Early Monday morning I crept out of my sisters' room (being careful not to wake anyone) and headed off to the airport to go interview for a job in New York (and they paid for me to come out - flight, hotel and food!)
Lucky me, my flight was delayed due to "air traffic control" in Chicago, so I had lots of sitting around time. But of course, when I arrived in Chicago, and dashed to the other end of the terminal I was just in time to see my connecting flight to Rochester take off without me. The kind lady at the desk rescheduled me for another flight an hour later. I got into Rochester without too many more adventures, and caught the shuttle to the hotel where RIT was putting me up. Very nice room too - all to myself! It was still light outside, and since I was fairly close to the school I took a short walk down to the edge of campus (didn't want to get lost!) and back. It's beautiful - I only took a short walk, but this is what it is like all the way around the campus.
I got back just before dark and had a small dinner at the hotel restaurant - some yummy old fashioned French Onion soup and a slice of cheesecake - before heading off to my room to try and get ready for the next day.
In spite of my plan to hit the sack early, the combination of stress, lots of sitting, and time changes meant that it was after 11 before I finally fell asleep. Even so, the three alarms I had set all worked, so I was up on time getting myself all professional looking, packing and trying not to think TOO much about the day ahead of me. I grabbed some breakfast from the really nice buffet downstairs and hopped aboard the shuttle that took me down to the building where I would be spending the day.
I was, of course, there early - so instead of just sitting around and intimidating myself (this is an incredible place for interpreters to work - they have nearly 130 staff interpreters, and RIT graduates include some of the greats - Peter Cook, Sean Forbes, Debby Rennie - The Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox was produced here...) I filled out some paperwork and had a lovely chat with the secretary while I waited for the fun to begin. And begin it did - promptly at 9.
9 am - Interview with two department managers (pleasant but intense.)
10 am - Prep time for videotaping, (but no internet - bummer!)
11am - Videotaping (four 15 minute segments, 2 signed, 2 voiced)
12pm - Break for lunch (on my own.)
1pm - Signed interview with 3rd department manager (fun guy.)
2pm - Interview with fourth and final department manager (very educational.)
3pm - Interview with staff interpreter (to finish me off.)
4pm - shuttle to the airport for my 7pm flight. (Whew!)
Everyone was super nice and friendly - and regardless of what they thought of me personally, they made everything comfortable enough that I could concentrate on the conversations instead of being self conscious and paranoid. I learned so much just going there - the most WOW thing I learned - there were only 3 positions available, and there were 40 applicants. They only interviewed 8 people - and I was one of those top 8.
Luckily things were pretty quiet at the airport, so I got through security without much delay and had plenty of time to sit and wait for my flight. Even better, the flight before mine had a few open seats, and because I was just sitting there they let me take the earlier flight - giving me some extra time in Chicago to grab dinner before my flight to SLC.
I had hoped to get some sleep on that flight, but after dozing just long enough to miss the first beverage pass I woke up, looked out the window and was treated to a night time light show - enormous lightning storm with lightning flashing almost like a strobe light - nearly a strike every second (I counted, again and again and again.) It was intensely awesome! (Of course we were flying around the storm, not through it.) But it also woke me up enough that I didn't sleep at all the rest of the trip.
The plane landed at 11, but thanks to getting my bag gate checked I didn't make it out of the parking lot and onto the highway till 12:30, and I still had a 3 hour drive to my parents house. That meant a LOT of showtunes playing really loud so that I could sing along and not have to hear myself.
After getting a good six hours of sleep (good thing I was still pretty wired from the stress) I was up again and getting ready for another interview - this one via Skype with a school district in northern Virginia. This one ended up being almost entirely signed - which was interesting when the webcam decided that clarity was only 'kind of' important. But I think that it went pretty well - and from what I have seen, it would be a nice area to work. Only an hour away from DC (AND, I just found out that I will have another interview in a few weeks with a school district in Fairfax, Va and that is right next to DC.) Anyhow, I figure that if one job falls through, perhaps one of the others will work out :) (I hope!)
Meanwhile, I am catching up on some of that missed sleep (well, trying to, anyhow.)
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