i just recently passed the one year anniversary of this blog on may 30th.
and this is my 50th blog post!
where was i a year ago? i was a recent graduate looking for a summer job while living at my parent's place in niagara falls. in those 3 months, i worked at imax theatre, margaritaville, java joe's, embassy suites, and sport chek. i also had countless interviews and sent off resumes to basically every place in niagara falls. i needed an escape. i had hit rock bottom. work was minimal. living at home was one of the worst things. i couldn't stand it.
a year passes and not a whole lot has changed. i gained more knowledge with a graduate program and plunged myself further into student debt. i moved out of my parent's place and into an apartment with my best friend in the world. i now called toronto my home. and -- up until this weekend, wouldn't have ever believed that i could live in toronto and function. this past weekend was a changing experience as i went for a short walk to use some coupons for dinner and randomly kept running into people i knew. it wasn't until the next day when i was in the wrong place at the wrong time when i truly believed i was a toronto resident -- involved in the eaton centre shooting, 7 people injured and 1 deceased.
luckily, i was above the food court when it happened and was on my way out of the mall when two ladies rushed out of a restaurant and told us to leave the mall immediately. outside, there was a gathering of over 2,000 people staring, taking pictures and videos, and stuck at a standstill on the sidewalk because of what was going on. social media has ruined lives this way -- instead of running for their lives, they're going to take a picture of it first. i didn't see anything out of the ordinary. nobody looked fearful and i didn't hear anything until we were outside. still, it's a bit scary and unreal.
i still don't have a paying job. i've taken on an unpaid internship with a longboarding company as their marketing/sustainability intern. i had my first day today and was assigned my first project to create an infographic about the benefits, exercise, costs, and carbon offsets of using a longboard. at least this gives me something to do instead of nothing. and after this article in the toronto star the next day after my interview, i was even more sold on the unpaid internship thing.
but, i'm still looking. i'm hoping somebody somewhere will eventually realize that they have the ability to pay me to do work too.
Showing posts with label niagara falls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label niagara falls. Show all posts
Jun 4, 2012
Oct 11, 2011
MIA
you may have noticed a lack of blog updates the past 2 weeks.
never fear, i am still alive and kickin'. things have just been so busy. i'm not even sure if busy is the right word here.
i went out for samson's birthday dinner on september 29th at kokoni. the sushi was great. too bad i was starving before i got there and had to grab a sub. it felt weird to be the only girl.. and the only straight person. it had been a very long time since the last time i noticed that conundrum. the 30th, i wrote my second assignment -- an internal memo. we had a meeting with the program coordinator to discuss things about the internship. these meetings will be every couple of weeks now. i'm looking forward to securing a placement and getting the experience of actually doing something outside of class and theory. i went to samson's party for a little bit then came home to do some work for the week ahead.
october 1st, i went with heather in the afternoon to wal-mart (ugh) to help her buy glasses. i stopped in at toys r' us looking for the possibility of really cool halo lego like i saw in sears (again, ugh) way back when but found nothing cool. instead, i came across fable 3 for 15 bucks. yeah, i just HAD to get it. we met up later for my first nuit blache experience. i saw lots of people throughout the night and a number of different pieces of artwork. only like 3 of them were really interesting. it was a cold night and eventually we stopped for late-night breakfast. i managed to stay out until almost 5am. i don't think i would ever go to nuit blanche again.
october 2nd, i rested up during the day and wrote my proposal for environmental law that wasn't for marks. we also had an open book quiz set for october 3... also, not for marks. i didn't understand the logic behind any of this no grades stuff.
october 4th, steph came up, i began my first day of skipping class, and my first day volunteering for the greenbuild conference. we went to check out the green job fair early but it wasn't what we thought it was going to be, so we hung out doing nothing for awhile until our volunteer shift started at 2pm. we worked one of the speaker series doing crowd control, crowd control for the opening plenary, and had an hour on a recycling station. we headed to east side marios for some dinner and home to unwind.
october 5th, we were up bright and early to catch speakers at 8:30am. i saw one about green schools that teach and another on sustainable campus planning/ecodistricts. all superb. we got our free lunch (meh, wasn't that great) and started our second volunteer shift at 2:30pm; recycling stations for 4 hours. the time just dragged. eventually, we got to leave sometime after 6pm. we received free tickets to the speakers/maroon 5 concert at ACC that evening, but i didn't feel much like going, needed to study for my quiz the next day, and steph had to go home. i gave the tickets to bobby and his friend instead. they had a good time, i hope.
