March has its madness in America, but over here in the Netherlands mercury is going crazy. Remember last week when I posted that my tech issues at the bookstore had been resolved? That’s still fixed. However, my tech issues returned in spades when I realized that Inkreadable’s website and email access were down. It seems that my SSL certificate expired. My host claims that they sent me an email which of course I never received. The SSL certificate cost €80, and as my hosting service frankly sucks, I am now in the market for a new provider. I want someone who will be responsive to my questions and needs in a way that the current host has not been into years. And while it’s true he doesn’t charge me very much, I’m still paying and I’m still a customer. I’ve never been host hunting before. This guy that I have now was recommended by a friend of mine. I should’ve known, however, that there would be problems when I went to Greece and asked about the company, explaining my issues. To my surprise, my friend’s response was “yeah, I’m not working with them anymore”. I should’ve changed services then. But of course, there was no time. And he had been doing my work relatively quickly, as I wasn’t asking for very many things. But now things are changing. I have some very specific things that I would like to do with my website. So now I need more help. I have until 14 January to find a new host. I never believed that mercury in retrograde was a thing. I believe now.
Over in VIPKid land there is some drama that doesn’t really affect me but it’s causing everybody else to go ape shit. Apparently a new law was passed in California that gives independent contractors some of the same rights as employees. As a result, VIPKid has decided that they will no longer hire teachers from California. That’s been an interesting debate to watch on Facebook groups that I belong to that have to do with VIPKid as well as the one that I run myself. I am a bit of a cynic and I’m wondering “when’s the other shoe gonna drop?”. By which I mean I think that this is going to be a trend in America, and eventually, it might affect my work with VIPKid. Thankfully California is years ahead of everybody else so I think I have some time to figure out what I’m doing.
Felix canceled again so it was a relatively quiet weekend. Over at the English center, I am winding up with all of my students and have my last two lessons with my Dutch guys before I leave for the states. In fact, our last lesson is the Tuesday before I leave. I am hoping that they will continue with me once I am back in the Netherlands. They are very complimentary about how I give the lessons and I hope to continue with them as well. They do keep me on my toes. I am also subbing for another English Center teacher taking his Intermediate business English this evening and the following Tuesday as well. I’ll have more about that in a subsequent post. I am generally a little nervous about group classes as you know. But I do think it’s a case of once I get in there it will be fine.
Not sure if you remember dear reader, but this afternoon I am off to go play with kids in the context of English. I will probably write something about that in next Tuesday’s post as well.
It’s all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. But stay tuned. As always, there is more to come.
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