Over the Big Blue Sea
Well, it’s been mostly the same thing day after day. Work, eat, sleep, maybe some hanging out and working on costumes (although not as much as I should since a con is around the corner) among some other little fun stuff. Hence why I haven’t updated since forever ago, but this past weekend something changed.
I will back up and kinda start at the beginning of this little adventure, as most of you already know what I am writing about. One day at work, I overheard some people talk about this job fair that helps teachers look/get placed in overseas jobs. I was kinda interested and at the parents the following weekend, mentioned it to my parents. My Dad looked it up and found me the university hosting it and found that registration had been extended and ended the Wednesday. I had him email me the info and got on to get all the required info and money they needed before the deadline, which I barely squeaked in. I get mailed the fact book, which includes oh so many schools, and it listed salary ranges, benefits, if they provided housing and if it was furnished or if they only provided allowances, and all hat fun info. So I have fun looking through and picking out some places that looked fun to teach at and that included good benefits and a comparable salary. I only really looked at it once - and mainly skimmed it. I looked at it with Dad again and we had fun going through it.
My brother, which gladly tagged along with me for company, and I left after parent teacher conferences on Thursday which was after 7, and drove all the way to Waterloo in Iowa. We got there around 1 o’clock in the morning. Gah, so tired, and was gonna have to get up at 6:30ish to get around and go to registration and orientation. But I managed it. I get to the conference center and find my packet and found my mailbox. I look in my mailbox and see all these yellow pieces of paper, basically wanting me to stop by their booth to set up an interview. I was taken back by the amount of schools wanting to interview me, I really was. We were told about the yellow slips at orientation, basically saying if you weren’t interested in the school, to put it on the slip and put it on their table so they wouldn’t be holding an interview spot open for you, so they could interview someone else. Over lunch break, I went over with them with my brother and narrowed the ones that I wanted to interview with and those I wasn’t interested in. At Round Robin - which is what they called it - I put the not interested slips on he table first, signed up with the schools I was interested in that gave me a yellow slip and then went around and looked to see if there were any other schools that caught my interest, which there were. Boy that was something, navigating through a massive crowd also trying to get to the schools they were eyeing before all the interview slots got taken. My interviews didn’t start until later that day, so I was out of that mess of hysteria and went back to the hotel room to catch some z’s before my first interview. I had a total of like five interviews; China, Qatar, Taiwan, Mexico, Congo (hey, I was weirdly interested), Athens, Greece was really interested in me, but didn’t get beyond the first communication.
China was first. This was one were I dropped my resume off without a yellow slip. The interview was with two American girls, and I also interviewed with the founder over Skype. The interview was great, I was able to relax with them and chat freely with them, and learned about their school and community, which sounded awesome. My next interview (later in the day) with Qatar didn’t happen. I went to the scheduled meeting, and waited. Found another girl that was waiting with me - apparently they were interviewing two at a time. 10 minutes pass…15…20…25…and I then told her that I was thinking of walking away. She agreed and we both did. I’m sorry, if that is how you handle interviews, without even letting us know that you are going to run late, then there’s a good chance that’s how the school is run and I don’t like that.
While I was waiting for the Qatar interview, the girls from China found me and stopped and chatted with me about how my interviews were going and all that. We chatted for awhile and before they left, they basically told me to be prepared for a contract offer from them. I was excited.
Next morning was Mexico, which went pretty good. She like me, the only thing that was holding me back was that I didn’t teach with technology. No smart boards, power points, more computer usage, which was fine. I then got a call from Stars and Stripes, the China school, letting me know that they liked me and thought I would be a good fit and that they had a contract waiting for me to go over and sign. I was ecstatic. I called them back, and basically asked when we could go over the contract. I then met with them and signed. I met with Congo later, just to satisfy my curiosity, which it did. Taiwan wanted me to reschedule, but I politely declined.
I called my parents, whom were shocked, but eventually came around. See, I originally went to take a look at everything, and see what schools were there that I could go to and such, not really expecting to sign a contract. I told my parents if the right agreement came up, that I would take it, and it did. Basically, I am going to get paid about $200 less that I am at my current teaching job, but I am being provided furnished housing. The apartment will be a three bedroom, two bath - which is totally furnished from the bed to towels to chopsticks. About $30 a month will be taken out for utilities - including internet - and I can get a part of my pay in US dollars and the rest will be sent to a Chinese account that will be set up for me with my own personal ATM card. Transportation will be provided.
I am really excited. Now, I need to attend to maters over here first. Figure out what I need/want to pack up, pack up my other things that won’t be needed. Figure out if I need any shots before I go over, what kind of plugs/electricity is over there, etc. I found out there is a 13 hr different between here and there, that part of the websites I use are banned there, and some are iffy, while others go from being blocked to being unblocked, etc. Fun stuff. I also need to start a new address book.
