New place, new job

So, how did this happen? It was all so fast that I didn't really have much time to think.

I guess it starts about a month and a half ago, when Song had said that I should send out my resumes to some of the international schools around Dubai. I was planning on taking a certification course during the month of November, so I thought it was kinda a waste of time to send out my resume. Also, I don't have the qualifications that all those types of schools wanted. Anyway, I sent out my resume to 9 schools, and one of them wrote back. I had an interview about 2 weeks ago, a few days after I flew into Dubai, and, as you can see, this is my desk. I have a computer. Song provided the red 'Emirates' cup, and on the wall you'll notice that I put up some of the going away letters that my kids had written me about two weeks ago. Also, since I'm the only American in the office, I put up a picture of Washington crossing the Delaware, which says underneath: America - We will kill you in your sleep on Christmas.

As of now, I'm working a 70% load, which means that I'm making less than what I made in Korea. However, this job offers a ridiculous amount of perks and much better pay if I can get signed on as a full-time teacher in the next several months or so.

Oh, right...I should tell you exactly what it is I'm doing.

Well, first off, the school's name is Universal American School. Here's the link to their website:
http://www.uasdubai.ae/uasdubai/

As of now, I'm teaching 8th and 7th grade English, as well as an 8th grade Social Studies class. I'll be teaching a Film Studies class next semester, and I'm sure there's more to come as the season continues.

I have no extracurricular plans at the moment, but it seems that I will possibly be coaching the 7th and 8th grade basketball team. If you've ever played basketball with me, you'll know how underqualified I am for that position.

I had two training days last week, and I started teaching on Sunday (the work week out here goes Sunday-Thursday, which is gonna take a couple months to get used to).

So far, it's been good. I made a mistake during my first class, and had to go back and tell the kids that I'd misinformed them about the differences between 'theme' and 'subject', but otherwise things have been going well.

I've been coming up with a lot of unique on-the-spot Ryanisms; my best so far has been the mental hi-five, which consists of me telling a student that they did a good job, informing them that they deserve a mental hi-five, and then slightly twitching my head while looking at them.

I've also had some good feedback from the kids. Before I even introduced myself to the 7th grade English class, one of the girls said, "Mr. Hellmann, you're awesome." After 3 days of teaching this week, I wouldn't say that I've been awesome, but I'm pretty sure I made at least a few of my kids laugh today. I told my 8th grade English class that I was gonna stop doing my Indian rain dance to get everyone's attention and just start doing 4 claps or so, and they all said, "Why? We like your Indian rain dance!" I said, "But I did it the past two days and nobody laughed." Then Kevin, who's from Guatemala, said, "But sir, we were laughing on the inside."

Regardless, I'm pretty sure this blog will start turning into a detailed weekly account of all the stupid things I do at my job or all the funny things my kids say. I couldn't really do that in Korea because of the language barrier, but since all my students speak excellent English now, I think things are gonna change.

Oh. I forgot to tell you about the Korean students. I only have one right now, and when he found out that I just came from Korea, he asked me if I spoke Korean. I talked with him a little bit, and yesterday at the end of class I said, "Jeeoh, let's speak in Korean a little bit everyday at the end of class." We talked about the weekend and what we did. It was cool. So, today, he asked, "Mr. Hellmann, are we gonna speak in Korean again today?" I could tell that he was excited, so I said "sure" and we talked about what kind of car his family has and what kind of car I wanna buy.

I know all the thoughts in this post are a little scattered and feel like they're just tossed in, but honestly, the past couple weeks have been a blur. I didn't expect to have this kind of job for at least the next 3 or 4 years, and I definitely didn't expect to walk off the plane and start training for a new job about a week later. But, here I am.