Well, after signing up at a new teacher recruitment website, SeriousTeachers.com, my email box was quickly... hmm. I don't want to say, "flooded" but... I suddenly had more job leads to go with than I have had in the past month. Some of them seemed generic and form-lettery. Some seemed overly vague. Some seemed like good, real leads. I emailed one back that I liked, quickly the guy set up an interview at 06:30 my time 22:30 his, and... um... He's sending me a contract later today to look at.
I... I think I like what I am seeing. It's not too-good-to-be-true! It's on my side of the Fair Line, benefitting me. The pay, which I thought was all I really cared about, is NOT as good as working in Korea or the M.E., but... I'll be working at a public school. I'm going to have weekends off. Saturday AND Sunday, back-to-back days off, which was not offered in some contracts. I'm going to have national holidays off. I am going to have a month off for winter and two months off for summer. My apartment will be private with a washing machine and internet, provided by the school. I'll only need to develop three unique lesson plans a week, not the 18+ I did at my old school. Classes are going to be bigger, 40 kids for 40 min, but... I dunno. I like my older kids. I love my adult classes. But.. the little guys are kinda fun, too. I worked mostly with K-3 in Japan. It's my comfort zone, I think, for EFL. I'll have a T.A. in the room with me, basic training and a shadow week, and there is a lead foreign teacher from America with over ten years of experience. The contract puts me out of America from late Feb 2015 until June 2016. A little over a year and home in time to see my family during the summer.
I'll miss my brother and my sister graduating from high school.
"And sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler" feels like the quote of my life. It's not the fear of the unknown or anything silly like that, I think, bothers most people with wanderlust. It's the regret of missing stuff that really matters. When you travel, you accept the fact you are going to miss birthdays, weddings, funerals, and milestones. You are going to change, the people you know are going to change, and you can never make-up missing those headers in other's lives. With my parents and friends, it's less of a big deal to me, but I always feel bad for not being there for my siblings.
Nothing is set in stone, yet. I haven't received a copy of the contract nor have I signed. Also, like any other job, I know there is the potential for things to have been misrepresented and I know that teaching a few hundred kids a week is going to be tough, but I am really excited.
If nothing else, my former school district here in America has been a jerk toward me (never replying to emails, asking for ridiculous things, rather snarky when I have gone to the office in person since they, you know, don't respond to emails), and this gives me permission to give up on them for now.
So, with that, I guess the only thing left to do is say where it looks like I am heading.
Beijing, China.
I love how quickly I dismissed China when I was looking at places to work but 1) good time off 2) like the idea of working in a public school again 3) I've never been and never would unless I worked there
4) a useful language to try to pick up and 5) definitely enough to do in the country to keep me interested during days off.
Also, I've been to DisneyLand, Disney California, Disney World (EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, Magical Kingdom, and MGM Studios) Disney Paris, Tokyo DisneyLand, and Disney Sea. This will give me a chance to hit up Hong Kong Disney and possibly even Shanghai Disney which is set to open in 2016. I'll be able to say I've been to ever Disneyland there is. That's just as important as anything else I can think of.
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| Here is a random picture of where I live now to off-set the traditional image many have of Las Vegas. |
I'll miss my brother and my sister graduating from high school.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
 |
| My youngest sibling originally wrote "other sister." Yikes!!! |
Nothing is set in stone, yet. I haven't received a copy of the contract nor have I signed. Also, like any other job, I know there is the potential for things to have been misrepresented and I know that teaching a few hundred kids a week is going to be tough, but I am really excited.
If nothing else, my former school district here in America has been a jerk toward me (never replying to emails, asking for ridiculous things, rather snarky when I have gone to the office in person since they, you know, don't respond to emails), and this gives me permission to give up on them for now.
So, with that, I guess the only thing left to do is say where it looks like I am heading.
Beijing, China.
I love how quickly I dismissed China when I was looking at places to work but 1) good time off 2) like the idea of working in a public school again 3) I've never been and never would unless I worked there
4) a useful language to try to pick up and 5) definitely enough to do in the country to keep me interested during days off.
Also, I've been to DisneyLand, Disney California, Disney World (EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, Magical Kingdom, and MGM Studios) Disney Paris, Tokyo DisneyLand, and Disney Sea. This will give me a chance to hit up Hong Kong Disney and possibly even Shanghai Disney which is set to open in 2016. I'll be able to say I've been to ever Disneyland there is. That's just as important as anything else I can think of.
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