update

I haven't written on here very much lately, because nothing exciting has been happening. I go on day trips on my scooter sometimes, but usually forget my camera. But to be honest, after 7 months much of the novelty of living here has worn off and not a lot is interesting or new anymore. That said, I'll try to continue to look at each day with fresh eyes and find things to write about.


Anyway, here is the update for those of you who want to know since some things have changed. I quit my job and will start a new one in October, which means I'll be here until October 2008 now. Hard to believe, but I've already been here for seven months, so apparently time does pass.

My new job sounds like it will be really awesome. I'll be working at an academy for adults, so I promised my boss I wouldn't try to bribe any of the students with stickers. One of the downfalls of teaching adults is that I have to work a split schedule, which means I will teach in the morning and evenings, but not during the daytime. At first I was hesitant to consider the job for that reason, but then realized the main issue with my previous job was lack of freetime during the day, so I signed.

One of the perks of this school is that they get requests to temporarily contract their teachers out to teach at companies. My boss called me this morning asking me if I would be interested in such an opportunity when I start in October. I agreed to it, so 3 mornings a week I will go to a vaccine research clinic and teach English to doctors that work there rather than teach regular classes at school. We'll see how it goes, but it sounds interesting and is considered a sort of bonus since it's good to put on a resume.


In addition to the better job, my new apartment is sweet! It's in a very central location, and much nicer than anything I would hope to live in at home: 11th floor, good view, a loft, counter space (which I didn't have before), a SHOWER STALL and even a DRYER, both of which are basically unheard-of among teachers. I mean this place is sweet. I even have roof-access and this is one of the tallest buildings in the city so the view is awesome from up there. And all this included with my contract!

I haven't had to work at all of September, because my previous job replaced me a month early, which was unexpected. I only had a week's notice to move out of my apartment and find a new job. It took me about a week to recover from the stress of suddenly being homeless and unemployed in a foreign country. Once I got everything sorted out I wanted to travel, but couldn't afford it since I'm out a paycheck this month. It's been nice having a break, but I'll be happy to start working again.


Tomorrow, I am meeting Mom, Dad, U Tom and Madeline at the airport. They'll be here for about a week, which will be awesome. I'm a little worried about the food, since it's common to find octopus tentacles in many dishes, and everything is very spicy -- not to mention the chopsticks, which are metal (heavy and slippery). Well, I guess we'll see how they do.

So that's generally the update. Again, I'll try to work on posting more pictures, etc. (All the pictures in this post are unrelated to anything I talked about -- for example, I don't live in one of those apartments.)