Visiting Jordan

Tripping to Jordan

We had a fall break during the last two weeks of Ramadan, so when we were out of school, we decided to visit Jordan. I had Delta Miles so we were able to get a trip to Amman, Jordan by way of Dubai UAE. We flew in about 4:00PM and rented a car and drove to Petra where we stayed for a couple of nights. This was a very impressive place, one of those where the pictures can’t do it justice. It is a place we want to visit again. I was able to get my exercise for the month, part of this site is the “monastery” which is on top of a mountain (a high mountain), 800 steps, mostly straight up. The young man at the restaurant at the bottom offered us a donkey ride to the top. His advice was to ride up and walk down. We walked both ways but I learned my lesson, listen to people that know what they are doing. We rode the donkeys back out to the entrance. The Marriott Petra was a great hotel for us; they had good service, nice people and a clean place to stay.

From here we drove up the King’s Highway, which was built along the old trade routes. This would make the road to Fontana seem straight. This was gorgeous county to drive though on our way to the Dead Sea where we spent another two nights. The Dead Sea was fine but it was only a big body of water with a lot of salt, and a bunch of flies. The first night of our stay was under tight security because the King and Bill Gates were at the Convention Center next door to the Dead Sea Marriott. While staying here, we went to Mount Nebo, where Moses looked across at Israel. We also visited the old churches in the area to see the mosaics, pretty neat work to put all the small natural stones together.

From here we spent the last couple on nights in Amman from where we visited the best Roman ruins beside Pompeii. It is hard to believe what they built 2,000/3,000 years ago. I reckon without TV they had a lot of time on their hands. The people of Jordan were wonderful to us, we never felt threatened or anything but friendliness. Not very many Americans, mostly Europeans, few Asians, the Middle East problems are hurting tourism so the people were happy to see us. At Petra, because we started early, before the tour buses, we were there with maybe 10 to 15 people. The bombing happened about 10 days after we left, but the Amman hotel we stayed in was not one of the ones attacked.

Our last two nights of the trip were spent in Dubai, a big plastic city. Traffic was bad, lot of expats and the main activity was shopping. In my mind, no reason to visit again, I am not impressed with shiny hotels in big cities with no traditions or culture.

Ramadan in Doha

Sorry for not doing this update sooner, but with my typing skills, anytime at the keyboard takes work. First, let’s talk about Ramadan; this is the month in the Muslim religious year where Muslims fast from sunrise to sundown. In Qatar that is from about 5:30am till 5:19 pm, that means no water, no food, and no nothing. This also means that all the people that use coffee and cigarettes during their day have not had any, they get a little cross. That makes it hard on students, well maybe everybody, trying to work or concentrate during the day. Most business is conducted from 8:00am till Noon/1:00 then everything closes till after Iftar (the evening meal), which is normally huge. We are still waiting on our home ADSL line, during Ramadan is not a real good time to get anything done. Oh, after Ramadan, there is a 7 day holiday to mark the end of Ramadan, so that is another week where the phone company will not get my DSL line installed. By around 8:00pm everybody is out with friends, stores are open, etc. This goes on till early morning hours, which means that a lot of people are at their best the following morning because they have been up till 2:00 am+/-. There is also an early morning meal before the fast starts (4:00am), which means that some people are up at that time. Talk about schedules being screwed up.

It also means that there are no restaurants open during the day, except in hotels, and some of the schools (ours) and you are expected not to eat or drink in public. For someone who likes to get out on the weekend, this causes a few problems. The only place to get breakfast is one of the hotels, which is pricey. The Ramada has a deal, when you get their Breakfast/Brunch, you can use their pool and facilities as part of the package. We have done that with some friends but it is a little steep.

Driving during Ramadan is also a treat, at about 4:30/5:00; everyone is rushing home for the Iftar meal. When they drive in Qatar, everyone is in a rush during a normal day, during this time it is worst because these people have not eaten for 12 hours, their judgment could be questioned. Because of the traffic problems before and after Iftar, we have been careful to try and get out during the time (5:00 to 7:00) when everyone is having their meals and they are not on the roads.

We decided to visit some other parts on the country during the weekend. It is only an hour’s drive to cross from one side to the other. Come to find out, there is almost nothing on the other side, a couple of Oil towns with only company housing and a beach. If we think Doha is boring, the people working in these towns are down right in the middle of “NoWhere”. They are an hour from the nearest store, restaurant, etc. We did get to see a lot of camels, and a lot of desert but nothing to write home about.

