Hmm. I wonder if I have some drafts waiting to be proofed & posted with recent nonsense. But I'm too tired & lazy to look, so I'll take care of them later & fill in now.
Hetty decided to bring in a Korean coteacher for me for April to help with Elmo. She decided to do this before I'd given my notice, mwah mwah. Her name is Heidi and she came in on Wednesday. Her occupation should be the Terror Whisperer, because I watched with amazement, admiration, abd pleasure as she got those little monsters doing whatever she asked after about 15 minutes. THEY WALKED IN A LINE WITH HER AROUND THE SCHOOL WITH THEIR FINGERS TO THEIR MOUTHS, SILENTLY following!!! No pushing, no running, no shoving, no bitching at each other. I almost want to construct an altar and start bowing to her she is so awesome. A while ago I tried to say they were acting like little 3-year-olds, should I treat them like babies? They didn't care at all if I did. But with Heidi, if she indicated she was going to erase the age they'd gotten to (up to 10), they'd all start begging her not to and shape up.
In short, she is my hero except I absolutely do not want to be her. I want to watch her do her magic, and others do that magic, and never want to study and perform such magic myself because I just do not want to teach kids these young, period.
On Monday Hetty said that they'll probably need about 5 weeks to get a teacher here, so I resigned myself to May 1 being my departure date, which is still SOOOOO FARRRR AWAYYYY, oh my God, I keep despairing how long a month is. Wednesday I was so done that I just thought, no, I cannot teach kids after this, no way, absolutely not. Which I'd love to just skip and go right to adults, but in Asia teaching adults means the horrid split shift. You teach from 6 AM to about 10 AM, then have off until you go back to work from about 5 PM to 10 PM. Usually with some Saturdays too. Aside from really hating working Saturdays, getting home after 10 to have to be up and out by around 5 AM? I could only do that for a couple of months, if that. I still really and truly cannot see myself lasting a full 12 month contract after ILS-- 6-9 was what I was thinking even though it means no severance. But I wouldn't last 6 months with that schedule. Sooooo... yeah.
Things have been looking up in that the anxiety is much more under control and life is a lot better in that regard. I started looking at jobs now even though I didn't know when I could go just to see if it'd be hard to get anyone to talk to me when I'm breaking a contract 3 months in. I sent one email at 1 AM last week and had an email requesting a phone interview the next day. So apparently that may not be much of an issue in my getting whatever next job I see.
As I mentioned in facebook I met another awesome expat women, Danielle, and her ADORABLE daughter (who smiles like Tyler), and loved them both. And as luck would have it, they're just as fond of me. We're actually planning on having a picnic tomorrow. Last night I went out to pretty nearby Bundang for a yoga pants and wine girls' night. It was a hell of a lot of fun, I drank a lot more than I intended, as usual, got home late and then stayed up much later, but made some more friends I think. Including a funny and zany Brit who also lives in Yongin, only apparently Yongin is huge and she's on the other side of it..
Last night was a huge reason to celebrate for me because after that last class ended at 7:10 Hetty wanted to tell me that she has interviewed a teacher who's already here in Korea who she thinks can be ready to start in mid-April, so I won't have to finish the whole month I don't think! I was basically a ball of joy walking home, lol. It's funny how every time she talks to me she tells me how she has not liked me/my work, yet still is so sad I'm leaving. Interestingly, Hetty got a call from the recruiter I spoke with, even though I told the recruiter I had no idea of my availability for new positions, and she gave me a recommendation, but only that I should just work with adults. So, I somehow am not that liked but can get a recommendation, so long as it's adults. Which is the impossible split shift. What IS a girl to do?
Today I dragged my still-groggy-from-the-wine-and-late-night self to Seoul to get some meds for the anxiety, even though it's under control now. He's having me try a low dose of clozapine (sp?) for 2 weeks and see how that works. So far it definitely made me feel drowsy and a touch out of it, but I think it should maybe hopefully be manageable at work. We'll see. Seems like I'll need to do a week to get used to it, but dealing with being tired for a week all day, more than usual, really sounds like a bad way to set myself up for a week there, lol.
Soooo, yeah. Happier, relieved, optimistic about future here once again! Ah, how I wish and hope this can last!
So assuming you're not sure if you'll need to come back to the states until you see if you can find a job over the next few weeks first?
ReplyDeleteI would say actually that no, I will definitely not be coming back to the States for a bit. It seems like getting a new job may not be too difficult, plus two teachers here got in touch about me taking on some extra private students of theirs. One just said to let her know if I can and am ready (she knows my schedule now means that's just out of the question), and the other she needs someone right around when I think I'd be leaving ILS, but not sure since we still have to confirm all of that. My staying here for another year, even with some of the great people I'm meeting, just doesn't seem possible, and I can't imagine that much time teaching kids, even the older ones I don'd mind, lol, but I'm at least going to see what I can do here for a bit before coming back.
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