Over the summer, Shannon and I were faced with a tough decision (among all of the other stuff we had going on this summer. Our decision was whether to stay in Ecuador or to explore other options in another country. It's a little strange to think about, because in the U.S. you aren't required to decide whether to stay in your school or move to the next school until April or May of the school year. In international teaching, due to the demand for early information, and scheduling for job fairs, you are required to give your answer in the fall of the year before.
It was an incredibly tough decision. Our school had given us incredible opportunities over the course of two years. We have build curriculum, explored new work, and been valued as contributing members to quite a few meaningful changes at our school. Not to mention the country which has been our home for two years. We've explored the beaches, mountains, the jungle, and everything in between. Ecuador has become our home and a place that will be forever dear to us. Ecuador was the first place I ever traveled to out of the country. It's the place where I proposed to Shannon. This summer it was the place we were joined by our family and were married. However, after a lot of deliberation, we came to the conclusion that we're ready for the next adventure.
We made an appointment with our Head of School and had a really nice meeting with her. We expressed our appreciation for the opportunities she, and the school offered us over the previous two years and she expressed her appreciation and admiration for some of the work we did at our school. During our last job finding process, we ended up with a broken car in 1 degree weather in the middle of Iowa. We interviewed with countless schools in 30 seconds or less, and if we were successful, we were granted the esteemed honor of awkwardly interviewing for a half hour in their hotel room. We hope the process is a bit different for us than it was the first time. However despite the head start, our result is the same. We're stuck in a weird and exciting limbo where we have no idea what country we will be living in next.
The process this time around is to sign up for one of the many online international school job headhunter services. If we are a fit with a school that has matching needs and interests us, we'll reach out to them and hopefully be granted a Skype interview. This time, unlike the first, I promise to wear pants with my shirt and tie during the interview.
No matter what, our next few weeks to months are going to be tremendously exciting. We might end up back in North America. We might go to Europe, or the Middle East, or Southeast Asia. We're open to anything that seems to be a solid fit for us professionally and personally. In the meantime, we'll keep looking. We'll keep reaching out to friends who have gone back out into the international school world and we'll be excited and patient as we search for whatever comes next for us.
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