Final Months in Berlin

Amazingly, time is flying by and we find ourselves sprinting towards the last months -- ready or not -- before another big life change.

1. Geoff's going back to Seattle after our pre- and post- wedding hanging out time in Berlin. This time, he's bringing with him most of our wall decorations that we wish to keep (paintings, cuckoo clock, vintage posters, marionette, and some other knick knacks from our travels). It's helping the reality of moving sink in...

2. I am in the process of actively looking for jobs in Seattle, with some positive/encouraging progress. In May, I hope to ask for a day off to spend a long weekend interviewing with schools in Seattle. (So far, one interview is for sure. Another one during the same weekend would be fabulous to have, if I can get the extra day off and rebook my flight into Seattle.) These are two really great schools and they both seem quite interested in continuing the conversation of hiring me, so I'm feeling overall pretty hopeful with the job-search prospects.

Coupled with this, I also need to look into the logistics of filming my class just for about 10 minutes. Two different Seattle schools have offered this to me as an alternative to teaching a demo lesson on site. If I can get this working, I could just send the link to other schools that request the same...

3. In other news, since I'm the department chair, I am simultaneously interviewing potential people to hire into my current department. There's something that feels pretty funny about interviewing other people and being interviewed all at the same time, especially when some of those people I'm interviewing are supposed to fill my spot. One person I've interviewed so far is a rock star, and I hope secretly that he'll take the offer so that I can leave my students in good hands.

4. Next week will be my final full week of instruction with my Grade 12s, and also the last week of instruction before the semesterly mock exams in Grade 11. I feel quite excited to see how they will do!!

5. In Grade 9, we're doing my favorite 3-D project again. The kids are making good progress so far -- they've already gotten their designs/dimensions checked off, and half of the groups also had their calculated volumes already checked off. Next week, we'll be working on the surface area calculations, drawing 2-D nets, and starting the construction during class. EXCITED!!!

6. The sun is rolling in, slowly but surely. It's my favorite time of the year in Berlin!!! In May, there will be the annual Karnival der Kulturen, and in June, we're going to try to work out one last trip -- to Kiev (where my friend has offered for us to stay at her condo) or Vienna or Bamberg (with their unique "smoked beer"/rauchbier local breweries) or kayaking through / camping by the beautiful lakes surrounding Berlin. Lots to choose from, but so little time left!! I'm sad just thinking about it.

Germany: First Weeks

To put it mildly, Geoff and I have been very busy since our arrival in Germany 13 days ago. In those 13 days, I have: gone to the bank (twice) to start new bank accounts; gone to the school (twice) to do HR stuff and to meet my future administrators; registered with the city as a current resident and received a tax ID; seen a dentist/surgeon and made a follow-up appointment for wisdom teeth extraction for next week; gone to IKEA 3 times, in the rain, by subway and then a lot of walking each time (first time at IKEA, we were there for 8 straight hours, no joke); gone shopping at different stores nearly everyday for the apartment, since there is no equivalent of Walmart within subway reach of Berlin and our apartment needed fridge, washer/dryer, shower curtains, mirror in the bathroom, and everything else in between; run around to get our prepaid internet 3G stick/phones working; started to look for yoga studios and to explore our beautiful neighborhood; read two books on my new Kindle, and bought two more; confirmed that our permanent internet will be hooked up by early next week.

I know, that doesn't sound like a lot. It is. And that doesn't include building furniture, which Geoff pretty much did single-handedly (both because he's awesome and because he doesn't trust me to build our furniture).

