07/13/2007: "[At Work] It smells of refried placement testing"

Did someone say... placement testing? I believe they did! I may be doing one more round (20 students from Japan) Monday morning, but otherwise now I'm done with placement testing. Somehow, despite that the door's closed and locked, people keep looking in and, occasionally, try to see if they can come in. Naturally, everyone is in the midst of a crisis and needs to get in "right now", only has "3 minutes", and just needs to "print only 1 paper!". Then they check their e-mail. Uh-huh.. gotcha.

This weekend, I'll be going to the airport (in an official university car.. now, tell me that isn't awesome) to pick up and direct the students from Japan to their transportation, follow them to the apartments and set them up there, then take them on a campus tour and out to dinner. Come Monday, I need to entertain that same Japanese group for an hour or so in the morning, so I'm writing up a quick powerpoint presentation and setting the students up to make their own comics. Great times all around, yeah?

Things are still not entirely ideal, but I've been feeling much better in general (mentally) since quitting Target. Since I'm working about 40 hours here anyway the pay's not much different, so all in all things are looking all right. I think the biggest difference is in job satisfaction, and in feeling valued. Not only do I seem to matter here, but my opinions are valued and I'm respected. Now, while Target wasn't exactly a bad place, the "cog in the machine" mentality was high, and for a place that preached team work, there was little team mentality to be found. I hear that this was mostly just that the store I worked at wasn't a good example, but all I can do is judge by personal experience.

What else...

I may be going along with two students as they get a tattoo on Sunday. Need to check the timing on that (in the afternoon/evening I'll be at the airport and running around). Should be interesting if I do go, though. Right now I'm making tentative plans for next weekend to go out with some of the students. Minigolfing.. yeah!

I have this weekend off.. that is great.

Anyway, attached (under 'more..') is a picture of me and one of the students I spend alot of time with, at a birthday party in a classroom for one of the teachers. I'll attach more photos of me and cakes and other students soon.


jason-hyujin_07-11-2007
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