On The Road Again

Losing Momentum?

 December 16

 I have applied for a few more jobs. The director of the school in Malawi has sent me another nice email, just 'checking in.' The job there is tentative until January. A Christian school in Korea has contacted me. I let them down gently, explaining that as a confused/atheist/Buddhist, I probably wouldn't be a good fit. 

I have bought my ticket to London in January for the big job fair. Exciting/scary. 

I suspect that the next few weeks will be fairly quiet on the job front. Most international schools close down for two or three weeks at this time of year. Schools empty, and airports fill up as faculty scatter, literally, to every corner of the earth. 

December 17

I just heard from Morocco. I didn't get the job. My first rejection. 

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

The First Interview

Sunday: I finally have an interview scheduled with the Rabat Amerian School. I am irrationally excited about this interview. I have told my friends and family. I feel as if I have won the lottery! I have read and re-read the school's website. I have written down questions to ask the principal. And next I'm going to do a practice run of questions I might be asked. I am still dithering about what earrings I am going to wear. 

Monday: 24 hours before the interview I have come down with a terrible case of laryngitis. 

Tuesday: (I-day) I have NO voice. It is a national holiday, so I am visiting the home of an Uzbek colleague for lunch. I eat silently with her family, and sip hot green tea with lemon. I am getting a headache. I go home, take ibuprofen and close my eyes for an hour. I have a HOT bath and drink hot tea with honey. At about 6PM, I have a low but audible voice. At 7PM the interview starts. I can't see the principal who is interviewing me well, but hopefully she can see me and hear my husky mumble. By the time the interview is over, the strain of talking has given me an incredible headache. I'm also weirdly depressed. Why am I leaving this job that I love? Why am I packing up a houseful of artwork and THREE CATS and moving again? How am I going to  move THREE CATS????

The job sounds exciting (I would be their first full-time Art teacher),  I have heard really good things about the school and the city. I think I would be perfect for the job. They are still selecting their 'shortlist' for second interviews with the director. I have never had any luck at gauging how well or badly an interview has gone, so I have no idea if I will make the shortlist or not. But I'm already debating the merits of a house near the beach (I would have to buy a car, but really, the beach?), or a place in town (near the school and coffee shops). 

On The Road Again

Jumping off the employment cliff

After months of hand-wringing and drawing for/against columns and decision trees, I have decided to leave my current position at Tashkent International School. I sat outside the director’s office this morning, with a letter in each hand. One was a letter of resignation, one was a letter saying I would return next year. I left the letter of resignation on his desk. I love the job, I am financially stable, and growing professionally. But I am a nomad (albeit a nomad with a lot of luggage), and my soul is hungry for a new adventure.

Telling my friends and colleagues here has been sad. My colleague Nigora, with whom I work closely in the Art department, was very upset. My other Uzbek friends are sad. It must be hard for the local staff at international schools, because they make friends and then they move on to different countries. And with a place as difficult to get to as Uz, it is not likely that I will be 'passing through' in the future. This is the nature of the international teacher life; continual hellos and goodbyes. 

So I thought I would share the true nature of the job search for the international teacher. I am registered with ‘Search,’ an organization that connects teachers looking for positions, and schools looking for teachers. The beauty of Search is that you enter your cv, your references, your bio, and your professional philosophy once, and you’re done with that chore. I have noticed this year that schools, even those that advertise on Search, want the references sent AGAIN, through their own application engine.

I am being pretty picky right now about schools I apply to. There are areas of the world where I don’t want to work (anywhere where I am going to be heartbroken or angry most of the time). I want to make as much or more money than I am earning now. I want to go to a small school, so that I can have the same relative autonomy I have now. I definitely will never work at a for-profit school again. I’m a pretty choosy nomad.

I have applied to a few jobs. Many schools don’t even bother to respond with a perfunctory ‘thanks, but no thanks.’ I think that this is very rude. I have had three very positive responses, but no interviews yet.  I was about to have an interview with a school in Angola, but the principal told me I couldn't bring my cats (school-owned housing). That was a deal-breaker. 

