This week was my busiest week, with 3 different interviews, in 3 cities (2 states), and traveling for 5 days straight (Monday-Friday). First was an interview at the Northport VA, which is on Long Island. As I've already mentioned in my last post, that included some quality time at the Laguardia airport, but it also included successfully driving in NYC (well, only from Laguardia to Long Island, so I'm not sure if that really counts as NY city, but it does to me!) I stayed in a nice & comfortable hotel (I got all of my hotels through Hotwire, and have I mentioned how awesome that was?? Each city the hotels got better & better!) The only downside was they didn't have restaurant within walking distance, and I was so tired that I got turned around in circles finding a place for dinner, but, when I finally made it back to the hotel I realized my room had a jacuzzi tub--- awesome!! On week #2 I brought my swimsuit along, hoping I would have a hot tub at one of the places I stayed, but no luck. This week, I knew that I wouldn't be having leisurely time anywhere (and had to seriously consider every inch of packing space, since I was only bringing carry on) so I didn't bring my suit... which made the the jacuzzi tub that much more awesome!
My interview in Northport was mid-morning on Tuesday, the only downside was that we were booked from 10am- approx 2pm, with no lunch break (those who know me, know this is a problem!) They did offer some bagels at 12:30 when we were talking to the interns... which helped (and of course, I had a granola bar in the car!) Then of course, I had my adventures at the airport, which I won't repeat!
I made it into Buffalo late Tuesday evening, and was fairly exhausted/delirious. I managed to make a wrong turn before even leaving the airport, and thus got to tour the circle aroundthe Buffalo airport (good thing it's small!) I relied on my GPS to get me to the hotel, and was confused when it said "You have arrived" at a mall parking lot. there was a hotel across the street, but it didn't have the right name. I reset the GPS, drove around in a circle, and ended up in the parking lot again-- clearly this wasn't right. I went into the hotel (more of an extended-stay place actually) and the woman at the desk gave me directions- the place I wanted was about 3 miles back towards where I had come from.... I managed to backtrack without too much trouble, and saw a hotel with the Family name of the place I was staying (it wasn't a chain)... pulled into that parking lot, and walked (it was SOOOO cold!) to the desk and something didn't seem right... the name was the Xxxx Grand Hotel, but my confirmation said Xxxx Garden Hotel.... asked at the desk, and there was another place, with the same family name, about 2 blocks away... sigh.... Finally got checked in around 11pm, and of course had trouble falling asleep! boo!
Thankfully, my interview at Buffalo wasn't until 11:30 am on Wednesday, and I was able to take my time in the morning eating breakfast and getting prepared (and double checking directions-- who knew I'd have so much trouble navigating my way in Buffalo-- especially since it was also the city in which I did the least driving!!) Interview went well (also scheduled across lunchtime, but somehow didn't bother me that day- again, had a granola in the car when I was finished at 2:30!) and worked my way back to the airport... Light snow had been falling that morning, but the roads were clear which greatly reduced my stress. I made it to the airport several hours early, hoping to get on an earlier flight, but the soonest flight was the one I was booked on. Things were smooth till my connection in Chicago (Midway, which I don't have any horrible associations with, thankfully) and I ran from the arrival gate, to grab a salad to-go for dinner, and to the departure gate since I only had a 40 minute connection (gates were close together, which was nice). As I made it to the gate, they announced the flight was delayed, and overbooked! They asked for volunteers to stay overnight in Chicago (hotel & travel vouchers would be provided) and since I was walking to the gate as they made the announcement I was the first to say I was interested. But, they said the flight would leave at 6am Thursday and not arrive in Salt Lake (my destination) until 5:30pm (going thru somewhere random, with an apparently really long layover too). Even though I had Thursday as an "extra" day, I passed.
