It is, dear reader, the end of an era. Yesterday, I taught my last lesson with Sander at the English Center. He has opted not to renew his package of lessons because of scheduling difficulties. I am going to miss him. For those of you who have been with me from the beginning, Sander and I started as Sander, Ferry and I. We lost Ferry about three months ago because he moved house and was no longer able to attend lessons. It paved the way, however, for me to get to know Sander’s son Yves. He is as precocious a nine-year-old as you will ever meet. He is funny and smart and will rule the world someday.
Not only will I miss my lessons with them, but I will also miss my walk across the park to the location where I was teaching them. It is a coaching space that the English Center and others rent out for their use. But it’s not just missing the routine of the walk and getting outside, I will also miss the women who run that space. One is Dutch and one is German and they are exceptionally kind and helpful. Ute, who is from Germany, is always willing to have a brief chat while you’re waiting. The other manager I don’t know as well, but she is also super kind. She let me use the facilities on a Saturday when I had walked through the park and was far from home. Maybe someday I will be back giving lessons t the location. But for now, I am wallowing in a little bit of sadness. There is a wonderful Dutch word that doesn’t really translate into English very well but encapsulates the feelings I have as I teach at this location, Gezelligheid. It kind of loosely translates to a feeling of coziness or having a general good time. It can apply to events, places, and people. The staff at the location are the embodiment of this idea.
On Friday, I had my unintentional last lesson with one of my Lingueo clients Maria Jose. Her schedule changed, and as her work is paying for the lessons, she wanted to do it inside work hours. She has had 17 1/2 hours of lessons with me. The last 2 1/2 hours she will take with another teacher, because she hast to take them on either Monday or Tuesdays as she’s working those days. I am a little sad at losing her, but also a little frustrated because she had my WhatsApp and could ask me if we could change the lessons instead of going for another teacher. I would’ve happily opened up Mondays for her for her last two lessons. I kept Monday closed because I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to get back in time to teach a lesson. But I would’ve happily opened up for her from 2 PM because I can definitely get home by then. Still, such Is life.
Yesterday afternoon I gave a trial lesson for the sister-in-law of a woman that I know from Weightwatchers. As of this writing I do not know if she will take lessons from me as yet. I hope so and as they will be on Skype they will be quite easy to schedule. I also spent a bunch of time this week doing the Preply seminars and self-study courses, changed my description and added one in French. While I did not find the courses entirely helpful there were some good takeaways for teaching on their platform. Yesterday morning I woke up to my first Trial lesson with a woman who is in the US EST time zone and that is for 7 pm my time this evening. Preply trials are unpaid which is not the best policy but if it gets me clients in the long term, and away from VIPKid a bit then I am happy about that. Let’s see if I can turn her into a student.
In writing news, I spent a good part of Thursday night creating new content and have been happy to connect with my characters and my storyline. I am finding it difficult to remember just what I have written and just which subplots I have to resolve but the readthrough that I did over the last few weeks has been helpful. I am hoping that the streak continues. I also think that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and possibly by sometime in April we will be able to start meeting at least on a reduced basis. Maybe I will suggest that people meet at my house rather than finding a location for the moment. I will have to talk to my group Co-organizer for his opinion.
Later this morning, I have a consultation with the eye doctor. I hope they’ll be able to give me a date for the cataract surgery as I’d like to get it over with frankly. Jasper’s family are possibly planning a reunion where we rent a couple of cabins somewhere in the Netherlands and hang out for a week. I’d like to be able to have sight to do that. I also want to go and see my sister and it would be nice to be able to have all of my surgeries finished when I can start traveling.
That’s all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. But stay tuned. As always, there is more to come.
Inkreadable 