My first week...

I survived my first week @ my new job! Yay! I must say that after three days of teaching my PART TIME class, I am exhausted! haha I think it's because I haven't really had much time to prepare.  I taught my first class on Wednesday and I think it went pretty well.  I didn't get to pick up my books until late afternoon on Tuesday, so I really didn't have much time to prepare for my first class. I've fallen into a routine of working on my lesson for a couple hours @ night and then finishing it up between 9am and noon on the day of class. I do NOT want to continue this routine. I hope to get up to date this weekend, so that I have my lessons planned for the next week! I am definitely earning my money. And I don't even get paid for any prep time. That sucks! But I'm really enjoying my job and it's been a great experience so far.

These are my teaching materials stacked on top of my car outside the building where I teach...

I'm teaching a really small class--only four students.  One of the students hasn't been to class at all this week, I think she may have a family emergency or something.  I have two students from Japan and one student from Brazil. I don't have much access to technology.  I've been taking my laptop and have wifi access, but don't have a projector so can't really make any powerpoint presentations. I have a marker board and that's about it. So this is definitely giving me another perspective on teaching. Plus, it's different teaching to such a small audience.I had a really small class today--only one student! Another kind of intimidating thing is that there is a video camera in the classroom and the manager told me that there's a chance that my director could be watching me. Kind of creepy! I've just been trying to pretend that it's not there. haha.

 Other than teaching/preparing, I haven't really accomplished a whole lot this week.  I worked out on my stepper on Monday and Wednesday and was SO sore! A great workout! Haven't had time to use it the past few days though.

On Wednesday evening, D and I hung out with Larry and Alicia. We went to Costco, ate at some taco place, and picked up D's truck which was @ Larry's house.

Venus Fly Trap

a little bonsai Juniper tree..

The taco place that we went to for dinner. Supposedly has the best fish tacos. I got a burrito. It was ok. They put some sauce in it that i didn't like, but the price was super cheap!

What we bought at Costco:  danish (smelled divine!) and pizza. We were STARVING when we went shopping. When we walked out of the restaurant and looked @ what we had bought it looked disgusting. haha :P The pizza was ok and the danish was super good!

On Thursday, D and I  had a two hour phone interview with a representative from Boy's Town.  We are applying for a Family teaching Couple position about an hour south of here. The next step would be an in-person interview. They're supposed to let us know in 3-5 days.

Well, that's about it for now.  I spent the evening working on laundry and cleaning up the apartment.  D cooked some smelly fish soup and smelled the apartment up. Yuck!

D with his fish/noodle soup

I still need add the photos from the last few days of my family visiting...will try to do that sometime this weekend. It's a three day weekend because of MLK Jr. Day! Yay!

Okay, well goodnight!

Surprise, surprise!

Well, they called me this afternoon and offered me the ESL teaching position.  I was genuinely surprised since it's already Monday afternoon. I had concluded that they'd hired someone else. D and I talked it over during his lunch break and I put in my resignation to ABC and accepted the ESL job! I'm really nervous about it all...I hope that I made the right choice.  Honestly, I felt trapped @ my other position. Perhaps it was the "safe" place to be, but I think that this leap will offer me more opportunities. I'm approaching it as a stepping stone. We shall see what happens. The current semester goes through the end of April and then I'll go from there I guess. I'm extremely excited, but sooo nervous! I have to figure out how to approach this class! I've never taught ESL before and NEVER taught adults before so this should be a challenge.

My new schedule will be M-F  1:30pm to 5pm.  The class is small right now (5-10 students) but could grow.  The level is basically conversational language.  I think most of the students have a degree and can read/write English, but need to practice speaking and listening in English. I go in tomorrow to take care of paperwork and get my materials. I start teaching on Wednesday! Yikes! Only 2 days away!

Time for another blog entry....

Ok, well I thought that I should write another update before the weekend. I just took some yummy smelling chocolate cupcakes out of the oven and i'm waiting for them to cool. I may as well do something productive while I wait. Speaking of productivity, I feel like I've gotten quite a few things accomplished today! I spent most of the morning finishing up my answers to some test questions for a job. The job would be an editor @ SQA, a local company that works for big name clients such as NASA and John Hopkins. If they like what I wrote, then i think they'll call me in for another test and an interview. So it sounds a bit nerve wracking!

Cupcakes baking in the oven...

Just waiting for them to cool so I can frost them!

