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General Update: Sunny Days
May. 9th, 2022 09:08 amSchool continues. We are halfway through AP testing season. My AP Research kiddos managed to get their essays turned in. I think they did well, but we won't know the scores until July. They did very well on their Presentations and Oral Defenses, though.
We have six more weeks of school, and it will be a struggle to get through the rest of the material I'm required to teach, but we can do it! I decided that for British Lit we'll read Wuthering Heights. I haven't read it since high school, so I've been re-reading it, and wow, the Lintons and Earnshaws are a messed up bunch!
I also dived into the Dracula Daily. If by chance you haven't seen it all over your social media, this site has the 411. I am loving the memes and commentary. I shared the project with my coworkers and students, and several are reading along. It will be nice to have some shared topics aside from war, political unrest, COVID, and our students for our conversations.
I took a trip to Riga and Vilnius for spring break, and this past weekend, I went to a few towns in Belarus as a sort of farewell tour. I'm not great about getting photos on here, so if you're on instagram, I have a public account, far_from_idahome, that you could look at if you want to see pics.
No writing, lots of reading. In addition to Wuthering Heights and Dracula, I got a copy of Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong. It's the sequel to These Violent Delights and is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1920's Shanghai. The families are gang families, but there is also a supernatural twist with a monster. Now that it's been a few days since I finished, I think that the supernatural element didn't pay off as well as I hoped. There was quite enough drama with the blood feud between the families AND the impending Communist revolution/problems with colonizers. I won't spoil the supernatural stuff because it was interesting. It felt like an addition to keep the retelling from being a more straightforward political adaptation. Anyway, now my students are reading it. I have such great kids this year!
It's looking more and more like I will be unemployed as an international teacher next year, which is disappointing. BUT! I'm in a very good position overall. I was able to save quite a bit over the last two years, and I will be able to live with my mom. I could get a job in my hometown, but I don't want to. At least not a full time job. The thought of returning to full time teaching in the States makes my stomach hurt. I'm still hoping for a late or mid-year job opening. However, one thing that has been on my mind a lot is to ask myself what I really want out of my life. I really want to teach overseas. Despite the hardships, the job itself is very rewarding. I also want to live somewhere relatively stable, and it might take time to find that. I'm extremely fortunate to be in a position to wait. And I'm fortunate to now be of an age where I have life experience and the ability to really think about what I want and make some plans. And one thing I have always wanted to do is travel around Europe.
Teaching abroad has given me tremendous opportunities to travel, but they are limited to school breaks. So, I think that if I don't have a full time teaching job, then this fall, I'm going to take about 6 weeks and travel around Europe. I wanted to do this as a gap year, but when I was of that traditional gap-year age, I had neither the means nor the confidence to do it. I'm so much more comfortable traveling solo now. I'd much rather take this trip with my best friend, but alas, she is still teaching and not ready to leave her job or take a leave of absence.
There are a lot of voices in my head trying to talk me out of this. How dare I step off the work path at this time! How dare I be so selfish! Why am I not looking for a spouse and having kids and buying a house? One of the voices sounds a lot like my sister in law, who I love but who is also very bitter about a lot of things in her life, and I am not a therapist who can fix that, nor should I stop myself from doing things because of it.
The nice thing about planning this gap year (more like gap 6-7 weeks since I don't want to blow my savings, and since I do want to spend time with my family) in my forties is that it's a little easier to shut down the voices that tell me I can't or shouldn't do this. Of course, if I get a good job offer, I will take it because I truly love teaching. But I'm finally really loving myself and valuing a balanced life. And travling around Europe is one of the few dreams I've had since childhood that persists to this day. It will be a real hop-on hop-off tour since I plan to buy a rail pass and then take a few cheap flights. I'll probably hit the capitals of countries and get a taste instead of a meal. But the idea is thrilling and it's a bright light in the middle of still very stormy times.
We have six more weeks of school, and it will be a struggle to get through the rest of the material I'm required to teach, but we can do it! I decided that for British Lit we'll read Wuthering Heights. I haven't read it since high school, so I've been re-reading it, and wow, the Lintons and Earnshaws are a messed up bunch!
I also dived into the Dracula Daily. If by chance you haven't seen it all over your social media, this site has the 411. I am loving the memes and commentary. I shared the project with my coworkers and students, and several are reading along. It will be nice to have some shared topics aside from war, political unrest, COVID, and our students for our conversations.
I took a trip to Riga and Vilnius for spring break, and this past weekend, I went to a few towns in Belarus as a sort of farewell tour. I'm not great about getting photos on here, so if you're on instagram, I have a public account, far_from_idahome, that you could look at if you want to see pics.
No writing, lots of reading. In addition to Wuthering Heights and Dracula, I got a copy of Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong. It's the sequel to These Violent Delights and is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1920's Shanghai. The families are gang families, but there is also a supernatural twist with a monster. Now that it's been a few days since I finished, I think that the supernatural element didn't pay off as well as I hoped. There was quite enough drama with the blood feud between the families AND the impending Communist revolution/problems with colonizers. I won't spoil the supernatural stuff because it was interesting. It felt like an addition to keep the retelling from being a more straightforward political adaptation. Anyway, now my students are reading it. I have such great kids this year!
It's looking more and more like I will be unemployed as an international teacher next year, which is disappointing. BUT! I'm in a very good position overall. I was able to save quite a bit over the last two years, and I will be able to live with my mom. I could get a job in my hometown, but I don't want to. At least not a full time job. The thought of returning to full time teaching in the States makes my stomach hurt. I'm still hoping for a late or mid-year job opening. However, one thing that has been on my mind a lot is to ask myself what I really want out of my life. I really want to teach overseas. Despite the hardships, the job itself is very rewarding. I also want to live somewhere relatively stable, and it might take time to find that. I'm extremely fortunate to be in a position to wait. And I'm fortunate to now be of an age where I have life experience and the ability to really think about what I want and make some plans. And one thing I have always wanted to do is travel around Europe.
Teaching abroad has given me tremendous opportunities to travel, but they are limited to school breaks. So, I think that if I don't have a full time teaching job, then this fall, I'm going to take about 6 weeks and travel around Europe. I wanted to do this as a gap year, but when I was of that traditional gap-year age, I had neither the means nor the confidence to do it. I'm so much more comfortable traveling solo now. I'd much rather take this trip with my best friend, but alas, she is still teaching and not ready to leave her job or take a leave of absence.
There are a lot of voices in my head trying to talk me out of this. How dare I step off the work path at this time! How dare I be so selfish! Why am I not looking for a spouse and having kids and buying a house? One of the voices sounds a lot like my sister in law, who I love but who is also very bitter about a lot of things in her life, and I am not a therapist who can fix that, nor should I stop myself from doing things because of it.
The nice thing about planning this gap year (more like gap 6-7 weeks since I don't want to blow my savings, and since I do want to spend time with my family) in my forties is that it's a little easier to shut down the voices that tell me I can't or shouldn't do this. Of course, if I get a good job offer, I will take it because I truly love teaching. But I'm finally really loving myself and valuing a balanced life. And travling around Europe is one of the few dreams I've had since childhood that persists to this day. It will be a real hop-on hop-off tour since I plan to buy a rail pass and then take a few cheap flights. I'll probably hit the capitals of countries and get a taste instead of a meal. But the idea is thrilling and it's a bright light in the middle of still very stormy times.
