I have experience in marketing. Every job wants experience, even if it's just 6 months. But how do you get experience if every company requires you to already have experience? There need to be Start-Your-Career companies to gain that initial experience.

On a positive note, I'm having a lot of fun with the YSA. There's something to do almost every night. We even watched Wayne's World and Wayne's World 2 last week. Brought back tons of memories.