I will back up and kinda start at the beginning of this little adventure, as most of you already know what I am writing about. One day at work, I overheard some people talk about this job fair that helps teachers look/get placed in overseas jobs. I was kinda interested and at the parents the following weekend, mentioned it to my parents. My Dad looked it up and found me the university hosting it and found that registration had been extended and ended the Wednesday. I had him email me the info and got on to get all the required info and money they needed before the deadline, which I barely squeaked in. I get mailed the fact book, which includes oh so many schools, and it listed salary ranges, benefits, if they provided housing and if it was furnished or if they only provided allowances, and all hat fun info. So I have fun looking through and picking out some places that looked fun to teach at and that included good benefits and a comparable salary. I only really looked at it once - and mainly skimmed it. I looked at it with Dad again and we had fun going through it.
My brother, which gladly tagged along with me for company, and I left after parent teacher conferences on Thursday which was after 7, and drove all the way to Waterloo in Iowa. We got there around 1 o’clock in the morning. Gah, so tired, and was gonna have to get up at 6:30ish to get around and go to registration and orientation. But I managed it. I get to the conference center and find my packet and found my mailbox. I look in my mailbox and see all these yellow pieces of paper, basically wanting me to stop by their booth to set up an interview. I was taken back by the amount of schools wanting to interview me, I really was. We were told about the yellow slips at orientation, basically saying if you weren’t interested in the school, to put it on the slip and put it on their table so they wouldn’t be holding an interview spot open for you, so they could interview someone else. Over lunch break, I went over with them with my brother and narrowed the ones that I wanted to interview with and those I wasn’t interested in. At Round Robin - which is what they called it - I put the not interested slips on he table first, signed up with the schools I was interested in that gave me a yellow slip and then went around and looked to see if there were any other schools that caught my interest, which there were. Boy that was something, navigating through a massive crowd also trying to get to the schools they were eyeing before all the interview slots got taken. My interviews didn’t start until later that day, so I was out of that mess of hysteria and went back to the hotel room to catch some z’s before my first interview. I had a total of like five interviews; China, Qatar, Taiwan, Mexico, Congo (hey, I was weirdly interested), Athens, Greece was really interested in me, but didn’t get beyond the first communication.
China was first. This was one were I dropped my resume off without a yellow slip. The interview was with two American girls, and I also interviewed with the founder over Skype. The interview was great, I was able to relax with them and chat freely with them, and learned about their school and community, which sounded awesome. My next interview (later in the day) with Qatar didn’t happen. I went to the scheduled meeting, and waited. Found another girl that was waiting with me - apparently they were interviewing two at a time. 10 minutes pass…15…20…25…and I then told her that I was thinking of walking away. She agreed and we both did. I’m sorry, if that is how you handle interviews, without even letting us know that you are going to run late, then there’s a good chance that’s how the school is run and I don’t like that.
While I was waiting for the Qatar interview, the girls from China found me and stopped and chatted with me about how my interviews were going and all that. We chatted for awhile and before they left, they basically told me to be prepared for a contract offer from them. I was excited.
Next morning was Mexico, which went pretty good. She like me, the only thing that was holding me back was that I didn’t teach with technology. No smart boards, power points, more computer usage, which was fine. I then got a call from Stars and Stripes, the China school, letting me know that they liked me and thought I would be a good fit and that they had a contract waiting for me to go over and sign. I was ecstatic. I called them back, and basically asked when we could go over the contract. I then met with them and signed. I met with Congo later, just to satisfy my curiosity, which it did. Taiwan wanted me to reschedule, but I politely declined.
I called my parents, whom were shocked, but eventually came around. See, I originally went to take a look at everything, and see what schools were there that I could go to and such, not really expecting to sign a contract. I told my parents if the right agreement came up, that I would take it, and it did. Basically, I am going to get paid about $200 less that I am at my current teaching job, but I am being provided furnished housing. The apartment will be a three bedroom, two bath - which is totally furnished from the bed to towels to chopsticks. About $30 a month will be taken out for utilities - including internet - and I can get a part of my pay in US dollars and the rest will be sent to a Chinese account that will be set up for me with my own personal ATM card. Transportation will be provided.
I am really excited. Now, I need to attend to maters over here first. Figure out what I need/want to pack up, pack up my other things that won’t be needed. Figure out if I need any shots before I go over, what kind of plugs/electricity is over there, etc. I found out there is a 13 hr different between here and there, that part of the websites I use are banned there, and some are iffy, while others go from being blocked to being unblocked, etc. Fun stuff. I also need to start a new address book.