First impressions of Berlin:

* Beautiful bike lanes throughout the city
* German girls are oozing with style, even on rainy days -- this is the first place I've lived where girls look simply decadent and fabulous in their black stockings with big holes (not by design).
* Everything is so do-it-yourself. I ordered an ice cream softie and they gave me a token. I mistook it for a Euro dollar, and put it away. When I got to the machine with my cone, I realized while examining the machine that it requires a token to get started. You put your cone inside the holder, insert the token, and press a button to start the automagic making of a perfect swirl. That's one of many examples of how Germany is awesomely efficient.
* I cannot say that Berliners are very nice to foreigners who don't speak German. I really don't intend on being one of those assholes who speak English everywhere, but when I say, "Haben sie wein fur cooking?" I expect them to not yell at me for sucking at life. I cannot wait to have time to study German.
* My new coworkers, the ones I've met anyway, are very worldly and interesting. I am hopeful!
* The toilets are shaped funny. Really. Check out this article.
* There are outdoor markets and farmer's markets EVERYWHERE! yay!!
* Berlin has a lot of ethnic food. So far, I've had decent Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, French cuisines, and some mediocre Indian, Tibetan, and Italian meals. There's a good falafel place just down the street from our apartment. And the cheese breads here are to die for! Brotchen mit kase!!
* As you would expect, the subway system is superb and runs on an honor system a lot like the lightrail system in Newark, NJ, where you get your ticket validated and the police only does pop checks for tickets, no turnstiles or anything. It makes me wonder what the overall loss/gain of profit is when you take away all those people who have to work full time at the NYC stations to monitor that no one is jumping the turnstiles, and you replace it with an honor system.
* One time fairly late at night, we had trouble getting home because all the trains were running on opposite tracks and only going for one stop because of construction. It was weird. Not something I would expect in Berlin. Even the locals were confused!
* On Sundays, everything closes. That's nice for two reasons: Everyone stays out until sunrise on Saturdays. You sleep in on Sundays until the afternoon, and then have a super lazy day afterwards.
* Here you can choose your electricity company from a list of various options (some are more eco-friendly than others but also cost more). And our "condense" dryer operates on humidity-sensor. In Germany, people really like to go for the natural stuff, so you can find Mango lassis on the street and people don't get general anesthesia for oral surgeries. I am discovering new things daily that remind me that I live in a first world country!
* Last but not least, I've been giving some thought to how we are all defined by our past, our present, and our future. My question (which will take me a while to answer) is how the current Germany is affected by its Nazi Germany past? Geoff asked someone about how many Jewish people live in Berlin. That person (a Berlin local) said that there are always German policemen stationed next to the Jewish schools for security reasons. Sadly, Neo-Nazis are still very much a real thing in parts of Europe, Germany included.

Anyway, that's it for now! I've got some big posts coming up. I'll get back to this Germany stuff later. Ciao!

Summer in Utah

Time for a little summer update, I guess.

1. I am in beautiful Utah! --Park City, to be exact. After the two intense weeks at KSI, the math program (thus far) in Park City has seemed much more like a vacation. I have not yet had any major "Aha!" moments about teaching since my arrival in Park City, but part of that could be because I was so overwhelmed with "Aha!" moments in Jersey and my plate is now already full of things that I want to try out for next year. In any case, PCMI is a fun math vacation for me, because they have allotted copious amounts of time for us to sit and grapple with superbly scaffolded math problems -- ones that are hard (and thus fun and addicting) for me. :) *doing the mathgeek snort*

In the evenings, there are usually great optional things, like when I went to one kite-building session with one of our fellow math tweeps, Barb! Last weekend, I was busy enjoying the nature and town life around us -- very different from our experience in Jersey during KSI (which was mostly workworkwork, even on the weekends)!

2. On the teaching front, I found out that I'll be teaching grades 7, 8, 9, 11, and 12 next year at my new school!!!!! I am pretty sure that actually means 5 preps (definitely 1 class per grade), and I'm terrified and SUPER EXCITED at the same time. (My certification is grades 7 through 12, so this will fill in all the holes in my resume if I can pull it off.) I have plans to sit down and to make a GIANT matrix of Big Ideas vs. grade levels and to brainstorm concrete projects or activities within each topic, so that I won't feel zapped of energy to be creative next year when I'm in the thick of it.

3. I move to Germany SO SOON! I am keeping my fingers crossed that we'll get the apartment we want. It's next to a high-demand, very happening neighborhood and is just under an hour of commute to work for me. If this doesn't work, I'll have less than 10 days when we arrive in Germany to find another place. That can get stressful very fast.

