Circles

Back in Cardiff. Back in the same room in the same house where we stayed when we first arrived here a year ago. Saw a few friends. Still halfheartedly looking for jobs...the fact that my student visa runs out in January and I can't apply for the next visa until then has become a problem. But I have heard back from a recruiter who has a temp job as a production editor--it goes until nearly the end of December and is outside of London. Both of these aspects are appealing.

If I don't start that job next week, then I shall go to Dublin to visit Sinead. I envision a lazy, relaxing time, with movies and snacks and tea and pints. Not that life has been terribly busy. It's more this feeling that I ought to be doing so much more than I am. A feeling that if I don't hurry up and decide something, I will pay the consequences later. What I'm trying to feel is that I have some free time, and once I go back to the USA and get a full-time job, I won't have this free time, so I should enjoy it now.

But an invitation to Budapest has been offered, and said offer is under serious consideration. More details if/when we decide to go.

I leave you with images of London.

Takeaway wine at the supermarket


Fish and chips box


Dan finds a till (cash register) in the neighborhood


Huge slabs of rotating meat for doner kebabs


The trailer in which police horses ride. It's empty now because the horses are patrolling the streets during a Chelsea football (soccer) match.


Horses in action

transition

Am sitting at the dining table in the posh house in London. Handed in the dissertation last week (woo hoo) and am now technically job-hunting full time. The house-owner for whom we were planning to house-sit until the 28th is technically back, though he went to a wedding this weekend and will also be gone next weekend. So we are looking for a new place to squat. Gumtree offers quite a few options, which we have sifted through, and now one of us will begin calling or emailing to set up visits. Am hoping it won't be too horrid, since we're just looking for a month-to-month type of situation.

Confirmed today that we are mostly looking for short-term work here, before heading back to the USA. I am scared to go back to the USA, because I see few to no full-time job opportunities, but am prepared to dive into the freelance editing and writing to make do. In addition to that, we may need to get a car to live in that damn country, which sounds like a huge pain in the ass, in addition to be hugely expensive.

But I digress. All of that is later. Right now is for applying for a job as an online editorial assistant here in London. It would be the perfect next step--learn online stuff as a newbie, temporary contract, and probably decent pay. Have also applied recently for short-term project manager at a publishing company and for a production coordinator for an online travel section of a newspaper. And in the next week or so, I might start investigating how to pitch stories to magazines/newspapers.

If the United States offered proper maternity/paternity leave to new parents, it would open up a lot of short-term work. They have that here, and most of jobs I'm applying for are 6-12 month maternity leave contracts. It's perfect. You don't have to commit your life to something, but you can earn some money and learn something. Plus, they don't have the bullshit health insurance issue, where you have to get it through your employer, so you're not so tightly tied to one job. I think this would be healthier for everyone.

Not much else. I shall leave you with this beautiful image:

Please explain why this position appeals to you

Hello friends. Job-hunting this week. Have completed the dissertation, sent it to the bindery...have received no confirmation that they got it, but am trying to wait a few more hours before I call for the second time, because they appear to be quite busy.

The next exercise is a brainstorming session for a job application question that goes a little something like this: Please explain why this position appeals to you.

I need a job, but I can't say it like that to you because it sounds like I only want any job, when in fact you want me to want this particular job. Okay. I want to work on websites. Can you be more specific? Sure, I can. I just finished a master's degree in international journalism. I learned how to write news, research and write long features, think critically (more or less), use InDesign and Photoshop, and accept that Indian classmates are ALWAYS late, no matter what the activity or assignment. I also learned that organisation is key to any functioning programme--in this case, the international journalism programme. The biggest flaws in this programme are lack of organisation, combined with unrealistic expectations and promises of what the professors are capable of doing.

But you don't care about any of that. You want to know why I want this job. Well, I want to improve my online skills. I use the internet every day, for writing email, connecting with friends through social networking sites, sharing photos, reading news, checking weather, finding a cheap place for a haircut, and so on and so forth. I also did an internship at the website for a local/international newspaper, and I learned how to use their content management system (CMS), but as I was there only three weeks, I am still not an expert on online systems.

Your travel site, on which I'd be working if you give this this job, is really cool. It has neat pictures. I like pictures. I like sorting through pictures and choosing the coolest ones, and the ones that fit together or offer contrast with one another or whatever.

Also, the site has neat tips on travel. It's not boring stuff, like the Eiffel Tower costs a lot. It's things like my family and I went on this long bike trip and we stayed at this cool eco-hostel and here's what we liked about it and this is what we ate later. I understand that many of the reader tips I'd have to sort through would be lame and boring. I worked for a romance publisher once, and one of the most entertaining parts of the job was sorting through submissions of new titles.

Of course, as you well know, your company as a whole has a fantastic reputation for journalism and covering social issues. I know I'm part of your target audience--an overeducated woolly liberal, but I can live with that. And I appreciate that there are news organisations that cater to my tree-hugger liberalism. But aside from that, you win awards. Not that I care inherently about awards. But usually awards signify good stuff, and I have seen evidence of that good stuff myself.

Ok, this has been really helpful in getting the crappy stuff out of my head to allow the better stuff to come out. Thanks much and talk to you later.

PS just found out today that the homeowner of the house we're sitting is coming back this weekend instead of on the 28th. Moving again...don't know where/when yet.