Interview is Booked!

So my interview is booked for January 20th at 5pm. I think that will be January 21st, at 10:00am in Australia, if they are calling in from Darwin. Crazy, eh? I will be interviewing on Thursday here, but Friday there...I'm so looking forward to getting to that part of the process. I haven't spoken to anyone from Australia, just the recruitment agency. I've been preparing as best I can, although have been sidetracked these past weeks with Christmas and spent it in the Yukon with my daughter, freezing my buns off, and then I moved at the end of December to my current location, Sooke. I am finally settled into a cabin in the woods, and once I have a phone hookup tomorrow, will be good to go.

My preparations have included reading all of the material that was sent to me, along with watching as many television shows I could find that were either about Australia, or filmed in Australia. I've checked out all types of programs, such as nature shows, adventure shows, movies, sit-coms, dramas, etc. The agency recommended a few movies, and I watched them, soaking up what I can about how folks relate to one another there, and what the relationship is like with the local Aboriginals, and what the history has been with them. Their history is rather different than our own Canadian history with the local Aboriginals here, and it's been fascinating learning about how their country/continent has evolved over time. I can't wait to get there!

As for interview prep, the hiring agency prepares me for the interview, but I have been taking notes during my conversations with them, and working on the areas they explained would be included in the interview. They want me to be successful in my interview, since they recruited me, so hopefully it will go well. I've usually done well in my interviews over the past few years, but this is a whole other country/continent, so who knows? I've become more and more comfortable in talking about my practice of social work, and with the variety of experience I've gained over the years, a lot of answers seem to come naturally. I remember a time when I was terrified to interview, afraid of not knowing the answers or in sounding like a complete moron. Now lets hope my abilities don't desert me during this interview! At least they will be speaking my language - English. I'm not sure who participates in the interview, but will find out soon enough, I reckon. ]

I've been watching the weather as well, in Darwin, Katherine, and Alice Springs. They are in the wet season right now, and it is their summer. From what I've been seeing, Darwin has been very rainy lately, with lots of flooding on the "top end", and threats of cyclones. It has also been VERY HOT and VERY HUMID. Alice Springs, aka The Alice or Alice has also been very hot, but nowheres near as rainy. When I look at daily rainfall amounts for Darwin, they are often 10-30mm of rain, up to 50mm+ of rain, but Alice is just 1-5mm per day. Apparently the thunderstorms in Darwin are just spectacular. I'm not sure about the thunderstorms in Alice. Either way - NO SNOW. Yahoo. Stay tuned...