I've already subscribed to all the Berlin swing dance emails; never mind that they're in a language I don't understand. I can't wait to begin our life anew!! :)

Money Matters Associated with International Move

I wanted to write down some moving logistics for people who might find themselves in similar shoes as us later. Moving after having lived somewhere for two years is entirely different from moving abroad the first time, because...

* Now you have a bank account that you get your salary directly deposited into, that you have to close before you leave the country (without butchering any direct deposits).

* If you want to wire any money to your Stateside accounts, you have to allot about a week to do that BEFORE you close your foreign accounts.

* You have presumably been contributing to a foreign social security system, presumably with matched contribution from your school and presumably it's some significant amount of money that you wish to get back at some point. It's not totally straight forward how this is done, because if you want the full amount back (including your school's full contribution up to your length of contract), I believe the standard operation is to start the refund process AFTER you leave the country, which means someone else than you will have to pick up that refund for you...

* In order to take care of some of these things smoothly, you may have to transfer your power of attorney onto someone else who will remain in the residence country after you leave. Obviously, you should choose someone that you can trust, but also the paperwork process can be a bit of a hassle and take up to a week.

* If, like me, you are moving to another foreign country afterwards, you should contact the school well in advance to figure out if there are temporary places to store your stuff. In my case, I've had to wire over some advance payment to my relocation agency in order to get a storage unit started for me (which, again, takes time and some follow-up energy).

* Did I mention that you cannot assume that you will be able to afford the moving costs?? Good thing Geoff and I don't have much stuff, because the estimates we got from two different moving companies for our ridiculously few items were both around $2000. I guess that depends on where you're shipping from and to, but the point is that you want to look into this stuff early so that you will have options. In our case, the only things we're shipping are my teaching supplies, in small boxes. Everything else we're going to squeeze into our two suitcases per person as when we arrived here.

...Anyway, all things considered, I'd say that our moving process is going swimmingly. My only regret is that I am an idiot and didn't go in time to a Salvadoran doctor to get my wisdom teeth removed while it's still dirt cheap. (The doc refused to do it since I'm flying out in under 2 weeks.) But, I am hopeful that perhaps it won't be too bad under the German insurance to take care of this little weisheitszahn problem. (My first German word!)

Measurement Unit: Episodes 7, 8 (Liquid Density; Other Measurement Methods)

We're done! With the measurement unit!! All there is left to do is the test. (Or, for my regular kiddies: review, quiz, and then a test after we have remediated the quiz material.)

Lesson 7 in the unit was on liquid density. This one was my favorite, because the kids had to first discuss as a class how to measure the mass of a liquid. After they came up with the general idea, I had them take notes on the definition and procedure for finding "net weight," and we related it to the labels we see on packaged food containers. Kids were excited that they now knew what "net weight" on the corner of their cereal boxes meant!

I then had kids split up into groups of 2 or 3. They were instructed to work on a rather tricky practice sheet of conversions and volume problems, and I pulled out a few groups at a time to rotate around to do parts of the liquid density lab. They needed to measure the density of oil, water, and maple syrup using graduated cylinders and triple-beam balances. (To make this manageable, I gave each group a "clean" cylinder that they would use to find the weight of the container, and whenever they needed to pour the liquid into the container, they would use a "dirty" container that the groups before had used for the same liquid. This way, we didn't have to keep cleaning the graduated cylinders in between every group.) In the end, once ALL of the groups had finished gathering data, we discussed as a class what would happen if we were to pour all 3 liquids into the same graduated cylinder. Then, we tested it! I showed them that even if you flipped the container and straightened it back up, the liquids would still separate themselves. (--To a degree, anyway. The syrup and the water begin to mix gradually, since syrup is water-based and it gets diluted over time.)

It was super fun!! :) Now after this, the kids really have a good grasp of how to measure mass, net weight (net mass), volume, and what all of it means. Lovely!

