I like your attempts - but sorry Fuzzy, not all of us are in...uneven relationships, so to speak.
And I'm flabergasted at your attempts of diversion.
Are you completely out of your mind? I just described, in detail, exactly how uneven your relationship is. And now, because I bought my wife a plane ticket to see my friends and family for the first time over Christmas, you want to accuse me of being in an "uneven relationship"? Put the pipe down, pappy, you bought some bad crack this week.
Oh, and if what I wrote was untrue......deny it.
No DoS job in sight, no hope of ever gaining managerial responsibility....
I took home more money than my DoS. Why would I want that job?
Managerial responsibility? What....put together work schedules for a bunch of nutty ESL teachers and not get compensated nearly enough for the frustration? Sounds like a dream come true. Sorry man, but where I was, I made plenty of cash, called my own shots, had Saturday hours if I wanted them, and being a freelancer, I could walk at any moment. I was a free man at the schools I worked at and they were all very eager to give me as many hours as I wanted.
Beyond that, my wife and I were already planning our exit after about the 2 1/2 year mark for me in Poland and we left after 4 years there so no, I didn't persue anything further than "ESL Teacher". I was more than happy to just sit on cruise control where I was and enjoy the work schedule and classes I put together for myself for the remaining time I had left in Poland.
I had some great contracts during that time, too. I remember during my last year there, I traveled several times to this little town near the Czech border to teach this 1 week intensive course with business execs in this cute little....well, hotel I guess you could call it (gospodarstwo agroturystyczne ) and we had 3 square meals a day, beautiful countryside to walk around during breaks, a bar to sit at at night, I went on morning runs almost every day before classes (the villagers used to look at me like I was insane, I guess it was my running gear.....ha, one lady yelled to me as I passed, "who are you running from?!"......good times....) and the food we had at this place was just fantastic. Was a great deal, I ate good, had great students, lots of fresh air, and I was compensated well for it.
But hey, everyone judges success in different ways.