Monday, September 7, 2009

The Job Hunt

Monday, September 07, 2009

It was quite a day. I now feel very flush and have a headache, but I’ve got nothing else on the agenda till I get a phone call or e-mail from one of the lovely establishments I dropped off a CV at.

It is currently raining, but that was not the case earlier today when I was doing so much walking. I started off the morning with the purchase of a hairdryer. I had to wait for the store to open at 10am, but it was just around the corner. I printed out some CVs with corrected addresses and was off after a quick shower.

Well, I did actually blow a fuse today with my straighter, which is now fried and out of service, but I fixed the outlet by flipping the switch that I found located over the bedroom door…yea, above it. Maybe I won’t need it now that I have a hairdryer.

I won’t go through the whole list, but I covered the majority of Galway City handing out a total of 26 CVs and enquiring in a total of 34 establishments. Only about 13 of those are actually searching for employees. I did actually end up with a job at a volunteer only place. I asked if they were hiring then I felt bad, so I said once I got a schedule I would help them out. so great! I have a job...unpaid.

I stopped back by the apartment around 13:00 for some leftover Tikka chicken and a bowl of cereal. (Great combo huh!) I really like the Kellogg’s Honey Loops. I think they’re better than Honey Nut Cheerios. My feet were already throbbing, but thankfully my arm was no loner hurting when I woke up this morning. I’ve decided my spare time can be used stretching, listening to historical podcasts, and reading now that I have a library card. After lunch, I laid down for an hour nap and then set out again bound for the University.

I am thankful I went to UNC-Chapel Hill with such a nice student union and library. In infiltrating the premises, I found them to be rather distasteful. The main building was gorgeous with ivy growing up it, but other than that the architecture wasn’t to my taste. They all looked like Kennan labs. I had my backpack on so as to blend in better and make it appear as if I knew where I was going. It seemed to work until I arrived at the library and saw the sign requiring the student card for access. I went downstairs to the student union and found nowhere to sit but tables in the cafeteria. I was hoping to find some WiFi on campus, but it was becoming rather hard to set up somewhere inconspicuous while I pulled out my laptop plastered with California, Route 66, Ron Jon and UNC stickers. I finally found a little fountain and a stone bench to sit on near enough to the building to pick up WiFi.

Internet in this country is extremely valuable. Few cafes have it for free, and most of them close at 5 if they do. The campus has all its WiFi capabilities password protected, so I could not use it there. I marched on to the pubic library to check out their status on internet. I dropped a few more CVs off on the way. The library does in fact have internet, but I had to prove my residency in order to get the card. There are two ways to prove you live here. A bill in your name (usually only get these after 2 months of living in a place) or a bank account (only get this if you have a job). So, I though I was out of luck again. However, the librarian was very nice and said if I got my landlord to vouch for me I could get a card. Off I went with this slip of paper to Mrs. Teresa and she signed it for me! Whee! I have internet usage once a day for no more than 50 minutes, and access to a large amount of books.

So here is how it’s going to work. I’ll do my postings there when I can between the hours of 10-8, T-F and 10-5 M then for anyone who wants to skype me, that will have to be arranged through e-mail or phone (011 353 868 590 919, but it’ll probably cost ya) so I can go and pay for WiFi, or it can be on a schedule when I get settled into a job (hopefully).

It was my turn to cook dinner tonight and I had some spinach and ricotta tortellini, which I added garlic tomato sauce, salt, butter, and quartered grape tomatoes to (that I picked up downstairs from John who just took a Euro for them. I love that I get discounted fruit and veggies now!) with stir fry beef marinated in balsamic and cooked in olive oil. The salad consisted of butterhead (?) lettuce balsamic and olive oil with toasted wheat bread as croutons. Not too shabby. I will say I’m addicted to Fox’s lemon crunch and fudge crunch cookies as a quick after dinner treat. The lemon crunch taste a lot like my favorite Girl Scout cookies, which were discontinued – the lemon creams.

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