Next will be our search for a Villa and our exit from apartment living. We are also on Fall Break in Jordan so that update will come soon.

Time for an update

Things are going fairly smoothly, our broken clothes washer has been repaired and returned. I can go back to doing the washing instead of taking things to the local laundry. We have to water our outdoor plants twice a day because of the dry heat, besides being hot, it is very low humidity most days so the plants dry out during the day. Our new (used) car has finally been transferred to my name, that wasn’t easy either. Took about 2.5 hours at the local traffic department and the guy I was getting the car from spoke Arabic. I hate to think how it would have gone if I was on my own. They say that all of these government type things are getting moved to the Internet, we shall see.

Our house boy has reached the end of his work visa and will be leaving the country the end of October. This is really too bad because besides being good and dependable, he was reasonable. Just one more challenge in our daily lives. Another challenge is dealing with the employees of the local state run phone company. We finally got our land line in the apartment which allowed us to order our high speed ADSL Internet connection. We were told that it will be two weeks before the install. That is all well and good till I talk to another teacher who has been waiting for over 6 weeks for the same service. The phone company just had an article in the local paper about better customer service, it is not happening yet at our place. This is important because it will allow us to “phone home” with Skype at reasonable hours instead of having to do it from the office. I will also be able to get the UT football broadcasts live, see I told you it was important.

Our activities seem to stay fairly busy, for a place that is the most boring country on the planet, what with plays and entertainment (Doha Players), sailing (which I did Friday), book clubs, golf, spa treatments, shopping (we found the Gold Souq), garden club, etc. During our upcoming Fall Break, we are going to take a trip to Jordan, with a couple of day’s layover in Dubai. This break comes during the last two weeks of Ramadan, which does not allow eating, drinking, smoking, etc. during the daylight hours. It is probably a good thing to shorten our students’ schedule, no food or drink from sunup to sundown can make for some grouchy people, teachers included. If we want to eat or drink during the day, it has to be done in private. This will be an interesting time.

Just one of the natives

We finally have our own car, a used Chrysler Sebring, a little sporty for my wife but the horsepower and handling make it a great car for getting around Doha. When you decide to enter traffic, you can’t be timid, you will get run over from behind or from the side, so you have to get out of the way. Because 80% of the cars and trucks in Doha are white, we wanted any other color, so the new car is black. Not white but maybe not the best color in a place with lots of dust and sand. At least the car washes are cheap and they do a great job, the American car washes could learn a few things from these guys.

The weather is finally breaking and this morning on the way to work it was only 81 deg F. A big change from the mornings when it was 95 at 6:00AM. Everyone tells us the weather is great from October till April, of course that may all be relative. We have added plants to our small balcony and window ledges, to have a little green to work with. The apartment is still having startup problems, this weekend the clothes washer quit and they have been by to fix it. Pulled it out from the wall, worked on it, said they would be back in 5 minutes and we have not seen them for 2 days. It will be fixed, just on Doha time.

We now have our phone which means I am trying to get it transferred to my name so I can get the ADSL line to the apartment. This will be another experience in frustration as the bureaucracy is in total control of these type things and they move at their own pace. Being a monopoly means never having to worry about customer service.

Another weather story, the cold water tap by the end of a 110 deg day only puts out very hot water, so we turn off the hot water heater in the morning and by the time we get home, we have cool water coming from the hot water tap and hot water coming from the cold water tap. At night we reverse the procedure. Being adaptable and flexible is becoming a great asset.

The first month

The first month

How time flies. We have been here for a month, and things seem to be settling into a rhythm. We have gotten on schedule for work, adjusting to the fact that the weekend is Friday and Saturday with the first day of the weekend being the day of worship, etc. A little bit of change that takes some getting used to.

The apartment is shaping up, but the fact that it is new and still has a few Gotha’s has been a challenge. We were promised a phone in the Apartment, it still has not been installed and finding the person to fuss at or who can fix it seems to be the challenge. I did a survey of the returning teachers about favorite restaurants, stores, trips, shopping and anything else I thought the new teachers would want to know. In the comment section, I got the following wisdom; “In Doha, everything is possible, in Doha, everything is impossible; you just don’t know which is coming.