Other things that I've accomplished today:  Lots of cleaning! I cleaned the bathroom, changed the bedsheets, vacuumed the entire apartment, fixed the sweeper, scrubbed the kitchen and bathroom floors, cleaned the kitchen and washed all the dishes, worked on budget and paid bills, made dinner, worked out, and baked some cupcakes! I still need to fold a bunch of towels (uck! i hate folding!) And I really need to do some laundry, but that will have to wait!

Things seem to be looking up a bit in my job search. At least I've been getting some calls!!! I have an interview scheduled for Monday afternoon about a job as a part time ESL teacher @ AOI College of Education in Torrance. I'm thinking they might be a bit desperate to fill this position. Schools usually want a teacher with previous ESL experience, which I don't have, so I'm surprised they're even considering me. The lady that I talked to said that the class would start on Wednesday the 5th! Yikes!!!!!  I think the class would be M-F from 9:00 am to 12:45. I don't know if I should start planning a syllabus in case they WOULD offer me the job or if I should even take the job if they DO offer it to me. I mean, i would love to take it! It sounds like a great experience! But what if SQA would offer me a full time job w/benefits? What if they would offer me the job AFTER I've already accepted the teaching job? But then, maybe neither place will offer me a job. Who knows....

I had an interview on Wednesday @ Sylvan Learning about a part time tutoring position. M-Thursday from 3:15 to around 7:30ish. They said they had a few more interviews and they would let me know. But I think they were interested in me. They told me to go ahead and get my TB test right away. So yeah, I have NO CLUE what the next couple weeks may hold! I hate things being up in the balance like this. I would like to know what's happening! I am thankful that things seem to be looking up job wise though. :)

Anyways, enough about the job hunt. Here are a couple pictures from earlier in the week. On Monday, I decided to go for a hike @ near the water. I hiked out to the rocks and sat there enjoying the scenery. That's when I noticed the guy out on a surfboard! He kind of blended in with the seaweed that was floating in the water and I didn't even see him until he rode one of the waves. It was kind of cool to watch. That's the first surfer I've really seen out here. I was a little worried because he kept going towards this big rock that was sticking slightly out of the water. I kept thinking, "what if he hits his head on the rock? What would I do?!" haha But thankfully, everything was ok.

See all that seaweed floating in the water?

See the little speck out in the midst of the water? That's the surfer!

After my hike, I decided to stop by the grocery store since it's on the way home. This is what $80 buys...haha.

 Of course, I was out of a bunch of basics like flour, sugar, etc. so that really adds up! I finally bought some of that yummy Mexican cheese that I love! So I've been eating a lot of bean/cheese tostadas the past week! hehe. And I got a great deal on the breaded chicken patties! They're originally $7.99 and I got them for only $4 and something! yay!

D's big boss was scheduled to come and check out the complex on Wednsday so Diego was super busy on Monday and Tuesday. I went and helped him organize/clean his shop because it was a MESS! Honestly, it was a huge job and there are still a ton of things that need to be done. It was really overwhelming just walking in and looking at all the junk! I swear they don't throw anything away! They keep everything in case they can reuse it. But I finally got a mental picture of how it could look and we got it cleaned up and arranged. We did the majority of the work on Monday night and finished it up on Tuesday evening.

D's supervisor is storing a bunch of things in the shop and had it all in a big pile. We stacked all of her things against the back wall and threw a drop cloth over it. Then we arranged the extra stoves and refrigerator in a line to kind of divide the room.

We put that big table in the center of the room next to the fridge to act as a workbench of sorts. That left a little corner in the back (behind the table) where we neatly stacked all the carts/tools. So all that junk was kind of hidden behind the desk. Kind of like a little storage area back there.

D's supervisor bought this to hang up on the 5th floor. I don't really think it goes with the decor though. i think it would look way better in Jennica's apartment! hehe

So yeah, D's big boss came on Wednesday and I guess things went really well! The boss said that the place had never looked this good! He gave a lot of compliments and had good things to say. He raved over the orginization of the shop and said that maybe he would have D go arrange some of his other shops. ( He owns multiple properties) I think D was a little nervous about that since I'm basically the one that arranged it! haha He had told Margo ( his supervisor) that I'd helped him, but she was really talking him up to the big boss. So hopefully they won't ever send him anywhere to actually organize, because he would be in big trouble! ;) hehe

Homemade pizza that I made on Tuesday....I've REALLLY been  hungry for a hamburger pizza. yum!

Yummy bean tostadas w/ avocado that I've been eating...ive been using canned beans though. They would taste a lot better with home cooked beans....

I've also tried a couple new recipes this week: mango cake and pumpkin spice latte, but I'll save those for a different entry. Happy Friday everyone! Thanks for reading! :)