Only happens for a few days each year, but it's snowing! or perhaps i should say it snowed. started with super light flurries on tuesday afternoon, became a veritable snowstorm (for these parts, at least) at night. this made the smaller school in the mountains push their start time back by 2 hours yesterday, and by one hour today. they told me that i could stay in the town hall yesterday, so i ended up taking leave under the impression that english class was cancelled...but it wasn't. feeling mildly guilty about it, but those were the instructions from the higher-ups, so i don't feel too bad. it's supposed to get warmer over the weekend and early next week. that's something to look forward to.

speaking of taking leave, i've somehow managed to squeeze my 30+ days of leave into the remaining time here. 30+ leave days out of about 65 remaining workdays means i'm only working about 1 in 2 days on average. doesn't feel like it now, but i guess it's because my leave is concentrated in the march-april region. i might end up with a day of leave unutilized, but i figure it's not big deal even if i don't use it. after all, they were kind enough not to pro-rate my leave, so i'm actually getting paid extra, in a sense.

job applications are at the waiting phase now. i noticed slightly more positive vibes after confirming my visa status and right to work. a firm which had previously rejected me outright now replied to say that they were considering my application. the current count is 2 live applications in the UK with one more to send out in march/april, and 3 more live ones in singapore. not too optimistic about the singapore ones though, because it's been zero contact since i applied. by some stroke of luck, all 3 prospective employers in the UK have sponsor licenses. that's something i don't have to consider if given a choice between 2 or more of them. but let's not get too optimistic yet. i'll probably hear back from them in february, although one firm did extend their application deadline, possibly because there weren't enough candidates? part of me feels like screaming "stop looking for people and just give me the job already!" i guess they're trying to improve their odds by widening the candidate pool. reminder to self: i'm still not guaranteed a job. even now, all 3 applications could fall through. just going to sit tight and see what happens.

-random thought of the day: On leave tomorrow!-