The Interview--April 19, 2009 (Allen)

Within a few days of submitting my application, I was contacted by Bert van Dalfsen. He stated that interviews were to be held on the coming Sunday, and asked if I would be able to attend at noon.

Sunday, April 19 came along, and I showed up at the stated location. Unsure of what to expect, I walked into the bulding and into the largest pannel interview of my life. In the interview roon was a string of tables along three sides of the room, with Roatrians seated all the way along. At least a dozen of them sat behind the tables, facing the centre of the room where one lone table with an empty chair stood.

Just as I was soaking this in, I was greeted with, "Up against the wall!"

This did little to set me at ease.

"Pardon," I answered. It turned out that they just wanted to take a photo of me to put with my file--something they would do with all the applicants. From there I took my seat.

The Rotarians introduced themselves, and it was at this point that I met Bert van Dalfsen, who played a key role in the selection process. I met Linda Murray who was the trip's team leader. I met previous team leaders and members, and met future leaders. Although I did not fully understand why at the time, there was a pleasant woman to whom the other other Rotarians seemed to direct several comments pertaining to ice cream.

The interview seemed to be going well enough until the question "How do Canadians differ from Amercians" came along.

I thought for a second, and began to answer with the works, "I have to be careful not to be offensive towards Americans here..."

"You'd better!" the pleasant woman interjected. Up until that moment, I was unaware that District 5050 straddled the Canada/UB border, and that half the people there were Americans. After that question, the woman made a point of educating me about great Americans. When discussing the state of washington, she stated that Bill Gates hailed from Seattle.

"You do know who Bill Gates is, don't you?" she asked.

"Ya," I answered, "I think he makes ice cream, doesn't he?

It seemed like the right thing to say at the time.