I had my first job interview. Before actual 面接 there was a small test (easy, you could even say ridiculously easy), words to translate from Polish to Japanese, from Japanese to Polish, some sentences and that's it. The 面接 guy was really nice, calm and smiley Japanese. Thanks to that I wasn't as nervous as I usually am, even though I was the last person to get interviewed (right after
vviivv and
fedzia, and let me tell you, they REALLY can speak in Japanese). To sum it up - even if I don't get the job (and there is a strong possibility because of situation I'm in), I feel accomplished and quite happy with myself.
And that (and having 美味しい dinner and meeting with
lolu_in_japan) was the ony good thing about yesterday. Now, when I remember what we went through, I laugh. Yesterday I mostly felt like crying. Or killing someone.
But from the beginning. Since the interview was in Poznań, we went to Warsaw day earlier, because otherwise we wouldn't be able to get to Poznań, thanks to amazingly well organized Polish railway infrastructure (*heavy sarcasm*) and stayed at
vviivv's. We woke up at 5.30 and left
vviivv's house hour later. To get to train station you have to take metro, ne? And that was the beginning of THE MOST UNLUCKIEST DAY ever. When we got to metro station there was no ticket kiosk open. And no ticket machine either. Riiight. So we went looking for open kiosk and finally found it.
When we got to train station there was still 10 min. left and no people at the ticket office, so with big smile I asked for ticket to Warsaw. Ticket lady didn't smile back and said with >,> face 'no tickets left'. Sigh. So we got on train and bought ticket there (thx God there were some unoccupied seats left).
When we got to Poznań, there was this not working and horribly smelly elevator. Yuck. We started to luck for tram stop (and of course went in the wrong direction) and finally found the right one. There was zebra crossing and something that looked like path to tram stop, so we went there (seeing that other people were also walking there). Suddenly we see city guards talking to some old guy. They stop us and ask for ID cards. Apparently nobody was supposed to walk this path (and because it's Poland there was no sign warning about it). Me thinks the guard had male PMS or sth, because he was the most upierdliwy (no good word in English, annoying is not enough) man ever. It didn't matter we were in Poznań for the first time and it's normal to follow locals when you don't know where to go, and besides shouldn't they (guards) warn people not to get on the wrong path before it happened? But no, the were hiding at the tram stop and jumping unsuspecting passer-bys. Poland, how I love your citizens. Not. In the end they let us go but not before our tram left and we had to wait for next one.
We thought our bad luck was over, especially since our way to company went ok and we there we met with
lolu_in_japan. Shows how much we knew.
After interview we were right on time to catch bus to train station, which meant we would be back in Kraków around midnight. We WOULD be, if not for the fact that not one, but TWO BUSES didn't arrive on time because of some malfunction (later
lolu_in_japan told us that never happened to her during her two weeks stay in Poznań, never).
Since next train was around 7 pm. we decided to go and eat something in city center. We got on the next bus and what do you know, they don't sell tickets in buses in Poznań. What?!? How can you do this, especially since there are no ticket kiosks there (which also is fucked up). So we decided to get out at some stop that had ticket kiosk. Riight. After 4 or 5 stops we finally found one, but when girls bought their student tickets and I asked for normal one (too old to get student one, sniff) the selling lady was like 'huh, do we have normal ones?'. I thought I was going to scream. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS CITY?!?!?!?!
Anyway, we got to center, found some nice restaurant, ate really good dinner, talked a little bit more with
lolu_in_japan who joined us after work. Since we still had some time to spare before going to train station, we decided to see city square. And because it would be to nice if nothing happened, it started to rain-_-; It wasn't heavy or anything, but we thought it nicely summed up our stay in Poznań.
Finally we went back to tram stop to get to train station,
fedzia joked that nothing can surprise here anymore. Buuuuuu, wrong thing to say! We got on tram, validated our ticket and then, after few minutes noticed that the tram doesn't live the stop. Irritated and starting to feel nervous,
fedzia asked the tram guy what's happening. And what was happening? There was some electrical outage and because of that all trams in Poznań stopped. WTF!?!?! In this situation we decided to go on foot, thanks God it was close enough.
We got to the train station, waited in line to ticket office and when finally it was our turn, the ticket lady said that her shift is over and we should move to another window. So we move to another window, tell the other lady we want tickets from Poznań to Kraków through Wrocław, which leaves at 7.23 pm. I paid for me and
fedzia and we checked tickets to see if we got the right ones. Of course we didn't. She made a mistake, so we had to wait another 5 minutes and pay once more, because it was more expensive than tickets she sold us before. I gave her my credit card, she moved it over the machine and gave it back saying I can't pay with it because there is some problem with it. I seriously thought I would start crying. Somehow we managed to collect enough money, borrowing from
vviivv, and had to wait again, because this lady was really slow. It was already 7.23 when we started to run to make it to our train.
We left
lolu_in_japan and
vvivv in Poznań, so now it was just me and
fedzia. We got to Wrocław without problems, the train to Kraków came soon after, so we sat down and felt asleep, thinking that now we're safe, that nothing can happen now.
-_-;
After two hours the ticket inspector woke us up, checked our tickets and told us we have to move to different compartment, because the one we were in was going to be separated in Katowice and go to Lublin. So, sleepy and tired, we moved three or four compartments to the front of the train and then promptly decided that we hate Friday, hate Poznań and Polish railway. The compartment was full, people were standing in corridors. There were two seats free, but two guys were having their feet on them-_-; After an hour we decided that they weren't waiting for friends (that's what we thought at the beginning) and asked them to move so we could sit. The did let us in, but were not to happy about it, complaining that they have no room for their feet now. WTF! Seats in trains generally are used as a sitting place, not to put your smelly feet on them! Ghargh, that's why I really hate Polish males sometimes.
To end the story, we arrived to Kraków at 3 am.
If a day like this happens once more, I'm going to kill somebody. Or myself.