We are starting to get plants and decorations, making it look and feel like our home. Have gotten the entertainment center setup for DVD’s and cd’s, have the satellite and TV figured out, I think and if I can get the ADSL (which needs the phone line) setup for the computer, we will be ready. At school, we have a high speed computer connection and have been able to use Skype to call home, check personal email, etc but the time difference means as we are leaving work, the states are just getting up for the day. Once we have the home connection, we will be able to communicate at more reasonable hours; we are learning to be flexible.

For entertainment, we have looked for a local music scene, I don’t think so. Their choice of music is not even close to anything I would listen or dance to. Is it only me, no way, have taken some other teachers from other parts of the states and other age groups, they don’t like it either. We did find a British Pub and listen to an Irish singer that was pretty good, but we had to wait an extra hour, till the Cricket match with the Aussies’ was over. That anyone can understand Cricket is one of life’s mysteries but the Brits were winning and having a good time, the Aussie lady we were with was not as happy, but she was there for the music.

How many would like to drive in a figure 8 derby, the Doha roundabouts, are the next best thing. Drivers are pulling out from the right, crossing 2 or 3 lanes to then pull off to the right, back across those lanes. They also have the habit of rounding off their turns, so the lane markers are advisory or only suggestions. At times, this also happens at fairly good speeds, it adds to the adventure. Speaking of driving, we are looking for a car and have been visiting dealers, reading ads and trying to get ready for the day we have our “Resident Permit”, which means we can own a car, etc. Should take about a month to 6 weeks, we have got the month done, hopefully soon. On one of our car looking trips, we left the dealer and saw a long traffic backup so being a smart person; we drove away from town thinking that we would find a road to turn on that would take us a back way home. After about 20 kilometers and no roads, we came to the small town on the map and could finally turn right, that took us out into the “outback”, no towns, nothing except desert for another 30 kilometers and we are looking for a road to take us back to town. Finally about dark, we turn right on the only major road we have seen for the last 30 minutes and get back to Doha.

To be continued:

Our first two weeks

The first weekend in Qatar, on Saturday night, I played golf under the lights. Not bad. Some things are almost normal. We have moved into a new 2 bedroom apartment, so there have been a couple of minor problems, the most major was the morning we got up for school and no water. We survived and no one commented on our lack of daily hygiene. The "no water" has happened again, it is fixed in about 4 hours but that does not help getting ready for school.

We have been able to call the US, with the biggest problem being the time difference. Because we don’t yet have a high speed connection at home, all Internet and Skype calling has been from school which means we are leaving work about the time everyone in the US is getting up. This problem will go away when we get our “Resident Permit” and have a DSL connection from the apartment. We can call in the evening before bedtime and reach people as they are getting home from work.

We didn’t believe people when they said most everything is available here and we brought/shipped some things we could have purchased in country. We both wish we had brought more causal clothes, because things aren’t as strict, dress code wise as we thought. Walking though the malls, you have dress from completely covered to western spaghetti tops.

As I mentioned, one of the major pastimes in Doha is eating. At this point, we have eaten at 10 different ethnic restaurants, and for this country boy that has been an experience. Another Qatar pastime, at least at the beginning, has been paperwork. We have had blood typing, blood tests and an X-ray, eye exams, fingerprinting and standing in line. The interesting thing is that our experience has been fairly well greased by our employer. All the other new people who have had other overseas experiences, say this is an easy start. Guess everything is relative.

Final 1st week

We are slowly getting our things for the apartment, from a shower curtain to a toilet brush, dish towels to hangers. The first night, I got a cell phone and some minutes and called home to check in, good to hear our daughter and know how well she is doing. The next day (Wednesday) I spent most of the day at school getting organized and checking out the lay of the land, so to speak. Because of the 7 hour time difference, and the fact we were only at school from 10:00 till 2:00 (Qatar time), 3:00AM till 7:00AM EDT, phone calls to most people would have gotten them out of bed. I did call my mother at 7:00 AM (EDT) to check in using my Skype connection over the computer. Cost me $0.15 for the 5 minutes, not bad considering the cost from the cell phone is about $0.90/minute.

One thing is already apparent, most of the entertainment in Doha seems to be around eating and shopping. We have now been to the three large malls and if there ever was a culture clash, this is it. There are Qatari women and men in very traditional dress, including the women in black with veils, walking through the mall with very western clothes and ads in the windows (just like an American mall). People have been normal to us, not a lot different than walking through an American mall except for the dress.