A classmate had generously offered his parents' home for my Salt Lake leg of the trip, so I let them know that I'd be late. Long story short, managed to make it into Salt Lake only 30 minutes behind schedule, which meant that I was 15 minutes too late for the "fast break" at the rental car place (going straight to the car instead of waiting in line....) All this meant it was at least 10:30 or 10:45pm before I left the airport, and had a 30-40 minute drive-- and my classmates father had to leave for work at 6am, so I was feeling stressed about being rude and arriving so late (although, no fault of my own). After a minor GPS mishap (it insisted that I had 'arrived' about 3 blocks before their home, and I couldn't see any street numbers to know which house was theirs-but, I was able to call and get there quickly!) We said brief hellos and goodnights, and I was able to enjoy a wonderful 8hrs of sleep!
Thursday morning, I ended up eating a leisurely breakfast and chatting with my classmates' mother (who teaches piano from home, and happened to have the morning off) and then I went into Downtown Salt Lake City to play tourist. I spent a few hours walking around the Temple Square area, including getting a tour of Brigham Young's home/office, checking out the amazing organ in the tabernacle, and going up to the 10th floor to get a view of the city & mountains. That afternoon, I went back to their home to study, and instead ended up taking a brief nap (guess I'm exhausted!) I spent some time preparing for my interview, and then went back to Temple Square to watch part of the Morman Tabernacle Choir rehearsal-- much to my surprise, they had a full orchestra accompanying (and what looked to be over 150 choir members... it's written down on a brochure somewhere, but I can't remember). I only stayed for about 20 minutes as I wanted to be respectful and get into the house before it got too late (which was good, because although I had been given a code to get in the garage door, I couldn't get it to work-- thankfully someone was still up & able to let me in; I would have hated to have to call & wake them!)
Friday marked the second-to-last of my interviews, at the Salt Lake City VA. I was a bit nervous about the long day (scheduled from 8:45-3:30 pm), especially since I have been feeling really run down from all of the traveling but they arranged the day nicely. We had an introduction, an open format/ free-for-all meet & greet with the supervisors (which the training director described as a 6th grade dance- very true!), a tour around the facility (with lots of information woven in), lunch with the interns, and 2 1-hour interviews- which were really just structured opportunity to talk with 2 staff members 1:1 (we were forbidden to speak to our interviewers during the meet & greet!). I drove straight to the airport (and forgot to fill up the gas tank on the rental- that was a bit of an expensive mistake!) and was hoping to get onto the 5pm flight home (I was booked on the 8pm flight).
I rushed to the gate (as much as possible, the rental car return & security line were awfully slow!) and they had just started pre-boarding for the flight. I asked the woman at the desk if there were any empty seats and her reply was "not yet". I didn't really know what that meant, but decided to hover at the desk with the hope of getting on (J. had looked up the flight when I was driving, and it showed that there were still seats available for purchase, so I was guessing that there were empty seats!). At the end of boarding, she started calling a few names for stand-by, and then I approached her again (when she called the name of someone who wasn't there) and said "You didn't take my name, but are there still open seats?" She said "we don't do standby for people with booked tickets" and explained that it would be a $50 fee, and there weren't any seats anyway (which wasn't true, because the standby name she called never showed up!) Anyhow, I was clearly at the end of my energy/patience, because this sent me to the verge of tears!!! I managed to gather myself, and ended up having a long leisurely dinner (complete with an amazing brownie dessert, yum!)
Today (Saturday) I have a loooong to-do list, and then I leave in the morning for a 6:45 flight (ugh!) to Hartford CT... Although I've been enjoying the opportunity to see the sites and meet the various staff (and daydream about what it would like to work at each of the places), I am definitely exhausted and ready to get back to my "normal" life (although, I'm more than a little scared about coming back to the tasks that have been neglected during my Interview Marathon!)
1 comment:
I'm glad that all went (fairly) well and that you've only got 1 interview left (though I think I'm exhausted just reading about all your adventures this past week!). And I'm happy that you got a delicious dessert last night... sounds like you definitely deserved it!
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