Moved

I am unhappy that I did not manage to sit myself down and write about the entirety of my IC experience, but I will sum it up thusly: It was the hardest working month of my life, and I learned more from it than I have learned from any other experience. The teambuilding among the CC was terrible and we were all exhausted and kind of angry by the end of the conference, but I guess that’s part of it – the delegates had a great time. I had some great learning experiences and I met some people I would never have gotten to meet without the power of the network. With all that under my belt, I was damn glad to be home by the time home came – also after a lot of wrangling around with finding a plane ticket home that did not cost $3,000.

The Izmir possibility fell through, and just before the conference started I was surprised with an offer from a Panamaian company through my university’s work abroad program. They basically told me that I had a position to work for the fall, they just needed to finalize payment issues and send me a letter of acceptance on Wednesday, August 29, to begin work in Panama City on Monday, September 10. Therefore I purchased plane tickets to return home on September 1.

When the letter did not come, I called GT Work Abroad, through whom went all contact, on the morning of Tuesday September 4 – still without a plane ticket to Panama and with an appointment to the travel doctor for shots in Birmingham the next day. I asked where my acceptance letter was, and they responded that that very morning the company had sent a letter to the work abroad office, stating that the higher-ups had determined there was no money for an intern for only three months – even if they didn’t pay me. So like that, I was out of a sweet internship, and since it was so late in the game I was also out of a chance to sign up for classes for the fall. I saw my Fall slide down the drain.

I sent out pleas and feelers to people in my network to get me something that was at least fourteen weeks in an electrical-computer engineering field for the fall, but I knew it was basically hopeless – and so it was. If I did not get something that started by September 17, it was going to be a no-go – and so it was. Even though I had one job in Spain offered to me, it was for at least a year minimum, and I need to start school back in January, so I had to regrettably turn it down.

For two weeks I was kind of a loser – I watched the entirety of the show Arrested Development on DVD (I recommend it) and visited friends in Atlanta, Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa a few times. I applied to a few jobs for construction, especially with electrical backgrounds, but nothing was coming up. So I decided after advice from a person on my EB last year and talking to some others, that I would attend bartending school and be a bartender for the fall. I made that decision more or less on Saturday evening, September 15. The next evening I was off to Atlanta to attend the Professional Bartending School. At 8 AM sharp for the next five days I was at that school, behind a bar, for 40 hours. I passed my written exam and practical speed test with flying colors, and I am now the proud holder of a Certificate of Mixology. The job and apartment search begin tomorrow morning.

I am currently having to couch-surf, but this is not terribly desirable due to the low stability and the annoyance it brings upon those with whom I stay. I want to get a place to live as soon as possible, hopefully for the next two years – I just found out on Saturday that my time in Turkey was approved to complete my International Plan abroad time, which means I’m locked into Atlanta to graduate hopefully by Spring 2009.

I intended to wax more reflective in this post, but the energy is seeping from my body. The unusually comfortable futon, with my own pillow, will restore my vigour for the beginning of the rest of my life.