Monday, January 12, 2009

from trickle to torrent

I'm busy these days, though not the way I used to be. When I first got back to northern Virginia, what most occupied my time was all the heavy and light lifting involved in the parents' renovation project-- furniture, boxes, construction materials, you name it. These days, I'm working two jobs for two different Korean firms, proofing and editing magazine articles and other documents. The work started out as a mere trickle-- a one-pager here, a three-pager there. But lately, I've been receiving as many as three assignments a day, and one of my employers recently handed me a 17-page assignment. It's too bad my Korean isn't good enough to do translation work: as my buddy Charles tells me, the pay is crazy.

So I don't lack for things to do, but I do hold weird hours, often going to sleep around 5AM and waking up around lunch. I get six or seven hours' sleep like other normal folks, but I'm out of phase with most of the daylight-loving world. The current shift to vampirehood isn't a new thing for me; while working at Sookmyung Women's University, I tended to slack off during our vacations, often staying up until dawn and waking up only at lunch. It's a habit I picked up as an undergrad, and I've never really broken free of it. While teaching at Sookmyung, I had to wake up at 6 or 6:30AM to be in time for my first class of the day, at 7:40AM. You have no idea how painful that was.

Once I start the walk again, I'll be resuming a more normal schedule and will reduce my workload to part-time for both jobs, earning enough money to take care of my never-ending monthly bills (the scholastic debt about which I've moaned on many occasions), with a little left over for other expenses. In the meantime, though, just call me Vlad. But don't call me before noon.


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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well Vlad, it warms the cockles of my heart that the translation center is finally putting out.

One question, though: have you discussed your future timetable with them? When I first contacted them, I told them you would be available over the winter, but your recent posts indicate that you plan to continue working on the Walk (right?). I wouldn't want a good thing to come to a premature end.

Kevin Kim said...

C,

They're aware that I'll be restarting my walk in March, and know that I'll be reducing my schedule to part-time, but that I plan to be committed to working with them for at least a year. That works fine for me, as the next 3000 miles might just take me a year to complete (though I'm hoping to be done earlier than that).

Anyway, the boss and I had a pleasant exchange (over several emails) about the matter; his bottom line was that he wanted the long-term commitment, to which I was inwardly saying, "Hell, yes, I want guaranteed work!" So it seems to be a win-win situation, now that the documents are rolling my way in earnest.


Kevin

Anonymous said...

Very glad to hear that. I was worried when things didn't seem to be getting off to a stellar start, but now it makes a bit more sense (with the long-term commitment and all).