Filling in the gaps

Before I start talking about new things, I thought I should share with you what has been going on in my life the last few months.

In June I graduated from University with my B.Ed. and was happy as could be. I decided not to worry too much about jobs for at least a week or so. When I did start looking I had no success. All summer I looked for jobs and applied for those I thought I could do. Most did not get back to me. It was a depressing time for me and writing for a blog didn't seem to important at the time (though in retrospect, it may have kept my spirits up and helped me get through some tough times).

During this time I was running quite a bit with the run clinic I had joined. This was quite different than I was used to and I had good weeks and bad. The bad weeks did not help my disposition. In early August I finally got a small breakthrough on the job front. I got about 6 or 7 hours a week working with children but at a lower wage and with a long commute. It helped a bit both to the self esteem and the money shortage I was experiencing. I applied for many other jobs in the teaching field (including for the Victoria school district) and got a few interviews that didn't really go anywhere (except for one job that led me on for over two weeks only to tell me they wanted someone more experienced working on their own) so I had to make some drastic moves.

It was about the same time that my running went downhill. I had trained too hard through August and was burnt out in September. The combination of poor running and no job success made me do something I am not proud of, but something that did keep me afloat until now. I applied and got a job at a grocery store (I won't say which one because I don't want to give any free advertising). I got a few hours (many at odd times and not consistent week to week) at a low pay so when I got a call to take on a third job (which paid much better) at a library, I took that up.

So here I am now, working three jobs, and between 42 and 54 hours a week making barely enough to survive. And that's why I haven't really had time to write anything thoughtful and inspiring. But like I said below, there are some major changes coming.

For starters, I'm going to try to write occasionally on here to help get me through the tougher times. At least this will allow me to speak my mind (and maybe someone will actually listen and maybe even think about what I write) about things that I think are important (or interesting).

But what is really big is that I do have a good job - just not for a few more months. I've actually known for a while, but it hasn't seemed real (hard to imagine greener pastures working three jobs). I (with a good friend) will be teaching English in Korea (the South, not the North) starting probably in March. No travel dates (or even a city) have yet been confirmed, but I have been accepted by an agency that does placements in Korea and have been told I will have a job there.

I have started to get excited about this trip and thus I felt the need to start speaking to the masses again. So I've set up another blog to detail the trip. I've mostly done this as a resource for anyone who wants to go to Korea in the future, but it will also be used as a way to keep track of what I'm doing there and how it's going. This blog will also still exist to talk about non-Korea things (so that anyone using that one as a guide won't have to wade through all of my odd-flavoured posts here).

So that's what's been going on. I hope to get back into the swing of things here shortly (perhaps even as soon as tomorrow - though I'm not making any promises) so look for something soon.

Thank you for continuing to check this blog!