We have now met another person from the school who is also a new teacher and who is now the second person to move into our building. He is from Indiana and will be working in the “University Success” (study skills) area. He has spent some time in Saudi so he has some knowledge of language and customs, etc. Nice guy and he has been to dinner and shopping with us. I finally rented a car, cabin fever was setting in, and we wanted to explore. Rented a Camry for a month till we can buy a car, can’t do too many things till we get our resident permit and that can take 3 to 4 weeks. I couldn’t wait that long to get around, plus this way I am practicing my driving the round-abouts in a rental car. The drivers are crazy, no other way to say it; I will probably have no problem fitting in.

The next difference is their weekend is Friday and Saturday, Friday being the day of worship and most everything is closed till the afternoon. We were invited out to visit and swim, etc at one of the couple’s villa on Friday afternoon. It was very pleasant and the heat was not a problem, it is hot but things kind of work around the hottest time of day.

Did I mention the golf clubs, seems one of the school administrators is a golf person, so I get to go play golf Saturday, therefore the excess baggage may be worth the expense. The other thing, it is night golf, during this time of year because of the heat. Hope the lights cover a wide area, my golf balls do at times.

In-country continued

We get loaded, everything leaves on time, and we meet our next flight to London. This was where I had to pay for the extra bag, hoped it would slip through, but no luck. I needed the “Golf Clubs” so that was part of it. Flight to London was pleasant, meals were ok, service was good and we landed on time. Heathrow airport takes a lot of walking to get from gate to gate. We landed in terminal 4 and departed from terminal 4 but we walked a long way, stood in lines, went through screening again but got to our gate with plenty of time. This part of the trip began at 7:00 EDT in Philly and landed in London at 7:00AM the next morning (Monday).

We left London at 10:00 AM on Monday and got to Doha at 9:00PM, Monday night. We traveled a little over 23 hours but with the 7 hour time difference, we were dragging. On arrival in Doha, Qatar, we got through customs, passports and visas, fairly easily. No worst than any other county we have stood in line to enter, and better than some. Luggage went through x-ray but nothing was found, I left all the “pork, porn, and liquor” at home, even left a small brandy on the British Air flight.

We were picked up at the airport by a nice person from the school, traffic was everything we had heard, and we got to our apartment in one piece. Brand new apartment, we are the first people in the building and it was only 92 degrees when we landed. We both slept till 11:00 am the next morning (Tuesday) so our first day started slow. Once we started moving, I fixed breakfast from the toast, juice, fruit and milk that the school had left for us. I then called the school and they came and got us for our first visit. Because we were one of the first new teachers to arrive, they were still getting everything ready for the start of school but the reception could not have been nicer. The Director stopped what he was doing to greet us and show us around, he got me into my office and got the network and internet connections started so I could check e-mail, etc. After we left the Director, we met another couple who work in the administration and they offered to take us to dinner and shopping and a little intro to Doha.

In-country

This is the update from in-county, we have arrived. I will start at the week before departure. Our packing went very well; we shipped 2 large boxes (140lbs) by FedEx on the Friday before our Sunday departure. Our shipping allowance of $800.00 covered this cost (we hope). We had a Friday night dinner with 4 of our friends; it was very special that they went to the trouble for us. It was greatly appreciated.

On Saturday morning, we went down our check list of items and most everything was taken care of. I did go by the Bank of Athens ( they have been great) for Travelers Checks and cash for the trip. We finished our packing, which included 2 large suitcases each, a carry-on bag and a computer bag, which doubled as a carry-on for some things which wouldn’t fit anywhere else. We weighted the large bags as we were limited to 70 lbs per bag. All were about 65 lbs so that was a go.

Sunday morning our daughter and son-in-law arrived to take us to the plane for an afternoon departure. Getting everything loaded even in their SUV was a little tight. Oh, did I mention the golf clubs, we decided to take them as extra baggage, if the airlines would let allow it. If not they would go back home, but it was cheaper to take them as extra baggage than ship them earlier.

