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.