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...