August 31st will be my last day at YBM ECC, and just the past few days it really set in that I've been in this country for 10 months and am going to leave pretty soon. I'll be saying goodbye to all the kids in my homeroom class and also goodbye to my great co-workers. When I told everyone I'd be going it was a bit of an ego boost to see them all be like "Umm, no", especially my Korean partner teacher. The way the system is setup, each class has a foreign teacher and a Korean teacher. The Korean teacher can answer stuff about grammar and field questions for kids, and I'm around to make sure they're saying sentences correctly with good pronunciation. In many ways I'm a glorified tape recorder, but in other ways I'm pretty essential. The thing is, the other foreign teachers have different partner teachers, usually at least 2 if not 3. Myself, for all of my classes including kindergarten and all of my after school classes I work with one person, my partner teacher Susan. When I told her I was leaving September 1st, she immediately said "No you will not you will sign up for another year. I don't now who I am going to get."
Sadly, I have to move on. It's a long story, but I'm not re-signing my contract because the teacher who left in May is coming back because of family reasons. My boss assured me it wasn't because of my performance and told me to come back once a position opens up. In the mean time, I'll be looking for a position to open up sometime in October or November which means I'll be home for at least the month of September! I'll be staying with my mom. In the meantime, I'm going to cram in as much Go study as I possibly can before I get back.
Btw, if you're wondering, the slump is over. I am enjoying a 9 game winning streak on Tygem against 3 dan players. I'll be back up to my old rank in no time. I know, by now I'm supposed to be beyond ranks or something. Well one day I'll take the time out to sit under a waterfall in a loincloth and hum a "Buddha Buddha Buddha" mantra until I am free from caring about my rank. There will be one blissful day where I learn to be like the flowing river or something and become one with the universe, but until then, I want to level up :)
