It's been a tumultuous few months for me, so I apologise for not writing sooner.
As time is short, here are the highlights:
(1) After many broken promises and unreasonable treatment by my employer, I left Malaysia in disgust in April and returned home to Toowoomba in Queensland.
(2) I spent time catching up with my family - all of whom I'm very proud of - and looking for work. After a few non-events, I managed to snare an English teaching job at my local university - the same one at which I was studying. Unfortunately their positions are very short term (10 week sessions) with no guarantees of re-employment unless there are sufficient enrolments. While I enjoyed teaching there, I wanted something more secure.
(3) After spending several months looking for work, I decided to accept a teaching job back in Hsinchu with the same government school at which I'd worked the first time. At least this was a guaranteed 12 months with renewal options.
(4) The other productive (and satisfying) thing I managed to do, was to complete my Master of Applied Linguistics program, from which I've now graduated.
So now I'm comfortably back in a familiar city, making some new teaching friends and catching up with earlier ones, enjoying a lovely new apartment, riding a scooter again, and longing for some cooler weather now autumn is here.
If you go to this link Photos June to September 2011 you'll see some of the places I've been both back home and now here in Taiwan.
My next trip will be a long weekend in Toowoomba in mid-November to attend (Anthony) my son's wedding. It will pass very quickly, but I want to be there to wish him well.
As time is short, here are the highlights:
(1) After many broken promises and unreasonable treatment by my employer, I left Malaysia in disgust in April and returned home to Toowoomba in Queensland.
(2) I spent time catching up with my family - all of whom I'm very proud of - and looking for work. After a few non-events, I managed to snare an English teaching job at my local university - the same one at which I was studying. Unfortunately their positions are very short term (10 week sessions) with no guarantees of re-employment unless there are sufficient enrolments. While I enjoyed teaching there, I wanted something more secure.
(3) After spending several months looking for work, I decided to accept a teaching job back in Hsinchu with the same government school at which I'd worked the first time. At least this was a guaranteed 12 months with renewal options.
(4) The other productive (and satisfying) thing I managed to do, was to complete my Master of Applied Linguistics program, from which I've now graduated.
So now I'm comfortably back in a familiar city, making some new teaching friends and catching up with earlier ones, enjoying a lovely new apartment, riding a scooter again, and longing for some cooler weather now autumn is here.
If you go to this link Photos June to September 2011 you'll see some of the places I've been both back home and now here in Taiwan.
My next trip will be a long weekend in Toowoomba in mid-November to attend (Anthony) my son's wedding. It will pass very quickly, but I want to be there to wish him well.
RSS Feed