A Major Milestone for Chris and for Us!

I am posting this article a little later than usual because I just got back from five days in London with Chris.  You see Chris spent probably the last 10 months researching how he could move to either Barcelona or to Europe so that we could be closer together.  He has been persistent, thorough and relentless in his determination to come here.  We had many, many conversations about possible options on how this could happen.  But it seemed that the most assured way for Chris to come here was by him building upon his strong public school teaching experience and pursuing an international teaching career.  In these conversations we both agreed that it would be ideal for him to find a teaching position in Barcelona.  But if that were not possible in the beginning, that he would also look for positions in other parts of Europe, putting him much closer to Barcelona than where he currently works in Alexandria, VA.

We were a little idealistic in the beginning.  We thought that Chris' experience would make it easy for

him to land a job in Barcelona by next September.  In fact last summer Chris had a couple of informational interviews with two prestigious international schools here.  Also, Chris signed up with a job search firm specializing in helping teachers find international teaching positions.  He got good advice from them that he followed as closely as possible.  But understanding the complex world of searching for international teaching positions and the challenges that it presents did not come to the fore until Chris actually tasted the hotly competitive environment at the job fair.

After the first day, Chris realized that the most coveted places for teachers to work were in cities like Barcelona.  These schools know that and look for teachers who not only have previous international teaching experience, but who also have been trained and have taught in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program that many international schools follow.  Although Chris had the training, he did not have the experience.  As the conference progressed, he saw that he needed to expand the cities that he would entertain living in.  He had about 5-6 interviews and some really good ones including Casablanca, Frankfurt, Kiev, and a small town in Denmark.  However, the lack of international teaching experience and experience in IB allowed other teachers there to be offered most of those positions.

The best interview Chris had was with the British International School in Kiev.  They were very

impressed with Chris' teaching background and after a second interview they offered Chris a position in their downtown campus with 1st or 2nd grade class.  It's an excellent school on a beautiful campus in a beautiful city.  They are building their IB program and Chris would be able to gain that valuable experience with them.  Chris asked a lot of questions including questions about security, given the yet unresolved issues that this country has with Russia. But Kiev is hundreds of kilometers away from the eastern border where there is unrest and Chris felt comfortable in accepting the position with this school.

I will be spending some time in August with Chris in Kiev as he gets settled.  Our plan is

to see each other once or twice a month, either meeting in Kiev, Barcelona or in one of the many cities in eastern and western Europe that are between our two cities.  It will be quite an exciting year of being together more often and of exploring the European continent!!

This decision also deepens the commitment that Chris and I have for each other in our relationship.  We are very much in love and want to ensure that we can cultivate our love and our relationship by being able to see each other more frequently.  This is truly a huge step for Chris and for us.

I Did Better Than I Thought

I got my results from my Spanish test.  In spite of my many doubts, I passed with flying colors.  I didn't realize this until afterwards, but not all parts of the exam counted for passing the test.  There are 5 parts: Writing, Grammer, Speaking, Reading Comprehension and Listening Comprehension.  I was especially concerned about the listening comprehension part of the test. I didn't need to take the speaking test because I did well on a mid-term presentation in class.  The only parts that counted for the final grade were the first three.  My writing composition earned me 100% and my grammer 80%.  So I passed with much to spare (passing is 65%).  I also found out that I got 100% on reading comprehension.  But where I did really poorly was in listening comprehension - 52%!!  Oh well, I know what I need to work on for level 5!  I start up again on February 9.