And so it goes

Well, the rainy season's back

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:47:00 +0000

Got to my corporate class today with pants soaked all the way up to my thigh. Not pretty.

"Really, Jan?"

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:07:00 +0000

I haven't had a spare second this entire week, but tomorrow is my final day of classes (four short hours) for the week AND next week is fall break at the high school. For the month of October I'm up to 35 teaching hours per week Monday to Friday. I have gotten a bunch of requests lately for private classes ($!) but I haven't been able to accept any of them because my schedule is so full. Although I haven't really been sleeping, I'm finally making enough money to actually save here which is nearly impossible for us English teachers.

I have a hard time saying no to my boss (I did decline a request to do a seven-week recovery course for 1st and 2nd graders however, but only to accept a four-hour, two-student corporate class on Saturdays) but I suppose that it is a good thing that she thinks of me to fill all of these classes. She has also been asking me to do some favors for the office, which I obviously also cannot say no to. I had to spend one Saturday taking a British English for Opportunity proficiency exam (don't worry, I aced it) which I did NOT get paid for and had to spend another afternoon interviewing with someone at the British Council for the speaking part. My interviewer was confused when she saw my last name, asked if it was Colombian (?!?!!), and when I told her that it was in fact German, she became more confused by my lack of a German accent. When she asked why I was taking this exam I just told her that it was because my boss had asked me too.

My most recent favor to my boss was to rerecord the listening sections of the placement test for new students. Luckily this time I'm getting paid for ten hours of work, when it was actually only two. Today a fellow coworker and I went to legit record the CD at a recording studio. Not as fancy as I had imagined; I felt like I was being taken through a dark maze of tiny old school studios. It took practically no time at all as I was in and out in thirty minutes. My boss wasn't there to tell us if she liked the way it sounded, and since it was all in English, the studio guy replayed it back to us so we could listen for any mistakes. Weird, since I hate hearing any recordings of my voice whatsoever. I felt kinda professional for the day, but not as comical as reading tapescripts live.

Corporate Classes

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:49:00 +0000

When I first started teaching here, I didn't dislike my corporate classes, but I was never really too excited to go to them. Part of that may have been from the fact that they started at 6:30 or 7 in the morning, but teaching adults can be fairly difficult. I know they lead busy lives, but it's hard when they don't want to do homework or arrive 45 minutes late to class and they think games and roleplays are silly but never want to practice grammar. It was hard to motivate them to speak up and participate on their own, but after two months I finally got the hang of it and was disappointed when I found out that I would be switching companies.

Since I've been back from my summer vacation, I've taken on three more corporate classes and have started teaching in the evenings. My night classes have been a blast. It's so much fun to see twelve professionals from an investment company joke around with each other, practice meeting and conference call scenarios, and play Catch Phrase and Boggle. Most corporate students see English class as just another thing they have to do for work, but my students genuinely look forward to coming to class, especially after a long and stressful day at work ready to speak and eager to learn.

Some days I still have to wake up at 5am, but this session of corporate classes has been extremely refreshing. Now, my crazy work schedule is seemingly a little bit more manageable.

One Cake, Two Cake, Pink Cake, Cheesecake

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:59:00 +0000

I started out today by oversleeping and having to cancel my first class. First mistake as a 23-year-old, but at least I plan on not making too many more. Five cakes, three parties, and a homemade lunch later, birthday week still isn't over quite yet. Here are some pictures of the day:

Giant birthday cards from my younger girls. Notice the glitter.

Cake #1

Cake #2

Surprise party from my older girls.

Flowers sent to the school from Mom and Dad.

Lunch, cake, and presents from my Colombian family.

Cake #5 from my corporate class. SO full at this point, but still managed to eat a full slice.

un año

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:09:00 +0000

I have been in Colombia for one year, today.

It wasn't the worst bus ride I've ever been on

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:04:00 +0000

But I'd say that it's up there.

I don't live on a super busy street, but it's only a ten minute walk in either direction to get to one. I also don't live on a completely dead street, and usually it's pretty easy to get a taxi or catch one of the few buses that go down it.

