Work Site Tours - Dec 4

Hello people

I was contemplating whether I should continue writing about my days in Katimavik, or write a new email on random information on the town, plus clarification email on Zach and Mike (I really do owe Zach that), but I think I will stick with my days...since I love talking about myself and everything. No, kidding...just that I feel like I have a huge credit card bill to pay, because on one hand I have all these things that happened to me in the past days that I should talk about, so I am trying to catch up to that. But at the same time, the days are growing so I have to talk about those too...it's a vicious cycle, I tell you ;). As of this day, I am 7 days behind schedule...

Dec/4

So today is the big day, where we all find out about the work sites, find out where we want to work, mark our top 3 choices, and then get interviewed on Tuesday. We woke up around 8:00 am (people who take morning showers had to wake up earlier to beat out other competition), had a do-it-your-own breakfast and left the house at 9:00 am.

First stop - Blind River hospital/St. Joseph Health Centre
This is the one and only hospital of the town, and it's approximately 10-15 minutes drive from the house (Apparently 45-50 minutes walk). It's a relatively nice hospital, and they combine it with the seniors' ward. The guy who brought us around wasn't very friendly...and there were 3 positions available in the hospital: 1) working with the seniors, chatting with them, games, meals, care...like what I did when I volunteered in Fairhaven 2) cleaning the hospital 3)buying department in the hospital - keeping track of supplies, finances, etc. From there, I was interested in the first position, and I can tell others were too...

Second stop - The Public Library
For a small town, this library is very good...the head librarian there was a nice lady who was also relatively strict. (She was the only person amongst all employers that want a resume from us) before moving to Blind River and becoming the head librarian there, she was a librarian in different universities. There is one position there, and it pretty much consists of being a librarian, plus other miscellaneous things...the person can be creative (she showed us an example where a Katimavik girl who worked in the library built a neon green bookworm out of paper maiche). On top of that, we got to get our own library card and use the internet they offer there (although there were only 4 computers and I soon learn that being able to use it requires luck and advance planning, as the local kids always beat me to them)

Third stop - Thrift store
Hmm...what to say about that...it's pretty much your average thrift store, similar to the Salvation Army. There are 2 jolly ladies who are in charge of the store, as well as their jolly volunteers. There are 2 positions there, and the work there is similar to work in a clothing store.

Lunch back at home...I am interested in the librarian job and the seniors job...found out that Mike doesn't know how to do the dishes...ew...

Fourth stop - Blind River Development/Chamber of Commerce
After lunch, we walked to the next worksite, which was 2-3 minutes away from the house. We were greeted by the Director of Chamber of Commerce/Assistant Manager of Blind River Development, who told us about the job. There is one position available within there, and it is pretty much being the secretary to the lady...data entry, photocopying, etc. etc. As well, because it is the chamber of commerce/development, they are also in charge of the travel/tourist information center, and that's also where the chosen one would work at. Although the job sounds sort of dull and uninteresting, the travel information center attracted me because I can find out what Blind River is all about, in history/touristic sites...and although I have a bit of office skills, I have never worked in an office and that place would be a good start and application to it. With those thoughts, that job became my top choice. And lucky for me, because it doesn't seem like others were very interested.

Fifth stop - Eckat High School
Yes, we are back again to the place where we learnt how to bake bread. This time though, they are offering 2 position there, and the job pretty much consists of working with kids in certain classes, such as helping them out with school work, boosting their confidence, etc. It's like being a buddy for little kids when you/I were in elementary school...except now the kids are much older, and with problems (apparently these kids are very very behind in school). The job doesn't sound bad...but unfortunately I am not a fan of kids/teenagers in a bunch...

What I found funny - when we enter into the high school, the vice principal who greeted us told us that breaktime was arriving and we should go out to the hallways and check them out. So we did that during break...we sat on the benches along a wall and just watched kids walk back and forth. It's pretty funny watching them...they can tell we are not from the high school so they would look at us, but then having 11 pairs of eyes staring back must be quite unnerving, because they would catch us staring back so they would quickly dodge away from our sights and walk away...pretending we are not there. Some of the kids even run away, which just made me burst out laughing. Soon we were so amused by their reaction that we started waving and saying hi to every kid who walked past us, which most of them just gave us weird looks. At one point we even did the wave for each kid. And when the kids do say hi back (which isn't a lot), then we gave a round of applause...yes our crew is a weird bunch, but fun

Last stop - Mississagi Reserve
To get there, we have to drive outside of Blind River...approximately 5-10 minutes outside of town. There is one position there, and pretty much the person helps out with the event planning/organizing. For example, apparently they are working on a campaign to decrease smokers, and the person would have to help on that. By that point I knew what I want the most, so I pretty much tuned out to the information

Drove back home in the snow...free time...dinner...language contract...free time...bed

Here are my top 3 choices:
1) Blind River Development
2) Library
3) Senior's ward in the hospital
Do not - cleaning job in hospital

Other people - Cheryl (Mississagi - she wanted nothing else), Maxim (high school) Cynthia (librarian) Rebecca (librarian) Stephanie (thrift store) Charles (thrift store) Zach (senior's ward) Stephan (high school) Mike (not sure, but he would be perfect for the cleaning job)

What will happen next - next day is the interview day for all of us. The employers for the jobs that we are interested in will interview us, and the interviewers and Emilie will decide where whether we get our top choice/2nd/3rd choice. As you can see, there are competition for certain jobs, even for my first choice (they are Zach and Mike's second choices). But I am confident that I will get it...I have more work experience and skills than they do, plus that same job is not their first choice. But everyone made fun of me when I told them that because I came off overconfident and cocky, hahaha. Funny enough, almost no one want to clean the hospital, and people hoped that Mike would end up with the job.

Interviews next day...