Puzzlin' Evidence
On April 16th 2008 I walked out of my teaching job in Bulgaria, on the grounds that everything about the school was nuts.
It was in a small town whose minimal demand for English lessons was already satisfied by a much better, established school.
I had exactly one student, who I was teaching illegally because the school wasn't due to open officially for another five months. And even if other students magically appeared they wouldn't be able to pay the going rate.
There had been a teaching married couple employed a month before I arrived, who'd walked out and/or been dismissed rather suddenly, for vague reasons.
The owner back in the UK was under the fond delusions that (a) I, the only teacher and a novice at that, would design the whole syllabus and write the textbooks, and (b) all problems would be solved by him personally arriving to take charge.
When he said he was coming I knew instantly I had to leave. And so did the only other employee, without whose help my cowardly escape would have been much more difficult.
Now, 16 months later, I do a quick impulsive google search and find...
Seven days after I left, on the 23rd, the boss was posting to a bulletin board that his school had lots of students - and implying there were multiple classrooms, which there hadn't been.
On May 13th 2008 he posted an advert "Calling the Creme de la-Creme, English Language Teachers". On the 25th, there was another one for a teacher to "Start Immediatly" [sic], and a third exactly a year later trying to tempt Bulgarian teachers out of the state school system.
There's a .com website which is "having technical problems at this time", and a .tv site which seems never to have been visited.
All suggestive but inconclusive. But it looks like the fantasy I was for a while part of is still there. And still a fantasy.
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Was this a school that taught how to write fiction? Because the owner seems to be a master at putting that stuff out!
ReplyDeleteBulgaria? Isn't that where European porn is made? Did you see any porn stars? How was the food? Were they into Eurovision like most Europeans?
Was this a school that taught how to write fiction? Because the owner seems to be a master at putting that stuff out!
ReplyDeleteHave you noticed, the word "fantasist" means both "writer of fiction" and "person who lives inside their own fantasies".
I think it's the latter of the two.
Bulgaria? Isn't that where European porn is made? Did you see any porn stars? How was the food? Were they into Eurovision like most Europeans?
I think most europorn comes from Hungary or Poland - gay and straight.
The food was...well, if you like a hundred kinds of cheese, yoghurt or mayonaise, it was probably good. Or mackeral - there was a lot of mackeral. I pretty much lived on pasta and mackeral.
Bulgaria is the most recent entry into the EU, so it's the latest addition to the Eurovision, but I don't think they regard it seriously.
In Britain, Eurovision is a lighthearted joke. I think in the poorer parts of Eastern Europe, it's just not important - though in areas that rely on tourism (eg the black sea) they probably do pay more attention. But I was on the opposite side of the country to the black sea, and 2-3 hours drive from the capital.
To be honest, if I hadn't had internet movies and an adoptive dog, I'd have either gone mad or left after two weeks.
PS. I liked the people, just not the economy, the government, or this particular job.
ReplyDelete