"Oh my god what the hell am I going to do after I graduate ahhhh!!!!!"
Thoughts going in circles. Repeat repeat repeat. So, not a whole lot exciting.
I was pretty sad to leave Israel in January because I knew this semester was going to be horribly stressful. And it was. Not school-wise, even though, yeah yeah, I was supposed to pass all my classes and I was taking ten different subjects sort of and I was in Practicum, which is really time-consuming. I was just friggin' stresssssed about knowing what the hell I was going to do after I graduated.
One the one hand, people were saying - just concentrate on school, you need to pass your exams! On the other, I kept hearing that prep is key to launching your career, you don't want to leave everything to the last minute, etc. etc. Fair enough. Some people were able to juggle those two aspects, others got too focused on one or the other and let the other aspect suffer a bit... I kept swinging from one to the other.
It all started in February with the career fair, resumes, nice suits, blah blah blah. And then it just continued. Constant searching, basically fruitless. The other thing you have to keep in mind is that as a Canadian in Americaland I am subject to immigration and work restrictions just like any other poor slob [foreigner], so I had to apply for a work permit called Optional Practical Training (OPT). And how it works is, I have a year max to work, but only 90 days of unemployment total in that year. So once my OPT starts, I have three months-ish to do jackshit before I get kicked out of the country. To be able to stay for the year, I can freelance, but I need 20 hours of work minimum a week to maintain status. Obviously, I had no idea if that was feasible, but it didn't look like I was going to be getting a steady job.
To sum up, I was kinda jealous of the folks who got to go home to their parents and take their time finding a job. If that was needed.
Like I said, my job search was pretty much fruitless, and I didn't get a job before I graduated. So I just decided to move to San Francisco and start looking for freelance work in anything and everything (OPT only applies to work within my professional field). If I got work, great, and if not, I would have a nice summer (if foggy) in the Bay area. This is my chance to stay for a year in the States, and I figured it was as good a place as any to look for work.
I also wanted to live in San Francisco because:
1) It's a big city with good public transportation
2) It was close to Monterey (could drive with my stuff)
3) I disliked it when I was a tourist
I know that sounds weird. Everyone seems to love San Francisco, but somehow I was really underwhelmed every time I visited. It was cold or something, or I didn't know where I was going. I knew it was supposed to be great and I believed that living there, it would be great.
So, I moved there!
Well, my stuff is there. In the place I'm subletting for the summer. I move myself there on Thursday, June 7! Ben and I drove up with my stuff in a U-Haul from Monterey... thanks Ben! Right now I'm staying with Ben's brother and brother's girlfriend (Dan and Lynashley) in Berkeley, and I have to tell you something.
BERKELEY IS AMAZING. I was all like... Yay big cities, yay noise and tons of people, bring it on. And when I first got to Berkeley (I've been here for about a week) I was thinking ok, this is way too quiet. But then I really started getting into it. I've just been hanging out every day, in quiet North Berkeley, and walking around and seeing the houses and the parks and it's all so leafy and green and all the houses are crazy damn cute with all these out-of-control flowers spilling off their lawns into the streets and it all looks so peaceful and adorable and organic, like everyone teaches their kids not to discriminate and not to eat animals and they just let the plants grow and read books instead and AHHHH IT'S ADORABLE.
Of course it helps that I'm completely on vacation right now, I just chop plants down around the house and eat and go for walks and read, and I get to hang out with Dan because he is also not working right now, so for me this is awesome.
Dan and Lynashley have been the best hosts ever, but all good things must end, and I must move into my (admittedly also quiet) neighbourhood in SF. If you put this into Google Maps you can see where I am living: 12th avenue at Lawton, San Francisco
Apparently the Sunset is notoriously foggy, so, sad face! But on good days you can see the Golden Gate Bridge from this intersection. Google Maps doesn't really do it justice. Golden Gate Bridge, you will be my new CN Tower.
=
Warming my heart wherever I may be. And honestly... San Francisco is actually really cool. Now that I've driven around instead of being a lame-ass lost tourist, it is amazing. The bridge looks stunning as the sun starts going down. The city looks amazing from across the bay in Oakland. There is a great coastline if you drive west of the Golden Gate Bridge. I live close to Golden Gate Park and am planning on playing in an ultimate frisbee league there. Can't wait to get out and start meeting people...
Which is especially important because! I forgot to mention this but it seems like right now I will be working from home fulltime for a translation company as a badass quality manager. This is a very good development because it will:
- give me money
- give me hours to keep up my immigration status
- be flexible enough to allow me to do interpretation stuff if that comes up
- give me great experience within the translation industry
So yeah. I hope it works out. My plan is to keep looking for interpretation stuff in the Bay area, work on getting court certified for California, etc., while doing this quality assurance stuff. If it works out, I could be staying in the Bay area for a year, not just a summer! :)
And that would be very nice.
For now I'll just be moving myself in, exploring, and setting up shop to start work. My work permit starts on June 18, so I still have a decent amount of time to be on vacation.
I'll tell you more about my roomies and San Francisco in general if it seems pertinent a little later! Till then, sayonara and good night.
DA JUICE
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