So. Turkey didn't work out. So much so that I didn't even get the chance to take any pictures :-( It was warm, the food was amazingly delicious, and I didn't eat a single Kebab the whole time! I did eat about ten different cheeses (usually 3 or 4 with breakfast and lunch) and olives with breakfast every day. Oh and I learned how to communicate in universal sign language. Now I understand why Europeans gesticulate so much, it really is vital to survival.
Following my whirlwind trip to Istanbul I returned to England, and back to my lovely friends E and D (who I may now collectively call ED...) who looked after me after my sudden departure and helped me eat all the olives I brought back. Feeling vaguely dejected I resumed my job hunt, and S2 also came to visit us, which was lovely. With both of us sitting about moping stupidly about the job situation and how much London sucks (on good day London is great, on a bad day it really isn't all that) we were struck by the appealing idea of going to Edinburgh to stay with S2's friend up there, checking out the job situation, deciding if it looked like somewhere we would want to live.
After ten million interviews on Wed, Thur and Fri (okay maybe only ten, but it was a marathon effort) and being told everyone loved me, we jumped on a train to York. Looked around York (there was a giant Yorkshire pudding, there will be pictures I promise!), drank some tea, admired walls, and got back on a train to Scotland. After a very picturesque ride along the Scottish and English East coast we arrived in the early evening to a pretty, if somewhat damp city, and were met by S2's friend.
At this point I shall skim over Edinburgh because there will be a full post on it in the coming days. I have much to say! But I spent Saturday and especially Sunday being a touch mopey as although all my interviews had given positive feedback etc, nobody had said anything definite either way. And as the two I most hoped for were through agencies, I couldn't pester them for an answer. So Monday morning I spent emailing people and following up interviews before we went out to enjoy the day, as it wasn't raining. In the mid-afternoon I get a call from my favourite agency (who I had assumed were trying to call me about one of the previous interviews) asking if I was interested in a job in France, starting asap, to which I replied with the predictable "Hells yes!". Well actually I think I said "Sure" but I was definitely thinking "Hells yes!".
So, later that night the mother from France calls me, while S2 and I are sitting in a pub having dinner (I was brave enough to try Stovies with Oatcakes, but not Haggis) and we have a chat. She seems nice, very trusting of the agent (which I also am!) and essentially says she will hire me and when can I start. And thus, Friday afternoon rolls along, and here I am cursing the Stanstead express (I really wish the would drop the 'Express' part, it's such a lie) and somehow making my flight on time. I would have stayed in London the night before, but there wasn't a bed to be had anywhere, (even if I had been willing to pay the £35/ night they were asking for dorm rooms!!!) so I raced down Friday morning instead.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I have come to find myself in a French castle in the Loire valley.
No comments:
Post a Comment