We got to the flight about 2 hours before departure which was good because we had “prepaid tickets” which they only process a couple of times per year, so it took reading a manual for the USAir staff to make it happen. The first scare was when I placed the bags on the scale, the lady told me they were 15 lbs overweight, no way, I had weighted them at home and they were only 65 lbs and we were allowed 70lbs per bag. After I finished panicking because I had no clue what to do with the extra stuff at this stage, we figured out that on International flights, the limit is 70 lbs and we were OK (50 on domestic). The next incident was almost as much fun; we got the full TSA inspection experience because we had one way tickets purchased in the Middle East. Think about it, makes sense, but why me? This adventure starts at 2:45 EDT when we leave our home airport. (Remember that time)

Counting Down

It is getting close to departure time. I have the boxes for shipping, suitcases for packing, paperwork together (I think) and most things organized. Our flight schedule is good, we don't have to fly coach and we can take 2 large suitcases each plus a couple of carry-on's. Looks to me like we will have space to take most of what we want, hope so because the golf clubs will be the first thing to stay home if we don't.

Got our International Driving Permit, hope it helps till we get the Qatar permit. Got Skype setup with all the add-ons for phone service.

Working on what I have forgotten, I just don't remember it yet

Department Chair

We decided that taking the Department Chair offer was a good idea. The department is made up of the computer and university success (study skills) classes. There are 5 faculty members plus the Dept Chair. This will just add to the adventure.

I have finally heard from the shipping agent, looks like the pickup is scheduled for the week of July 21st, with arrival in Doha after Aug 1st. We need to be in the country when things arrive.

New idea

In the last week I have found out that the Department Chair for the Computer Department is leaving and I offered my help in the transition. I have now been asked to consider becoming the Chair for the Computer and University Success Department. Little more money and a little less classroom time but all the administrative duties of supervising the other faculty members (about 6) and reporting to the Academic Dean.

My wife and I will discuss this change of events and try to make a quick decision. Becoming part of the administration may require being on campus a little earlier for the administrative meetings. I am going to try to talk with the departing Chair for some background and give the program an answer by tomorrow. As others have told us, working overseas requires a bit of flexibility.

Would you believe??

We still have not been contacted by the shipping company. With 7 weeks till departure time, we have not started major packing. We have found out that it is best for the shipment to arrive after we are in the country and can accept it, so our plan is to ship about July 20th. From everyone we have talked to about what to bring, clothes and a few personal items are it. Most everything else is available in country cheaper than the shipping cost.

Another surprise, I just found out that the head of the Computer Department is coming back to the states after a 4 year stint in Qatar. I don't know what this does to the planning and class organization as it seems rather sudden. I would think that finding her replacement may be a challenge, especially at this late date. Flexibility seems to be the word of the day.

Some of our local friends are planning a going away party before the big day, either glad to see me go or they will miss my wife in the neighborhood. Either way, it is a very nice idea and we are grateful for the thought.

Time is moving on!

We have started to put together the items we think we want to pack and ship. We have gotten the advice to compare availability and purchase price overseas to shipping fees, fine, except I can't find the price of everyday items in Qatar so I can't get a comparison. We are getting our International Driver's Permit from AAA, this will let us rent a car and drive until we get the Qatar permit and purchase a car.

Have setup the online banking and bill payment option for most everything. We are also getting all the important numbers and copies of everything to our daughter, our family attorney, and my brother. Surely with things in three places, if something is needed, somebody can handle it.

With the nice weather now in East Tennessee, we hope to enjoy some of the summer before our departure to the great "hot" middle east. August temps can be around 120 degrees, a little adjustment.

An Answer

We finally got an answer to part of the shipping question. Our allowence will cover 100 to 120 Kg, about 300lbs. That will take about 3 weeks to arrive, so I am planning for a July 1st ship date.

Next question is what to take. One thing we have heard from the area, take sunscreen because it is expensive in county. That may be the free market at work because if anything would be needed in a county that only gets 3 to 5 inches of rain a year, it would be protection from the sun.

The "List"

As promised, here are a few things to put on a list when you have to prepare to be gone for an extended period of time. This has been a good exercise and hopefully will shorten our list of last minute crisis.

1. Updated wills and a Power of Attorney so someone can handle problems if they arise.
2. Put all our important information in a file and leave copies with family members and our attorney.
3. Passports renewed.
   
