"Get a Job" Day

I remembered where the schools that I saw yesterday were and started walking around, which is kinda difficult since everyone and their mother has a scooter with no regard for pedestrians. I learned how to order noodles so I did that first to get my energy up. I got to one school but there was a guard at the door so I just called the number on the sign instead of dealing with the dude. "Wai? (Hello?)" "Hi, I'm wondering if you're looking for English teachers?" "Click." Sweet.

I tried two more schools and left my number but I don't know if those will work out. As I was walking to the last school that I knew about I saw a white guy and got kind of excited and asked him if he spoke English. Turns out he did and he was an English teacher (go figure). I walked with him to his school, which was where I was headed anyway to see if they had any openings. It turns out that they didn't. However, the guy that I met, whose name is (Ben) was pretty laid back and I got his number and I might meet up with him and his girlfriend later. I asked him if he knew of any other schools around and he told me that there was one around the corner that I didn't know about.

I left and checked that place out and BAM, I'm employed off the street with no experience or anything. Good deal. They gave me some books to go over and I'll start teaching 3-5 and 10-11 year olds in separate classes, 2:30pm-8pm Mondays and Wednesdays. My first day is this Wednesday and right now it's only part-time at 11 hours/week but if I can get a scooter and commute to their other location that's 20 mins from my place then I can work full-time at M-F 2:30pm-8pm which is about 26 hours/week at 550NT/hour. Not too shabby considering the "free" housing and 80NT lunches. Although not having to go to work till 2:30pm everyday would be nice, I might try to find some morning Mandarin classes to expedite my learning process. So now all I need is a scooter...

When I got home I had emails waiting for me about other job opportunities in my area. I called back and met with a couple schools but didn't really like what I saw because I got a really good vibe from the place that I originally found and the people there were really nice and the kids were very energetic. Also, the places that I interviewed at were only offering 14 hrs a week working 4 days a week and 16 hrs a week working 5 days a week so I figure getting 11 hrs a week working 2 days a week is a pretty good deal and will help me balance making a little money and trying to learn Mandarin.