People and Interview in Chicago

I wanted to write this in my last post, but I thought I would spread these out. I upgraded to a personal bathroom in our hostel that cost an extra $4, so there were eight bed and a bathroom with a shower. I think it was well worth it.

I only met two guys from my room: one guy seemed younger than me and he was looking at schools and the other guy was also looking at schools. The first guy was from Southern California, somewhere between L.A. and Las Vegas. He was looking at Roosevelt University adjacent to our hostel. It was funny because when I checked out of the hostel for the day before my interview, I told him good luck with whatever in the future. A couple hours later I randomly ran into him at the top of the John Hancock Observatory. We hung out up there for a while then I moved on.

The second guy was also looking at schools and he was from Argentina. I think this was his first time being in the States, but I can't remember. He spoke English very well. We chatted for a while then he left right away. Never saw him again or never spoke Spanish..oh well.

After finding the NBC Tower where my interview was, I met this other guy. I knew he was from Minnesota because when he was checking in for his interview, he was trying to explain his nationality to the woman at the desk. He said he was Hmong and was explaining that that is his culture, but his nationality is American. I'm guessing he was born here but, obviously, his parents were from Laos.

After he checked in and sat down, I asked him, "are you from Minnesota?" He said, "yes." Then I asked, "From St. Paul?" He looked at me, confused, and said, "yes." I knew that St. Paul has the highest Hmong population in the United States, so I was pretty confident with my assumptions. I continued to tell him that I worked in a Hmong charter school last year and I know a lot about their culture...at least more than the average person. We started talking and got to know each other.

Then we both get called in at the same time to interview. I hate group interviews. The interviewer asked us to tell him what our educational background was, why we chose Korea to teach and list some hobbies. He didn't speak English that well, and I had to repeat myself a couple times because he couldn't understand me. After we both did that, the interviewer pulled out a sheet of paper and said, "I am working on this song, you should sing it with me." So after being nervous all day and preparing for this interview, now we have to sing...WHAT!? The other guy and I looked at each other and didn't know what to do. So we looked at the title of the song and it was the Star-Spangled Banner. We helped the interviewer through the song and after we got through, he said, "have a great time in Korea!" That was it. I couldn't believe it and we both stood up slowly and left.

We made it to the elevators and were so confused as why we had to sing the National Anthem. We actually sounded pretty good though. I was also trying so hard not to laugh because as you all know, I think everything is funny and I'm always laughing. In the end, I made a new friend and we hope to meet up a couple times in Korea. Only five more days until my departure. It will be a good year!