Creative Meanderings

I always knew there would come a time in my career when I should give up on teaching. I felt that time had come a few years ago, but I have kept pushing on thinking perhaps different levels or different circumstances will make it better.

After spending a full semester away from the classroom doing work that I excel at and that truly takes advantage of the skills I have, I felt that perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad to have a part-time teaching gig along with this other kind of work.

Now, I am back in the classroom full-time and have the opportunity to teach students in a major. Yet, after just five weeks in the semester, I am more convinced that I should no longer be teaching. I can no longer find a way to ‘care’ about the students or what I am teaching. Although the groups of students I am teaching are fairly good and by far an improvement on the type of students I had when I first arrived just over 6.5 years ago, it is still not enough.

So, after some contemplation and consideration I gave notice for my potential resignation come January for the end of the academic year. Of course, in a few more months I may find myself thinking that everything is grand again. I may find myself back in the other department doing the work that I was doing last semester and convince myself of a future that works in academia, but I am less and less convinced that I want to stay in it.

Perhaps it is the influence of M or others I am meeting through him, but I am finding that financially academia is not fulfilling (of course, this was no real surprise). Even more so, I’m finding that my idealism and inspiration for bettering the future is dissipating into complacency. I don’t want to live in complacency and since I cannot change my environment at the moment, I need to find a better way to make it all work for me.

Thus, I think that we have determined that enough is enough in education for me. What happens next is yet to be determined and perhaps it will just be in academia on a different path or it may be a whole different route altogether! 😀

-T

Everything tends to happen for a reason in life and it generally isn’t until after the fact that we come to understand just what that or those reasons are exactly.

Back in May, I bought my ‘new’ LR2 and put my beloved Daihatsu up for sale. I put it on the market for a fairly high price due to the fact that I had taken good care of it with very low mileage. Here, though, nearly everyone is looking to get the biggest bargain ever. Something that I will never get used to is people calling and asking me my last price as their opening line even though I’ve put an initial starting price on my advertisements. As a Westerner, usually the caller starts off the negotiating by making a counteroffer – not asking for an immediate discount.

Of course, I knew that the car was listed far too high starting at 20,000AED. It’s value is about 13,000AED and will go for a trade-in value of about 8,000AED. So, it is natural that everyone would think I was crazy! 😀

However, as I’m an idealist and believe in the power of the universe to work things out according to my wishes, I stuck to my guns. Also, because M was saving money from renting a car by driving it, I was not in a rush to just pass it off to someone for a bargain.

Summer came and went without a concern. We parked it while on holiday, but it was still listed for sale. I got a few contacts, but figured that it would go in the fall. When we got back, I started to get a few more calls, but it was always the same story. So, I decided to write down the type of buyer I wanted to contact me and what would be the lowest price I would accept. As the time for the registration and insurance renewal got closer, I thought about what would happen if it wasn’t sold. I went to a place called SellAnyCar to see how much they would give and got the expected 8,000AED.

So, I decided that I didn’t want less than 13,000AED from a buyer and preferably a proper white expat. Yes, that is a bit racist, but that’s what this place can do to you after a while….

Then, I got a contact. I responded. I got a call. They came to see it, but the car was not available due to M being out of town and parking it somewhere unknown to me. So, they agreed to come the following week (last Saturday). Saturday came and I got in touch. They came to see the car and decided to buy it. As luck would have it, a half Japanese-Emirati girl just got her license and they had had a Daihatsu Materia before. Her father is a local with expat experience and knowledge.

Two days later, after a bit of minor hoops to jump through, the car is sold and I met a lovely Emirati man and his half-Japanese Emirati daughter! Yay all around!

It was sad to see my little-first-car-I-bought-on-my-own drive away with a new owner, but it’s nice to know it’s going to a good home. <3

-T 😀

Today has been a day of total rest. I even took a nap! Somehow this past week was jam-packed and for me that is never a very good thing as I need down time to recuperate. So, I will try this weekend to also layout a schedule that will work for me on a regular basis.

Classes went very well this week. My ‘boys’ are very sweet and overall decent students. It’s just a shame that they will have to work extremely hard to succeed in developing their language skills adequately enough to pass for the next level. It’s not impossible, just challenging. Therefore, they do require a lot more energy in a day than I am used to expending, but it has been worth it so far. My second class with the education course also went smoothly. It took me back to my TC days where it was interesting and fun to discuss how to make the classroom experience better for young learners. I’m happy with everything so far in terms of my classes.

I have also signed up for a teacher training course in English for Academic Purposes, which the university is paying for via Oxford TEFL. It is an online course, which should be interesting. The fact that it is free doesn’t hurt at all. I’m not sure when that will start, but it will take some of my attention anyway.

My desire to get back to writing and developing my website(s) is still strong, but I haven’t yet found the time I need. So…yes, maybe I shall spend some time whilst on the sofa giving my daily life the scheduling it needs! 😀

-T 😀