Back from Halifax, One Day Late

It was a tense trip there, a tense stay there and a tense trip home. From the previous post you understand why the drive to Halifax was tense so I do not need to explain that one. Yesterday was the day of the interview and this is a run-down of how it went. There were 13 applicants on Monday who were all lovely girls, but knowing that you're competing against each and every one makes them officially The Enemy. After sizing each other up, we all took our seats and got introduced to the women who were in charge of the days events and also got an outline of what we had ahead of us that day.

There were 3 written parts and 2 oral parts for each of us. The 3 written parts were quite easy and I feel I did fine with them. The 2 oral assignments were not my best. Well, one was fine, but the other was not great. I had to do a 2 minute talk on my opinion about the ethical aspects of a nutrition intervention for someone who is terminally ill and I found this to be quite easy. It was kind of funny actually. What happened is that there was a table at the back of the room with about 20 topics to chose from. Numbers were drawn randomly and the person who got the "1" got to chose their topic first but also had to present to everyone first. The person who got the "2" got to chose second and present second...and so on. So we were all itching to get picked first because we had had the chance to look at the topics before the numbering process, so we were all giving each other the evil eye, hoping that our top choice of topic did not get picked. And wouldn't you know it? I was picked as #2 but the #1 girl got the topic I wanted! What the hell? But I also really liked the topic I got so I wasn't too upset. Plus she did a better job at it then I would have.

Oh, I guess that's a bad thing now that I think of it more clearly. Damn.

Anyway, the second oral assignment was the individual interview and I didn't do as great as I would have wanted. We literally had to just talk about ourselves for 5 minutes. No questions were asked, no cues as to where to go with the speech...just talk about yourself. Ugh. Not cool. I'm not pleased with how it went. Plus one of the women was incredibly intimidating! She just sat there with her arms folded and watched me talk with a look of disapproval on her face. Such a great way to make a nervous person feel completely incompetent.



By the time we wrapped up for the day, it was 4pm and the snow was starting to come down hard. I drove a 1 hour strip of highway in nearly 2 hours. It was excruciatingly slow going and the weather was getting worse and worse so I decided to pull off the road and find a hotel in Truro, NS. I found a Holiday Inn and settled in for the night. My conscience was nagging at me because I had mandatory foods lab at 9am and I was worried about how it would turn out if I wasn't there to help my group. Luckily the roads were cleared when I got out in the morning and I got to lab right before noon. I got home, tossed down my bags, grabbed my lab cot and jumped on the bus which was seconds away from leaving. Thankfully I have an awesome lab group and they were able to breeze through the morning without me. Sure I felt unneeded and easily replaceable, but I was happy that they meal went off without a hitch. Way to go team!

Tip of the Day: Windshield wipers that work properly during snowstorms and day-after slushy driving are essential for your sanity.