Each On-site Job Interview is A Punishment of My Choice of Victoria

A feeling of the exhausting and expensive commute between Victoria and Vancouver.

Simone(Szeman) L.
3 min readAug 28, 2020
One night I cried for myself on the ferry between Vancouver and Victoria
One night I cried for myself on the ferry between Vancouver and Victoria

A scene in Japan’s drama “Tokyo Girl” shows what made Aya determine to leave her lover and move closely to downtown. One day, she saw her pilled panties which made her think of her hometown Akita, 600 kilometres from Tokyo. She could not stand such life and moved to Ebisu.

Well, female’s decision is usually emotional and unreasonable.

For me, even though I come from a small city of Guangdong province as Aya’s hometown, my reference is Hong Kong which output its TV programs. My leaving motivation is rougher because one Vancouver guy said, “I prefer to find a girl in Vancouver’’.

Therefore, the sudden unemployment during the second wave of pandemic forces me to leave sooner. I start the days when I commute between two places and take job interviews which are merely onsite. I have no idea how long such days will last for but I can imagine how annoying and tough.

I am familiar with this situation. When I was an undergraduate student in Wuhan, for better internships or lectures, I took trains to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and even Hong Kong during four years. At that time, I was moved by myself by doing such things, so did my ex-boyfriend. What a diligent, sincere, and pure girl. But right now, I merely feel I am stupid cause I did not choose the right place.

Compass is the reloadable fare card that works everywhere on transit in Metro Vancouver

Again, I am in the same location. This time is crossing the sea. Except flight, all vehicles I will use include bus, ferry, sky train, and taxi/Uber. I really hate the troublesome life. When the potential Vancouver employers text or call me, I go there with huge uncertainty. They never lack candidates but I am always on the way. A more common result is they meet me and I do well in interview through spending lots of money, time, and energy. They still won’t hire me.

More unknown things are in front of me. The orthotic dentist in Vancouver will determine whether I have to do the orthotic work again; the weir landlord in downtown may refuse to rent the house to me though I have paid the deposit; and where is the next job?

Nonetheless, I seem have chance to stay positive. Not because I look young or was brainwashed by Asian female dramas like, “Tokyo Girl” “Nothing But Thirty” or am encouraged by the shining downtown dream. Rather, I have suffered the worst in Victoria: no jobs or the minimum wage part-time job. As a dual master’s degree holder & a book writer, I have worked as kitchen helper for one month before the pandemic. The total income is less than 300 dollars.

I am still alive.

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Simone(Szeman) L.

Cantonese with interdisciplinary and transnational background living in Canada, big fan of South East Asia and Big Data. Live for big city.