Oliebollen and Gluhwein

The time has come that both locals and tourists alike look forward to all year. While most tourists probably just stumble upon this gastronomic delight, the locals get excited at the mere mention of the word. That's right, I'm talking about oliebollen. What a funny word it is, but oh what a delicious treat. I had heard talk of these donut-like creations at a get together with some other expats. With excitement in their voices they spoke of two things that marked the coming of the holiday season. No, not Sinterklaas, not the lights throughout the city, it was oliebollen and gluhwein. For that moment I looked forward to trying both, but quickly forgot about it. Then one day while walking down the street from Dam Square I caught sight of a sign. I remembered the word, and thought I would see what all the fuss was about. The fuss was rightly made, and I became a fan right then and there. These little balls of joy are basically fried dough with raisins and currents all around. Finished off with a dusting (or a heaping amount in my case) of powdered sugar, you just can't go wrong. I was hooked, so now whenever I see a sign for oliebollen, I have to get in line because they don't last all year. 

Gluhwein is also quite lovely, but it isn't for everyone. It's basically mulled wine most commonly served at the multitude of Christmas markets scattered all over Europe. My first taste was at the Christmas market in Antwerp, Belgium, and it was delightful. Walking around in the freezing cold air, looking at all of the random wares for sale you need something to warm the insides. Gluhwein is just the ticket. Sadly, both of these lovely holiday finds will be gone as the new year starts, so I will be indulging as much as possible until then.  Proost!

Hagelslag and a Snow Day in Amsterdam

I had the best intentions of documenting my expat experience here in Amsterdam and what it was like to get a teaching job overseas. But the reality is that life is crazy. It is a roller coaster ride, one of the loopy, make you want to throw up ones. It's not an easy thing to completely uproot your life no matter how much you may want it. And I wanted it. I still want it, but it is different than what my expectations were. The blog is going to take a different direction. Yes, I will still give some tips about getting a job abroad (it is recruiting season again after all).  Yes, I will tell some good stories and post great photos, but I will also be honest.


That said, the reason I am able to sit an write this post is because I am sitting in the comfort of my apartment overlooking the brown waters of a canal enjoying a snow day. This is one of the benefits of working at a school. Since safety is the number 1 priority, school gets cancelled for things like snow, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. Today was predicted to be a gnarly storm of a day, but as it turned out, it wasn't bad at all. I spent the morning experimenting with hagelslag which is part of a Dutch balanced breakfast. Hagelslag is basically sprinkles, yes like the kind you would put on a cupcake. The Dutch do it for breakfast on top of buttered bread. This was an amazing thought to me, so I decided to try it out. You can't really go wrong with chocolate, butter, or bread, so my hopes were high. It didn't disappoint. While I couldn't see eating this for breakfast everyday, it was a nice chocolaty treat that sort of tasted like eating a piece of cake.

Breakfast was a success, so I moved on to mailing a package to send to my family for Christmas. I had been scouting out how to do this for quite some time, so I felt confident in following this through. I went to my local Albert Hein grocery store where they proudly displayed the PostNL sign. From what I understand, any shop that has this orange and white sign will be able to act like a post office. It was a success, and my package is on its way to New Jersey (I hope). I went around and did a couple other things while I was out and sort of enjoyed the chilly air and the crunching snow under my boots. The bikes were all covered in snow, but that doesn't stop people from hopping on and moving on with their day. Getting on with my day involved some Kraft Mac and Cheese that I got from the expat grocery store, Kings Almarkt. I never thought I would miss something like mac and cheese, but I had a nostalgic moment at the store and had to pay the price. The merchandise is expensive, but when you are feeling in need of a piece of home, it is well worth the extra euros.

After several hectic months, this snow day was a bright point in my roller coaster expat life.

Update

Hi All,

I have been doing an absolutely terrible job keeping up with this blog. The good thing is that since I have been living in Amsterdam I have amassed a nice collection of stories that I can't wait to get posted. I will be doing some writing within the next couple days, so please check back often!

The International Job Fair

Making the decision to attend an international teaching job fair is not something to be entered into lightly. In my opinion, when you decide to go to a job fair, you decide to take a job abroad. There are several different options in terms of the international teaching fairs, and they take place all over the world. One of the most popular organizations that hosts these fairs is International School Services (ISS).  Before you can register for a fair, however, you must become a candidate which requires a fee of $185. Attending a fair will cost you an additional couple hundred dollars. You will also have to consider hotel and flight costs. I spent about $600 to become a candidate and attend the fair. Luckily, my sister lives in Boston so I didn't have hotel costs to contend with. ISS has already posted the fairs for the next recruiting season (2013-2014 school year), and they are in some great locations.

