New Chapter (ii)

So I went for my Appointment Formality today. Signed the contract and as of today, I’m no longer an Allied Educator (Teaching and Learning).

It’s been a long time coming. Ever since I have decided to come into the education industry, I have been trying to become a teacher. Went for my Bachelor’s in English Language and Literature as well as my CELTA and now, I’m finally an Education Officer.

Looking forward to my new posting although I definitely will feel a sense of loss at leaving my current school. Having been here close to 7 years, it will definitely not be easy. However, I know I have learnt a lot and I hope to be able to use whatever I have learnt in whichever new school I’m posted to.

CELTA (iii)

I have passed the CELTA course. I am now a certified ESOL teacher. On paper.

In real life however, I am not an ESOL teacher. I have applied to a few schools and I have been rejected by all of them. Some cite the fact that I have yet to finish my Bachelor’s as a reason. Yet some others cite the fact that I do not have any relevant ESOL experience as a reason to reject my application. So here I am, stuck in limbo.

My final exams will be held in May 2016 and if everything goes well, my convocation will be held in October 2016. The longer I stay in my current job, the longer I end up not being able to teach ESOL. Not being able to teach ESOL means I will not be able to garner experience in teaching ESOL. I fear my time is running out.

I do not want to teach English in a mainstream school. I want to teach ESOL, not English.

I fear I may have to give up my dream if this goes on. I fear I may settle for teaching English after all.

God help me if that happens.

Actually, all I want is just to teach…

Bali Day 2

So, yesterday was Day 1 in Ubud, Bali.

We landed at about 12.30pm in Denpasar International Airport yesterday afternoon. From the airport to our hotel in Ubud, it took us roughly about an hour’s taxi ride. The taxi ride costs us about IDR350,000 one way. That’s roughly S$35. Considering it is about an hour’s ride, I guess it is reasonably cheap compared to the taxi fares back home.

Our hotel is called Yulia Village Inn and it is about IDR4,000,000 for 4 nights’ stay. It’s okay. I am not going to compare it to places like Royal Scott Plaza or Marina Mandarin or even Banyan Tree Bangkok. I mean, size-wise, Yulia Village Inn is definitely bigger than Studio M or Bay Hotel. The wi-fi is so-so. No bath tub in my room but then again, the fiancée and I don’t really use the bath tub in the other hotels anyway.

Bali is on the same timezone as Singapore so that kind of make things convenient. I don’t need to mentally add or subtract hours if I want to call home. The fiancée thinks otherwise though. She said:”dear, you know what this means? it means that we don’t get extra time in Bali!”

Yesterday was a pretty chilled day. We went to visit the Monkey Forest as well as the Dirty Duck Diner. I will post some pics taken in Monkey Forest later. The Dirty Duck Diner is huge! It has several dining halls and we took the one way out to the back, overlooking a paddy field. On their menu was their signature crispy duck. We shared a half duck (IDR125,000) as well as snails on mushrooms (IDR65,000). The fiancée felt that the sauce on the mushrooms was too sweet for her. The duck was very crispy (well, it wasn’t called ‘crispy duck’ without reason) and very very juicy. I thought it was really good. Just when I was musing to the fiancée that the duck must have been very fresh or something, we saw a flock of ducks walking in a straight line up and down the paddy field. So that’s where the crispy duck came from… yum!

The itinerary for today would be just to wander along the main street and sight see. Tomorrow, we will be having a full day tour where we would be visiting Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave Temple), Tampaksiring (Holy Spring Water), Penelokan (Mount Batur and Lake Batur), Besakih (the largest temple in Bali), Bukit Jambul (Rice Terrace) and finally Klungkung (Old Court Justice of Klungkung Kingdom). Will update with pictures tomorrow.