I used to take a lot of taxis. I could never justify waking up an hour earlier to avoid paying the extra five thousand pesos. Now that I have to wait until September before I get a full month's salary, I figured taxis are probably the easiest thing to cut from my budget. And in a city with thousands upon thousands of buses, catching one shouldn't be so bad.

So I'm waiting for the bus this morning and constantly keep checking my watch as 10 minutes go by, then twenty minutes go by, then probably around the 28th minute the bus showed up. (This is an extremely long time to wait for the bus. You should really only have to wait like 7 minutes max.) And I never know if I should walk to the busy streets, or just keep waiting, or just grab a cab, because by the time I do then the bus would come, etc. It's a bit of a dilemma.

The bus was packed full, and I almost didn't get on because they absolutely could not squeeze one more person onto the bus. I pushed my way in, because there was no way I would wait for another one, as I was already going to be late to class by this time. So I'm kinda-sorta hanging out the door until the driver decided that he had to be able to close the doors. All buses here have turnstiles, but unfortunately they don't allow you to move, or stand very efficiently. So I'm jammed up against the door, trying hard to not swallow the hair of the woman in front of me, while balancing on the step and holding my heavy book bag. And to top things off, some lucky person that got on before me stepped in dog poo and brought it on the bus (which was not well-ventilated), and left most of it on the steps, right where I happened to be standing. This pretty much cut in half the area I already had to stand.

We sat in traffic for an hour plus, (it usually takes twenty minutes to get to my first company) and I didn't even get a chance to pass the turnstile. Unfortunately I still had to pay for my ride. I emerged gasping for air and triple checking my shoes. They were clean, but needless to say I was very late to my class. One student had arrived, but the rest never made it due to another traffic jam.

Rush hour SUCKS.

Bagel Time

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:46:00 +0000

...is the name of my new favorite place to eat breakfast. Nevermind that I get free breakfast at the school... they have toasted bagels with cream cheese!

The Scooter vs. The Moped

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:06:00 +0000

Apparently, there is a difference.

You see hundreds of scooters in Madison, no matter the season. In Bogota, scooters are what weave in between traffic (extremely dangerous btw) and how you get your domicilios.

See: Scooter
Mopeds on the other hand are, (who knew?), actual motorized bicycles. As in bikes with a motor attached. And, there is a large amount of people who ride/drive these things on the bike paths here thinking that they are actual bikes.

See: Moped

Con Artists

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:26:00 +0000

Of all the nomads I know, I have heard multiple stories about people getting mugged. I, most fortunately, have never even been close to getting robbed. Among the stories I hear, I think well, you were walking by yourself at night, listening to your ipod, not paying attention to your surroundings, holding your cell phone out for somebody to snatch, etc. I've never felt unsafe, but then again, I avoid all of the above situations. For two of my close friends here however, they were robbed in the exact same way and didn't realize they were being taken advantage of until after their stuff had been stolen.

On weekends in Bogota they have ciclovia which is when they close off a bunch of the streets in the city and people can ride their bikes, go running, and walk their dogs. My two friends (not at the same time) were riding their bikes by themselves during ciclovia when a fellow biker started riding next to them and just started chatting them up. This guy went on and on about how he runs a bike club and there are 9-10 people in it that ride together every week. So acting perfectly nice and chatty he offered each of my friends his business card. They rode a block away from the main bike path to the guy's "house" where his "brother" was supposed to meet him with the business cards. As they were waiting, the guy locked his bike and asked to take my friends' bikes for a quick spin. And with that, he rode away and never came back, leaving my friends stranded. Just their luck that they had left their money/cards/keys attached to the bike as well.

Upon hearing the story and looking back on it, you think, wow, how did I not see this coming? Of course, it could have been much worse, but the icing on the cake is that you actually believed that the person was being nice and genuine. The only thing you can really do is ignore the person sitting next to you on the bus, the guy waiting in the same line as you, your cab driver, and that person having coffee one table away from you. In our minds we feel like absolute jerks, but you never know what you are getting yourself into once you open up the door for conversation.

If only it were like Wisconsin where the only worry of having a rando start talking to you was that he was trying to hit on you.

Poop on my internet

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:13:00 +0000

My router has been failing to work for the past two weeks. I've been successfully connected to the internet now for about 20 minutes so hopefully it works long enough for me to post this. But I will be the first to admit that that is no excuse for not blogging.