With every email that I send, I mentally move myself to that country. Within the months of the job search, I will live on every continent. I applied for a position in Buenos Aires, and started researching Antarctic cruises. I applied to a school in Morocco, (the elementary principal there sent me a positive response), and I have already started looking at houses on the beach, and checking into the price of Rosetta Stone’s Arabic course (not as expensive as you would think). I have checked out the cost of flights to and from Toronto and Buenos Aires, Warsaw, Rabat, and Seoul. This is the fun part of the job search process.

The bad part of the job search process – your self-esteem takes a battering (why doesn’t anyone want me?), and anxiety (will I be living under a bridge with my three cats?)

Job search progress as of December 7:

Emails sent expressing interest in positions: 15

Automated responses from schools: 3

Positive responses from schools: 3

Interviews scheduled: 1 (Morocco!)

The Sisters in Paris

Saturday - Our Last Full Day Together in Paris

Saturday, our last day together. We decided to walk to the two big department stores, Printemps and Galeries Lafayette. The two stores are side by side on Boulevard Hausmann, in gorgeous old Art Deco buildings. When I lived in Paris, their windows were always amazing. 

Before we set out, I consulted the map AGAIN, and plotted our course, with room for meandering. And meander we did, so much that we ended up going in the wrong direction (I didn't let on to Cathy, as she didn't trust my navigational skills quite as much as Dar). When we FINALLY arrived at the stores, we were disappointed that the windows were all covered up! They must have been working on displays-to-come. We worked our way through the levels of one store, admiring clothes we could neither afford nor fit into. I was vaguely looking for a dress for my school Christmas party, but I mostly liked the size 0 dresses that cost thousands of dollars. 

Inside Galeries Lafayette

We had decided to have lunch in the rooftop restaurant of Galeries Lafayette, as suggested by Rick Steves. 

The restaurant had great views, but it was a self-serve canteen, and the only thing that I could have eaten were french fries. So we backtracked and went back to Printemps. 

The gorgeous ceiling of the restaurant in Printemps, where we had a FABULOUS lunch, which included more champagne, and my last creme brulee of the trip.

After lunch, we wandered through the store some more. Finally, I told my sisters that I couldn't bear to look at any more clothes that would never make it into my closet or onto my body. They both heaved sighs of relief. They had both reached that point ages ago. 

The next plan for the day was to take the long-postponed boat cruise. But first we had to make it to the river. We knew which metro stop we were looking for, but we couldn't find the entrance! Finally Cathy asked for directions, and we were off. 

Moments after we boarded the boat, it started to rain. We were grateful that we were on a covered boat, and not wandering through the streets, looking for a dry spot. 

After the boat ride, we walked home, and bought the same dinner supplies we had had our first Saturday in Paris. We spent a lovely evening together, talking about trip, and thinking about our plans for next year. 

Sisters in Paris

Friday - Lunch in the Subway, and a Gourmet Dinner!

Friday we spent more time knocking places off our list. Dar & I slipped out early to buy croissants for breakfast, and then the three of us dropped down into the subway. 

Our first destination today was the Musee d'Orsay.

view from inside the Musee d'Orsay, Sacre Coeur can be seen in the far distance.

The building that houses the museum was originally a train station, the Gare d'Orsay. In 1970 the train station was about to be demolished, but the minister of cultural affairs stepped in and stopped it from happening. It was then decided to turn the beautiful old building into a museum to house Art from the latter half of the 19th and first part of the 20th century. Darlene loves impressionist Art, so she was in her glory wandering through halls of Monet and Renoir. 

We had a very exciting celebrity sighting in the Musee d'Orsay. As we were leaving, Cathy nodded towards a woman and said she looked familiar. It was Helen Mirren! She was conversely politely in French with a small circle of fans. She is even more beautiful in person than on the screen. 

