for a casual job. Ah, bliss. My original target was a decent-paid part time job, and I'm willing to work at any business admin office doing mundane work, or be a Famous-Amous salesgirl (my target for next sem), or a cushy and glam looking job at the Aesop counter.

I was also targetting for any jobs at the Union house, since it's only a 30 mins tram travel and advertises 15 dollars per hour jobs. How good can a part time worker's life get in Australia?? I browsed through the union advertisements and saw several notices from external agencies. One caught my eye: "International Portable Film Festival", hmm sounds like a big thing..."Casual job" hmm...I could handle that..."looks good on your resume"...hmm, that's for sure...

So I applied with an online resume. Then I got a call to go for my first interview. When I met Elaine in the tram, she said to me, "Don't worry it's just a casual job, probably they just want to hear you talk normally," and he advised me to research a bit on the news for the festival. I browsed through an article on the concepts of the festival casually and went to sleep. I set out extra early than I would normally to catch the tram. The interview's due at 11 30. After getting out a stop earlier than me, Elaine texted a good luck wish to me. Then, I stopped in front of the Royal Melb Hospital. Hm, I should be in good time. I should do this more often. Then, I looked at my time on the phone. GACK! WAT?! 11:24?? WAT WAT WAT?

I was running like a mad hare and probably looked like one too. I asked every single person where is the North Melb Meat Market (the interviewers emailed me the directions earlier and I underestimated the oversimplified map) and 80% of them asked me to go back three blocks to Vic Mark. NONONO! There are times when instincts just save you, and this is one of it. After being diverted a block away from the hospital, I returned to where I first got off the tram, and called my interviewer. After hearing my panicked call, he said he'll come and get me. Hallelujah!! Have you seen or heard such a nice interviewer before? I told him I was given wrong directions to go to Vic Mark and I set out very early to attend this interview. It's not completely a lie. Ahehe.

When I saw him at the roundabout, he struck me as a young, pretty good looking guy. He intro himself as Andrew and just dismiss my furious apologies in a good-natured way. I stole a glance at the notice at the door which states "Interns pelase go up to room xx" and I thought, hm, interns, so they hire interns too. Then I went up, and keep reminding myself that this is just a casual job, don't get your hopes too high.

First, I saw Simon, another older looking interviewer that talks and observes you with his intelligent eyes while speaking in a gentle tone. Soon, both of them sat down and the questions came.

"So, what made you apply for this internship?"

Hah. Huh. What?

"Ah, this festival is really revolutionary blhblahllah..." and I prided myself in reading the article beforehand so I can ramble on and on on what the festival is about. Movies transmitted and downloaded through 3G, Ipod, and all those new gadgets. It's going to be a free transmission and all filmmakers can now participate in the filmmaking competition, in where they are faced with the new challenge of making a film to fit the smallest screen ever. This also allows for limitless creativity, because a lot of different angles can be explored and magnified.

"yea, so I see that you've read on what we're doing, but what really made you want to do it?"

Oh, so i guess i didn't answer the ques properly.

"Oh, cuz I want to be part of the history."

HAHAHA that sounds so corny but they nodded their heads and seemed to be satisfied with that answer. I can't help feeling weird and curious at the same time as they scribbled every single of my answer. I feel like I'm being interrogated, because the last internship that I've gotten doesn't even require a formal intervew, it was just basic questions. Or maybe cuz it's unpaid. Anyways, they also asked me on the sorts of experiences that I had and I named TV News, while secretly thanking the unit, Murdoch Uni and myself for choosing the unit.

"What about your other experiences?" Andrew asked. "Like your public relations internship?"

OH. Yea. Uh...well.

"Let's ask you this...but you can take some time to consider, cuz we know that this is a difficult question. If we want to promote this festival, what would you do, let's say if you want to promote to Malaysia? As a PR practitioner, what kind of steps would you take, from the media to..."

My mind was an utter blank. It's too early (not really, it was almost noon) for me to think. I mentally racked my brain to think what I've learned in the textbooks and that one-month pr internship. Then I rambled again.

Finally, it was my time to listen to them talk about their experiences and positions. They introduced themselves as establishers of this youth program of this radio channel in Australia -- I'm afraid I didn't get half of the info that they told me, because I'm so poorly acquainted with Aus radio channels, and emphasized that "We hope to help and encourage our interns into the direction that they wanted to venture into, and we offer you this experience." It sounds really great and seriously, I was overwhelmed. My mind was screaming Internship???! Internship???! Another one??? Then, they asked of my language abilities and enquired whether I have the ability to translate some media articles into Mandarin. I've done something minor like that before at Ogilvy and answered yes with certainty.

So, no news came until the end of next week. Friday evening, when I was on my way to meet him, I recieved this fateful cal. Andrew said he is "very impressed" with what I bullshitted. I'm experiencing a mixture of fear and happiness in getting this prestigious internship. First ever International Portable Film Festival. I'm involved in Media and Communication again!!! And I didn't even have to apply for an internship through my degreeand use up my credit points. AH I'm elated beyond words!! Now, I hope it's paid. And I hope I won't disappoint them. I hope I didn't bullshit too much to the exten they believe that I'm comparable to a real PR Practitioner. But,bd soothed me by saying, "Everybody exaggerates when they go for job interviews. you must have answered something that fits their category only they decide to hire you. Just ask them whenever you're unsure of anything."

Well, they did say that I'm there to learn as well. And I'm really keen to learn. YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!