Trippin' in Yilan!

This my friends is not a travel piece, but more of a "these people are trippin'" thing.

As some of you know, my job search so far in Taiwan has been an adventure to say the least. Part of my problem has been my unwillingness to leave Taipei in search of work. I'm comfortable with my apartment, the MRT makes everything within the city and it's suburbs relatively convenient, not to mention there are a few watering holes that I've become attached to. However, I decided to take the plunge when a headhunter I talked to said she had a job in Yilan if I wanted to move. She noticed my hesitation and basically laid the deal on me: I'm too old and have too much experience to get work in Taipei in the current economy. Talk about a rather discouraging word. During the holidays no less! Anyway, I told her I'd think about it. About twenty minutes after I left her office, she called me up and said that the school in question needed someone desperately, so why didn't I go out there for a couple of days and fill in while they looked for someone and see if I liked it, and if I did, I could take the job. I hemmed and I hawed for a bit and then thought, "What the hell, it's paid work, and if I don't like it, it's only a couple of days." So I went.

I got to the school yesterday afternoon and within ten minutes of stepping out of the cab, I was in a classroom. I wasn't quite prepared for that (or the four classes that came after for that matter), but fortunately I had taught the books before and muddled through. I finished the day and was taken to my dorm room (their free housing if you take the job), given the keys and left to my own devices. So here I am, standing on a small balcony in a Taiwanese suburban wasteland with not a store in site, having a smoke and wondering what in God's name I was doing there. However, after talking to Rebecca and running into one of the guys that worked at the school, who showed me a place to get food, I figured, since I had to be there until Friday, I'd make the best of it.

Well, after a fairly decent night's sleep, I grabbed a cup of coffee and went off to the job. The school wants teachers in a half hour early so they can plan their lessons, which as fine by me because I didn't know what I was going to be teaching anyway. The first thing I realised was that it felt good to be actually working again. This was helped by the fact that my first four classes were all little kids between the ages of 4-6. Many of you who know ne know that I love little kids, so this started the day off pretty well. I got through that, went home for some lunch and a couple of smokes thinkjing this wasn't too bad; maybe I'll take this gig. The rest of the afternoon went by quickly, and I was feeling that, yes, I'll put tomorrow under my belt and probably take the job. This of course was because I was under the impression that it was my job to refuse. Ooops.

I finished today and went down to the office to tell them that I'd pretty much decided to come back but that I needed Monday off to take care of some pressing things in Taipei (mainly finalizing my work permit). The response I got was, "Did you talk to Jenny (the headhunter)?"
I said, "No-o-o-o. Why?"
"She called to say they hired someone for next week," the office lady replied.
"Oh," says I.

It turns out that the school was so paranoid that I would work the two days and say no, that they pulled the trigger and hired some other guy. Maybe I'm wrong, but it doesn't seem that unreasonable to give a person at least one full day to figure out if the job fits, especially if it involves a move. One crazy half day of work is nothing to go on. They didn't even ask me what I thought of the job! Oh well, it's their loss.

...and so it goes.