I've been back in Bogota for three weeks now. I went home at the end of June for my school's short summer vacation. I helped host Alex's graduation party, saw my best friends, visited Madison twice, slept a lot, ate even more, celebrated the 4th, saw Gavin from the 10th row, went to the cabin, watched a lot of baseball, confirmed that my dog is actually crazy, went on a shopping spree on more than one occasion, and totally sucked the one time that I went running. I was sad to be leaving summer and my family, but part three of my Colombian experience was about to begin. (And my bank account desperately needed me to get back to work.)

When I left in June, that was the end of my AIESEC contract. I am now working as a direct employee with my company which means I'm now getting paid by the hour, instead of a monthly salary and am eligible for all the benefits that the teachers get. When I first got back I had one class and with other teachers also not having any other classes to teach I was really worried that my decision to contract directly may have not been the best. Within a week however I was given three new classes and now my schedule is fuller than ever. I have two new corporate classes at the intermediate level which so far I really love, and a new class at the school of 6th-8th graders. I like being this busy and am sooo looking forward to my August paycheck.

I'll get some pics up soon. Along with some more consistent updates.

"Happy Day, Teacher!"

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sat, 16 May 2009 02:26:00 +0000

Two Friday's ago was Colombia's Teacher's Day. The office and the school I work at did a pretty good job of celebrating it, too.

The office took all the teachers bowling, complete with free beer and pizza. At the last school I taught at I was the teacher in charge of bolos but apparently everything I learned there didn't quite stick. Somehow, my team came in third (out of ten!) but as my three rounds went on I progressively got worse. And I don't think it was the beer. Either way, it was a pretty fun afternoon and since everyone at the company teaches all over Bogota, it was nice to actually meet some of my coworkers.

The school had an even bigger celebration. School ended an hour early and all classes after 10am were cancelled. The teacher's room was filled with flowers and candy and fruit baskets and thoughtful, personalized notes from the normally crabby academic coordinator. The girls actually organized most of the activities. What I love about this school is that every activity has the girls performing some sort of skit, dance, or song. It reminds me of my cousin's dance recitals ten years ago. The elementary girls danced and the seniors made a slide show of pictures. They also gave out awards. I unfortunately didn't win "The Happiest Miss in the World," but I did take home the most dedicated teacher award! I have a certificate to prove it.

After the performances, each homeroom class organized a party. Since I am not a homeroom teacher, I got to accompany one of the seventh grade teachers to her classroom. I don't teach any middle schoolers, but I have subbed quite a few of their classes recently so I didn't feel out of place. So many desserts were consumed and even more treats were taken home. The final bell rang and all of of teachers got a free lunch in the auditorium. It was catered and quite fancy. We were served wine and serenaded by a Colombian singer/guitarist. The best part about the lunch was the raffle, which I WON. The owners of the school were giving away six prizes, and I won front row balcony tickets to a play!

The play was this past Saturday and I actually understood it pretty well. It's a little easier because the actors speak more slowly and are very articulate. Apparently it was hilarious (according to everyone in the audience) but I guess I did miss a few of the jokes. Either I didn't understand the Spanish or I didn't understand the humor. I may have been a little too excited about the free tickets because I got fairly dressed up and then realized that almost everyone in attendance was wearing jeans. But it was really nice to do something different for a change (and for free!) and I would really like to go to another one while I'm here.

The next non-bank holiday for the school is Student's Day. (Yes, this is different than Kid's Day.) Word on the street is that the teachers have to prepare a dance number. It looks like I may be calling in sick that day.

Note: I started this post on the actual Teacher's Day. A week and a half later I posted it (today).

How persistent of you, Señor.

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 15 May 2009 02:20:00 +0000

Well I thought I may have escaped this dilemma since starting the new job and going three months unscathed, but it seems I may have another teacher at my school infatuated with the token gringa.

