Winter holibracation

Things are a little different here in the ole SK. The way things are done, the way things flow, the way things… everything.

In my school (And most other schools in SK) we have a winter break just like we do back home. Winter vacation starts December 22nd and goes to January 31st. Sounds nice right? As a native English teacher you’re expected to do what we call English Winter camps. The native English speakers (people like me) are the first to get signed up (of course! that's why we're here). Imagine with me, if you will, when a good time to do these camps would be? Yup during that winter “vacation”. Now I should say, I didn’t expect to get the full time off for the winter vacation, nor am I upset about teaching during it. In fact you make a little extra money, and we signed up for it when we signed our contract. The only thing I dislike about the process is the “unknowing” of it all. I didn’t know when my school camp was, I didn’t know when the MOE (MOE = Ministry of Education) camp was, and I didn’t know where I was going to do it!

How it all works out:
During the winter “vacation” most schools have their own personal 1 week English camp. The native teachers teach at their respective schools, and some of the bigger ones may have other native teachers come to their program. I later found out that the 3 week MOE English camp date (that starts Jan 2nd and ends the 22nd) through friends on facebook. Evidently the date never changes. I think my school didn’t tell me because they (like me) didn’t know where I was going to be teaching for it so avoided it altogether (yes I would of at least liked the date, but that’s ok). The catch is your 1 week school camp can be before, or after the MOE camp so you may not find out very soon (let alone anything here). So that leaves a few days open before or after the MOE camp during our winter “vacation”. So the once “long” sounding winter break for both students/native teachers alike is not so "long" or "vacation" like. We have 10 vacation days we can use with the remaining days we don't have winter English camps. It isn’t really that bad. 10days paid vacation is still very awesome. You just need to be FLEXIBLE. It also puts a damper on plan making if your friends know their schedule, and you don’t know yours. O well!

For me part of the problem was something I introduced to my school early on. My brother is getting married jan 7th. See the time conflict? Non-normal vacation days really throw schedules for a loop. Correction, anything that strays from the “normal” really throws everything/one for a loop here. You might think letting my school know this the day I arrived (In August) would be plenty of time to adjust, but it wouldn’t have matter if I told them last year. They have expectations, and do as much as possible to avoid any differences. I am what we may call a “special case”. My time off is right in the middle of the 3 week MOE English camp. This is part of the reason why I didn’t know what MOE camp I was working. Sure…It makes it difficult to plan the rest of my vacation days, but could I really complain? I’m sure I made it difficult for them to plan the rest of their winter camps.

Well I got some good news on Tuesday. I will be working at my school for the full duration of my English camps. I’ll elaborate more at a further date. This is very exciting, and I’m not revealing the complete uniqueness of this situation to avoid future problems. I can only say that this will be one awesome winter break!