Finally...Found a Job

So I've been away for quite a few weeks from this blog.  Out of sheer laziness, I have been forgetting to update it.  I also realized thatI I had taken off the link to it on my facebook page, so I'm sure there was pretty much little to know way most of you saw it anyways.

I'm happy to report that I have finally found a job.   I can..for the first time since the beginning of November..relax.  Managed to secure a job at the Lichtenberger Sprachinstitut, which is in Westkreuz. (Berlin).  Seems like they were desperate for a teacher to fill a series of classes starting in January, and luckily I was their guy.

The job will be difficult, but in a lot of ways, pretty easy.  I will be teaching 16 classes to children ages 4-8 over the course of 3 days.  Each class is 45 minutes and I will be provided a car to drive to and from each school.  The other 4 days I will have off to either lesson plan or do god knows what.   16 classes might sound daunting, but spread over 3 days it isn't exactly that bad.  If  you think about what your..say..history teacher in high school taught...6 classes a day over 5 days a week...(that's 30 classes btw), then it's not that bad at all.  Probably the hardest part will be the language barrier.  The kids for the most part, speak German.  Their teachers speak German. My German as of now is still shit.  It will be shit by the time I start the job.  It probably would be a little better if it wasn't for the mess I've had to deal with both with my Rosetta Stone program and with my computer goin AWOL on me.  I almost didn't get the job precisely because my German was shit.  

This was probably the kind of job I least expected to work.  Me? Work with kids? I'm trained to teach adults.  So instead of explaining the use of infinitives of purpose in a sentence, I will now be explaining the use of the color red on a paint-by-colors activity sheet.  hmmmm. Fun. 

 I can totally see myself having some sort of Arnold Schwarzenegger-like breakdown in the middle of the class..yelling "EVERYBODY SHAT AP!!!!!! in a thick Austrian accent.  

I'm happy to finally be done with this job search.  It is stressful enough for anyone going a month without finding a job and watching your bank account dwindle in front of your eyes.  It only adds to the stress when you also have to deal with the fact that your 90 days in the continent expires the next month and you have to find a job or be kicked out.  The day before I got the job, I had breathed a minor sigh of relief when the German Auslanderbehorde (visa office) granted me an extension until March on the condition I couldn't work.  Now I have an appointment set up for the 22nd to complete the final process for my work visa, which includes getting a letter of intent from the school and health insurance, which shouldn't be a problem.

I still have another month to rely on my  finances, which isn't much.  At this point, I'm used to being dirt poor.  Working at the University of Michigan will do that to someone  ($5 billion endowment and they can't pay their employees more than $23,000 a year?) I won't get paid until the end of January so should be a pretty bare month in terms of travels, stories, etc.  That's alright.  There is plenty of Berlin left to be explored...