That first night in Osaka, I had a Skype interview for a summer internship scheduled for 10:30 P.M., which was 9:30 A.M. back home. Before that, a group of us were kind of exploring the streets of Osaka, looking for something fun to do. I had told the group around 9:30 that I was going to go try and find Internet, get myself set up for my interview, with enough time to spare, and then meet them back at the same place around 11:15, since my interview was not supposed to be more than 30 minutes long. Well, who knew, in this technological heaven of a place, that finding Wifi is like finding the Holy Grail, impossible. It is so frustrating because there are evidently Wifi networks everywhere. Literally. Because the routers are showing up in the hundreds on your iPhone but they are all locked. So, you go into MacDonalds (which they call MacoDonaldos, btw) or wherever and offer to buy everything on the menu in exchange for the password to their network but no. They will not give you the password because…to this day, I do not know. They shake their heads and say “No. No wifi. No.” When, clearly there is a network called “Starbucks” or whatever showing up with 4 bars on your phone!
So, the hour began to pass, as I went from “Wifi Hotspot” to “Wifi Hotspot.” I went to an internet café that “didn’t have any room for (me),” a hotel that would let me use their wifi in their lobby but where a horrible band was playing tacky Bar Mitzvah-worthy music, every American chain restaurant and store I passed, and every storefront that said “Wifi.” Nowhere worked. Eventually, I ended up in a booth at MacDonald’s half crying, half fuming with anger as 10:30 came and passed.
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| out in Osaka. what did kyoto say to tokyo? oh, saka that! |
All of a sudden, two Semester at Sea students came down the stairs at this random MacDonald’s in Osaka, Japan. I hope neither of them read this but it was almost comical that it was these two. They are two of the nicest boys you will ever meet, but also two of the most attractive boys on the boat. So, these two Abercrombie model-looking boys walked up, sat on either side of me, and listened to my situation like I was reciting the Presidential Address or something and were both like, “We are going to figure this out.” Both of them were so sympathetic. It was like they were late for their own interview. One of them looked like he was going to cry for me, while the other was en route to the counter to demand that they give him the password. He was so persistent but these lovely MacoDonaldo employees were even more persistent and he came back empty handed.
Then, as if right on que, my good friend, Theresa, who goes to the University of Michigan and is on Semester at Sea with me, walked by this random MacDonald’s in Osaka, Japan with the girl whose house she was couch surfing at. Couch surfing is a way to travel where you are able to go online and search for people offering a couch to sleep on for the night. Theresa and her new friend, Yuka, saw us in the MacDonald’s and came in to say hi. I explained the situation to them.
Before I could finish, Yuka pulled out a mobile router she conveniently had in her purse. Within a couple minutes, I had linked my phone to it and signed onto Skype, just 7 minutes late for my interview. Luckily, the woman who was conducting my interview was unbelievably understanding of my situation and the interview went well! And, I got the internship!
At the end of the day, I did not think much about this experience. When you have been travelling around the world for 3 months, things like this become normal. Usually, things just work out and, if they don’t, it’s all part of the adventure. Maybe that’s not only the case when you are travelling around the world, and maybe life, in general? I’m not sure. What I do know is that I will most likely, hopefully, knock on wood, never have an interview like that again but, in hindsight, boy, I am happy it happened that way.
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