On Waiting

I've been pondering Waiting.

When I looked out on the web, I saw a lot on waiting in line, waiting for the start of a vacation, waiting for test results, or waiting in regard to a terminal illness.

I touched close to waiting with my article about being on the beach, but it didn't quite hit the spot.

Finally, today, I googled on the art of waiting. And was rewarded.

On waiting:

Stoking Your Creative Fire: Learn the Art of Active Waiting:  "... a quality of alert expectancy for the arrival of something that’s completely beyond a person’s ability to control. It will just happen when it happens, and show up when it shows up."

The Art of Waiting: "A kind of photoblog, but without the photos, at least for now. Wait with us."

African Time: The Art of Waiting: An excerpt from this beautiful piece:

Credit: ... Fragrance of Shooting Stars

"... Next you go off to the police commissariat on the other side of town, have a lovely chat to the the four (female) police officials clustered around a small table in a tiny hot room, exchange a few pleasantries about your travels, your family, compare ages of number of

grandchildren, wait for them to each in turn go through the process of washing – feet - three times, hands - three times, face - once, ears – once, and then kneeling down and praying on the grass mat rolled out at your feet, and then start the laborious process of filling out their forms – one per person in the group – with all the information they need to confirm and authorise your permanent residency in their country. Name, date of birth, residential address ..., nationality, passport number, date of issue, date of expiry, names of parents ... You would think we would just have the list handy with parents' names already written out. The list exists. But invariably, when the question comes up, that list happens to be with another member of the group who is busy on the other side of town waiting on the pavement outside another government building to be let in to sit on a bench against another wall to reach the front of another queue to get to hand in another set of papers for another form we need in this process of obtaining visas to get to the countries we hope to be heading to.)..."

I have my Plan A and my Plan B for my first EFL job. And I stay alert for other possibilities that I can act on. But in this moment, I am in suspense, in a place where Plan A has not been ruled in, nor been ruled out.

I wait.

Life Lessons from the Food Network Channel

I don't like to cook, and I'm not a foodie.

But I love to watch the Food Network Channel's Chopped and The Next Food Network Star.

The food in these shows are simply the medium used to deliver artistry, beauty, adventure, suspense, and human drama to the viewers. It is ridiculous how much stressful suspense I feel while watching sweating contestants struggle to "plate" their food before the final-seconds countdown ends. Sometimes I have to cover my eyes or even flip the channel for those last seconds, it feels so intense.

But what I find most intriguing are the life lessons I see in these shows:  

1. Radiate confidence in yourself and your abilities. Confidence is, in fact, part of your "product."  
2. You will make a mistake. When you do, own it, fix it if possible, and move on. Beating yourself up avails nothing but pain for yourself and those around you.
3. Your plan will go awry. When it does, take a breath, then move to a different plan. 
4. Remain calm.
5. There will be criticism. Accept it with grace. Acceptance does not necessarily equal agreement. 
6. Be professional: You don't need to push others down to raise yourself up.

When I was doing my CELTA course a few months ago in Playa del Carmen, there were a couple of particularly challenging days.

In one, I'd felt really good about a class I did, and felt dashed when the tutor told me I'd left out a very important piece of the assignment, which affected her assessment of my overall performance for that lesson. I allowed this to rattle my confidence in a big way.

The very next class I did, I experienced a technical glitch that rattled me in a way that was disproportionate to the problem. Once that got fixed (with the help of a colleague), I saw to my dismay I'd made an error on one of my handouts, which compounded my sense of dismal failure. At the time, it was just a horrible, sick experience, again, out of proportion to the grand scheme of things.

During the afternoon critique session, I gleaned two things: 

1. If I make a mistake, don't dwell on it in front of the class - just fix it and move along or, if there actually isn't any substantive impact on the day's lesson, don't even mention it (as doing so adds nothing of value to the students).
2. Lack of self-confidence is a real performance killer. (And to the "audience," it is immaterial if the projected self-confidence is real or acted.)

So come Sunday evening, I'll be settling in to watch another installment of The Next Food Network Star.

Job Search: Teaching English as a Foreign Language

So, no job yet. Just minnow bites in response to my Middle East applications.


I'd told myself that if there was nothing squirming on the hook for the Middle East by May 1, I'd expand my search to Mexico, with the understanding that it probably means low pay in exchange for earning teaching experience. Mexico also has the advantage of easy access for visits from friends and family.

So I've done that and, in fact, am flinging my net for Mexico and Central and South Americas.

Below are two active job-listing sites I check out daily:

TEFL.com
Dave's ESL
ESL Jobs Now


Others, less active, include:

Teach Away (recruiting agency)
TEFL.net
Footprints (recruiting agency)
Saxoncourt (recruiting agency)

Looking to Teach English in the Middle East ... or Thereabouts

When I returned to Missouri, it was time to commence my next adventure --> I began shooting out apps for EFL jobs in the Middle East.

Thus far, I've sent apps for positions in:

• Afghanistan
• Jordan
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia