Considering the Options

Friday 2-5-10

So the girl above me spazzed out every few minutes. She would twitch once in a while and it was quite difficult trying to sleep.

We asked the hotel when we could leave with a full refund. They said Monday. So we will have a permanent home to ourselves in a few days! Now we just need to figure out how to get our luggage there. It is a lot cooler today. Alison got tickets to a musical when I meet the owner of the preschool later today. So we decided to go to the Canterbury Museum.

Side note: There are joggers, walkers, bikers, or people doing some kind of exercising all over the place here. There are many unicycles around. They are actually used as a mode of transportation, not entertainment.

So we went to the Museum. I loved it. It looks small, but is actually huge. There is an underwater center, Antarctic Center, a Maori area, clothing…just a whole bunch of stuff. I will probably go there several times. All through the museum, Alison and our landlady were texting each other. It is a loud signal, so Alison tried to muffle the sound. It didn’t work that well. We couldn’t see all of it, so we left early.

Then we came back to the hotel and attempted spaghetti again. So we turned on the gas and tried to light it. Alison went through 2 matches. So then I tried it. The gas was being turned up higher when it wouldn’t light. So by the time I lit it, it ignited and flames erupted everywhere. We both jumped back. It terrified me.

So we made the noodles while eating fruit. Then we heated the sauce, ate, and cleaned the dishes. Then we walked to our landlady’s house. We were ½ hour early, so we walked around, kind of getting lost, but not really. We sat in the shade for a little while, until we thought it was an appropriate time to go to her house. We got there and knocked on the door. We saw a blue car pull up. Her car was silver, so we thought maybe we were at the wrong house. That would be fun. Well, it was her car and she came to give us a copy of the lease and our keys.

Then we went to go to the back to deposited the money in her account (a bond that we would get back when we moved out, and first weeks rent). I took money out of the ATM and we stood in line. Alison wanted to pay by credit card, so we asked if we could do ½ cash, ½ credit card. The lady said it had to be in cash, so we went back out and Alison got the cash out.

We went back in and paid. Then we went to the dorm and the preschool owner called me. She picked me up and took me to her house. They have a really nice house. Her backyard has a creek running through it. They have a bridge to go to the other side, and there is a playground on the other side. It is so pretty.

So we had a long talk. She went through several options like looking at other preschools, relief work for preschools or Primary schools, Independent Contract, One Year Contract…She said the Site Director really liked me. It is kind of funny, because they both seem to really like me and think I will be a great addition, but they don’t really say what they themselves are thinking. They just tell me what the other person is thinking. Anyway, she told me that I could do a term-by-term independent contract meaning I would be with them through a term and if something comes up in a primary school, I could go to them in the next term. The primary schools go by terms (4 terms in one year). Most positions that will come up now will be for the following term. So this would seem like a good choice for me. There are risks though. They would still be looking for a person who would go for the year, but they said they don’t think it would really turn up and even if someone does, I would still get the relief work. They have told me that I have gone the further than any other person, because they have an idea of a person they would like to add to their team.

If I go on a one-year contract, I would be there for one year, they could help me be fully registered as a preschool teacher (which would take 2 years), and I would get holiday and vacation pay (where I would not get these advantages in a term by term contract). I would actually get paid a bit more per hour on an independent contract, which would probably cover the vacation and holidays I would get. So the money issue would be about the same in the end. I’m just not sure if I want to be committed to a one-year contract if something in a primary school does come up. I want to feel out the preschool and make sure I would like it first. Also, if I try to get fully registered, that would already be a 2-year commitment, and I want to make sure I really like the school, before I would commit to something like this.

She told me to have a “good think” about all this and let her know what I decide over the weekend. She told me to text her husband and her husband would let her know when to call me. All through our talk, we were outside, dinking juice. The sun was blaring in my face and blinding me.

So now I have a lot to sort through. I am really thinking the term by term would be best for me now, but I want to think about it for a little while. After our discussion, we went inside, and they cooked dinner. It was chicken with vegetables everywhere. They had pumpkin, beets, potatoes, peas, summer squash, and many other things. Most of it was absolutely wonderful. I was telling her and her family our typical dinners and meals. Her little girl said, “So is this better than peanut butter or subway?” It made me laugh. She also asked if I was from Canada. Apparently a student teacher she had was from Canada and she said I had an accent that sounded like hers. How funny.

After dinner, they made chocolate crepes with Golden (which was like a thick honey, syrupy substance), Cadbury chocolate shavings, and vanilla ice cream. It was quite tasty. Then she gave me an application to fill out and said she would try to figure out when I could start.

When I came back to the room, I showered. Alison came back and was thinking about how hungry she was. I told her all about the wonderful food I had. I felt kind of bad afterwards.

I found out that in New Zealand, the government funds private schools. They said that like 97% (or something) children go to preschool and nurseries. Kind of interesting. It is so high, so there is a demand for preschool teachers. She also said that preschool teachers are more highly respected. Many preschool teachers are asked to be primary teachers because of how the children turn out (or something like that). So that sounds pretty cool.

There have been many bangs like shotguns, right now. Tomorrow is a holiday, so I am assuming that is why it is so noisy. Our neighbors are being really noisy too. They are moving a bunch of stuff around and are using something that sounds like a staple gun. It is getting really annoying.