Nice, France,  November 21
Atlanta, USA,  December 2
Bangkok, Thailand,  January 4
San Francisco, USA,  February 10

Sometimes they will add a last chance fair that will not cost any additional registration fee like the one in Philadelphia starting on June 15. The problem with waiting for this one is that it is late in the season, and most of the good jobs are taken. There are very few schools represented, and it may not be worth the time or cost especially if you are a qualified candidate.

I opted for the Boston fair that took place at the beginning of February of 2012. While it is later in the season, it is the most highly attended of the season. This may not be true for 2013, so it is important to check the website www.iss.edu  often to see which schools will be recruiting. It is also important to note that these services prescreen candidates by requiring an online portfolio. This will consist of your resume/CV, letters of recommendation, personal statement, teaching qualifications which include transcripts and certificate. This allows recruiters to see your whole profile before they decide to meet with you. It's a good idea to get your profile completed early in order to maximize your time during the recruiting season.

There are many other fairs that other organizations and companies host, and they tend to run close together. If you play your cards right and plan ahead carefully you may be able to go to a couple different fairs within the same week. Many schools attend many different fairs, and it's a small world in international eduction. Be advised that each service charges their own fees and have their own requirements for attendance and registration.

Search Associates: www.searchassociates.com
Kuala Lumpur (leadership fair) November
Johannesburg, South Africa, December
Melbourne, Australia, January
Bangkok, Thailand, January
Hong Kong, China, January
London, England, January
Toronto, Canada, January
Cambridge, USA, February
San Francisco, USA, February
Bangkok, Thailand, March

UNI- University of Northern Iowa: http://www.uni.edu/placement/overseas/osfair.html
This is one of the country's biggest fairs, but there is only one with limited spaces available. Registration begins at the end of November or the beginning of December.

Council of International Schools: http://www.cois.org/page.cfm?p=4
They host their fairs in London, and the next one will occur in January of 2013.

There are many other options for recruitment and other fairs to attend, but these are the most widely known.

I'm in Control

I get a little frustrated when people say that they are not in control of their own life, that events of the day merely happen to them, that they are passive while there is something or someone else driving the bus. While I believe in a higher power, and have great faith in that which I don't understand, I do believe that I am the maker of my own destiny. I truly believe that where I am in my life is a direct result of the choices I have made. By saying that I want my life to change or that I would like to move abroad does nothing but share a thought. In order to make something happen, one must take action. I have finally started the process of packing. I know I am jumping ahead out of order of how things actually happened, but I'm living in the moment. I'll fill in the holes later. I have submitted all of the paperwork necessary to procure my visa, and that is another blog post in itself. I have told my bosses that I will not be returning next year, and I have begun the task of starting a to do list. There are so many little things that have to be done, but can't necessarily be done ahead of time. Things like canceling the cable and electric, changing my address, selling my car and all my furniture, or packing the rest of my belongings cannot be done until right before I'm ready to leave. I wish I could do it now, but I still need a bed to sleep on and a car to drive to work. It is also challenging because I haven't told the people I work with although I think they are starting to suspect something is amiss. The rumor mill has been churning, and the most recent addition is that I am running away to France to get married. While I am going back to France, I will not be getting married while I'm there, and I will be returning next week. My life is amazing because I have made it that way through hard work and dedication to fulfilling my goals. The best things in life are not handed to us while we sit idly by, they are the things that we have to work hard for.

How to find a teaching job overseas.

There are a multitude of really excellent resources online dedicated to teaching abroad. Some are obviously better than others, and they offer very different services. I can only speak from my own experience, but what I will say is that taking the time to research is a must.

I started with teachanywhere.com which is a free recruiting website. I was matched with a recruiter, and I was very impressed at the individual attention that I received. It was through this site that I interviewed for a school in Indonesia. It was a unique opportunity at a small school with lots of opportunity to really make a mark on the local education system. I was intrigued, but it wasn't the right time for me to make a move like that. I soon learned that any of the other job opportunities that came my way from this recruiting site were similar, small schools with development opportunities. It wasn't a good match for me because at this time I realized that I really wanted to pursue opportunities at IB World Schools.

This is when I found ISS (International School Services), and I realized that I had to make a critical decision. ISS is pretty expensive to join, but once you pay the annual fee, you have access to hundreds of jobs at some of the best schools in the world. It's not enough to just join and search the postings though. The head's of these schools want to meet you in person, and one of the only ways to do this is through a job fair. The drawback is that there is an additional fee and of course the cost of travel. There are several of these job fairs each year, and they are held in various locations throughout the world. This year, they were held in Atlanta, Bangkok, Boston, London, and San Francisco. I opted for Boston because I was able to stay with my sister in her lovely North End apartment. It is always a bonus when you can work family into a job search.

