Greetings from glorious Greece, dear reader, where the temperature is a balmy 30°C. The last few days have been spent hanging out with family and enjoying as much of a vacation as possible. This is not to say that I haven’t been working however. But let me back it up and I’ll start with my actual trip. I left on Wednesday and true to form, spent the three hours at the airport lesson planning. I planned Friday and Monday’s lessons. I was pleased with myself. But I messed up.
I did plan my Monday lessons for Jochem and ShinWei. I thought I planned my Friday lesson for Karolina. But I realized during a counseling session just before her class on Friday that I did not plan it and there was nothing in the folder for her. It didn’t matter because we were able to have a conversation for an hour talking about her coming trip to Finland and her internship. I am looking forward to hearing all about it in a couple of weeks. Next week she has decided to take a week off, at least for the moment. We might actually schedule a lesson that is on a different day. Such is the beauty of WhatsApp.
I am supposed to start classes with Sander in September. I contacted him on Saturday via WhatsApp but do not expect to hear anything for a little while yet. That’s if he wants lessons at all. I hope that he does because he is my best paying client. He’s also one of my favorite students because we can actually talk like adults and have deep and meaningful conversations. I will be sad to lose him if she decides not to take lessons. We will have to see.
I contacted Claudia with English Center but she is in Columbia because her father is sick so we are on hold a couple of more weeks while she is in South America. Freek, of course, is an in person lesson and so he and I will not start until I come back to the Netherlands since he can only do in person lessons due to security. And as his company is paying, there’s not much we can do about it. I also contacted Vicente but as of Sunday had not heard anything. We are going to try and change our hours while I’m here so that it’s not quite so late. Greece is one hour ahead of Amsterdam and so with Vicente I would be teaching from 9 to 10:30 in the evening and that is disruptive for everyone.
Both George and Jerry In China and Odhran in Ireland cancelled lessons with me on Sunday. Jerry had a rehearsal that she had to go to and I am not sure that Jerry had anything but it was just as well. Odrhan canceled with me because he was in Dublin with his parents and they were not going to be home in time. What did I do with my free time, you ask? I went to a water park, of course. Where I mostly sat and read a book and hung out with a friend and my sister. Sometimes I could be cajoled into the water with my niece and nephew. But those times are not often. I am hopeful that I will see George and Jerry and Odhran on Wednesday next week but I think we’ll take the lessons week by week.
VIPKid took a turn for the worse as I received a one Apple review from a student that I had hoped to make a private student in China. She said that she thought I was looking on my mobile phone during class. I was not, but it could be that my camera makes it look like I am looking down. There is no longer the option for teachers to ask for feedback to be reviewed and really there is no point to have it reviewed at this time because they’re going to go belly up and the kids are no longer going to be our market. So on the one hand I’m really upset about the feedback. But on the other hand I know that I shouldn’t care because VIPKid is not going to be viable for much longer. . I did contact the student, but I got no response so I think that is done. George and Jerry’s mom told me that I shouldn’t worry about it because no one can be perfect all of the time. And she’s right.
The writers group met without me at the Vondelkerk and they were only three people with Beth and Mark. No one else showed up. We will have to see if this venue works for us. And we will have to figure out what happens for each Thursday that I am not there to host. Maybe we will go online for those days. Or try and find another venue. But I can’t do much from Greece and that is causing me a little bit of anxiety and stress.
That’s all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. But, stay tuned. As always, there is more to come.
Inkreadable 