october 6th was my 23rd birthday, though it didn't feel like it for most of the day. i went to another speaker series; one about climate change plans for university of bc and calgary and one about re-skinning and sustainable buildings. again, they were fantastic. i grabbed my free lunch (much better this time) and came home to shower and study. however, there was no water in my building. so i was a smelly birthday girl. i went to class and was greeted with happy birthdays (which made it feel like my birthday again), wrote the quiz, stuck around for lecture, then met up with steve to go to my birthday dinner festivities at joeys eaton centre. it was nice to see everyone and get free dessert. steve, heather, and i went out after for more drinks. it was a good and bad idea.
i made it home and passed out only to awake again after 6am and knew for sure i would be late to class. that is, if the ttc would have cooperated normally. there were super long delays and then i had to change trains at sheppard because there was something wrong with the train i was on. eventually, i made it to class, wrote what i thought would be the shittiest 'bad news' letter and got my memo back from last week -- 100%! i met up with my group after class to discuss our project due the tuesday after thanksgiving weekend. originally, i had planned to take the 3pm bus home to niagara falls. i decided to wait it out and take the 7:30pm bus, except it was so busy that it was close to 8:30pm before i even got on a bus.
it was nice to see the parents over the weekend and eat lots of turkey. the weekend was definitely not long enough. my parents drove me back monday afternoon (while i snagged the 42" tv which looks amazing in our living room) with a stop at ball's falls for their thanksgiving festival and to see the conservation centre. i was back on the grind this morning at 6am for class at 8am.
i've been saving up for an amazing blog post in the works that will soon be ready for publishing. so, don't feel bad if you don't find my daily life to be that exciting.
never fear, i am still alive and kickin'. things have just been so busy. i'm not even sure if busy is the right word here.
i went out for samson's birthday dinner on september 29th at kokoni. the sushi was great. too bad i was starving before i got there and had to grab a sub. it felt weird to be the only girl.. and the only straight person. it had been a very long time since the last time i noticed that conundrum. the 30th, i wrote my second assignment -- an internal memo. we had a meeting with the program coordinator to discuss things about the internship. these meetings will be every couple of weeks now. i'm looking forward to securing a placement and getting the experience of actually doing something outside of class and theory. i went to samson's party for a little bit then came home to do some work for the week ahead.
october 1st, i went with heather in the afternoon to wal-mart (ugh) to help her buy glasses. i stopped in at toys r' us looking for the possibility of really cool halo lego like i saw in sears (again, ugh) way back when but found nothing cool. instead, i came across fable 3 for 15 bucks. yeah, i just HAD to get it. we met up later for my first nuit blache experience. i saw lots of people throughout the night and a number of different pieces of artwork. only like 3 of them were really interesting. it was a cold night and eventually we stopped for late-night breakfast. i managed to stay out until almost 5am. i don't think i would ever go to nuit blanche again.
october 2nd, i rested up during the day and wrote my proposal for environmental law that wasn't for marks. we also had an open book quiz set for october 3... also, not for marks. i didn't understand the logic behind any of this no grades stuff.
october 4th, steph came up, i began my first day of skipping class, and my first day volunteering for the greenbuild conference. we went to check out the green job fair early but it wasn't what we thought it was going to be, so we hung out doing nothing for awhile until our volunteer shift started at 2pm. we worked one of the speaker series doing crowd control, crowd control for the opening plenary, and had an hour on a recycling station. we headed to east side marios for some dinner and home to unwind.
october 5th, we were up bright and early to catch speakers at 8:30am. i saw one about green schools that teach and another on sustainable campus planning/ecodistricts. all superb. we got our free lunch (meh, wasn't that great) and started our second volunteer shift at 2:30pm; recycling stations for 4 hours. the time just dragged. eventually, we got to leave sometime after 6pm. we received free tickets to the speakers/maroon 5 concert at ACC that evening, but i didn't feel much like going, needed to study for my quiz the next day, and steph had to go home. i gave the tickets to bobby and his friend instead. they had a good time, i hope.
october 6th was my 23rd birthday, though it didn't feel like it for most of the day. i went to another speaker series; one about climate change plans for university of bc and calgary and one about re-skinning and sustainable buildings. again, they were fantastic. i grabbed my free lunch (much better this time) and came home to shower and study. however, there was no water in my building. so i was a smelly birthday girl. i went to class and was greeted with happy birthdays (which made it feel like my birthday again), wrote the quiz, stuck around for lecture, then met up with steve to go to my birthday dinner festivities at joeys eaton centre. it was nice to see everyone and get free dessert. steve, heather, and i went out after for more drinks. it was a good and bad idea.