4. Visa requirements met so we can get into the country.
5. Arranging with our local bank for money transfers, etc.
6. Setting up all the automatic payments needed because we will not get our local mail in a timely manner (if at all).
7. Getting someone to pickup and check our local mail that we will not get.
8. Suspending newspapers and magazines.
9. Making sure that Health Insurance coverages overlaps.
10. Getting phone and other utilities set to the minimum charge.
11. Setting up Internet phone service (Skype) and making it work before we leave. This will allow for free or very low cost phone calls.
12. Making sure that arrangements are made for property taxes to be paid.
13. Making sure that I am removed from jury duty, which I am serving on for the next year. How’s that for timing?
14. Getting all the outside things winterized.
15. Arranging for the yard work.
16. Renew licenses that will expire during our time away.
17. Make sure that banks and credit card companies know that we will be away.
18. Getting the shipping dates, timelines and weight allowances.
19. Deciding what to ship.
20. Make an inventory of each packed box contents.
21. Get an International Driver’s Permit from AAA.
22. We will need 30 passport type photos.
23. Get copies of prescriptions including eyeglasses.
24. Get a copy of application for absentee ballots.

That is our start at our “to do” list. I better not show it to my wife quite yet; it could be a full time job for the next few months.

Just like a Fl vacation

Have you ever thought about all the things you have to do to get things in shape to be gone. I have a new understanding of all the old people who pack off to Florida for 6 months. Somebody has to handle things here while you are there. We are getting everything together, but the list keeps growing. Later on I will give you a check list so if you ever have to be away, it will be a place to start.

I am sure that someone has posted that type of list somewhere on the web, I just have failed to find it, yet. We are working with our shipper on how much, in Kilos, we can ship as part of the $820, we are allotted. I don't yet have an answer on how it needs to be packed, or how much lead time (I think about 4/6 weeks) we need.That means that the packing and shipping has to be done some time about June 20th. As they say, we still have 2 months, what could go wrong.

We are sending the final paperwork, medical forms, etc, this week so we will see what the next steps are in the process.

Spring

We are starting to have spring weather in East Tennessee and with everything blooming, nice weather, etc., now would be the time for buyers remorse. Have we made the right decision, sure we have, time to start down the yellow brick road for our grand adventure. Our different view of the world and how we do things is starting to come out, one of us is making lists and getting organized, one of us is going with the flow. There is still plenty of time for getting everything done, why rush it. After 37 years together, some things never change, we will work this out and deal with the increased stress over time.

I sure do hate lists of jobs but time to go with the flow.

Paperwork

Well it seems that I have gotten the paperwork delivered (by email) to our new school. Copies of passports, teacher certification and college transcripts were all scanned and sent this week. Now we will get our physicals and have everything done from our end, we hope. Busy getting our local paperwork done such as "wills, power of attorney, etc." so if something needs to happen while we are overseas; our daughter can handle it here. I am also making arrangements to be able to handle banking, bill paying, etc over the Internet if needed.

Keeping updated

One thing that you do notice is the time difference, being 7 or 8 hours ahead of EST, e-mail I send to the school during the morning, gets there after they have gone home so they answer it the next morning (8 hours before I log on). We have gotten a couple of email from people in the area and I have kept up with the story over the web concerning the attack on the Doha Players.

Is this a concern, sure, but no more than any other risk when we do things? We have to evaluate the reward based on the risk and at this point we feel that everything (mostly) is still in our favor.

We are emailing all our paperwork and documents this week so things are progressing.

Now we got questions?

If you noticed, Qatar is our country of choice for our overseas teaching experience. The attack on the theater does cause some concern, but at this point, we are still very upbeat about what we will be doing next year.

I will bring things up to date with the steps we are going thru during the next two weeks.

This is easy, so far?

Things are falling into place, yea, right, I did get some info about housing and where some of the married staff lives. Looks very nice, hopefully we will get to live in the lap of luxury or at least in a place you want to invite your family and friends to come visit. (Wonder how many visitors people get when they teach overseas)

We have also gotten copies of the course outlines and the names of the textbooks we will be using so we can do a little advance planning and study. Really that advance planning stuff will probably be more my wife, too much organization and planning gives me a headache. I have started the e-mails to other staff and department heads with questions; hopefully they will be patient and put up with my inquiring about everything.

Questions, Questions O’ more questions

When we got home we started putting together the things we had to have for this adventure, make sure passports are up to date, think about things that might need to be handled while we are gone, etc.

Our first step was to email the people at the school and start a dialogue about our moving, with timelines, checklists and other things that will pop up.

