Work, problems and threats

When you think things can’t get any worse, there’s always something bad waiting to hit you in the face.

Last Friday, all I wanted to do was to get home, have drinks and chill. The week had been busy, deadlines had been missed, many classes had been taught and I was physically and mentally exhausted. My last assignment of the week was to tutor one of my students until 6pm and that was it. My classes with this guy are pretty fun. He’s very communicative and it’s very easy to engage in conversation as opposed to struggling to make students say anything in English. Usually time flies and that’s a sign of an interesting class. Again, all I wanted was to get home and unwind but the moment I got to my flat door I realised it wouldn’t be possible.

Somebody had slid a threat note under my door and left a scratch on it.

I know I might not be the most graceful, friendliest, nicest person on the planet. I know I have my ways and am stubborn. I sometimes fail to see the big picture and have made bad decisions in life. I might have hurt a few people, but many more have screwed this fucker up. I just never thought I could be a target for threats, you know?

What worries me is that this person put it under my door, not the mailbox outside the building, so it’s either a tenant or somebody with access to the building. Well, I’m obviously scared but I’m not entirely surprised about it because I see so many people in this building and I’m not sure who really lives here or not. People might be handing out keys to anybody, not to mention that the two entrance doors are constantly left open.

I just feel that there should be a limit. Should we agree on rules for the building? But would that be useful if 50% of people who live here don’t even bother attending the meetings? We spoke with a couple of people in the building about what had happened and they said the most outrageous things about what they see happening here. I think the biggest mistake is not communicating the landlords about the decisions made during the meetings. What the real estate company responsible for the building does is to print a piece of paper with the decisions and put it in the mailboxes. That simply doesn’t work!

And what about the scratch on my door? Who’s paying to get that thing fixed? I know I’m not!

So, just one more thing to ruin my day.

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We Feel Fine: “I had any serious mood symptoms nothing really bar the occasional mild depression but even that only lasts a few days and is usually just feeling on the low side of normal” (2 hours ago from somebody)

Big hiatus

It’s really been a long time. Last post I wrote was about having the newly hired teacher quitting on us. I certainly survived that one… but not without lots of overtime followed by a serious conversation with my boss. There was no way I could keep working like I was and basically having nothing in return: not getting paid for the extra hours, not being able to take days off. If only I made a little more money… but I’m not willing to sacrifice for the shit that some people call salary.

The problem is that the moment I started working the number of hours I was actually hired to work, I simply haven’t been able to finish anything. Nothing. No ‘checks’ on the to-do list. And I started to wonder if the school is willing to look for another person to help with all the work that needs to be done. It took me one year to convince them that we desperately needed to hire somebody else, now I don’t know if I’ll have to nag for one more year. This just proves how completely disconnected they are with what I do.

Well, but the show continued and last week we went to Santa Cruz to teach a five-day, six-people immersion. Bizarro Fers would describe the experience as excellent. All students were really into the activities, contributing with their ideas and opinions. It was very easy for all of them to work as a team. What amazed me the most was the fact that they were so eager to speak and take part in the activities that I had to choose who would speak first. The conference call task was definitely a highlight, with all of them disclosing all the information they had been briefed and leaving no room for misunderstandings. They were so in tune with everything that my colleague and I hardly had to do any work. After 5pm, when the class finished, we would simply relax and have a stroll around town, or even read a great book. We had so much time in our hands that we were able to go to bed early and wake up without a problem the day after — and everybody knows how much I love those early starts…

I will have four more weeks of classes and extra activities before having a highly deserved rest. The good thing about the summer is that there will be only a few immersions, so (I think, and hope…) I’ll be able to focus on video classes. Video classes!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

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This video is kind of old news now, but it really creeps me out!