Phone calls

So I've been making a lot of phone calls lately. A lot. You see, at the Employment Resource Center we have a data base that allows us to put employers and future employees in contact. If someone is looking for a nurse, for example, and they contact us, we look in our data base for all of the people who have come into the Center who have expressed a desire to work as a nurse. We then call them to find out if they want us to send their resume to that employer. The employer takes care of the rest. Well, you see, there are a LOT of people in our data base (approximately 4000)...and more often than not the information in the data base is out of date. My job for the last little while has been to call all 4000 people to try and update their information. Talking to so many people has definitely provided more than a few entertaining moments...

• I called a number the other day looking for a lady. When the person on the other end of the line picked up, I said (in Spanish of course), "This is Rachel from the Employment Resource Center. Is Maria there?" The lady started laughing hysterically and said, "What are you doing talking so gringa?" Surely she thought that I was someone else "pretending" to speak Spanish like a gringo. She felt pretty dumb when I said, "Well, I am from the United States." She probably said sorry 20 times. Hahaha...so much for thinking I sound like a native!
• Today I got a pronunciation lesson after I got the information I needed from the guy. He kept having me say the vowels in Spanish over and over again on the phone. Eventually he said, "Much better. Our lesson is done now." Then he hung up.
• Unfortunately I've had more than a few, "Oh, he died 5 years ago" calls. I hate those.

Despite all of the "entertaining" moments, this experience has only solidified the fact that I will NEVER work in a call center...no matter how much they are willing to pay me.

In other news...the other day I was craving McDonalds. That's strange, since I never crave it in the United States. Maybe I was just craving something familiar. I don't know. The food was DIVINE (who says that about McDonalds??) Anyway, I would just like to publicly thank McDonalds for tasting the same everywhere in the world...salt, grease, and all. You made my day.