Pointless Classes and an Interview

I woke up this morning and I knew it was going to be a long day. I was pokey getting ready, but made it out of the door on time. The commute was eerily quiet for the entire ride into the city. Im not complaining though! It was nice to have less people on the train and walking through Baker Street Station! I got to school and it was quiet there too! I ate my cheerios and headed into class.

The morning’s class was on architecture, which turned out to be a “let me show you as many buildings as I can in an hour and a half”. It was fun to see all of the castles, but I didn’t learn anything. I didn’t really understand the point of that lecture at all.

I ate lunch and then headed downstairs to kill a tree. I printed out my confirmations for my plane ticket, hotel, and easybus. Then I slowly headed over to the V&A for class. I was way early so I looked at the map of the museum, and I realized how little of the V&A I had actually been in. I will have to go back and check out the modern wing sometime. Oh I am so disappointed… they are having a Hollywood Costume exhibition with Dorothy’s dress, Indiana Jones, and DARTH VADER’S suit! It isn’t until Oct 20th though. :( Sigh. That sounds epic.

The museum visit was completely pointless. We saw one picture that we saw in class (it was the one in my presentation) and then we just looked at random stuff. None of the painting had anything to do with women. I didn’t understand what the point was of the visit. Anyways that ended at 3 so I had 2 hours until my interview. I headed over anyways. I took my time and got to Stratford at 3:45ish so I went to burger king ad got dinner. I cant believe I am going to say this, but after 3 months of no junk food, it didn’t taste all that good. I ate my whopper and fries and hung out until 4:25. Then I started walking to the place and got to the interview site.

I walked into reception and waited my turn. When they called me this is when things really got interesting… I say hi and hand over my passport. The girl looks at it and says “Oh AWESOME! You are from NEW YORK!!!” I just thought “o Great…” I said yes and was about to say but not the city when she cuts me off and says that I don’t have the NYC accent. Gah. So I explain that I am from the country, not the city. “Oh ok… so you are from New Jersey”. Really?? NO! My passport says NEW YORK. I just said no, and that I was farther away, 7 hours away. I explained the whole cow thing, and how my town has a blinking light and that’s about it. She starts to get it, when the other worker (who has been listening) gets all excited and says (and I quote) “Oh my god!! I LOVE Americans and their accent. Can you say Dude for me. Please??!!” So I oblige, and she thinks it is the coolest thing she has ever heard and makes me say it again. Eventually I get my documents back and am instructed to go into the next room to fill out some forms and wait.

I go into the next room and instantly I realize three things. 1… this is really badly organized, 2. I am the only white person in the room, 3. I am the only girl in the room. Off to a great start here. I fill out my forms and wait my turn. Im overhearing the conversations around me. One man asked if his sister can be his contact. They say no that it cant be a family member. He says oh.. looks down and then looks back up and asks what about his mum? Another man is doing his application online and is taking forever working through it with a helper and he gets to the end and nothing is there because he hadn’t pushed save at the end of each page like the worker told him to. I though the worker was going to cry. I just sat there, feeling quiet smart and well dressed in my grey pants and sweater.

A woman came and got me. I introduced myself and then she told me her name was Tu-Tu. It took everything I had not to ask “Like the dance outfit??” Thankfully I kept my big mouth shut and followed her into a big room with red cubicles. We went in one and she had me take an eye test that consisted of my reading the TOP line of the chart. I could read the bottom one… We sit down and she gave me two glasses of water and asked which one was scented. I smell the first one and say “well this one def is” and didn’t even smell the second one. She just kinda smiled and nodded. Then I took that test with colored circles that have different colored numbers in them. I passed that with flying colors, and then she started to interview me. She was impressed that I had had customer service so kept asking me about it. I told some classic Chaut. Tales and I really think that is what sealed the deal. She finishes and says that she wants to offer me a position and that they are in desperate need for x-ray techs. That sounded cool! She brings me into another room where I get my picture taken for my id card. Then they say that I have to wait 25 minutes to get my documents back because they have to copy them. I go sit down and again I am a minority. A lady comes to read out a group of numbers and the lucky people get to follow her. That happens again 10 minutes later and Im getting impatient. By this time there was a least two other girls in the room with me.

A few minutes later the lady come in and calls “Anna. Number 6”. I stand up and am thinking “wait where is my group??” She just says “comes with me” and I follow her while everyone stares at me. As we are walking she says that I get to jump way up in the queue because I have been put down for an x-ray tech and that I will have to take and pass the x-ray test. I am brought to another room filled with computers and there is one other man in there working on the test. The girl tells me about 4 times that each slide is timed and in 30 seconds it changes, but you can just hit the back arrow and go back to the slide. Ok I get it! I sat down and learned all this cool stuff about x-ray images. (Orange things are organic, blue is inorganic, green is mix, and black is dense lead) I am taking the test and the guy finishes and is flipping out because he didn’t think he did well because the slides were timed. Are you serious? The girl just stares at him and tells him that she ahd told him that he could go back. So he does to fix his answers. I finish and hand in my test. The guy makes me go outside in the hall and I wait. He comes out and all he says is “follow me”. Ok…. I follow Mr. Security dude and go into yet another room.

This room is full with the two groups that had been called before me back before my test. He throws my packet on the top of the pile and says “you will be first” and walks out. I look down the line of chairs and everyone is staring at me like WTF you just came in and you get to cut all of us… oops. There is one girl at the computer entering the information. The guy who is there is supposed to measuring his neck, and keeps doing it outside his collar. She cant get through to him that he needs to do it above his collar. O wow. Im going to be here awhile. A guy comes in and starts up a computer. He calls me over and again I could feel the stares. I get all my info entered into the system, and he says that after the background check goes through I will get training info. Finally I am free to leave.

I head home and an hour later I am in pjs and skyping mom and dad. (It was Dad’s 65th Bday!!) I had a really bad headache so I headed to bed early! What a long and crazy day!!

P.S the picture is of the Abbey Jumiege that I saw in lecture. Its in ruins and in Normandy.. I wanna go!