Wednesday, the day of departure
I met my colleagues Durin, Katy, Kate, and Quentin at the Tashkent airport. I
had opted for business class for the Tashkent/Istanbul/Tashkent leg of the
journey. Upon my return to Tashkent I knew I would be going straight to school,
so it was the only way I would get some much-needed sleep.
The flight Tashkent/Istanbul was
late taking off, making an already short layover even tighter. Upon arrival in
Istanbul, we all took off running. In Istanbul you have to go through
additional security when you have a connecting flight. We raced through
security, and made it to our gate as they began boarding the onward flight to
London.
When we arrived in London, Durin
and I took the underground to Gloucester Road. Luckily our hotel, the Bailey’s
Millennium, was right across the lane from the exit from the tube station. We
checked in, then went out to eat Indian. It had been about 25 years since my
last visit to London, and I was VERY
excited to be back.
Friday: the race to request
interviews.
One of the more surreal parts of the job fair. At 8:30, the
teaching candidates are released like a pack of hounds, and race to two
different halls where the directors and principals are waiting to receive
applicants for interviews. You can actually feel the desperation in the room. It was a little heartbreaking watching all of these people trying to channel confidence.
I had a list of 10 schools that had openings for elementary and middle school Art teachers, that interested me. Only five agreed
to interview me. I had three interviews
that morning and afternoon.
I had another really good interview, with the director of the school
in Malawi. I had exchanged previous emails with him, and felt pretty confident that he was going to offer me a job. I attended his presentation about the school, and left feeling inspired. I chatted wit him about my cats, and he mentioned where I would have to be housed.
After the last interview, I found Durin and we shared a cup of tea.
I went back to my room to lay down for a few minutes. I woke up at 3AM.
Saturday: day of tears.
Durin and
I went for a lovely lonnnnng walk in the morning. I raced back for a
presentation at the school in Rome, which was cancelled. I then raced out
again, because I was determined to see the Victoria and Albert Museum while I
was in London. After a wonderful wander through the V&A, I walked to the
Royal Albert Hall and bought a ticket for the Cirque du Soleil performance that
night.
I got back to my hotel at 3:15PM. There was an email from the director
of the school in Malawi. He wanted to see me! That meant he was going to offer
me a job! I emailed back, said I had another interview at 4:00, but I would
come see him directly afterwards. I emailed my sisters to tell them I was going to Malawi.
As it happened, I was about 15 minutes early
for my interview, so I popped over to see Malawi man, cheerful and confident. He informed me that he
hadn’t been able to find me, so he had offered the job to someone else. When I tell my colleagues this story, I get one of two responses: "Donna, you NEVER leave the fair unless you have a job offer in your pocket!" or "Wow, sounds like you dodged a bullet!"
I then
went to my next interview.
After the interview, which was awful (of course) I retired to
my room and ate a bag of Doritos. I went to the Cirque du Soleil performance
which was wonderful. When I arrived back the hotel afterwards, I stepped into
the elevator and started to cry.
Sunday; from really bad to good.
I slept in Sunday morning, and laid in bed feeling sorry for myself. I dragged
myself down to breakfast, told the front desk that my room phone wasn't working
and came back to my room with a headache.
I went back to bed for a while. I
didn`t know if I should stick around in case Malawi man tried to contact me
again, if the first person he offered the job to didn`t take. it. I finally had
the idea to check the Search website and see if the posting had been taken
down. It had. I received an email from the director of the school in Japan telling me that he had hired a teaching couple, one of whom teaches elementary Art. I received more rejection emails from the other schools I had interviewed with.
My room phone still wasn`t working, so I went to the front desk to ask
about it. I had to change rooms. In the middle of this transition, I started
crying again. The hotel porter asked if I had a cold.
I then had to perform the humiliating task of signing out from the job fair and writing down that I had received no job offers. I was crying the entire time, hoping that I wouldn't seen anyone I knew. I made it out of the hotel, and around the corner, and ran straight into Durin. Poor Durin, I walked right into his arms and started sobbing.
Durin and I went for another walk. Durin had received TWO fabulous job offers, so he was feeling a bit guilty about his bounty. I was feeling guilty about being a downer.
At one point Durin and I were standing on a street corner dithering (he was going back to the hotel, and I was going to continue walking). A little old lady approached us (really), and was asking us about buses. At one point she became frustrate and starting talking in Russian! Durin is fluent in Russian, so he discovered where she was trying to go. I left Durin and the lady at street level, and ran down into the nearby tube station to get some information. I had to break through a crowd of people and ask the ticket-taker. It turned out she had to take the train from that station.
There are no lifts at that particular station (South Kensington), so I escorted the lady (using two canes) down the stairs. As she struggled down, she was singing softly to herself and chattering away to me in Russian.
The lovely ticket-taker waved me through so that could accompany my new friend to her train. It was a good thing I did, but a tall, fast-moving man was talking to someone else, and almost crashed into her! When we made it to the train platform, she asked if I was going to Uxbridge as well. I said 'no,' and she blew kisses to me as the train pulled away.
I then took myself to Harrod’s and
spent about $300 on souvenirs and goodies for everyone in my life. I had a very
expensive, very lovely tea break at the Harrod’s café.
After depositing my bags of Harrod's goodies at the hotel, I took another train to
have dinner with my very dear friends Ben and Vanna.
Monday: Last Day in London,
Return to Uz
My flight to Istanbul and back to
Tashkent didn’t leave until the afternoon, so I took the opportunity to go to
one more gallery. I knew that there was an interesting photographic exhibit at
the National Portrait Gallery, so I set off. It was so lovely. After a few
hours of wandering around looking at visual history, I made my way to Covent
Garden. It was so strange to be back here after so many years. I actually got a
little lost, and had to ask for directions. Covent Garden has changed a lot
since I used to visit it decades ago. It has definitely gone upscale! I had a
fairly indifferent lunch, and my alarm started sounding, telling me it was time
to return to the hotel and collect my bags.
At the airport, I had a bit of a
surprise. I had booked economy class Istanbul/London/Istanbul and business
class Tashkent/Istanbul/Tashkent. Even though I bought the ticket as one, it
was technically two tickets. Well. Because of this technicality I was informed
that I would have to pay about $300 in tax if I wanted to check my bag all the
way to Tashkent. I knew I had a 90 minute layover in Istanbul, so I decided to
risk it, and only check my suitcase to Istanbul. I figured for $300, I could
handle picking up my bag and checking it in again.
Big
Mistake. Upon arrival in Istanbul, I realized that, in 90 minutes, I had to line up to buy
a $90 (US) visa for Turkey, line up to go through Turkish immigration, pick up
my bag, exit the terminal, find the check-in counter to check my bag, line up
to go through Turkish immigration and airport security again, and find my boarding
gate. The entire time I was sweating, and moaning ‘Oh My God!,’ and begging
people to let me cut in front of them. And I had spilled oily salad dressing on my shirt on the first flight. So I was pretty much a sweaty, stained, hysterical mess.
Made it to the boarding lounge, and found Durin in the line to board. I brazenly went and stood with him, ignoring the people behind him in line. Used the 'f' word a few times until I had stopped sweating and settled down.
Back in Uz Tuesday morning, I taxi'd home, had an hour's sleep, a shower, and went to school.