Something else to note, and this may seem like common sense, you need to do your homework. It is important to research the schools and the areas that you are interested in. My list started with about thirty schools focused on Europe. I sent individual email cover letters and attached documents to each of them. I personalized the emails to highlight the aspects of the school that I liked and why I thought I was a good fit. Most of the responses I received were generic responses from the HR departments, but there were some that contacted me directly, and it helped me move to the top of some recruiters' lists at the job fair. I will also say at this point that I have 9 years of professional teaching experience, three years with IB (2 of which are at the coordinator level). I have been to three official IB trainings, and I have a master's degree in Global and International Education.


TIE (The International Educator) and CIS (Council of International Schools) are also great places to look. TIE has a significantly cheaper membership fee too if you are short on cash.

The best thing you can do is keep an open mind, and don't focus all of your attention on one country or one continent. Some places are easier to get jobs than others, and some schools require very specific experience and training. Most of all though, don't give up. If this is something you truly want, the right job will come your way.

More on the job fair experience in the next post...

How do you change your life?

Decision to Change

Is it a moment of inspiration? Is it a long and drawn out process? Does it take a lot of thought or little thought at all? Is it influenced by outside forces or is it an internal experience? How does a person decide to completely change her life? Why don't more people do it?

I think it is a combination of all of those things. I think for successful, meaningful change to happen it has to be a combination of impulsivity and careful thought. In the beginning when I first decided I wanted a major life change I didn't know where I wanted to go or what exactly I wanted to do. I started to hunt for jobs all over the internet and all over the world, contact recruiters from various international teaching websites, and even had a couple of Skype interviews. I was dipping my toes in the water to check the temperature. This was a year ago, and I wasn't ready to just pick up and move when I got an offer in Indonesia. I had also just gotten a promotion of sorts at work here in the states, so I was reluctant to just abandon all that I had worked for.

My life was progressing nicely last spring. I had plans to go on a trip to Eastern Europe to present at the BCES conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, my job was locked in for next year, and I had an entire summer in front of me to be on vacation. There was also the hope of a September interview for an amazing school in Thailand. My summer proved to be much more than a string of destinations, it allowed me to have some time alone in a foreign land to reflect on who I was, who I wanted to be, and what I wanted out of my life. It was then that I realized that my life was my own and that there were no limits on what I could do. It sounds so simple, but in a way it was.

I started the school year with a focused motivation and overall calm. I also had the interview with the school in Thailand, and I got the job. I fretted over what to do. There were times where I felt that I would definitely be moving to Bangkok, and there were other times that it was the furthest thing from my mind. What I did discover, however, was that I was on the right path, that I needed a drastic change. It was a combination of things that prompted me to change, and it was the support system of family and friends who helped me realize that moving on and moving away would be the best thing for me. From that point on, it became my mission to find the most perfect job in the most perfect place. It wasn't easy, it wasn't cheap, but it was so worth it.

Where does inspiration come from?

Inspiration

What causes a person to be inspired, to be truly motivated in life? For my Uncle Leo, it was my Aunt Ginny. Inspiration for him was a time where he could forget about war and flying planes and think about the woman he loved. Uncle Leo died when I was very young, but that didn’t stop Aunt Ginny from living her life. She continued to travel, enjoy life, and build a foundation for me to dream big. 


For me, inspiration comes in many forms and in many places. A long time ago, I’m not really sure when, I decided I wanted to live a big life, one full of inspiration and adventure like my aunt and uncle. I didn’t realize, however, how much of a motivating factor these two people would be in my life until I got a bit older. 

I’m a bit of a loner, and I have always done things just a little bit differently and in my own time. The first time I traveled it was completely on my own to live on a small Greek island for a summer. There have been many trips since then including volunteer work in Tanzania, conference presenting in Bulgaria, vampire hunting in Romania, and finding myself in Turkey. It was never enough though. Every time I came home I wanted to be somewhere else. Sure I missed my family and the comforts of home, but I felt like something was missing. 

Taking on the adventurous spirit of Aunt Ginny, I took the bull by the horns (I really may do that someday) and set a goal to change my life. The thing that had been swirling around in my head for the past couple years finally found a place in the forefront of my mind and became a tangible goal. I was going to move to another country!

This new blog is starting as a "secret blog" for the people closest to me or the people who happen to stumble upon it. This is my journey of the ups, downs, and unexpecteds of drastic life changes. 

Thank you for joining me on the journey!