Work, work, work!

As you should already know (that it, if you've been keeping up with the random stuff I've been posting) I'm working at the European Academy here in Xela as an English teacher. Well, I got hired to teach 4 hours on Saturday mornings because they'd just started a bunch of new classes, plus some of the teachers had recently quit, so they were a little desperate. I went through the training process and did my first class without too much trouble. So yeah, I worked 4 hours my first Saturday. For the next Saturday my boss, Blake, asked me if I could do a private class for 2 hours after my group class. Sure. Week 2: 6 hours. For the next Saturday Blake asked me if I could teach an afternoon group class too. Sure. Week 3: 8 hours.

I got a call from another English school that I wanted to work at. It's called Best English school, but it has a reputation of being pretty much the worst English school to work at in Xela. But it's close to where I live and it was something to do and it would have helped pay for my rent. The coordinator there, Diana, called me and told me she probably had a student for me and that she was just waiting for him to officially enroll and then he'd have class for a couple hours every weekday morning. She said he had dyslexia so I'd have to read up on how to teach someone with dyslexia. She also said that he's 4 years old. Ummmm....maybe she should have told me all this before she asked me if I'd do it. Oh well, I was only working on Saturdays, so it'd be good for me to get out there and do something other than sit around wondering what I should do. I mentioned something about it in my Spanish class (I get 3 hours of free Spanish class from the Academy) and I guess my teacher, also Diana (but a different Diana), told Blake.

The next day I got a call from Blake, "I hear you're thinking of working for another school." This is the part where I think to myself, "Crap! I've only been working here 2 weeks and I've already gotten myself onto Blake's bad-side." But this is what Blake said to me: "How many hours do I have to give you so that you won't work for that other school? I like you and I want you to be more available to work at the Academy whenever we need you." Then he proceeded to schedule me for at least one private class every day this last week, plus 9 hours on Saturday (by which I mean tomorrow). Week 4: 24 hours.

So, I was hired for essentially 16 hours a month and by the end of tomorrow I will have worked 24 hours this week alone. I absolutely love it!! Yes, I love the fact that I'll be able to cover my rent with my paycheck, but mostly I love having something to do, I love teaching English, I love spending time with other people who work at the Academy, and I love feeling like I'm finally doing what I came here to do. I've been so incredibly blessed in my time here already and it's been so amazing this last week just watching how it seems that God is continually saying to me, "See? I told you I had a plan for you. But wait, there's more!"

At the Academy everyone who works there dresses professionally. I had to buy a lot of clothes right after I got the job. Haha! But they also have casual Friday. Today was my first day working on a Friday and it felt so nice to be able to wear jeans....and my Sambas!! I felt like I was finally part of the working adult world because I got to do casual Friday. But then I started thinking about it: shouldn't I feel more a part of the working adult world by having to dress professionally every other day of the week? I mean, at camp every day was casual Friday (including multi-lingual Mondays!). On a side note: every time you hear the term "casual Friday" do you think of that episode of the Office where Meredith wears that....ummm.....dress? I def for sure do! Anyways, yeah, I'm not working full-time, but I'm totally fine with that. I love my job and I feel incredibly blessed to be working there and to have such a great boss who is willing to give me way more hours than we originally agreed on just to keep me working only for them (also, I get paid almost double at the Academy as I would have been paid at Best English School...so it's pretty much a win, win, and win again).

My mom is getting married in a month and I get to go home for a week to see her and the rest of my family. I have an awesome job here in Guatemala. My dad, step-mom, and brother are planning to come visit me for a couple weeks after the wedding. And I'm getting more and more comfortable with Spanish every day. In the words of Ann Voskamp (if you haven't read her book One Thousand Gifts, read it!): "God is always good and I am always loved." Thank you so much for praying for me and encouraging me as I'm going on this crazy life adventure!! I can't wait to see what's next! :)