new and improved.

i'm kind of a sucker about raising my rates.

i do private tutoring, and to be honest, my students can afford to pay way more than i charge. when they show up in chauffered bmws for class, you might just assume they have more than most dominicans.

and even though i found out the rates of private tutors in santo domingo (some charge $40 US dollars an hour!) and compared it to here, i still had a really hard time asking for that raise. don't get me wrong, i'm not getting ripped off. i get paid well, but.

remember the teacher strike i wrote about here? the reasons causing the strike are affecting more than just public school teachers. my transportation costs jumped $40 pesos a day last month which sounds minimal in dollars (about $1.15), but when you consider that we pay about 1/4 of the US price of rent for a big, three-bedroom apartment in a nice area and our electric bill in never more than twenty bucks... a dollar a day is a stretch on the wallet. and speaking of electric, it's doubled in the past 6 months - and not because we use more. the rates (like everywhere, i think) doubled. and gasoline? forget about that, almost $6 US dollars a gallon.

so when the price of gas went up again, and another transportation hike is looking likely, i raised my rates - and reduced my hours! i eliminated a whole student (who cost me the most in transportation... and in headaches) and now i get home earlier!

it's so nice to get home before 8o'clock at night. and to still get the money i deserve. and not have the headaches some tutoring causes. (and to clarify, i really loved my student... it was her mama that drove me crazy). so, my new and improved schedule. unfortunately, it still doesn't leave much to the internet, since we still are dis-connected here at home (and i'm kind of liking that).

check back to see what i'm doing with all my new free time.