The Waiting Game

So here I am again, trying to get used to keeping an updated blog. I was never a fan of writing in journals when I was younger. Miss Witty, my 8^th grade teacher, used to have us keep a journal in class. I have to say that going back and reading all the nonsense I wrote is very amusing, especially when I feel like going back and reminiscing about times past. I’m hoping that keeping this blog will eventually pay off when I look back at what I am doing right now.

Anyway, back to what I was supposed to be talking about, my internship. A few days ago I wrote about how I told my boss that I needed to know what I was going to be doing as soon as possible, he complied. The next day, I got a phone from my boss and one of the network representatives. They asked me exactly what I wanted to do and what jobs I could probably end up doing while abroad. They told me that I would essentially continue to do the training sessions with the clients and that I could probably get a very good idea about what the network does if they placed me in their central offices. I was very happy. The RedEAmérica central offices are in Bogotá, Colombia.

Nothing is set in stone as of yet, but, once we agreed on what I was willing to do the network representative got busy on writing a draft letter to the Colombian office. Within hours I had a draft letter ready for me to translate. I translated it as soon as I could and sent it off this morning. Know all I have to do is play the waiting game.

Aside from the more concrete position in Bogota, which would not pay me by the way, there is also an offer from Brazil. I think I mentioned that in my other post. Anyway, since the network that I will be working with is based out of Latin America, there are also offices in Sao Paolo, Brazil. He said he mentioned the idea to the current RedEAmérica representative there and that he was going to relay the idea to the directors. There may be a better chance of me getting some kind of funding for the Brazilian trip, which is a big positive. However, I speak no Portuguese and it would be difficult to pick up without any formal training in the language. That’s not to say that I would back down from the challenge, but still.

Now, like I said earlier, I have to play the waiting game. I should have some more information by tomorrow morning when I open my e-mail inbox, or so I hope. There is no telling with them. As soon as I hear word as to where I am going to end up, I’m going to have to start looking for a place to stay and figure out a way to pay for all of this. If you did not know, flights to South America do not come cheap. I’m looking at $700 at least and about $1,000 at most, one way. I’m sure I’ll figure it out. All I know is that since I am not going to be in school, I won’t be getting any loans. That means living off of savings and work. I’m also probably going to ask my mom and dad for some money, I helped them out in the summer and now it seems like the right time for them to help me out. Overall, I think I can come up with about $5,000 to start off. As soon as I am there I will be working and making money from there on should not be that much of a problem. If one thing is in my favor is the exchange rate. I can probably get a single person studio for about $300 per month. That’s not bad considering I’m paying $400 to share a room right now. Okay, that’s all for right now. I will try to update the blog as soon as I get word of where I will be working.

The Mañana Syndrome

At the request of Megan Horejsi, it is time for me to update this blog. The reason for not having updated was that I literally just found out new information about my internship a few days ago. I had been waiting for an e-mail with a complete internship description for over a month, but every time I checked my e-mail there was nothing. I was literally just torturing myself. I guess I can’t complain I am going to be working in Latin America a place famous for its ‘mañana’ syndrome.

Anyway, last Thursday I finally got an e-mail from Jack Kerry, my boss. Here he tried his best to explain my internship position; it was obvious he was making it up as he went along. What was included in the proposal was nothing new, all stuff you can literally get off his website. However, what was important was that he finally got to it, and I finally had a concrete idea about his intentions for me this summer. The proposal essentially said that my tasks will not be any different from the ones I currently have. This really surprised me, because I have to write a 60 to 80 page thesis on my internship experiences. Quite frankly, I don’t think what I am currently doing right now is suited for the development of an 80 page Masters thesis.

So after thinking about the internship proposal this weekend, I decided to call my boss. When I got a hold of him I let him know what was going on and how I had just learned from my professors about the thesis. I told him that I was not happy with the proposal. I let him know that I would not want to do the job if he expected me to do any part of my internship from the confines of my home in Delano. Not that I don’t like being around my family or anything, but this is supposed to be an internship abroad and the way I projected this proposal evolving was with me stuck in Delano waiting for him to fly me to DC for a few weeks and maybe Colombia for a few days if I got lucky. I let him know that I am willing to pay for my own flight to South America if it means that I will get to work at the ground level, not from my home in Delano.

He went on to tell me that he had been thinking about sending me to Brasilia, Brazil with one of the Inter America Foundation representatives working with the Brazilian RedEAmérica, that actually sounded pretty cool, but who knows. I told him that I really can’t stay in California for any length of time. I will be finishing school in about 3 weeks and I need to know where I will be living. I need a definitive date so that I can buy a plane ticket to who knows where and even find an apartment since I will probably be living there for an extended period of time.

So I guess at this point I still don’t know where I will be living or going to in the next month. It’s getting close for me to finish school and I still have a lot of things I haven’t prepared for. I’m really worried since I don’t know anything about my own future and that makes me very uneasy. Jack said he would be getting back to me tomorrow after talking to one of the guys from RedEAmérica, maybe then I can get some more concrete information about what I will be doing during the next 6 months.