Some of our questions:

1. Medical tests, vaccinations, physicals
2. Paper work needed by the school
1. Transcripts
2. Teacher certificates
3. Marriage license (try to find that after 36 years)
3. How do the tickets work for the flights
4. How does the shipping work
5. What should we ship
6. What kind of housing will we have
7. What do we do till we can get phones, car, Internet
8. What textbooks will we be using
9. Does anyone play golf (would have been 1st question but wife was watching)
   

We have found out that the Dean of the school and his wife both have EdD’s from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Would you believe somebody else might speak “hillbilly”. Another of the small world things, our friend, the headmaster from Gaza has a former staff member who is now working where we are going to be located. Got her email address, contacted her and asked if she would help with some in-county questions. Would you believe she called this week and we visited for 30 minutes, seems to be a great lady, but we were told she was. We are going to talk when she gets back to the States this summer about packing/shipping and other things.

Return home

We finally got to leave Boston on Wednesday afternoon and as we returned home, lots of different thoughts entered our conversation. Right or wrong, good or bad, exciting or scared, we had made a decision to try teaching overseas.

Now that we are home and getting back into the day to day of our present jobs, questions keep arising and planning is progressing (we only have 4 months to get this together). The school we are going to does not have (yet) a complete written description of all the steps needed and things to arrange for moving to the country. I have done a lot of research on the web concerning our future teaching destination. We did some research while still in Boston, but that was mainly about the school and the country. Now that we are home and have time, we are looking at living conditions, places to get questions answered, how travel and shipping will be handled, permits, medical requirements, etc. Probably for old hands at overseas teaching, these are “no big deal” questions, but for rookies, some who like advance planning, it is a little fluid.

The good things about our choice are finding a couple of staff members are also from Tennessee, a supportive family and friends who have offered to handle things at home (even a neighbor has offered to mow the lawn) while we are gone and the excitement of our new adventure. It is going to take (probably) the 4 months till we leave to get our act together, things organized, and everything put in place to be gone for most of a two year contract. We are planning on returning this first Christmas, one because we have time, and two because we will have a new grandbaby to visit. That will probably make the going back overseas a little tough but we are not the only grandparents to be a few miles apart from our family for a while.

We don’t know how this will work out but in today’s world of the Internet, VOIP, digital video, fairly easy travel, etc., being away from our comfort zone will not be as hard as previously. New information and thoughts will be added to this discussion as time goes forward.

What stress?

Part of the process is for schools to put invitations in your folder to ask you to interview with them, when you don’t get any or only a few, it can be a little discouraging. Don’t get down, putting together people and jobs takes a juggling act and takes some time to shake out. The other part is for you to put your resume into folders of the schools in which you have an interest. We finally ended up with 6 schools that wanted to talk with us, from what others have said, that is about the average number on interviews that get scheduled at first. We had already had our first interview on Monday morning before most everything got started.

The next day, Tuesday, we had breakfast with another school head, the one we had met on Sunday evening. He made us an offer (very attractive) at breakfast and we told him we would like to look at the other schools that had matches for us and we would let him know before we did anything else. From there we attended the signup for the teaching positions at the 173 schools that were still looking. We ended up deciding to take the offer that was made at breakfast, after looking at what was available to us from the other schools that had shown an interest. Based on our taking the offer, we contacted the other schools and the ISS office and took ourselves out of consideration. Having made the decision, allowed us some free time and we ended up having extra time in Boston to visit the city. It also allowed us to relax and not worry about finding the right opportunity. We had made a life changing decision in about 6 hours, if you have to spend a lot of time on decision making, this process will cause some stress.

The meat market

Let me say up front that the large majority of the people from both sides (interviewees & interviewers) were super, there were some interviewers who had a little overbearing sense of their power or position and there were some interviewees who seemed to lack a personality or experience. We met a lady (headmistress) the first evening (Sunday) that we were visiting with about the process and being rookies, etc when she introduced us to a gentleman (another headmaster) that she thought might need someone with our backgrounds. We expressed an interest, even though it was a country that we hadn’t at first considered. When you are looking, keep an open mind. Another hint is to make every effort to attend the education meetings before and during the IRC, we learned things we needed to know about the process and we met a couple of people who had been here before and they were happy to share their knowledge and experiences.

