In July, it suddenly became very clear that the embassy will never have the funding - or the necessary momentum - to execute any of those development projects and partnerships I was working on. At least certainly not in the foreseeable future. I resigned, but stayed until the end of August; and that's when my 45 days of unemployment commenced.
My Unemployment Days began with a fabulous vacation in Thailand. 5 days in Ko Phi Phi, with white sands, western food, fruit shakes and the best company one could ask for; it was the perfect beach vacation.
Once I got back to real life in Yangon, I had:
- My most intense networking efforts ever, emailing and talking and meeting with anyone I could about getting a job.
- 2 or 3 depressing days in which I thought I might never again have a proper job. This was not least because of all those terrible articles about millennials, and how being jobless is my destiny just because I was born in '82. This is one of them; though definitely not the most depressing (and at least also entertaining).
- A 10-day vacation with Arne's family, including Inle, Bagan, a lot of food, hiking, biking (including in sun, mud, and rain) - good company, fun times.
- Still some work: I started teaching young Myanmars a course in Business Ethics, which is part of a 2-year business diploma; it's interesting to see how these (mostly buddhist) rich kids think. They're good kids. I also enthusiastically accepted a writing project to analyse data and write a report about disaster preparedness - really interesting stuff.
Once we came back from our family vacation, I had a week full of meetings: on Monday and Tuesday I was offered 3 jobs, on Wednesday another promising opportunity was discussed, and I decided to cancel the least appealing, last, meeting to discuss employment opportunities because it was just too much already.
A few stressful days followed in which I was trying to decide what the best job would be for me, and I'm happy to say that on Tuesday my unemployment days are about to be over. My new job is a little complex to explain (especially before having started), but I'm going to start up the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) office for the local chamber of commerce. My employer is actually a local NGO - a group of businessmen who have been working for 10 years implementing helpful projects using their business knowledge and contacts; they will manage the CSR office. My boss seems like a really cool guy (not to mention extremely successful and well-connected).
Finally, I'm happy to announce that this week I have completed level A1.1 of my German studies, which places me exactly half way to being able to "understand and use familiar, everyday expressions and very simple sentences, which relate to the satisfying of concrete needs". Impressive, I know.
My Unemployment Days began with a fabulous vacation in Thailand. 5 days in Ko Phi Phi, with white sands, western food, fruit shakes and the best company one could ask for; it was the perfect beach vacation. |
| Ko Phi Phi - no post processing needed |
- My most intense networking efforts ever, emailing and talking and meeting with anyone I could about getting a job.
- 2 or 3 depressing days in which I thought I might never again have a proper job. This was not least because of all those terrible articles about millennials, and how being jobless is my destiny just because I was born in '82. This is one of them; though definitely not the most depressing (and at least also entertaining).
 |
| Everyone loves Lucy (and her unicorn) |
- A 10-day vacation with Arne's family, including Inle, Bagan, a lot of food, hiking, biking (including in sun, mud, and rain) - good company, fun times.
 |
| Inle Lake on a gorgeous sunny day |
Once we came back from our family vacation, I had a week full of meetings: on Monday and Tuesday I was offered 3 jobs, on Wednesday another promising opportunity was discussed, and I decided to cancel the least appealing, last, meeting to discuss employment opportunities because it was just too much already.
A few stressful days followed in which I was trying to decide what the best job would be for me, and I'm happy to say that on Tuesday my unemployment days are about to be over. My new job is a little complex to explain (especially before having started), but I'm going to start up the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) office for the local chamber of commerce. My employer is actually a local NGO - a group of businessmen who have been working for 10 years implementing helpful projects using their business knowledge and contacts; they will manage the CSR office. My boss seems like a really cool guy (not to mention extremely successful and well-connected).
Finally, I'm happy to announce that this week I have completed level A1.1 of my German studies, which places me exactly half way to being able to "understand and use familiar, everyday expressions and very simple sentences, which relate to the satisfying of concrete needs". Impressive, I know.
Allrighty then!!! 6 more months!
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