I have to admit to almost quiting the whole ESL Germany thing last night. I came very close to a complete mental breakdown when I boarded the wrong train by accident. The problem being I had no idea that I was actually on the wrong train, and that it was not until an hour later (just when I thought I would be making my switch to head home) when the train conductor explained to me that no, I was heading to Hof, the complete opposite direction of where I intended to go. All my happiness of having spent a really great day vaporized. No longer was I full of pride at my student, no longer was I happy with my decision to take the job despite the switch in schedules. Now I was looking at not getting home an hour early, but 2 and a half hours late. I did not even feel happy that I was communicating in (albeit broken) German. I was enraged.
The good news is I got home, and I woke up this morning in a great mood and happy with my job and choices again. I will not be combing job listings anytime soon. But last night I was certainly thinking it over good and hard. I love the life style, but I am not so sure I see myself as a lifer in ESL. Again this changes with mood. It did make me think long and hard about the type of jobs I could work in Germany should I give up ESL. The list was not long. I had tried last winter to be a recruiter for the company Patrick works for. Recruiting meant that I could use my reading skills without having to speak German, Patrick would contact those I found. We used Monster to access their database of resumes. Though a little pricey (300 Euros) it allowed us a wealth of resumes that we never would have access to otherwise. And with one placement that money was paid back and then some.
The best thing about monster is that while it allows the employer to post jobs it also allows the person seeking a job to search through job listings to see whose hiring as well as post their resume in their database for free. That way even when your not actively searching an employer can still find you.
However with beach vacation tomorrow I think I will return to my love of freelance English teaching. Who else allows me to set my times and take as many vacations as I want/afford! 