Well, after 25 hours of traveling, I finally arrived in Baltimore last night at about 10pm. The 3 flights and 2 trains were fairly pleasant...well, as pleasant as a 25 hour trip can be. But, it is a pain in the butt lugging around all of my heavy luggage. Speaking of which, the airline lost my luggage from Japan yesterday!
Yep, they lost all of my luggage, including the bag with all of my interview clothes and notes. Literally, my first hour back in America was spent trying to track down my missing luggage and watching an angry customer in a similar situation get arrested by 3 airport police. Nothing says "Welcome home" quite like airport police and missing luggage. Well, luckily, they found my luggage in Chicago and had it delivered to me overnight.
Culture shock has hit my like a brick. Seriously, I never imagined how hard or how fast it would hit me. Everything is just so different and I miss Japan and my life/lifestyle there already. My life was so simple and slow paced there, and already I am flying around the country and interviewing at a pretty unrealistic pace. Of course, hindsight has kickd in and I have been questioning if leaving was the right choice. Honestly, there's such a big part of me that wants to go back. Maybe my missing luggage was a sign from the Baby Jesus that I should just hop back on the plane and go back haha. But, I know that I had to leave eventually and now is probably the best time. Besides, I can always go back another time and visit as often as I would like. Regardless, this is going to be a really hard time for me and something that is pretty much impossible for other people who have never experienced this to understand.
I stayed with my awesome friend Ashy overnight and then took the train from Baltimore to NY-Penn Station at 8am. My interview wasn't until 2:30, so I checked my baggage at the station and went and wandered around the city. I went to Timesquare, Herald Square, saw the big Christmas tree at Rockefellor Center, and had a genuine NY hot dog and pretzel at Bryant Park (the location of Olympus Fashion Week from Project Runway!)
My interview went pretty well I think. It was a second round interview with the assistant directors and director and I think that they all liked me. I also got to meet my would-be coworkers and chatted with them for about an hour as well. I got such a good vibe from the department that it has cemented itself as my top choice so far. I let them know that if they are interested in a 3rd interview for me, that I could be in the area again on Tuesday, so I would imagine that I will hear back from them relatively soon. (incidentally, a friend of mine is also interviewing for a position there in the department. We aren't really competing against each other though since there are 2 openings)
After the interview, I picked up my luggage at Penn Station and took the longest taxi ride of my life to JFK airport. The taxi ride took about 1.5 hours and at some point during the trip, exhaustion set in, and I fell asleep. The exhaustion didn't stop and I fell asleep on the plane before it even took off. When I woke up, I was in Pittsburgh haha.
So, now I am in downtown Pittsburgh at a pretty swanky hotel for my interview tomorrow. After my interview, I'm switching to a slightly less swanky hotel and am spending the weekend here in Pittsburgh to get lots of sleep and rest up for the 2nd round of interviews next week before going home to my parents' house on Wednesday night.
Well, that's it for now. I should get some sleep now, but with so many things happening and so many emotions going through my head, I thought it might help me process it all to write about it.
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