Sanada invades Europe once again!
Okay, it's officially Sunday now... so MONDAY, I'll be headed off to Eastern Europe! Right now, I'm trying to cram a clarinet and a laptop into one bag so they will count as a single carry-on item. It's sort of a working trip since the BSB will be playing several concerts. I wish my economic stimulus check had come in time, though... *sigh* I'd have taken a perverse delight in getting it all changed into Euros, and then suffered devastating depression when I saw the exchange rate. Oh well. I can blow it at Otakon instead.
July 7: Fly from Washington DC to Frankfurt, Germany for a long layover.
July 8: Arrive in Zagreb, Croatia and drive to Opatija, Croatia.
July 9: Concert in Opatija.
July 10: Visit National Park in Opatija.
July 11: Visit Pula and Porec on Adriatic coast. Concert in Porec.
July 12: Drive to Bled, Slovenia. Visit Postojna Caves and Lipizan horse farm.
July 13: Boating, hiking and swimming at Lake Bled. Concert in Bled.
July 14: Drive to Vienna, Austria.
July 15: Tour of Vienna including Schoenbrunn Castle.
July 16: Free day in Vienna.
July 17: Leave Vienna and return to DC.
I'm counting on having internet there (my fragile sanity depends on it) but there's a 6-hour time difference. Thanks to my strategic avoidance of the roommate signup list, I've got a single room in the hotels. This is a good thing both for me and for potential roommates, as nokoru and roundtuit can attest, because I tend to spew the contents of my TARDIS-like suitcase all over every available surface of the room.
Um, well, let's just say that you won't see me soliciting donations at your door anytime soon. It was a stupid "grassroots environmental activist" job (read: "door-to-door begging for money") but the pay & benefits quoted in the ad seemed shockingly high - nearly on par with the lab jobs I'd been seeking, with better hours and a 10-minute commute. So, I figured I'd give the 8-hour "trial" interview a shot. Nothing to lose, right? I've got an super-liberal environmentalist streak, and who can argue with an organisation that protects streams and stuff?
Well, the main attraction of the job seemed to be the drug policy, or rather the lack thereof. I found it hilariously ironic that the Hollister-clad activists were perfectly happy to smoke weed but reacted with shock and horror when they discovered that the organic potato chips they'd been munching on had been fried in non-organic peanut oil. So I set off with the band of hippies and rock groupies to the DC suburbs (not too far from your house, chomiji to knock on doors and recite a pushy sales pitch so uninspired that even I wouldn't have given me any money. I think the few people who forked over a few bucks were paying us to get the hell off their lawns.
So, in my adventures, I conversed in broken high school Spanish with illegal immigrants, interrupted a couple in the midsts of a domestic quarrel, was yelled at by the deputy director of some EPA department, and spent a tense half hour trying to crawl away from an insane man who insisted that we crash a plane into the Capitol building and kill all of the senators because his water bill was too high. I was threatened, cursed, and sneered at by angry homeowners who were offended that I'd interrupted their dinners. After some time, I developed a variant of Stockholm Syndrome and began to sympathise with my "targets". There's no way in hell I'd give cash to some kid with no ID, especially if they launched into an aggressive buzzword spiel as soon as I opened my door. (I'm glad that my neighborhood is apparently too low-rent for solicitors to bother with. We don't even get Jehovah's Witnesses.)
Oh, and that surprisingly high wage with generous benefits? Apparently there was a catch to that, but I didn't stay long enough to figure it out. After being out in the sun all day with no water or rest, it was all I could do to stagger to the nearest soda machine and gleefully imbibe my non-organic, toxic chemical-laden Coke.
Needless to say, I didn't get the job. REJECTED. I'm both relieved and distressed that I'm not qualifed for a low-skill job that even drug-addled monkeys can do. *twitch* And I could really use the money... x__x Ugh, so depressing. It makes me not want to leave the house sometimes. Well, back to looking, I guess...
Blargh, I still need to pack... but I've gotten hooked on playing "The World Ends With You". I'm not usually a fan of RPG games, but this one is cute and it makes good use of the Nintendo DS.
July 7: Fly from Washington DC to Frankfurt, Germany for a long layover.
July 8: Arrive in Zagreb, Croatia and drive to Opatija, Croatia.
July 9: Concert in Opatija.
July 10: Visit National Park in Opatija.
July 11: Visit Pula and Porec on Adriatic coast. Concert in Porec.
July 12: Drive to Bled, Slovenia. Visit Postojna Caves and Lipizan horse farm.
July 13: Boating, hiking and swimming at Lake Bled. Concert in Bled.
July 14: Drive to Vienna, Austria.
July 15: Tour of Vienna including Schoenbrunn Castle.
July 16: Free day in Vienna.
July 17: Leave Vienna and return to DC.
I'm counting on having internet there (my fragile sanity depends on it) but there's a 6-hour time difference. Thanks to my strategic avoidance of the roommate signup list, I've got a single room in the hotels. This is a good thing both for me and for potential roommates, as nokoru and roundtuit can attest, because I tend to spew the contents of my TARDIS-like suitcase all over every available surface of the room.
Um, well, let's just say that you won't see me soliciting donations at your door anytime soon. It was a stupid "grassroots environmental activist" job (read: "door-to-door begging for money") but the pay & benefits quoted in the ad seemed shockingly high - nearly on par with the lab jobs I'd been seeking, with better hours and a 10-minute commute. So, I figured I'd give the 8-hour "trial" interview a shot. Nothing to lose, right? I've got an super-liberal environmentalist streak, and who can argue with an organisation that protects streams and stuff?
Well, the main attraction of the job seemed to be the drug policy, or rather the lack thereof. I found it hilariously ironic that the Hollister-clad activists were perfectly happy to smoke weed but reacted with shock and horror when they discovered that the organic potato chips they'd been munching on had been fried in non-organic peanut oil. So I set off with the band of hippies and rock groupies to the DC suburbs (not too far from your house, chomiji to knock on doors and recite a pushy sales pitch so uninspired that even I wouldn't have given me any money. I think the few people who forked over a few bucks were paying us to get the hell off their lawns.
So, in my adventures, I conversed in broken high school Spanish with illegal immigrants, interrupted a couple in the midsts of a domestic quarrel, was yelled at by the deputy director of some EPA department, and spent a tense half hour trying to crawl away from an insane man who insisted that we crash a plane into the Capitol building and kill all of the senators because his water bill was too high. I was threatened, cursed, and sneered at by angry homeowners who were offended that I'd interrupted their dinners. After some time, I developed a variant of Stockholm Syndrome and began to sympathise with my "targets". There's no way in hell I'd give cash to some kid with no ID, especially if they launched into an aggressive buzzword spiel as soon as I opened my door. (I'm glad that my neighborhood is apparently too low-rent for solicitors to bother with. We don't even get Jehovah's Witnesses.)
Oh, and that surprisingly high wage with generous benefits? Apparently there was a catch to that, but I didn't stay long enough to figure it out. After being out in the sun all day with no water or rest, it was all I could do to stagger to the nearest soda machine and gleefully imbibe my non-organic, toxic chemical-laden Coke.
Needless to say, I didn't get the job. REJECTED. I'm both relieved and distressed that I'm not qualifed for a low-skill job that even drug-addled monkeys can do. *twitch* And I could really use the money... x__x Ugh, so depressing. It makes me not want to leave the house sometimes. Well, back to looking, I guess...
Blargh, I still need to pack... but I've gotten hooked on playing "The World Ends With You". I'm not usually a fan of RPG games, but this one is cute and it makes good use of the Nintendo DS.