So I don't know the other teachers at my high school too well since I don't spend the entire day there, so it's actually kind of nice when they take the time to talk to me. So about a month ago I am waiting for my arepa con queso at the snack shack chatting with the physics teacher about random stuff that I am way too programmed to talk about. Music, why I came to Colombia, my family, my Spanish skills, etc, etc. Then he asked me if I liked beer. With absolutely no hesitation I responded clearly that I do. Then out of nowhere I get, "Oh great, we should go out and have one sometime." (Good line. Try it sometime.) Completely caught off guard and being the super awkward person I am in these situations, I was like, "Ohhh sure, okayyy, bye," and completely ruined all chances of never having to be a part of this situation again.

This happened four weeks ago. Every day since then I have been trying to avoid this teacher but can't. To paint a picture... think ultimate nerd (I mean, physics... really), out of my age range, has a daughter that attends the very same school we work at, blah blah blah. Every week I get asked the same question: "So when are we going out? This Saturday?" I even got chased down the hall today after school let out. And for some reason, I just cannot get rid of this guy.

Here are some of my excuses:

I have to work on Saturdays.
I have a farewell party to go to.
I have to hang out with my roommates.
I have a soccer game.
I have plans with my boyfriend.
I am busy.
I can't make plans more than a week in advance.
I don't understand your Spanish.
I need to go take care of that thing, that's really important, and I'm in a hurry, ok bye.

And nothing is working, go figure. And I also don't have the heart to just blatantly say, Nope, NOT INTERESTED and won't be, ever. I am keeping my fingers crossed that my students never witness these encounters.

So it looks like I am just going to have to keep coming up with excuses every week. I hope he doesn't catch on when I start repeating the same excuses. Or that my excuses might not be completely true.

At least he isn't frightened by my eyes, writing me love letters, following me to the mall uninvitedly, or buying me tights. Yet.

Twitterpated

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Wed, 13 May 2009 01:26:00 +0000

I started twittering but can't (not surprisingly) add it to my links on here. Until then: http://twitter.com/lizzyclaire

Interesting Read

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:12:00 +0000

My friend Scott just spent a week in Cuba. Check out stories from his trip here.

Chee-ee-eese

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 03:00:00 +0000

I found cheddar cheese imported from WISCONSIN today at the grocery store.

Hell. Yea.

Colombia vs. Bolivia

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:44:00 +0000

I put my life in the hands of way too many teenagers last weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:53:00 +0000

Note: By last weekend, I actually mean over a month ago. (Yes, it has taken me this long to post... and now I've even taken out all the writing. My sincerest apologies.)

Las Olimpiadas

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:08:00 +0000

Two hail storms in one day?

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:27:00 +0000

I must say that I am much better adapted to the rainy season than I was when I first got here last August. I don't exactly enjoy wading through puddles and walking as far away as possible from the curb to avoid getting splashed from cars and buses, but umbrella numero tres is holding it's own. It doesn't actually storm that much here... it's more of just a solid rain for about an hour and then it's done. But today it stormed so much that by the time I got home my pants were soaked halfway up my leg. It even hailed twice... during class I had to stop for ten minutes and then talk about granizado and tell everyone to calm down and that it's just thunder. Anyway, enough with the boring weather story.

Things are going really well actually. It is weird to think that after seven months of being here, I am finally in a comfortable routine. And it's also weird to think that I only have three months left. Time is oddly flying by whereas before, Christmas couldn't come fast enough. I truly lucked out with my job. The end of the first quarter was last week Friday and I was able to keep things organized enough to avoid high levels of stress. I even finished all my work two days early so I could travel outside the city for an extra long weekend. And no one failed English. Only one girl got an "acceptable" and that was because she didn't turn in her homework assignments. Ohhh senior slide.

A couple weeks ago the school I teach at celebrated "Olympics Day". It's a really big event, where each homeroom is assigned a sport, and they must come up with some sort of performance related to it, usually a dance. These girls have been practicing every single day, and for weeks while sitting in the teacher's room we could hear Katy Perry blaring from the courtyard. My classroom floor had become a sea of arts and crafts supplies two weeks prior to the event. So when the big day finally came, it was really exciting to see all the hard work that the girls had put in pay off. All parents were invited, and the band from the all-boy's school down the street came to play. (This especially was a big deal.) My favorite performance was chess, if you can call it a sport, but all the girls dressed up in black and white and reenacted a chess game while dancing to Pirates of the Caribbean music. I was quite impressed that eighth graders came up with that. Sadly, my camera ran out of battery right away and I was only able to take a few pictures.

