Jamie and I had a whirlwind of a week at the International Schools Services Job Fair in Bangkok, Thailand last week. We arrived from Vientiane, Laos, on Monday and decided to see a movie at our favorite theater in Bangkok, the Paragon at Siam Square. This theater is incredible, inexpensive, and we decided to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. Pretty good!
On Tuesday, the fair began, but it was only check in, so we had another day of relaxing and hanging out. We did some research on some schools, and made sure we were well rested before our big day of interviews on Wednesday.
Wednesday - one of the craziest days of our lives. We woke up early to go in and do additional research on some schools. At 8:00, the doors opened to the banquet hall and we were allowed to go in and sign up for interviews. Before our eyes, our jobs at some of our favorite schools vanished on the posters behind the schools' tables. We went in with 15 schools who had jobs for us and would be decent moves, but only were able to sign up for 7 interviews, still pretty good. The schools were in China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. We interviewed with all 7 on Wednesday beginning at 11:15 and ending at 8:15 that evening. Crazy day. We felt overall pretty good about the interviews, but you never know.
Thursday - We received a couple of call backs for 2nd interviews and a few "rejection" letters (as we called them). We determined that it is a puzzle for these schools to find the right fit. While Jamie and I look good on paper, we do not know anyone outside QSI at any school, do not have IB training, and might have not fit what they were looking for. No biggie, but it was a emotional roller coaster experience waiting on the schools to get back to us.
At the end of Thursday, we received an offer from a school with great salary, benefits, and available teaching positions with which we felt comfortable. We told them we'd sleep on it and the next morning, we woke up and signed the offer.
Jamie and I will be working for the International Schools Group in Dhahran, SAUDI ARABIA for the 2010 - 2012 school years on a 2 year contract. I will be teaching middle school math and science, and Jamie will be teaching high school social studies. We are feel good about the move, believe it will be in our best interest, and are excited about the opportunity for travel to Europe, more of Asia, and Africa. We figure our first few trips will be to Italy, Cairo, Egypt (pyramids), and Istanbul, Turkey.
Griffey can go with us, but it is a bit trickier. We'll have to take him back to the U.S., get his papers signed again, and then bring him over. Whether all of this can be done over the summer is still up in the air. We'll see more about him later. Dogs in Saudi Arabia or a westerner only thing as Muslims see them as unclean.
We will be living on a compound in the city of Dhahran, which is very near the Persian Gulf, the island nation of Bahrain, and Qatar. We will have to get a vehicle of some sort, and Jamie won't be allowed to drive. She does have to wear an abaya (a long dress like thing you see Arabs wearing) but she does NOT have to cover her head.
We'll of course be blogging about our move in August as well as any preparation. For now, we need to finish our year here in China where we will also be traveling to Vietnam. We have one more trip in April, and since it may be our last in China, we might say in China for touring (perhaps the Yangtze River cruise and Shanghai.
Email me with questions...
1 comment:
So excited, we're currently in Germany and hoping to move next school year (not this one coming). Hubby is the teacher and will be doing a fair and it's cool to hear what they are like!
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