Back To School

It's early. Got up at about 6:30 today. Tomorrow I'll be up at something stupid like 4 am to take a cab to the airport for my early morning flight to San Francisco. But I won't be wearing a flower in my hair, even if I could. I won't be going to a Giants game or checking out the Golden Gate Bridge. I'll be there just long enough to catch a flight to Hong Kong. Then from there to Singapore. Why? Well as the girlfriend said to her boyfriend when he asked why she was calling from the hospital, "That, like you, will soon become apparent."

No, you won't become a parent, although I consider my students like my own children. Most have been entrusted into my care by the parents so I consider myself as their surrogate, single serving parent while they are in my class. I could not say the same for the folks who were rambling through the building complex where I was guarding here in Calgary. Although, some of the kids I watched at Children's Hospital got the same care from me. And there will be adults in my classes who will not be paternally supervised during my classes with them.

But much like that man on the phone with the mother of his child, I am about to embark on a journey of responsibility that is a lot like parenthood in some ways. First thing I will notice is the lack of sleep. I'm getting into Singapore at a little after midnight if the flight lands on time. Because, as nature would have it, I am most decidedly NOT an airplane sleeper, from before dawn on Tuesday till the early hours of the 24th I don't plan on getting much sleep if any. Then if I can get through customs, immigration, find a cab to my hotel and get to sleep before the hour of 3 I'll be lucky. After maybe 4 hours of sleep I'll be up at 7ish to get my training visa taken care of so I can "receive training" in Indonesia when I get there. I've already got my June ticket back to Singapore for my actual work visa. I'll need to show that to the immigration officer if he/she asks to see it. I'm told they rarely ask, although a lot of things that rarely happen during travel seem to happen to me as you know if you have read any of my travel blog posts.

After knocking around Singapore, Singapore for the day, and trying to stay awake, I should get my visa the same night and fly to my ultimate destination, Jakarta, Indonesia at around 10 PM. I get into Jakarta at 11ish and will be met by a co-worker, taken to a hotel in the city which has been booked for 5 days for me, and probably zonk out knowing that the 25th will be a day off for me. But being a Friday, there will be plenty of my new co-workers interested in meeting me and having a Bintang or two I'm sure. So I'll probably go out Friday night to make some new friends! I will most likely call up Annemarie on Sunday. An old friend. We taught together in Korea at Chonnam University. Her, Scott and I entered the foreigner part of the Gwangju Kimchi making contest. There were a couple ringers, Japanese ladies who had been in Korea a long time, spoke the language fluently and brought their own decorative kimchi accoutrements who took first and second, but Annemarie got 3rd place! Scott and I agree that we tied for fourth. She has told me about a really good buffet at the Shangri La that she wants to take me to. She has been in Indonesia for years and no doubt will be an invaluable source of information about everything! So I should probably offer to treat her to this buffet. I'm going to. Offer. hee hee. But since I'll be essentially broke until I get all the reimbursements promised by the company I will work for, Annemarie might just refuse that offer. And I might just put up only token resistance to her refusal.

For a day or two I will be searching for a house/apartment. I am really looking forward to this! I'm hoping to find something with air conditioning/dehumidifier and high speed internet. Not so sure about the pool any more since that might require living far enough outside the city to necessitate one hellish daily commute, added stress I am not all that interested in adding. Someone from the school will assist me with finding a suitable place and I think the school will pay the requisite year of rent in advance. I will likely need to purchase a few things to make my home homey, maybe even get myself some decent shirts I can wear a tie with since that's the dress code at this school and I don't own any. I think by the end of the month I will be team teaching with another teacher to learn how things are done at Wall Street. Yeah, that's the name of the school. I'm like a young Charlie Sheen only I'm old. And hopefully won't get scammed by a Gordon Gecko. Greed ISN'T good if you ask me. If I thought that I'd be back in Korea where a guy can make more money.

By May I'll be happily teaching again. Moulding young minds with what I hope will be received as a fatherly style of teaching. Hopefully I will get only students who always listened to their fathers. The company has already shown that they are interested in taking good care of me, unlike most of the places I've worked in the ESL industry. They will not meet me as I step off the plane, throw a textbook into my hands and tell me I'm teaching in a few hours. They have told me that I will be eased into the job at my own pace. I'm confident that my pace will be quick, given all my experience, but if I choose to team teach for a while so I can get a good idea of how things work at Wall Street English, I've been told I can do that. The reimbursements for everything from doctor's appointment to meals in Singapore will probably add up to a nice bit of dough to get myself started over there, but the school is going to give me some spending money on top of all that. A sort of relocation allowance. Nice.

Today I will have to notify my phone company that I am leaving the country and get my phone turned off. I will try to get a new sim card in Indonesia when I get there and just use the same phone but as an added bonus Wall Street is giving me a new phone when I arrive. That's handy dandy. I also have to tell Netflix that I'll be in Indonesia. I wonder what will happen with that. May have to be a sacrifice I need to make. But I will be a lot more active and busy so Netflix will not be as big a part of my life as it has been in Canada. Then I will have to box up my computer and all the essentials that I need till the last minute here. I will talk to the freight company and set them up as a payee on my acct. so that I can send for my stuff once I get over there. I think Jeff will be okay with that. He has a new roommate already. She's actually staying here as I type this. Seems nice. My unemployment insurance was settled, unsatisfactorily however unsurprisingly. I should be getting my 2012 and 2011 income tax deposited into my account within a month or two while I'm over in Indo. So it would appear that my ducks are all in a row. We'll see what the hand of Fate has in store to skew that nice, straight row for me. And you will all hear about it.

Big changes! Moving, new job, new responsibilities... Just like becoming a parent. Some people are thrust into adulthood when they become parents for the first time. It forces them to grow up. I suppose I COULD be more responsible, save more, socialize less, take my job more seriously, even settle down and ACTUALLY become a parent! But I won't be rushing into that just yet I'm sure. I'll be satisfied with the figurative parenting for a while. We shall see what comes from that... I have no reason to suspect that it won't come with a lot of rewards. Stability, self-confidence, money, better lifestyle, more fun, new friends, new culture, new adventures... Like parenting, which I'm told is rewarding, it will have plenty of plusses.

However, I will be without my computer for a good while and may have to buy my internet time by the minute so it could be a while till the next post. This will be the last post from Canada. Until my first Indonesian post, Sampai Jumpa! See ya later.