I Am a Rockstar Chapter 1: In which nothing is said about being a rockstar

K, here's my exciting news:

I quit my job.

However, in my line of work, "giving notice" does not mean two weeks. More like eight. But because my boss was worried that she couldn't get someone to start right before the holidays and I'm such a nice person (no comments from the peanut gallery, please), I gave 11-1/2 weeks notice.

I can sense you doing rapid mathematical calculations in your head and realizing that this means it took me 2-1/2 weeks to share my news with you, my faithful readers.

But don't look at it that way - I'm letting you know nine weeks in advance! Wow! Don't you feel privileged?!...

Technically, though, I have more than 9 weeks left. In 9 weeks, I start my Christmas vacation. I'll have 2-1/2 weeks off, then I come back for 1-1/2 weeks to train the next person. But I'm calling it 9 weeks for a few reasons:

1. Nine weeks is easier to digest than thirteen weeks*, or in a word - sanity.

2. I'll only be working eight days in January. Following a 2-1/2 week vacation and preceding...the end of my job...it will go quickly and should be easy.

3. I'm moving home at Christmas; so I'll be packing a bag to come back out here in January. This lends to the notion that I'm really quitting in December. Rather than taking a trip home for Christmas before coming back to work, I'll be moving home for Christmas and taking a trip back out here for work. See the difference?

One of my weeks at Christmas is unpaid time off, but the rest is vacation. So I'll be paid for my last 3 weeks here, but only working half of it. Cool, right? I think so.

Then I'm back in the good old Northwest for a month. I'm not going to work, either. For a whole month. I'm pretty excited about it. But I hope I don't go crazy. I don't think I will. I should have plenty to keep me busy. Between catching up with friends and family, getting rid of as much of my stuff as I can part with (it's tough to be a nomad and a packrat at the same time - not practical), and preparing to move to South Korea, I shouldn't get bored.

That's right, I said I'm moving to South Korea. Seoul, to be specific. I'm hoping to go in mid-February, right after the Lunar New Year. This has led to all kinds of ideas for a new blog name. Here are my favorites:

"Life through my eyes: your window into Seoul"

"For those about to ROK,** we Seoul-ute you."

Too cheesy? Any other ideas?

I'm sure that some of you are wondering what happened to my dreams of becoming a US diplomat. Oh, they're still firmly in place. But they're also still dreams and I have to have a backup plan. To be honest, I'm not very optimistic about the exam I took last month. I'll find out how I did sometime over the next few weeks, but I'm not holding my breath (mostly because that would be stupid - holding one's breath for a few weeks could not end well).

However, if I do pass, I will be invited to take the oral assessment. I could take that in DC in December and I would find out at the end of the day how I did.

Were I to pass the written exam and pass the oral assessment with a high score, there would be a good chance of getting hired within the next few months. In this case, I would not go to Korea. In any other case, it is off to Korea for me!

If anybody*** wants to come with me, let me know soon and we can probably be roommates and get jobs at the same school! All that is required is that you have a passport from an English-speaking country, a Bachelor's Degree in any major, and the ability/willingness to commit to a year.

Stay tuned for Chapter 2, in which I reveal details of my secret life as a rockstar.

*If you recognize that I actually have 13 weeks left, that means I gave 15-1/2 weeks notice! Wow! I'm a really nice person!

**ROK = Republic of Korea aka South Korea. All the cool kids use this abbreviation. Admittedly, the phrase doesn't make sense if you understand what ROK means, but I still think it's mildly clever...

***By "anybody," I don't really mean anybody. For example, if you randomly stumbled onto this blog and we've never met, this doesn't include you. Sorry.

Dude.

I am a slacker.

K, not really. Actually, I've been studying very hard. And working hard. So, yeah.

I have definitely come to the conclusion that I work too hard. Maybe I should stop working altogether. I mean, technically, I work from 5:00 to 19:30 (that's 5:00 am to 7:30 pm for those of you not in the military) every day. Sure, I'm generally sleeping for the first 90 minutes of every shift (I admit - this part of the arrangement is pretty good), but still - it's a long day. After I get the kids off to school in the morning, I typically veg (aka check email and look for a job in which I don't have to work so much)* for about an hour, then go to the gym and work out, then come home, shower, and speed-work** Frequently, I work an hour or two past the time that I am technically off. What am I doing? That's a good question. I often wonder that myself. It's amazing the amount of time that errands and kids' activities (football, guitar, soccer, and swimming - to be specific) can consume. So, yeah. I'm going to go play the lottery and win it big. Then quit my job.

Yeah, no.

I can't.

Part of my problem is that I committed to stay with my job until the end of the school year. There is a clause in my contract that allows me to give eight weeks notice and quit early, but frankly, unless there is a serious problem (more serious than me just being ready to move on), I'm not comfortable quitting early. I made a commitment. That's a big deal to me. I need to have a pretty dang good reason to leave early.***

Also, I've been seriously studying for about 9 months in order to take the FSOT. "What's the FSOT?" you ask. Well, it stands for the Foreign Service Officer Test - the first step in the process to becoming a US diplomat - and it deserves its own separate post.

But I don't have the time right now.

So let me just say that I took the test last Saturday and I think I did okay. Maybe better than okay, maybe worse. It's hard to say. About 45% of me thinks I passed, and 55% of me thinks I failed.**** Now I get to wait 3 months to find out what State thinks.

The idea here is to become a US diplomat and work abroad (a different country every 2-3 years - yahoooooooo!) in a US Embassy or Consulate. But in the event that I fail the test, I must wait a year before I may attempt it again. Consequently, I have decided that in the event that I discover that I have, in fact, failed the test, I shall secure a postion teaching English in South Korea for a year (because trying to get a job teaching English in North Korea would just be silly...).

So, here I am.

If I pass this test, I take the Oral Assessment in December. If I pass that, the odds are fairly decent that I will be hired in the next several months. So at this point, it's not really a good idea for me to commit to a year at another job anyway. If I take a job teaching English in Korea (that's South Korea - not North...), it will require a one-year commitment.

Rumor has it that test results may be out in as little as 6 weeks. I'm crossing my fingers. And you can rest assured that, no matter how negligent I have been in matters related to my blog, if I find out that I have passed the FSOT, you (my family, friends, and society in general) will be the first to know. Ah, yes. I shall shout it from the rooftops (in other words - post it from my blogspot).

But I'm taking off tomorrow afternoon for Christin's wedding this weekend. So for now, I've got to pack. And finish up some work. It's almost more work to take a day off, than it is to work. Rather annoying, really. Just one more reason I should quit working. And take a cue from the cricket. I mean, he had so much fun playing music while the ant was working the whole time - and it all payed off in the end, right? So why not?

*This is only partly true. I'm thinking of spending a year teaching English in Korea, so I surf some Korean ESL job boards and blogs of ESL teachers in Korea - I'm not looking for another job in the US. Hey - I surf. That's cool. Never thought of myself as the surfer-type.
**Kind of like speed-walking, only completely different. Basically, I run around frantically, trying to get everything done. I think that sometimes I look like a chicken with its head cut off, and thus, scare the kids.
***For example, receiving an invitation to go to Washington(DC - not the state) and join the Foreign Service.
****Sure, these aren't great percentages - but statistically speaking, I only had a 15% chance of passing, anyway. So, if 45% of me thinks I passed, that's still an accomplishment. And I can always take the test again next year.