This past Monday was a holiday so I took a nice six-day vacay in Bucaramanga and San Gil. I will write about it and post pictures soon, but for a preview check out Teresa's latest blog post. I came back refreshed and a little pink, but I'm still suffering from my massive bug bites I acquired while there. There is no possible way that those are from mosquitoes... they are ridiculous.

Side note: I always feel like when I take a break from blogging, my first post back is a tad anticlimactic. I'll work on that.

Mildly Offended

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:48:00 +0000

Um, Ouch?

Too make sure that any previous complaints were completely warranted, I scrolled through my archives for the months that I have been here. It's weird going back and reading old posts and realizing how much has changed since then. I noticed today walking home from work that sometimes I actually am gone from my house for 11 hours out of the day. But my work days aren't tiring like they used to be, and I know that the only reason I may be tired now is from lack of sleeping instead of a stressful job. I can't believe I actually worked there.

Then I started reading posts from before I even got here. I don't know exactly what I was expecting last summer but it is pretty interesting seeing things from the other side now.

And even further back were lovely recollections of my time spent at 438. The new place is becoming slowly reminiscent of my time spent there... there are always people around, the neighbors are always visiting, we make drinks and listen to music while getting ready, inappropriate comments are quite common, and so on. Of course it is only a slight comparison, but it's been good so far.

I don't really know where I'm going with this (it seems my lack of blogging has affected my writing skills) but mainly I just wanted to give a wtf to the rando that I will apparently never be friends with. If only my random comments were more like the ones my Indigo friend gets... (bahaha, it still makes me laugh)

All over the place

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:24:00 +0000

This is the third time that I am writing this post. Maybe today I will actually post it.

So many things have happened this month that one, I don't even remember all the details and two, you would be reading a 5,000 word recap of February. Too much.

I moved. Finally. And it was an ordeal in which I almost decided was not worth staying in Colombia for. I remember all the details of this event, but I am not going to rehash them here for your sake, and for mine. But I survived, I am no longer homeless, and the new casa is working out pretty well so far. I have five other roommates, am much closer to work, and have a rooftop terrace (for those few days when it isn't raining).

Rachel visited! Despite having to move, staying at Scott's worked out really well and we had a great time. Showing her all the cool things about living here was actually a nice reminder for myself. I made a nice to do list and we successfully accomplished everything on it plus.

I am officially out of training and have been teaching classes for the entire month. I have 7am class every morning (I get under 6 hours of sleep every night... it's pretty brutal) and then my high school classes in the afternoon. And I LOVE my high school class. I teach 9-11th graders in Level 6 (the highest level) and I think they are enjoying my class as much as I am enjoying teaching them. It is such a difference from last year and I actually feel like my hard work is paying off. Weirdly, my corporate class is more of a challenge. It is not easy teaching adults, especially ones that get cranky when you assign homework or tell them they have an exam. And no one ever nods their heads in approval when I explain something and usually just end up staring at me giving me some odd and confused look which somehow means they understand. But even though they complain about doing work, they gave me a really good rating this week so that makes me happy.

So I guess that's the month in a nutshell even though a million other things happened. February would have been great as probably twenty different posts, but I guess I've been a little bit preoccupied lately. I apologize for slacking, but life has taken some interesting turns so expect more blogging soon.

Banana Pancakes

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:02:00 +0000

My brother is the one singing and playing guitar.

Gracias para... I mean POR! Gracias POR!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:25:00 +0000

I still mix up por and para. My Spanish profes would be triste.

A lot has happened in the past three days. I've been trying to find a new apartment as soon as possible, but so far no luck. The first place I saw had holes in the floor and the bathroom was completely torn up. The owner claimed they were redoing it, but my guess is it probably won't be finished for months. The second place I found out I would be sharing a room. The third place had a room the size of a closet. Not even wide enough to fit a twin bed and a nightstand. Plus it was way too far up the mountain. So I'm still looking. The goal is to be in a new place by the time the birthday girl gets here.

