'liya @ the Fair

I spent Friday to Sunday working as a "student monitor" (whatever that means)at the Ontario Universities Fair at the convention centre. It was fun. It was tiring. It was incredibly busy. It was for $425.00! I took my cheque to the bank today. I like feeling $425 richer :D

High points - The job I had required absolutely nothing of me. I basically stood there in a bright yellow t-shirt that had the words "ASK ME" and a stupid smiley face on it. People were supposed to ASK ME stuff but not many did. Some people came up to me and asked me "what are we supposed to ask you?" I wanted to shoot them. How these kids will get into university is beyond me.

Low points - I got yelled at quite a bit but it totally wasn't my fault. I know you're thinking 'liya - got yelled at?? Trust me I was surprised too. The head managers were just awful. The two women in charge were so incredibly unfriendly. If it wasn't for all the other York students working there I don't know what I would have done, they provided a sense of calm and were really nice people.

Basic breakdown of my days:

Friday - Handed out papers at the Waterloo presentation room (which is where I was positioned) and became friends with the security guard Isabelle. Made friends with Amanda and Vince (other York students as moniters) and sat with them at a desk doing absolutely nothing just chatting.. even though we weren't supposed to be doing that - but hey standing and doing nothing for 8 hours is SO boring. I was losing my mind. I had to take a break. At the end of our day our head monitor gave us a lecture on people who were slacking off. I think he meant us. Hey some people got nice cushy jobs like sitting in information booths where they could do their homework all day. Why did I have to stand like a bright yellow sun dawning on the Waterloo horizon.

Saturday - Sat on a chair positioned between the Waterloo and McMaster presentation rooms for almost the entire day (had learned from the previous day that standing all day kills my legs) and became friends with Isabelle's replacement Edith. Got bored talking to Edith who didn't have the same entertaining stories that Isabelle had so I went to sit with Vince and the our head moniter comes and yells at me for not being in my position even though Vince wasn't in his either! Amanda got moved to an information desk!

Sunday - Handed out papers and chatted to Isabelle who came back. Sat in my chair, took the occasional drink of water, thought about how I'd have to stay up all night to finish my painting due the next day at 9:30 and reflected on life. Bored out of my mind because didn't want to take as many chances talking to other monitors for fear of being yelled at more. At the end of the day before we recieved our cheques we got a big lecture about how to be professional on the job. The fire alarm went off and we got our cheques in a very rushed manner. The two women in charge conveniently had to leave for their "bus" as soon as the alarm went off. Yeah let us burn.

As you can see my job was quite easy. I'm going to apply next year and I wish I had known about it last year. Easy money. Made some friends and had fun talking to them. It's funny but even though the job was available to all university students 90% of them were from York :) We're the money starved ones.. no actually the woman who did the hiring was from York so she just favoured us!

In case anyone is wondering what high school students consider most important when selecting their future school, the most popular question I recieved was "Where do I get the free keychains?" Wonderful. LOL I was just the same.

I have discovered that security guards like to talk. They must lead lonely lives. Actually one of the best parts of my day was before I left on Sunday one of the other security guards (not sure his name but was quite old) came up to me and said it had been a pleasure working and talking with me. How sweet. When I turned away I almost had a tear in my eye. It's funny how you can form relationships with people who you'll never see again in your life. Then again with all the coincedences occuring in mine I'll probably bump into someone from the fair soon. Sort of like all the SPRING ROLLS restaurants I keep seeing after going to Sara/Fuad's Bday on Saturday. Never heard of it before, but today when me and V we downtown we saw 4. Crazy.

P.S Nurdan do you remember we went to the fair together?
P.P.S Five years is almost one quarter of my entire life. V is definitely for me. Great day today and loved the Corpse Bride! Would have loved to spend a little more time after but stupid guy with locking the doors!
P.P.P.S Stayed up all Sunday night working on my painting then find out on Monday we get a 2 week extension.
P.P.P.P.S Ramadan Mubarak to everyone who is muslim, everyone who isn't muslim, and everyone who wants to become muslim. Please remember me in your prayers.

:D