I have hopped back across the pond and am in fine form after a four day trip to New York! 
The reason for the trip was a job interview, or so I thought. I bought a new shirt and tie all ready for the big event, but when I arrived it seemed I missed the memo. Everyone else was wearing jeans and sweatshirt. What I soon found out was that the "interview" was actually a throw-back to old standardized tests...I think I distinctly remember saying after the GRE that I was forever done with standardized tests and bubbles, but no. That’s right, in order to work for the federal government you have to be well-versed in bubbles.
The test was a little over 3 hours and consisted of critical reasoning in which we would read a paragraph and they would ask us oddly worded questions to see what info we could deduce from a few facts. Then there was the personality section (my favorite) when I had to say that no, I did not think that a messy room was a sign of an unintelligent person, yes, during high school I would see friends 7 or more times a month, and that I thought the worst part of the “computer revolution” was the loss of personal contact. Interesting stuff. Not sure what kind of person the test will tell them that I am, but I wish I could just tell them myself. The final section was basically like the English section on the SAT, correcting spelling mistakes, organizing data, and finding passive voice. So there you go. That’s how you become president, or at least a presidential management fellow. I think the test typified the federal government as an impersonal way to move through a bunch of people so it made me think twice if this was a job I wanted, but I’ll wait and see what happens. The highlight was meeting a girl from Hawaii who knew someone already working for US AID. We were both a little out of our elements in New York so we stuck together and laughed about it afterwards.
Besides the test, New York was great (and ridiculously cold)! I stayed with my friend Alison and she was kind enough to show me the city and enjoy some theatre with me. We hit up the half price ticket line to enjoy two great, and very different, Broadway shows: Translations and Spring Awakening. Translations was a play written in the 1980’s about an Irish girl who falls in love with the colonizing British soldier. They don’t speak the same language and it plays with the idea of names and language and power. After the show they had a discussion which was really cool in which an actor from the play along with a famous Irish author talked about it. Apparently, the play was really controversial because it was show in Ireland right during the height of violence between Protestants and Catholics, who were often fighting of the same thing of naming and place and claiming it as their own. Basically, I felt a lot smarter after that show. Spring Awakening was a rock musical about rebellion and repression from parents. It’s set in German in the late 1890’s and shows kids dealing with their new sexuality in a culture that makes them feel guilty for it. It had amazing music and all the actors were probably in their late teens. Just amazing voices. Also, a guy who was in season 5 of 24 was in it and apparently the music was by the band that had the song in the early 90’s “I am barely breathing, I can’t find a way, don’t know who I’m blah blah, imagining you here...but I’m thinking it over any way...” It was so much fun and great to see a new musical (apparently it was based on a play written in Germany in the 1890’s that was banned for decades.
Besides the culture I also ate some of the best pizza of my life at Grimaldi’s in Brooklyn and enjoyed some shopping in downtown Manhattan. Lots of food and relaxation. I even started Alison on the path towards an Office addiction, I think. Now I’m back in the Oslo airport, waiting for the short flight home. I’m excited to go home and enjoy my life outside of the bubbles in Tromsø.
and I have. I am watching them gas up the KLM plane as I prepare for some trans-atlantic hopping. I'm doing the business trip itinerary of Norway to New York and back in four days. Kind of crazy! It should be exciting though. The reason for this sudden and short trip is also exciting: a job interview!
Monday morning I will have a combination of a test and an interview for a position as a "presidential management fellow," which basically means I would get a job in one of the variety of departments in the government. I think it would be a good way to get my foot in the door working with foreign aid and international politics, and hey, it would be a job, right?! So dust off your suit and prepare for a variety of fine inflight entertainment because we're taking off. If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere...