After we returned to our room, we got a message from another school (that had seen our resumes) that wanted to interview us on Sunday night, and since the signup for interviews on Monday didn’t start till late, we met for breakfast. A very nice gentleman offered good job matches but not a country we really wanted to work in, depending on our other choices. We tried to be as honest as possible about what we were looking for and when we could make a decision. The process is setup to make fairly quick decisions so we knew he wouldn’t and couldn’t wait till the end of the IRC for us, the schools have to leave (if possible) with their positions filled. It did feel good to know that at least one school wanted us, but this process is not like any other job search we had undertaken, if you snooze, you may lose, kind of like the “Price is Right”, do you take the job offer you have or try for something better and lose the one you had (take door number 3).

At the start of signups for Administrative interviews, we got in lines at the schools that we thought would want us and that we wanted to look at. Beware; this is a meat market, beauty contest, cattle call type experience (kind of like airport security without the metal detectors). You are going in mostly blind, to talk to a person you don’t know, about a job experience that may or may not be what is advertised. Some of these interviewers had very limited requirements, such as they only wanted a person with very recent experience or overseas experience and that was more important than whether the person could do a good job, etc. They really didn’t have time to look at other candidates because they had narrow requirements. Some others (the majority) were very nice, friendly and offered advice or help if you were not a good fit for their school.

Behind at the start

After finding what we thought were good matches, we sent e-mails to the schools to show our interest in their positions. Funny thing, we really didn’t know about some of the other overseas teacher placement services that do somewhat the same thing as ISS. To make travel easier (I think), these recruitment conferences are scheduled back to back to back. Some of the school headmasters, etc had already left for the states before we sent our e-emails. Prior contact with schools that you have an interest in would be a help to both the candidate and the school, instead of everything happening in the short timeframe of an IRC.

Based on this feeling of being behind or being rushed, we went to Boston for the ISS IRC. A second suggestion, stay in the conference hotel, get there a day early if possible, listen and meet everyone you can and don’t get offended easily. Because I was applying for an administrative position, and the first day was for the administrative interviews, we arrived on Sunday about 2:30 PM, after a flight delay (seems to go with flying in today’s world). We checked in, got our packet, got the lay of the land and how things were supposed to work, found a cheap (kind of) place to eat and started to meet people.

What we learned

We started asking around about the best ways to acquire an overseas position. Based on our friend’s advice, ISS and their IRC was the way to go. We started the process the end of November (a little late in the process) with a call and email to ISS. Told them what we taught, and our backgrounds and certifications and they agreed to let us attend the IRC in Boston in Feb 2005. Getting the paper work together, all the transcripts, letters of recommendation and state certification documents was a little pushed because of our short timeline. Another problem was the Christmas holidays; one of my colleges was closed for two weeks, so no transcript till Jan 3. Contacting past administrators during the holidays was also a challenge.

I will say that the ISS staff was very helpful, courteous and supportive even though we were late to the party. One of my first suggestions would be to plan ahead; our finally pulling the trigger caused us to have to do certain things in a very short time frame. Because we couldn’t get access to the job opening at the International Schools website till everything was completed, we had a very short amount of time to contact the schools that sounded like they might have two opening that fit our skill set. When you go as a teaching team, it has pluses and minuses. When the jobs match for both of you, schools like it a lot, save a little money and kill two birds with one job offer. The downside is finding a school that needs both of you.

We started looking for positions that matched our training and were in places we wanted to go. Because you can only search for one job at a time, we had to look for a Science job and see if they needed the other person. We would also try a counseling job and then see if something was available for the other person. Then you have to check the benefits, the country, the pay, etc. It would be a great help to a teaching team to be able to enter both jobs in the search and to enter a region of the world (not just each country). The present system works but it could be so much more powerful if the search process had a little better capabilities.

Thoughts from an International Hillbilly

Let’s start this discussion about how two fine people from East Tennessee ended up going overseas to teach/work (and travel).

First, we decided to look at overseas teaching because of a friend that has been working in Cairo and Gaza, off and on for the last 15 years. She has been a headmaster and kept saying good things about the experience. 12 years ago, I went to Egypt and Kuwait to train teachers in her elementary schools in the uses of technology in education.

When we ended up this fall, closing my business and my wife a little burned out with her job at a college, it looked like the time to consider something different. We would have liked to tried retirement and travel but that would take money and time, neither of which we had extra. An adventure in an overseas job, with a chance to see more of the world (and make a little extra money for retirement) was a real draw.