Yesterday I took a tour of the high school and shadowed two classes. The school is in a great location and I actually really liked it. The other English teachers are great, and the girls that I would be teaching already have a really high level of English. And NO UNIFORM. Except a lab coat. It's a little weird, but teachers just have to wear a white lab coat over whatever clothes they already have on while in class. I figured I can deal with looking like a doctor for one hour of my day. I decided to take it and will be shadowing classes for the rest of the week.

The past two afternoons I've had training for the corporate classes that I will be teaching. The executive director gave a presentation about Colombia's economy, which was super interesting. We also learned about the company's methodology and did some class planning sessions. So far the training has gone really well and I feel a lot better about working here and think it will be a good fit.

The craziest part of my last couple days was this afternoon when for about two hours I thought my wallet was stolen. I was early to work so I stopped to buy some juice and then it wasn't in my purse. I thought maybe I could have left it at home and then once I got to work I was telling my coworker about it and realized that I had used it earlier to take a bus. I was just about to go into class and I was trying really hard not to lose it, but somehow I was able to keep my composure even though I now had no cash or cards whatsoever. I get out of class and find 7 missed calls and a text message from my dad's coworker's brother Felipe. Apparently, the woman that found my wallet found his number inside and called it, so he called me right after and I was go able to pick it up before training started. Nothing was missing from my wallet, so I guess that made it clear that no one tried to steal it, and I gave the woman who found it all the cash that I had in there. Ohhhh that would have been such a nightmare.

I've been keeping really busy and haven't had to wake up insanely early, which is good. I'm hoping that by next week everything will really fall into place.

Also, random interesting fact that I learned this weekend: Starting while I was back home, Bogotá now has a smoking ban in all public buildings!

Warmth

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:29:00 +0000

Electric blanket... yesss.

Unsettled

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 01:54:00 +0000

Day 1: Fine.

Day 2: Fine, and then I came back to the apartment.

My apartment is so far away from everyone and everything that I like about the city that living here isn't comfortable. I had gotten used to it before coming back to Wisconsin, but now that I'm back I feel like I have to get used to it all over again. I was not ready to come back to the hour-plus time it takes me to get anywhere, the hissing construction workers, and getting the up-down while walking past every single person in my neighborhood. And the worst part is that when I'm here, I feel particularly trapped and alone. And it really should be impossible to feel that way in a city of over 8 million people with five LCs and over a dozen trainees. I don't blame my living situation on why I am already feeling a touch of homesickness after two days, but it certainly lets my mind wander into kind of a dreary place and then I don't feel like putting the effort into going and actually hanging out with people. The rain certainly doesn't help either.

I hate blogging about this. Or thinking that maybe I shouldn't have come back. Soon, however, I will hopefully blogging on my great new apartment and roommates (my original plans for the apartment switch fell through but Sael's been trying to find me a new one ASAP) or how awesome my new job is. Soon. I hope.

My "fine" part of the day was earlier when I ventured downtown to meet with my new boss and then have breakfast with Scott at this bomb fruit salad restaurant. I never really wrote about what my new job would be like... it's an English institute but they call themselves English Consultants. They are hired by companies around Bogotá and give corporate classes to employees of said companies. So I would be teaching business professionals in a non-classroom setting and probably leading more conversational classes to smaller groups of people. I get paid the same and have much better hours where the classes would be split throughout the day. It seems like a pretty good gig.

I got to the office today to turn in copies of all my documents and my boss told me that over break they found a new option for me. Apparently, the Consultants not only contract with companies, but also have three contracts with nearby high schools. Which led to the option of instead of teaching three corporate classes, I would teach one corporate class in the morning and the high school class around lunch time with two conversation workshops each week.

Immediately the red flag went up. How could they even think about offering me that position knowing I had just come from GB? As it turns out they were aware of this when telling me about it, and I found out it would be a lot, lot different. It's an all-girls' school and I would be teaching the highest level of English to 11th graders. I wouldn't be a homeroom teacher and would be answering to my bosses instead of the school directors. I was also assured that the school's administration is pretty great. It started to sound a little fun, but just to make sure I'm taking a tour of the school on Monday and sitting in on a class before making my decision. If a uniform is involved... you're looking at a definite no.