We had brought cheese sandwiches with us, to eat on a bench somewhere. Well, it was pouring rain when we left the Musee d'Orsay. So we opted to take our sandwiches down into the subway and eat them there. We sat on a platform, and munched away. It was actually pretty interesting to sit still at the subway, watching the people come and go. 

After our funny little lunch, we got on another train and headed to the Georges Pompidou Centre for Modern Art. This is one of my favourite museums, partly because of its design (it's inside out), and because it houses the work of one of my favourite artists, Kandinsky. 

After I had had my fill of Art (I think my sisters had patiently been waiting for that moment for a while), we set off to wander through the Marais neighbourhood to dinner in the Bastille district. 

My biggest pet peeve of this trip was the number of narcissistic people who stand in front of incredible works of Art and take pictures of THEMSELVES!

We headed to the Bastille neighbourhood, because we had a reservation at a VEGAN gourmet restaurant. It is called the Gentle Gourmet, and the meal was wonderful. 

Sisters in Paris

Thursday - Mind-blowing Art and Views! and Prices!

At Tiffany's. They didn't invite us for breakfast.

Part of the planning for our trip involved each of us choosing at least one thing that we really really wanted to do. Thursday we made a real effort to check some of those things off our list. 

We started the day with breakfast at the cafe on the ile de la cite where we had our first Parisian meal. Darlene was very pleased with the design on her cafe au lait. 

After breakfast, we headed to Sainte-Chapelle, because that was a major attraction on my list. Even though I have lived in Paris, and visited many times, I had never been into Sainte-Chapelle,  because of the extremely long lines. One of the reasons the lines at Sainte-Chapelle are so long is because it is inside the Palace of Justice complex, which is a working government institution. So visitors all have to go through security, which is time-consuming. 

Sainte-Chapelle was built in 6 short years, between 1242 and 1248, to house the Crown of Thorns worn by Christ.

When you enter the chapel on the ground floor, you see lots of pretty windows and painted columns. 

And then you climb up a set of windy stairs in dim light. When you step out of the stairwell, behold! 6,500 square feet of stained glass; 1,100 different panels! You literally step into glorious coloured light. 

And remember, every one of these panels was made by hand. The glass itself had to be manufactured and coloured by hand, and then cut into the necessary shapes to make the incredible details in the panels.  

There were two school groups in the chapel while we were there. The teachers had given them mirrors to use as drawing aids. Whenever one of the teachers "shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh'd," ALL of the people in the chapel, even the tour guides, lowered their voices!

After reluctantly leaving Sainte-Chapelle, we strolled along the Seine (Cathy bought a painting on the way), and through the Tuileries Gardens. Our destination was the Orangerie, an Art Museum near the Place de la Concorde.

The Orangerie is the home of Monet's incredible 'Water Lilies,' painted over six  years at Monet's home in Giverny. The paintings were Monet's gift to the French people, a gesture and a prayer for hope and rest and peace. There are eight huge panels displayed in two oval rooms. Visitors stand or sit in the middle of the panels, immersed in a way in Monet's vision of the beautiful lily pond. He painted different parts of the pond at different parts of the day. The paintings are about more than flowers, they are about light, and water, and change. They are about Monet's strange and beautiful way of looking at the world. 

The next item on our wish list was a walk up the Champs Elysees. One of the highlights of the stroll was a stop at Tiffany's, where I was gobsmacked by the outrageous amounts of money that some people can spend on jewellery. 30,000 euros for a watch!!! A million dollars for a ring!!!! I can be a bit foolhardy with my money (artwork, books, artwork, books, artwork, books), but I can't even wrap my head around having that amount of money, and then SPENDING that amount of money on a watch!!!! 

fashion victim?

Our goal for the day had been to arrive at the Arc de Triomphe before sunset, so that we could see the change over the city with nightfall. We did it. We climbed 284 steps. We did it. 

And it was worth it.