I have a job!

I just took an English teaching job for the next year. It's in a town called Chikugo, located a bit north of here. There's not too much in Chikugo itself, but it's only about 20 minutes south from Kurume, which is about 1/2 a million people. Kurume is currently the closest movie theater to me, so I'll be a good 45 minutes to an hour closer.

The job is at an "eikaiwa" school. Eikaiwa is Japanese slang for eigo kaiwa, which means English conversation. I work Tuesday through Friday, 8:30-6:00, so I have a 3 day weekend every week. Woo hoo! Part of the time I'll be visiting local middle schools for the dog and pony routine that I'm doing now, but the rest of the time will be private/small group English lessons. Not too shabby.

My current contract ends on July 25, and the new one doesn't begin until around September 4 (date TBD), so for most of the interim I should be back in Atlanta. So I'm thinking party in ATL for any of you guys who can make it.

On a sidenote, here's my link-o-the-day: Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest. Sound off on your favorites. My are "Dancing Tree" and "A winter dawn in a New Zealand pasture."