For my honors kids (who are truly done-done with the whole unit, including the review... the other kids are still a couple of days behind), we followed it up with this: a reading on how to measure an elephant, and another on how to measure the oceans. We discussed the articles after they had read them individually, to make sure that they understood everything in the readings. (I try to insert some relevant reading into every unit to contribute to their literacy.*)



And they got a chance to try their hands at putting together the most complicated concepts in the unit -- making predictions about a 3-D container. (The second page of this was my favorite. It's tricky, unless you really have a good geometric understanding of how the whole container fits together!) Surprisingly, the kiddies didn't really need any help with most of this stuff...


After class, a kid came up to me and said, "These (last problems) are not hard. But, you really need to know your stuff!" It made me feel a little extra proud of them for recognizing their own growth.

I am now looking forward to trigonometry goodness. :)

*What do you do in your classroom to support literacy? I do a lot of making-kids-write-about-stuff, but not enough reading!!!

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PS. On the other-things front, I have accepted a job offer from an international school in Berlin! Geoff and I are SUPER excited. It's official news, and all of my bosses know and are happy for me. :) :)

Things to Consider

There are things I regularly think about, that I know I want. (Sorry if the list sounds very needy. I think we're all entitled to want things, as long as we're willing to put in the work to make them happen!) :)

I want to have my parents know my kids, if and when I have them.
I want to live in the same city, should one of my parents one day be left to live alone.
I want my kids to be able to speak Chinese and to know the stories of our family, fables from our culture.
I want to go back to school.
I want to get back to dancing multiple times a week.
I want to get better at dancing.
I want to learn another language, then another.
I want to be a better teacher tomorrow than today.

I want to work for a school that has PD built into their schedule and their budget.
I want a school that allows me to move around to teach different math classes over time.
I want a school that pays enough for me to travel and to put away money.
I want a school that has small classes.
I want a school where teachers plan collaboratively, where teachers support each other with lesson resources.
I want a school where I can have access to computers, projectors, math manipulatives.
I want a school that offers language classes for teachers.
I want a school whose administrators I feel I can trust.
I want a commute that is under an hour, that doesn't involve driving.

I want an apartment that I can afford, in a neighborhood where I feel safe to walk around at night.
I want to live in a city that has outdoors activities at least part of the time.
I want to live near an international airport.
I want to live in a country where it's (culturally and legally) okay to live together before marriage, where it's encouraged for young people to talk about birth control.

Those are the things that I think about, because I am who I am at this particular point in my life. They help me formulate the questions that I ask when I talk to school administrators, because I know that making an international job decision, in a way, is more complicated than it seems, but in another way cannot be simpler. You need to know exactly what you want out of your job, your home, and your life. And then just really go for it.

PS. Shockingly, it's looking like I might not go to the job fair in London after all! A good opportunity has crept up (from my massive November/December email campaign) that just might turn into a solid offer. If so, then Geoff and I will have to make some quick decisions next week...

Interview Attire

(Disclaimer: This entry isn't about teaching. Those of you who prefer the teaching posts should probably move right along...)

In these last few days of copious spare time before school resumes next Monday, I want to make sure that I nail down the last few details about job searching, so that I wouldn't have to worry about it later this month when everythingstartstohappenatonce. One of those details is picking out some appropriate interview outfits -- not an easy/trivial task, mind you! I want to make sure that I would look extra sharp in London, so that in case a school has a hidden interview slot (as they often do... they always hold out, in case someone sparkly comes along at the last second), they would be willing to give me a shot when I approach their interview sign-up table.

So, I went out and got a haircut this week (a mistake, because as it turns out, my hair is shorter and wavier and less manageable now), bought some new high heels (my old ones are broken at the heels part, after I made the unfortunate attempt to walk across the city of Buenos Aires with them on New Year's Eve), and set out to find some new shirts to replace the stained "money" shirt I had worn to some previous interviews. And, curses! After wasting hours at the mall, I decided that the stores here generally lack professional-looking shirts for women, likely because rich Salvadoran women don't generally wear cotton button-down shirts to work. In fact, a vast majority of well-off Salvadoran women don't work at all! Nooooooooo...

(I am very sure that it's a gender bias thing, because those same stores here sell plenty of dress pants and button-down shirts and ties for men!! For women, all they had were sexy, frilly silk shirts and tight jeans to go with, that would definitely not look very professional in an interview setting.)

