Making the Best Use of Time

I have a lot unplanned time on my hands. School for students ended on June 8th but teachers must come every day for "seminars" from 10:00 - 3:00 until June 29th. The school has asked me to help them recruit new teachers and have given me a beautiful office with leather furniture, a beautiful mahogany desk, a credenza covered with magazines, and a leather padded door (I'm worried I'll need the pads for beating my head against a wall after 2 1/2 weeks in here with little to do). The best part of the room is the computer with a Turkish keyboard and no internet.

Speaking of internet, I love my supervisor because she recognizes the inefficiencies of trying to post jobs in America without internet and she suggested to the head master that I could work at home. I liked that idea, too, except that I wouldn't get my free lunch every day..But the head master said "no". Logic never overrides the marketing appeal of having a "native" walking around campus when prospective parents come visit. So here is my morning:

10:00 a.m. Arrived at school - Notice there is no working internet in the office, although there is an ethernet cable. Tried to plug in. No luck. Wrote three word documents that I will copy and paste into emails when I have internet.

10:20 - Looked for internet help. Found some custodians. They fiddled around. No luck.

10:30 - Walked around the school searching for wi-fi hot spots. No luck. Determined there is no internet anywhere today when I saw wires laying across the entire play ground.

10:45 - Started writing this blog (on a word document).

11:00 - Drank some water. Surfed my for emails. Got a phone call from Izmir Real Estate Agent who said she will be busy on Saturday and can't meet me at my new apartment to give me the keys even though I've paid a huge realtor's fee, deposit and June's rent, and they need a power of attorney, blah, blah, blah...I said, "This is "bull@#$%. I'm calling my attorney." Hung up. (Interesting phrasal verb..Do we still "hang up" cell phones or do we "end" the call?) Had fleeting thoughts that I'm a dumb American who has wired thousands of Turkish lira to a stranger and still doesn't have keys to show for it. Blood pressure was rising.

11:05 - Got a call back from real estate agent. Another agent can meet me at the apartment....No mention of Power of Attorney.....What the !@#$

11:15 - Wrote more on my blog.

12:06 - Looked at my watch....Lunch time!

12:50 - Suggested again that I go home and work from home. Got an OK from the Head Master.

1:00 - Internet now working with 1 to 2 bars. Decided to stay at school.

1:20 - Copied and pasted the morning's word documents into email's and watched the little spinner go around while they slowly "sent."

2:00 - Posted the English teaching position at my alma mater.

2:40 - Twiddled my thumbs.

2:50 - Shut down the computer, put on my tennis shoes and headed out the door.

I've now posted the job openings in the four places that I can think of. Hopefully some resumes will start coming in. By the way, if you want a English teaching job in Turkey, send me your resume... (OK, now posted in five places)