Descisions, descisions.

A while ago, they asked me if I would like to stay and staff the next school. I spent the last two months deliberating and considering and weeping and weighing and so on and so forth. Since it took up so much of my time, I thought I would take up some of yours with it. Here is my thought process. This may be a little boring, if so skip to “Conclusion” below.

Pros (of staffing the next school):

Training. The leader of the school happens to be the resident staff trainer for this region. She is an excellent leader and I really respect her. I will have an excellent opportunity to be schooled in leadership, conflict resolution, scheduling, counseling and group dynamics. I will have an excellent opportunity to practice these skills.

Travel. I will have another five months too see some different places. I will be responsible for setting up meetings with international programs as well as accommodations.

People. This will be a much larger class. I will have the opportunity to work with an international group of twenty to thirty students and five to seven staff.

Language. I have been diving into some of the local dialects and am starting to feel more comfortable with speaking. With the additional time I would be able to get some more experience.

Growth. The classes here have been absolutely incredible. I have learned so much already and I would have the opportunity to learn from another group of international teachers.

Food. Those benefits should be obvious from my previous posts.


Cons:

People. I really miss you guys. This time away from family and friends had been pretty tough on me. The longer that I am away, the more I realize how lucky I am to be surrounded with such an excellent group of people. I really love you guys.

Missing out. I am going to miss out on some things that I don’t want to miss out on. This includes a lot of stuff that is too depressing to list.

Conclusion:

I spent a lot of time considering the options. The time that I have spent here already has been life changing. I feel that there is so much more to learn and see. I really don’t want to miss out on this opportunity. So, I have decided to stay.

Schedule:

This will be my rough travel itinerary.

Aug 19th, 2005- I get back.
Sept 12th, 2005- I leave again. (Sometime that week)
March 1st, 2006- I get back.

This means that we will have to spend some real quality time when I am back for about three weeks. Seriously.



As far as what is going on here. I had my birthday last week. That was cool. It was probably the strangest birthday I have ever had. There is this group of six Koreans that have been staying with us. They are awesome. Only one of them speaks English, the rest of them speak very broken. Anywho, we are sitting at a big meeting that happened to be on my birthday (there was about 30 people there). The Koreans said that they where going to do a dance. Then they elaborated and told me that the dance was for me. Then they elaborated further and made me sit in a chair in the middle of the room. They started up the music and began kicking and punching all over the place. A couple of times they got pretty close. Then, everybody sang happy birthday. It was great, only 3 people in the room spoke English as a first language, and I was one of them. Then we had a party with some nasty cake. Then we went out for dinner (see the picture above). It was a full day. But it wasn't quite the same.

I miss you all.