Me ready to go down the hill at Copper Mountain in Colorado.

For the last week since I’ve gotten back from my “spring break” trip most of my time has been occupied by job searching. There was also the three days during which my attention was solely focused on the needs of a 15 month old. I babysat my friends’ kid and generally enjoyed doing it but came to two conclusions, which am sure most people come to after caring for a young child. One: I do not want this kind of responsibility for myself right now and two, when I do have a child of my own, it’s going to be extremely hard to trust some stranger to look after them in my absence. Good lessons to learn, I think.

The job-hunting thing has been slow in progress. I went to a teacher fair last Saturday and was stunned to see that I was one of 850! teachers vying for a job with the 13 school districts in attendance. Not to say I expected this fair to be all about me. Wouldn’t it have been great though? I show up, walk up to a table of my first-choice district, chat with a person about my resume and their requirements, brilliantly show of my communication skills by answering their questions and get hired on the spot. A dream for most job seekers, I’m sure. Instead, I stood in line for nearly two hours to drop off a resume at the only school that advertised a social studies vacancy (so would bet 50% of people in that line were Soc. Studies hopefuls as well). The man who took it asked me a couple of questions: tell me about yourself, why should we hire you from the hundreds we see today, what makes you special, etc. The man seemed tired and bored by the time I got to speak with him or maybe it was my resume and answers that didn’t impress him, either way felt a bit letdown after such a long wait.
After that line stood in line for Milwaukee Public Schools which I really shouldn’t have done, ‘cause after 10 minutes of waiting the woman staffing the desk came over to all of us and asked specifically only to see speech pathologists and special ed. teachers. All the rest were asked to fill out the on-line application, as i expected. So considering that the only other school district left that offered a job for my licenses was the host school, I went to their line. This district separated all applicants by grade level and was actually conducting interviews with them but was not collecting resumes. I think I waited an hour before I had my chance to answer the six prepared questions on the list in front of my interviewer, the incoming assistant principal. Don’t know if I made a big impression; he smiled a few times at my answers, but mostly he gazed behind me at the ever-stretching line of educators drilling their eyes into my back. After that short interview i decided not to bother handing my resume to the other districts since none were actually looking for anyone with my qualifications and it was a better bet to wait and see if any of them post their openings on-line. I left with a slight headache, but must say that overall have a very positive feeling about the fair. First, i met someone who had the same supervisor as i at UWM and he told me about a Milwaukee charter school fair that coming week, and second, the organization of the fair was very pleasant. The superintendent walked around and tried to cheer people up, his high school students were on hand with bottles of water and to stand in line for you if you needed a break (i didn’t exploit that option, but thought it was a nice idea) and lastly, when i was leaving, i was offered a ride in the custodial van back to my car because it was raining and the lot was fairly big. So those were the positives. The negative, of course, was that neither of the districts will give me interviews, but that’s all right. I wasn’t really expecting it to be honest. Went home and since then have been perusing jobs on-line, filling out applications, sending in resumes, and considering what classes i’ll take next year if i’m not working full time. I’m thinking Spanish and Art History for starters.

In San Francisco.

The trip to San Francisco and Denver was fantastic, of course. I fell in love with SF once again and this time it wasn’t just a superficial tourist infatuation with a beautiful city, though there’s some of it in that. The difference this time from my first visit was that i got to spend time with a local (my cousin) who showed me around, took me to interesting art filled alleys, bakeries and ice cream parlors frequented by San Franciscans, and fun events that i would never have seen had i come to visit on my own, such as the big wheel race down one of the windiest streets of SF (not Lombard, though it started on there). Some pictures from the big wheel race you can see here. It was an awesome sight: colorful, filled with abandon, and done purely for the joy of doing unpretentious and fun.
So yes, i was sold on SF, so now i just need a plan for getting me there that would involve a steady job that would allow me to afford rent and food. Hmmmm.



Other thoughts of late. Been reading a book called Home: A short history of an idea, which is an interesting study of historical and sociological influences on architecture, interior design, and the idea of “comfort.” Surprising to realize that the definition of the word “comfort” as we use it today did not come into being until roughly three hundred years ago. It came from French into English and first made its appearance during the reign of Louis XV, though even then it wasn’t the type of “comfort” we think of now when we consider design of our houses and things in them. The book mostly focuses on development of the home and the associated idea of “comfort” within the Western world and uses the Asian histories and architectural ideas as contrast or to show outside influence. I’m still reading the book and yesterday, happened to look at photos of a friend’s new apartment back in Okinawa and this got me to think about what kind of house planning i prefer now that i’ve experienced several. There are things about the Japanese construct of the home idea that i like. I like that it’s possible to have everything in the house be mobile. I like that the bed is on the floor and can be removed when not needed. I like that the doors slide and in most cases, can be removed entirely to open up the space. All these things i really miss, but because i’m also very used to the way my room is set up right now, i don’t consider it uncomfortable even though it’s very different from the comfort i came to enjoy in Japan. It would be great if one day i have the chance to set up at least one of the rooms in my future house in a Japanese style. How to get the tatami, though? >.<



Best
-e