i made it home and passed out only to awake again after 6am and knew for sure i would be late to class. that is, if the ttc would have cooperated normally. there were super long delays and then i had to change trains at sheppard because there was something wrong with the train i was on. eventually, i made it to class, wrote what i thought would be the shittiest 'bad news' letter and got my memo back from last week -- 100%! i met up with my group after class to discuss our project due the tuesday after thanksgiving weekend. originally, i had planned to take the 3pm bus home to niagara falls. i decided to wait it out and take the 7:30pm bus, except it was so busy that it was close to 8:30pm before i even got on a bus.
it was nice to see the parents over the weekend and eat lots of turkey. the weekend was definitely not long enough. my parents drove me back monday afternoon (while i snagged the 42" tv which looks amazing in our living room) with a stop at ball's falls for their thanksgiving festival and to see the conservation centre. i was back on the grind this morning at 6am for class at 8am.
i've been saving up for an amazing blog post in the works that will soon be ready for publishing. so, don't feel bad if you don't find my daily life to be that exciting.
May 30, 2011
first post.
i finished my bachelor of arts degree in tourism and environment and now i'm off to bigger and better things. for the next three months, this will blog will be mostly dedicated to my post-graduation job search of which i have yet to land a job. in late august/early september, i'll be moving to the big city, toronto, where i'll be starting an 8 month post-graduate opportunity in environmental project management. what is that going to get me? i have no idea yet. hopefully something good.
this is my fifth summer living in niagara falls. i hate it here. there is nothing to do. and when i'm unemployed, there is even less to do. for the month of may, i sent out somewhere between 30 and 40 resumes in jobs in the niagara region and toronto. some of which pertain to the field of my degree. when you lack any and all housekeeping/serving/hostessing/restaurant/grocery/retail experience, the variety of jobs available in the niagara region are extremely minimal.
from those 30 or 40 resumes out there, i received 5 phone calls for interviews. the first was at a camp which i turned down. i have 'camp' experience. this job didn't start until july and also started at 6:30am. a legitimate reason for turning it down. the second interview was for the adidas outlet store. this was part-time/full-time/whatever and he said he was going to take up to 2 weeks to get back to me. i had the interview last week.
the third interview was from plenty canada. a place that has something to do with my degree except that it's in the middle of no where. it's in lanark, the maple syrup capital of ontario. don't know where lanark is? good. neither do i. this job would have been perfect, as he said i was more than qualified for the position. except that it's in the middle of no where and you need to be able to drive and have a car. and unfortunately, i can't drive nor have a car. he's still supposed to get back to me sometime this week, but i'll more than likely have to turn the job down as there are no places to rent/sublet either in this glorious town.
the fourth interview was build a bear workshop. it was a group interview with 2 other girls and we were only asked 2 questions each. this was their first round of interviews and they will call back next week for a second interview if they think you're qualified.
the fifth interview is scheduled for friday in the big city with greenpeace, again, it actually has something to do with my degree. i'm pretty excited for this and i hope it goes over well so i can move to toronto sooner rather than later.
with one day left in the month of may, how many more interviews will it take for me to land a job for the summer?
this is my fifth summer living in niagara falls. i hate it here. there is nothing to do. and when i'm unemployed, there is even less to do. for the month of may, i sent out somewhere between 30 and 40 resumes in jobs in the niagara region and toronto. some of which pertain to the field of my degree. when you lack any and all housekeeping/serving/hostessing/restaurant/grocery/retail experience, the variety of jobs available in the niagara region are extremely minimal.
from those 30 or 40 resumes out there, i received 5 phone calls for interviews. the first was at a camp which i turned down. i have 'camp' experience. this job didn't start until july and also started at 6:30am. a legitimate reason for turning it down. the second interview was for the adidas outlet store. this was part-time/full-time/whatever and he said he was going to take up to 2 weeks to get back to me. i had the interview last week.
the third interview was from plenty canada. a place that has something to do with my degree except that it's in the middle of no where. it's in lanark, the maple syrup capital of ontario. don't know where lanark is? good. neither do i. this job would have been perfect, as he said i was more than qualified for the position. except that it's in the middle of no where and you need to be able to drive and have a car. and unfortunately, i can't drive nor have a car. he's still supposed to get back to me sometime this week, but i'll more than likely have to turn the job down as there are no places to rent/sublet either in this glorious town.
the fourth interview was build a bear workshop. it was a group interview with 2 other girls and we were only asked 2 questions each. this was their first round of interviews and they will call back next week for a second interview if they think you're qualified.
the fifth interview is scheduled for friday in the big city with greenpeace, again, it actually has something to do with my degree. i'm pretty excited for this and i hope it goes over well so i can move to toronto sooner rather than later.
with one day left in the month of may, how many more interviews will it take for me to land a job for the summer?
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