First of all, I’ve turned off the comments. The Russian spam was alarmingly frequent and kind of disheartening, and I can’t figure out how to install Captcha. So now I really am old school, like back when blogs were “journals” and you had to e-mail writers to comment on what they wrote! It’s like 1999 around here.
Some updates on the new career:
(1) Weirdly, I have not yet figured out how to concisely explain what I’m trying to do. Whenever people at the firm where I’ve been temping ask me what I’m going to do next, I can’t just say “tour director” because no one knows what that means, but “tour guide” is not quite accurate, and just “working in travel and tourism” is super vague. I have to work on an answer that’s 25 words or less.
(2) I finally compiled all the paperwork (which included a piece of paper indicating that I haven’t been arrested), submitted it, and took the DC Tour Guide License examination, which I passed, so I’m now official. I was totally all No Child Left Behind about it, though, and just studied what I needed to know for the test, so I still, on the whole, don’t know much about anything. I’m learning, though. As of right now, I can do five minutes each on the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Washington Monument. I’m trying to add a new five minutes every couple of days.
(3) In a few hours, I’ll be meeting my first student tour group. I’m working for a company that primarily tours 8th grade groups, as that’s when most students around the country study American government. For the next couple of days, I’ll be shadowing a course leader (that’s what this company calls their guides), and then on Sunday, this very Sunday, I’ll have my own group for the first time. I’m kind of excited, but mostly terrified. At least for this tour, I don’t have to do anything but sit in the back of the coach and take notes like mad.
(4) In early May, I’ll be going to Boston for a three-day interview tour with Collette through Vermont and New Hampshire. This is really exciting, because Collette hires its employees, which means there would be year-round work, and benefits. There will be 16 of us, including two of my ITMI classmates, and we’ll basically be doing exactly what ITMI trained us to do on our overnight trip. We have to introduce ourselves, and then prepare a 10-minute presentation on a topic they provide. (Mine is candle-making! Presumably candle-making was important in New Hampshire or Vermont; I assume I will find that out when I start researching it.) I assume there will be other interviewy-type things along the way. I’m really keeping my fingers crossed for this, and considering the expense of flying everyone to Boston, putting us up, and paying three days of salary (I’m not sure why that happens, but it’s awesome), they’re probably not doing it looking to hire just one or two people, so hopefully I have a real chance.
So that’s the current state of things. It will be interesting to see how it goes. (And it will be interesting to see if I actually keep writing.)