Rejected! -- September 1

Today I climbed a mountain, swam around an island, and caused some deep impressions on the Director of the English Department at the Universidad del Mar, which I wouldn't have thought possible. Nevertheless, I am still unemployed, and trapped in Puerto Angel for the rest of the week. 

What happened really? Well, after traveling for three days, I finally made it into this tiny nest, called Puerto Angel, where the campus of the UMAR is located. From different sources I have heard that it's an awesome place to live and a wonderful place to work. They pay more than just a decent salary, take care of the costs of the immigration-procedure, and they are even hiring at this moment. Sounds too good to be true? Well, none of these rumors turned out to be false. Yet...

So I got up this morning to show my best looking face to my prospective employer. I showered, shaved, took my best clothes to the nearest (the only) lavenderia in town to have them ironed. After being told that they didn't have the required equipment, and in fact it's pretty hard to find an iron in the nearer vicinity, I took them back and decided that they weren't that badly wrinkled for a job-interview. I took a cab to the University, and started looking for the English department.

It wasn't hard to find, and the Director even had time to talk to me. She seemed very interested to begin with, said that there were four(!) openings at the moment, and when I mentioned CELTA she got seemingly excited. I couldn't believe it. This was exactly what they had predicted us on the last day of the course. Immediately she got into explaining what kind of documents I would need for my FM3 (the work permit), and that the University was certainly going to arrange all the paperwork for me.

'Something is fishy,' I was thinking to myself. This was going WAAAAY too smoothly. And I proved to be right. I was told I had to look somewhere else when she discovered my citizenship. GHHRRR!!! I'm still SOOO pissed at this! The University has a policy not to hire anyone who is not a citizen of an "English-speaking country." So we both were really sorry about this, she even apologized for assuming I was from Ireland. Yeah I know, I have this slightly repressed Irish twang(!)

English speaking country, my sunburned behind! Whatever is that supposed to mean? I guess the USA is out of question as it refused to declare an official language. Anyone from Barbados on the other hand would be welcome, as it is without a doubt English speaking. I guess I'd have more chances of employment if I was from Ghana! Of course I tried to convince her that I was from an English speaking part of Germany (not entirely incorrectly, meaning the American occupied zone), but she took it as a humorous attempt on my side to deal with rejection. I even asked her if I could be hired as a German teacher, teaching English on the side. I'm sure she would have, if there had been at least a German department. There is French one -for what I don't know- and they are working on a Chinese department, but no German.

Oh, well. Anyway, this is how things have gone. So after my fruitless consultation I decided to go back to Oaxaca and visit the universities there. But that has to wait until Sunday, as we're almost in the weekend anyway. If I hit the road first thing next morning, I'll get there Friday late afternoon. So I might as well stay by the ocean, in this tourist village that has seen its better days a long time ago. I've got everything here: cheap sea-food, an awesome surf, a supposedly nude-beach, which is just as nude as the main beach: devoid of people. The only thing it lacks are tourist. I just might be the only one right now. Feels kinda sweet after Playa del Carmen.