time dwindles

All good things come to an end, and my long vacation—which hasn't been much of a vacation, given the work I've been doing—is drawing to a close. On February 24, I and the rest of my department at DCU will have to meet for an orientation. March 3rd, the following week, will be the first day of the new semester. By that time, I'll need to have created the textbook I'll be using for my pronunciation class, assuming the class isn't canceled for lack of registrants. (A cancellation would be frustrating, given the effort I'm putting in to making the textbook for that course.) I'll also need to have completed my syllabi for my regular speaking/conversation courses. Much work to be done. Assuming no cancellations, I'll be teaching seven classes this semester instead of six, which means a wee bit of extra pay for yours truly.

Meanwhile, my "golden goose" job is still on the table, still a viable option for later this year. M, my supervisor at that company—let's call it GG for "Golden Goose"—is still very interested in working with me. He wants me to be on good terms with Ms. Harridan, but I told him, quite honestly, that I was skeptical. Joining GG might be awkward given my sub-optimal relationship with that lady, who is M's underling, but M wants me to work more closely with him on his projects, which means I might not see that much of her. I guess we'll know more eventually; everything's still up in the air. I have months to decide on what's coming next, and there's always the chance that I'll snag an English-teaching job with HUFS-Yongin. HUFS would pay less than GG, but it'd still be substantially better-paying work than what I do now.

Given the turbulent, unsettled nature of my future work schedule, I'm thankful that KMA has proven to be so accommodating. My schedule is flexible there. In truth, I wouldn't mind joining KMA as a full-time teacher at the generous hourly rates it offers, but it's my understanding that KMA doesn't do full-time hires. My first two days of work at KMA proved quite enjoyable; were I to teach classes for 100-120 hours per month there, I'd be earning a fortune, assuming the hourly rates were honored.

That's the murky future into which I stare. Some things are less murky than others: vacation will inevitably come to an end, and I'll have to be ready to teach, which will mean having drawn up a textbook for my pronunciation class and having made syllabi for all seven (six?) of my upcoming courses. In the next day or so, I'll have finished my second massive lesson plan for KMA, after which I ought to be free and clear for the rest of 2014, as I'll be asked to teach the same classes over and over. But many things remain to be settled: where I'll be working after the summer foremost among them. Will I be at HUFS-Yongin? Will I be with the Golden Goose? Will I be somewhere else in Korea, or heading back to the States, tail between my legs?

You should also know that I still have thoughts of restarting my trans-American walk. As I've mentioned before, if I restarted it this time, it'd be dedicated to brain-cancer awareness and research, not to religious diversity. The latter goal was nice, for what it was worth, but given all that's happened in my life since 2008, I think my focus needs to be more on people than on the gods. The gods can wait. Mankind is my business.


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