Whenever I visit home and people find out that I live and teach in Colombia the first question is "Aren't you scared?"
My reply is always, "I'll go to Colombia before I'll go to Mexico." Being that I live in south Texas very near to Mexico there is usually an understanding, yet some people still don't get it. My guess is that they don't watch the news.
Colombia has a bad rap, whereas, Mexico our neighborhood in which weekend trips to the border are as common as trips to Grandma's house. In my three years since I left Texas it seems to have been a downward spiral and nothing so clearly states that to me as this video.
This teacher's ability to remain calm despite the horrifying actions happening outside her window borders on superhuman. As a teacher I simply cannot imagine it. This is bravery.
Anyhow Winter Break was generally uneventful in the larger scale of things.
I came back to Manizales, worked for a couple of weeks and took off again to Boston for the Search Associates Cambridge Fair, conveniently scheduled during a blizzard.
My co-worker Lexi and I had to stay over in Houston one night due to weather. Hotel bars are strange. A very drunk older woman did the following things:
told me she had Hep C and was HIV positive
said that Hep C treatment is the worst thing in the world to go through, and she should know because she's a recovered drug addict
stuck her finger in my cleavage
bemoaned that Lexi and I were not a couple because we'd be "hot"
purred "Meow, meow, meow; that says it all." to which I replied, "That might say too much."
did a drive-by triple ass smacking while I was waiting for the elevator
Yeah, she was fun.
But the next day we met deputies who let us see their gun and allowed me to try on leg irons and handcuffs. That was more fun. There are pictures, but this is the internet and all...
Anyhow we made it to Boston. Boston where I, along with Lexi and my new roomie Elizabeth, braved snow banks and ice in order to hike to Trader Joe's. We got lost, walked a mile out of our way when we passed a young man and asked him where to go. He works at TJ apparently so we just followed him to work like little lemmings.
This picture is from the first night after registration. I had already had a one and a half hour pre-interview with a school. If you haven't been to an international teaching recruitment fair, this is a very good sign.
The next day though it really BEGAN.
I was lucky, extremely lucky. Every school I was interested in had put a slip in my file asking me to sign up for an interview.
Here's a little run-down of the fair process.
Day One: First you register and run into the candidate lounge to look in a hanging file with your name on it. This is were potential schools will ask you to interview and later will reject you with a kind little note.
Then we go to orientation where sit and listen to advice and you scope out your competition.
Day Two: You wake up way too early because wondering if your box has new requests in it makes sleep pretty much unobtainable.
At 7 am you start to browse through the listings at the sign-up. The sign-up works like this: the schools have tables places around the edges of a large ballroom with listings of openings on good old newsprint. You wait in line to convince them in one minute or less that they should interview you. While waiting in line you hope to God the director, principal etc. does not turn around and mark out the position with the big black sharpie marker of death.
Once in front of the table you flash a teethy grin and tell them why you are so awesome and they should totally want to get to know you. It's like really intensive speed dating.
This is why I was lucky. I just walked up and they knew I was coming and let me sign up with only a "How are you?" "Nice to meet you." precursor. This is where the easiness ends. Although I did go into a couple of lines to ask for interviews for some of the schools that I didn't know much about. One rejection and one "let me keep your resume and we'll get back to you" which I ended up with an interview for on the very next day.
I did end up with a surprise request for an interview from the International School in Kathmandu. Now I must say this was pretty exciting as it's an awesome school that lots of people would give their hind teeth to work at. But I don't think I'm that exotic or adventuring. I was flattered that they were interested and relieved when I got rejected.
At the sign-up I went back to the school I had pre-interviewed with. They had two seriously long lines and it gave me a bit of a heart-jump of panic. The principal asked me to sign-up for a follow-up interview and I was relieved.
My first two interviews were with two schools in Switzerland that I was really stoked about. The first only lasted 15 minutes, not good. The second went well, as later I got a call from the principal asking for a second interview the next day that needed an hour. Score! My third interview was with the school I had met with previously. I got an offer. I got an offer on the second hour or scheduled interviews. Yikes.
This is great and exciting, but you only have 24 hours to give a "yes" or "no". Not bad except I had just started interviewing and had no idea what else was out there. It took a lot of strength not to just jump up and yell "Yes!" and spend the rest of the weekend swimming in the heated pool and eating pastries from Starbucks.
Day Three: So my hour long interview was one hour before my deadline. The school's presentation ran into my deadline hour. I spend some serious time investigating the schools, panicking and after a few nervous tears I said "Yes" to the initial offer.
Within the hour I was signing over my life for the next two years. I was lucky to have meet some incredibly amazing women at the fair. It just so happens that one of them also accepted a job at the same school and we signed our contracts together in relentless giddiness.
So I will be leaving Colombia in June and beginning my a new life in August in Bucharest, Romania.
Someday I will end up in Paris, but for now it's all about "Little Paris"
If you have anger management problems and desire anything that resembles a personal life teaching overseas is probably not for you. Unfortunately I have both. But I love teaching. So it goes.
My daily scenario is as follows.
Wake up at 5 am, exercise/walk dog, shower, breakfast and then gather things I bought for class. This reminds me of my little sister who diligently saved her allowance and wrote on all gift tags as a kid "I bought this with my own money." This is what I feel like doing for everything in my classroom. Especially my red Swingline stapler.
Wait for the bus at 7 am with all other gringo teachers from my hood.
Get to work about 20 minutes later.
Spend the rest of the day with teenagers that are able to do calculus at a level in which boggles my mind but are completely incapable of getting in a line or listening to directions the first time they are said. Or the 15th time they are said.
Spend vast majority of that time trying not to spontaneously turn into John McEnroe.
Eat lunch surrounded by tiny slender Colombian women who had enough food on their plates to feed a 6 foot lumberjack. Sit bewildered about what they find so funny everyday that I never make it through lunch without hearing howls of laughter.
Then finish day, and on the bus again at around 4:30. Get home at 5:00.
5:00 - 9:00pm Grade, study, go buy things for class. If it's a good day get 15 minutes to write on my blog. In bed by 9pm.
If by any odd chance I do get to hang out with friends, they also teach at the school. The school is your life. You life is the school's. So if you think teaching abroad will let you work and travel. I scoff. Scoff in your face.
While this is probably different in larger towns or ones that are more international, here our social circle is very small. Language is a barrier and it helps to learn, but even then it seems most people still hang out with others from work. Therefore my social circle shrunk 10 fold and for the most part the only thing we have in common is work. Work seems to dominate the conversation. booooo.
Tonight...I'm sewing a nurse's dress for the senior play to fit a 6 foot student so he can play Dr. Phyllis in our adaptation of Geek Love.
But then again.....my school is so cool they actually bought me a class set of Geek Love. It's things like this that make it all worthwhile.
