Saturday, January 16, 2010

Crawling out from under my rock

So, you may be asking yourself, what is up with Nee?

Why, absolutely nothing, which would explain the lack of new posts.

Twice a week I drag myself into town to listen to student presentations and give feedback, and the rest of the time... I don't even know. I must be doing something, but I'll be damned if I can say exactly what. But we are all fed, clothed, and not dead, so I am obviously doing something adequately.

My thrilling part-time job will be over the first week of February, so my thoughts have moved ahead to life afterwards. I found an ad for a job I want to apply for, so now I am in the middle of whipping my cv into shape, a somewhat different experience here in Germany from in the U.S. For one thing, a photo is required. That seems very odd to me, but I guess it saves the human resources people some time by getting a first impression of you from afar (also, less germy). So I dutifully made my way to a department store in town that advertises its while-you-wait photo service. I was afraid it might be a photomat booth, but it turns out that they have an actual person taking the photos, and I put myself completely in her hands. I had read on a job-search advice site that a big smile makes a good impression, so when she told me to smile bigger, I did it, even though I felt very strange doing it. At the time, I was pretty sure those pictures would come out looking like I was getting ready to suck the viewer's blood, or go for his liver, but once I saw them, I realized I look like a deranged muppet:



So sad. Luckily, one photo came out okay, or at least not like a sketch of an escaped mental patient, so I have something to put on my cv.



Wish me luck!