Tuesday, August 26, 2008

About My Job - Before We Post About Japan

It’s been several weeks since we’ve posted to our blog. There are several reasons for that: we went to Japan for ten days; when we came home, we were confronted not only with work, but my still uncertain job situation. While we’ve been going through our vacation pictures, we’ve also been going through a panic over our housing and work situation for the fall. It’s a rather complex story, but the short form is: we’re keeping our apartment, Paul is staying at his school, and I am frantically searching for a job. We are 17 days shy of being here a full year – and both looking forward to celebrating the 365 mark. I’ll be heading home for a few weeks in September to renew my visa, and Paul will be staying in Korea to work.


It’s sort of a strange feeling. On the one hand, I am terribly disheartened by my job situation. We’ve known since June that I didn’t have a job for the fall; we’ve talked to numerous recruiters, and had a few offers. We perhaps should have taken a job that was a bit further away, but we decided we could find something closer to our apartment. I accepted an offer on a job, and the recruiter never emailed me back, so I lost that job, as well as a second-best offer that came in from another recruiter. And thus, after two months of searching, I am two weeks away from unemployment. I am frustrated with a system of recruiters and contractors that doesn’t seem to work, I am frustrated at the lies I’ve been given while searching, and I’m frustrated that no one seems to want me, even though I’m qualified.

But at the same time that all that turmoil is going on – I have only twelve teaching days left at my school – and that is a fabulous feeling. I have really, honestly not enjoyed teaching at this school. There have been times, of course: my after-school classes and summer courses have been fun – I’ve had the freedom to teach and play games, I’ve been able to form relationships with the students. But, most days here, I go to classes, and function as a sort of monkey – saying words for the kids to repeat, defining things as my coworker sees fit, and doing little else. I’m thrilled to be leaving and every class I teach, I know I’m that much closer to leaving this school and going home. Hooray.

I know that many of you are praying for us and thinking about us while we're trying to sort all of this out. Thank you so much. We'll let you know what happens.