once upon a time...

a dream reawakened....
the call of adventure and challenge and change could no longer be ignored...
The quest began...
A few months ago...
I signed up for online services that told me how to navigate the path of employment that would take me across the seas.
After a summer of "talking big", I put a map up on the wall and stuck tacks in all the countries that had schools who came to interviews at major international recruiting conferences in the US last year. During the week that followed the ceremonial map posting, I poured over atlases, state department reports, yahoo travel blogs, and lonely planet descriptions to narrow my initial options down to 10 Latin American countries (although I am open to teaching almost anywhere, I am focusing on Latin America initially). Every day during this process I updated my two single, teacher friends on my quest-Kenni and Amanda-in the hopes of enticing them to join me for some part of the journey. I'd send them pictures of beautiful beaches with captions like "don't you want to be here with me next year instead of just wishing you were with me?" Or I'd send emails like..."consider the possibilities...beaches, mountains, free Spanish lessons, exotic places, and friends to share it with....all on a teacher's salary!" I was quite evil in my tactics, FOR SURE! I held nothing back.
The next weekend I made lists of schools in each of those countries-salary, benefits, expectations, student-teacher ratios, and any other pertinent information that would help me get a "feel" for the schools....and I narrowed my search to 10 schools.
Then I researched the cities each of those schools were in-cost of living, safety, things to do, proximity to mountains/beaches/other recreation outlets, ...all that information gathering meant a virtual trip back to yahoo travel and lonely planet for pictures and first hand reports. I narrowed my list to 5 schools in 5 countries/cities-good schools, safe countries, interesting cities....this adventure sounded better each day.
My excitement pushed me forward-I was consumed with thoughts of the "possibilities". So, I gathered my resume and other documents and wrote cover letters to my top five schools. With a deep breath at the realization of all this might entail....traveling away from friends and the familiar, leaving my kids behind in college, navigating a foreign country in a foreign language all by myself....I emailed the letter and resume to those five schools this past Sunday night!
One of my top five schools has already asked for an interview and another(from the Middle East) who saw my resume posted on an online clearing house for teaching internationally, called today and offered me a job-starting in 4 weeks!! It's all very encouraging...
I am on my way....where the road into the sunset leads is just not clear....yet!
I invite you to share my journey....virtually (and please visit me no matter where this adventure takes me!)