After sitting around for a few days with little to occupy myself with I finally got up the gumption to go to the employment office (I actually can't remember the title of the office because it was ridiculously long and did not sound at all like a place where people would help me find a job). Those of you that know me well can appreciate the act of bravery that it really was for me to walk around post by myself, waltz into the office and ask people for help. I am so naturally introverted and easily intimidated that walking around a place where everyone appears to know exactly what they are doing and they look and act so professional, I feel out of my element. I'm sure at every moment that I'm probably messing something up, or doing something that's not right.
On my way to the office (about a 15 minute walk) I not only find every color of roadside weed flowers, and birds picking up worms from the rain-soaked soil, but I also find that EVERYONE stops for pedestrians. Even when there was no crosswalk (which there aren't many of anyway...there aren't may sidewalks to be honest either) people stopped to let me cross the road. Not sure if this is a military base thing or a Missouri thing, because even the airport shuttle van things stopped in the parking lot for me (although he seemed irritated unlike everyone else...).
Upon arriving to the building I really had no idea what I'm doing. I must have not gotten the woman gene that makes me stop and ask for directions, because I really hate it. I'd rather try to find it myself. After going up the elevator and realizing there were about 20 different offices, all with titles I didn't understand I was too afraid to walk into one and all of a sudden be in a place I wasn't authorized to be in...So I went back downstairs to the people that checked us into our hotel room and asked for directions. They called it the employment office and they told me to go RIGHT when I got off the elevator. Just to double check I said "Okay, so I go to the RIGHT?" and they said yes like they were positive. So I get off the elevator on the second floor and go right. I meet closed doors that lead to a long hallway of offices...none of them say "employment office". I fight my urge to just leave the building altogether and I start walking. The first office is open and I see a lot of women at desks. After taking another five steps I realize that I really don't know where I'm going and all of the other office doors are closed. So I go back to the office with the nice looking ladies. I have learned recently that in many situations if you just stand in one place and look really confused or make it very clear with your body language that you have no idea what you're doing, someone will come up to you and help you. So I walked about two feet into the office and stood there and waited for someone to waive me over. And TA DA!!! It worked! A very nice woman asked me what I was looking for and I said "the employment office??". She then took it upon herself to take me there herself! As it turns out, I was supposed to go left off the elevator, not right. But it's just as well that I found the nice lady because I never would have guessed that I was supposed to go through the door she took me through.
As it turns out, I won't really be able to use my social work degree here. Looks like I can apply to work at the commissary (Grocery store for those of you who don't talk military). I was told that I'd have a hard time getting a job because I didn't really have a "foot in the door" or "a leg up" because I'm new and because I'm not disabled...Needless to say, I left a little disheartened.
However, God has blessed us and at the moment it's not necissarily crucial that I have a job. It just would have been nice to give me something to do. So it's back to the drawing board for me.
On one last up note, just as I was leaving on my walk I felt a little mist. I just prayed that the rain would hold off until I got back. And what do you know, as soon as I sat down to type up this post it started storming!
I suppose that's all for now. I have to find some projects to keep me busy this summer!
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