Into Week Two...
Not much planning got done last weekend; So I find myself ridiculously busy again this week, planning one day at a time. The weekend was good, though. I checked out two gyms; I actually took a spinning class (they call them RPM classes here) at one of the gyms; Manny has integrated himself fairly well into the community -he was the one leading the class. I'm having a tough time trying to decide which gym to sign up for. There is one right beside the place I'm about to move into (oh yeah...more on this coming up) or another one, quite superior (this is Manny's gym), but it is about a 40min walk from my soon-to-be residence.
That's another thing I did over the weekend: I think we've settled on a place that we are going to move into. We being myself and two other dudes that I work with. It is a very nice place: It looks like a resort. I will take pictures and post them. We move in the first of Aug. We are going to meet the rental agent on Fri to sign the contract and pay our deposit; All Expats (expatriates; that's what they call us) have to pay crazy deposits on everything around here. For our condo, we need to pay a 3 and a half month deposit up front. This will be reimbursed upon completion of our contract. I guess a lot of expats have been screwing over people around here: trashing places and then just up and leaving. So, they make you put down this deposit to protect themselves. I was a little wary at first, but apparently no one has had difficulty getting this back at the end of the contract. I need a deposit for the gym too. It costs about RM150 per month for a membership, and I need to put down a RM1000 deposit that will be refunded to me when I leave the gym (I don't quite understand the purpose of this one, but the answer I get is that I'm an expat...ok).
I also went and checked out a bike shop over the weekend. I met one of Manny's friends at the gym (a local girl, big into cycling) and she took me to a place to check out bikes. They had fairly high quality bikes, but they were a little too costly. It would cost me around RM4000. With all these deposits, there is no way I could afford that. They were very nice bikes, though. And while it would cost me $1200CAN, the same bikes in Canada would go for over $2K. So it is quite a deal...maybe later...
My laptop computer just got here!!!! So I'm hoping that within a week or so, I will download the images off my camera and find some space to post them on here (or have a link to them somewhere).
As for work, it's great! The students are great! There is no stress at all regarding behavioural type issues (they don't exist here). While I did know that much of the stress associated with teaching comes from dealing with or anticipating behavioural issues, now that I don't have any, I really have realized just how much stress originates there. The students still don't really say much, but they're getting a little better. We are starting to joke around a little and have a bit of fun. I also marked my first set of quizzes. And they were ok! My Geometry and Discrete Math course is going to be awesome. I do have a few weak students in there, but most of them really seem to have a good sense of logic and an understanding of the abstract.
I have also agreed to help another teacher run the jungle-trekking club! I am super-pumped about this. I think it's going to be a ton of fun!
That's another thing I did over the weekend: I think we've settled on a place that we are going to move into. We being myself and two other dudes that I work with. It is a very nice place: It looks like a resort. I will take pictures and post them. We move in the first of Aug. We are going to meet the rental agent on Fri to sign the contract and pay our deposit; All Expats (expatriates; that's what they call us) have to pay crazy deposits on everything around here. For our condo, we need to pay a 3 and a half month deposit up front. This will be reimbursed upon completion of our contract. I guess a lot of expats have been screwing over people around here: trashing places and then just up and leaving. So, they make you put down this deposit to protect themselves. I was a little wary at first, but apparently no one has had difficulty getting this back at the end of the contract. I need a deposit for the gym too. It costs about RM150 per month for a membership, and I need to put down a RM1000 deposit that will be refunded to me when I leave the gym (I don't quite understand the purpose of this one, but the answer I get is that I'm an expat...ok).
I also went and checked out a bike shop over the weekend. I met one of Manny's friends at the gym (a local girl, big into cycling) and she took me to a place to check out bikes. They had fairly high quality bikes, but they were a little too costly. It would cost me around RM4000. With all these deposits, there is no way I could afford that. They were very nice bikes, though. And while it would cost me $1200CAN, the same bikes in Canada would go for over $2K. So it is quite a deal...maybe later...
My laptop computer just got here!!!! So I'm hoping that within a week or so, I will download the images off my camera and find some space to post them on here (or have a link to them somewhere).
As for work, it's great! The students are great! There is no stress at all regarding behavioural type issues (they don't exist here). While I did know that much of the stress associated with teaching comes from dealing with or anticipating behavioural issues, now that I don't have any, I really have realized just how much stress originates there. The students still don't really say much, but they're getting a little better. We are starting to joke around a little and have a bit of fun. I also marked my first set of quizzes. And they were ok! My Geometry and Discrete Math course is going to be awesome. I do have a few weak students in there, but most of them really seem to have a good sense of logic and an understanding of the abstract.
I have also agreed to help another teacher run the jungle-trekking club! I am super-pumped about this. I think it's going to be a ton of fun!
posted by Leon at 7:25 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home