Another day off for me after a grueling hour and a half of work yesterday. My lifestyle is truly decadent. I suppose there must be some overriding rule of energy in all this… I worked harder than I ever have for about a year and a half, I was lucky to get one day off a week, and here I am lazing about with a dozen or so hours of work a week. Actually, I have a bit of a positive comment on the work situation. It seems that my employer is actually going to, for once, keep their word and employ me on a fixed monthly salary as of this month. That means I will be at the school at 8:30 on Saturday, even though I don’t have a class until the afternoon. They haven’t yet opened my morning class. This is a bit of a relief – the fact that they intend to pay my regardless of their ability to fill my class. Before coming to Thailand I would never have thought that the policy of a school to pay a fixed salary regardless of teaching schedule should be something to get excited about – what a couple of months will do. I think that it is fundamental that a business assumes risk and does not make the teacher do so in regards to scheduling. After all, I am not making more when times are good, why should I take it on the chin when times are bad. What it really comes down to is assuming a professional role in what you do. Business people gain big and lose big – teachers teach and expect to eat. So, anyhow, they will have me on a schedule of about 10 hours at the school on the weekends and an hour and a half on the weekdays. It will be sufficient to
“pay the bills” but not really enough. I am also supposedly working part-time for another school I mentioned before, though the salary is laughable in light of the fact they want me to come up with a French course without material. I might give it a shot for a month and then jack up my asking price if they want me to continue.
Completely different note, the nightlife in Khon Kaen is quite good for a city of its size. Last night we went out for a couple of beers at a place that had a band. Most bars here have live music and are fairly cheap. We then hit a disco, which also featured live performances of Thai pop music, no entrance fee. I think the whole night cost us less then 25$US and quite enjoyable.