I LOVE NY!!!

I am happy to report that my life has been getting somewhat interesting and I have more to report today than I have the past couple of weeks. Well I went to New Jersey last Saturday for a job interview at Six Flags Great Adventure Park in Jackson. The interview and swim test was on Sunday morning. The swim test went sososososo well. I don't even remember being out of breath or tired. It was so cold that I just wanted to get moving and show them what I could do. 2 people failed the test and so 6 went on to interviews, one of them being me!!! I had practiced a lot of interview questions in preparation for it, but they turned out to be way easier than I thought. I was very comfortable with them and not really all that nervous so I think that I did a great job.

I think that it helped having the trainer pick me up from the airport and stay at her house so that I got extra chances to talk to them about my background and even about their career path. It was great! So there were 4 days of interviews with about 10 people each day. So about 40 people were applying for 2 positions. However this gets whittled down really fast because my week, 3 people cancelled and then 2 people failed so only 6 had interviews. I heard too from the trainer that our day had way stronger swimmers than the first day, a couple days before. The rest of the interviews happened yesterday and today and so I will find out tomorrow if I got the job or not. I wish that I didin't have to work so that I could sit by the phone to hear.

After the interviews were over I got a ride to the train station to catch a train to Penn Station in New York. That night I checked into my hotel, visited Grand Central Station, ate some NY cheesecake, and walked around Times Square (which I loved!!!!!) Oh man, I walked everywhere. Manhattan is only 2 miles wide (12 blocks numbered first to 12th ave) and 12 miles long (numbered from 1st street to 50th I think). Monday I got up early to take a hopon hopoff bus tour through Harlem, past Central Park, and all these famous places you see on the movies. It was so cold though (about 0C) because the bus didn't have a roof so I froze.

Next I took a bus on the downtown loop past Times Square, Macy's, Madison Square Gardens and got off at Battery Park. I got on the harbor cruise water taxi that took us out on the water past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I then took the bus back uptown past the Empire State Building and the Rockefeller Center over to Madison again. There I shopped a bit, ate a hot dog at a hot dog stand and waited for the Knicks game to start! That was awesome. It was Legends night so Patrick Ewing was honored along with a number of other famous Knicks players. The Knicks lost to Orlando by 3 points, a nail biter in the end. Dwight Howard for the Magic was amazing to watch. Scored 35 points or so too. Unstoppable!

After the game I went up the Empire State Building and saw the city at night. It was beautiful! I then spent more time in Times Square wandering around, shopping, eating and staring at the lights. It's so bright! Tuesday I went to the Rockefeller center and went up to the Top of the Rock to see the city during the day. The view was way better because you could see all of Central Park, the Empire State building and all the way past the Statue of Liberty. All the colors of the buildings were pretty fantastic too. I then went on the Brooklyn tour which was alright, but not super great. I had to catch my plane at 3 so I took the train to the airport and was on my way home.

I want to thank everyone that prayed for me. I have never felt more covered in prayer or felt the presence of God so close to me as I did during my interview. I felt so confident and was at peace with what I said and did. He definitely gave me the words to say and the conviction behind it to demonstrate that I wanted this job. I would love continued prayer for the right decision to be made tomorrow and that if I do get it that I will be able to get all my stuff together to move down quite quickly. The park opens on Saturday April 4th so I will have to be there right away.

I will definitely post my pictures soon enough because words cannot describe all the things that I saw. I would suggest that if you ever go to New York that you spend more than 2 days because there is way too much to see. I would have loved to have some more hot dogs, walk in Central Park, do a bunch of clothes shopping, visit the little restaurants and shops on Canal Street and Little Italy. And it really is the city that never sleeps. Talk about less than 4 hours a night each night just because of the adrenaline and seeing so much. Oh and I loved the taxis. Hailing a cab was one of the best things that I did. Cheap too, only like 5 bucks a ride, just because everything is so close.

Well I would love to show you all my pictures if anyone wants. You know where to find me. And I will be posting and letting you all know tomorrow or Tuesday if I got the job or not. You know, even if I don't get it I know that God was right there with me and I have no regrets about what I should have said or did. He knows where I am supposed to be right now and am confident that I am listening to His leading about following his direction. Later days!