If It's Not Broken Don't Fix It... Friday, January 21

It was just me and my two elementary girls today in my elementary class, Ben was away, so it was nice to sit around and play a game, just us girls.
It was just Sophia, Chloe and I. I tried to capture their cuteness in a couple of pictures but these girls are quick. Chloe isn't one for the camera though with her beautiful new hair style she's quite the good-looking little lady. As for Sophia, well, she's just flat out adorable and I want to pinch the heck out of her cute cheeks!

Today we played a crossword game. They didn't quite get the rules of the game but we continued on anyways. We made our own version of the game, I guess... hahaha.

I continued on with my games day with my Church Kiddies by playing The Game of Life with my middle school Church Kiddies. I acted as a kind of boardgame translator, translating the board pieces, and banker. The students paired up to make four teams of two and then it was game on.

The kids had a lot of fun teasing each other about getting married, having babies and the random backwards driving of their little plastic game cars. And like the elementary class, they too made new rules for the game.

Passing another player on the board was signaled with a car crash, meaning you had over cash to the other player. Players with extra people in the car scored more cash to cover the hospital bills of these extra family members.

We never did end up finishing the game though, so the plan is to continue it on Monday afternoon when we meet again.

After a fun-filled three hours of tutoring my Church Kiddies it was sad to note the sour ending that came to our time together. The business manager of the church, the man who is basically the link that ties me and my students' parents to my paycheck, informed me today that next week my class will be ending unless someone else steps in to take over his position. He and his family are suddenly moving to Seoul. He didn't go into detail about his situation, regardless, with him leaving means that two of my students, Ben and David (the only two boys I teach here), will also be leaving and my job will be leaving too.

I felt terrible when I heard the news because I've been tutoring my Church Kiddies -- a group of 11 students who I think are just flat out awesome -- for about 4 months now. We've built such a comfortable and awesome environment among us and to have it just come to an end is kind of heartbreaking.

The business manager is trying to encourage parents to individually hire me as a private in-house tutor but I doubt they'll hire me because I don't come cheap and that's the honest truth. The church pays me well but to hire me as private tutor is quite expensive considering the discounted rate that the church charges the parents. The church charges them an incredibly low fee of $100 a month for 18 hours of group tutoring with me and then the church throws in a big chunk of money to match my hourly fee. My hourly rates start at $40 an hour and go up from there depending on various factors, like how many students, English level and whatnot.

Things always have a way of working out, I know that, but no sooner did I start to really feel comfortable with the schedule I've set up that it then had to go and change... again. I don't regret taking on a regular year-contract full time job but it's a bit uncomfortable not knowing where your next paycheck is going to come from. Last year both Snickers and I survived on solely our boxing for ten months. We went to Bali for a two week 5-star honeymoon where we spared no expense, traveled to the Philippines and then to Canada, and we lived more than comfortably here in Korea. We even bought Gotti, my scooter. And though we could do that again I was hoping that we'd save a load of cash this year for our anticipated move to Canada.

Unless someone at the church steps up or the parents hire me as a private tutor, it looks like I'll be job hunting this weekend. I'm not too concerned but am rather disappointed. Disappointed that a really good thing may very well be coming to an end. An unexpected and unwanted end.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Why do things always have to change?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
This isn't good or bad. It's just the way of things. Nothing stays the same.
-- Real Live Preacher