Now it's September! I notice it's not quite as hot as it was last month, but I'm still using the A/C quite liberally. But sometimes outside the heat is actually tolerable (but only sometimes). Maybe next month will be better.
I'm now about 2 weeks into the new position, about six months into my stay in Taiwan (has it been that long already?) and about 1 1/2 years into my time abroad. So how is life now?
Well, the hours are long. While I don't exactly have any shackles to my desk, and no one has explicitly told me that I should stay late, enough of the Japanese work ethic has rubbed off on me that I feel bad when my coworkers (the other two main supervisors) are still there and I'm heading off early. So whenever possible I stay and work with them. Sometimes that means working 14 hours in one day. The good news is that I can still go to my Chinese class (which I do twice per week). So on those days I don't stay late and they just schedule around me.
On the positive side, the work is exciting! I still do regular teaching every day, and there are some more remedial 'duties' I perform as manager (for example, I spend a lot of time correcting English documents written by the Taiwanese staff), but I also use any idle time to think of ideas and initiate my own special projects. I like having a job where I can take initiative instead of just waiting and being told what to do all the time.
There are some tough parts of the job. For example, twice this past week I've had to sit in on a meeting where an English teacher's class is not going well, and the school wants to have a meeting with the teacher to suggest some corrective course of action. Without going into a lot of detail, these meetings are difficult for me because I have to explain management's side to the teacher, yet the teacher is someone I also consider a friend. This creates an awkward situation on both sides and causes stress.
Many people have wondered how much I'm getting paid in this new position. Well, it's a modest increase in salary but it's one that I'm happy with. Before I met with the school owner I had sat down with a couple of Taiwanese friends and discussed the position I had left, and the position I was moving to, and what kind of duties, etc. I would have. We came up with a number that we thought was far and not overreaching. Later, when I met with the school owner, I was a bit nervous about it. Because I worried he would give me a number that was way lower than the one I had come up with. But actually, he gave me a number which was almost exactly the same, in fact it was slightly higher! So I'm happy that, even on this subject, we were on the same page.
So what's next? Well, in the short-term, starting next month I think I'll be doing my Christmas shopping. This Christmas will be the first time in my entire life (35 years) that I am not with my family for Christmas. But I still want to send gifts to them, so it's best to start early.
I also want to get a new cellphone. The one I have is a very cheap pre-paid phone that lacks anything but very basic functions. The iPhone 3GS has been released in Taiwan but supplies are still very short. Hopefully by next paycheck (Oct 10th) the phone will be in measurable supply. An iPhone would enable me to really connect with people in Toronto and Tokyo, as I'd be able to take pictures, video, etc. and upload them instantly. I may even be able to write my blog more frequently ^_^