So, I was back to square one. I came home and jigsaw-pieced together, to the best of my ability, three outfits that would carry me through a long weekend of interviews. In the end, my sister (the style guru) told me to try to handwash again the stains that never came off of my dry-cleaned clothes. I did that in desperation, but we'll see how well that works when the clothes are actually dry tomorrow.

Anyway, that was a very long-winded intro to this question for you ladies: What do you typically wear to an interview? Or, do you think that it matters very little and you just throw on whatever you normally wear to work?

(I find that my best-looking interview clothes come from Ann Taylor. They're so much more expensive than regular work clothes, so I generally keep them in the closet and try not to damage them. But, the material is so great and sturdy; I feel like even if the world started to fall apart in front of me, I would still look cool and collected. Is that silly??)

Things useful to have in a job search

Since I've been looking for a job recently for 2011-2012, I thought I'd throw out there what I think is useful to have in a job search, at least if you are looking for job through cold email contacts. Some of this might be super common sense.

1. A nice cover letter with a photo. Everyone likes photos, and a compact, nicely written cover letter can immediately set you up as a purposeful applicant.

2. A CV instead of a resume. Why? To me, a CV is more comprehensive. My CV starts off with a one-paragraph summary of myself, to be followed up by my list of experiences and academic achievements underneath. Now that I am on my third job, I think a one-page resume isn't really sufficient to highlight my accomplishments, once you take away the space for my name and contact info. Besides, if a school can't even take the time to look through the second page of an already condensed CV, they're not likely going to make a great employer, right?

3. Open reference letters (with contact details). Nothing replaces confidential references, but open letters are nice to have, because if a school is not sure whether you are a viable candidate, these could tip the scale without them having to jump through the hoops of contacting each reference. Open letters are also nice to have because you get to keep and re-use them for later. So, if you get a couple of letters from each school you've worked at, you could easily have a bunch of letters on file after a while. Your reference letters should include some supervisor letters, obviously, but you may also include those of former professors, co-planning colleagues, and student parents. My portfolio contains all of the above, because they each highlight a very different strength.

4. A website. Mine is very simple (sorry, no links here because I don't want to mess up the stats I am tracking), but I think it's pretty straight-forward and effective. You link to your CV, provide an email link, provide a summary of yourself, a picture, and a list of "testimonials." It sounds mad cheesy, but it works. The point of a website is so that when you send unsolicited emails, the school heads aren't annoyed when you send unsolicited attachments as well. And the testimonials, as cheesy as they are, are supposed to make you sound more attractive at first glance.

Anyway, I've contacted a good number of schools, just sort of on a first-round basis. I've heard back from some of them, but few definitely-interested ones at this point. I'm not worried; I am going to that fair in London in January and I'm sure things will sort themselves out at the fair. But, my goal before that is to contact ~50 schools. (It seems like a very obtainable number, considering that I have amazingly already contacted about 30 schools.) So, here we go! :)

By the way, recruitment fairs are totally the way to go, if you ever want to go for an international teaching job. It's quite a bit of a hassle to collect all of the necessary confidential references by ~November, but you get invaluable face time with each school, and those schools can follow up on your file before and after the fair (if you choose the right recruitment agency to go with). A lot of schools won't even consider cold-email candidates, since it saves them a lot of work to go through a recruitment agency.

For me, I do the international teaching thing because I love to travel. And I love new languages. It doesn't preclude me from the possibility of settling down in the States in the future and/or working at a public school again, although these days there is definitely less tying me down to the States...

Life Matters

Brain dump. For me, mostly.

* The whole tax business in El Salvador is pretty funny to me. To start, we have a sidewalk tax. It's about $3.95 a year, and (I think) it means that you are allowed to use the sidewalk for the next 12 months. Then, when April comes around, you have to go in person to turn in your income tax forms. They don't accept it by mail or by internet. (But they do accept other people turning it in on your behalf. Strange.) And then, about 6 months later, you go pick up your refund -- in cash!! -- at any branch of Banco Agricola. At that point, the bank teller will tell you that they cannot issue you a check. So, if you're like me, you lug hundreds of dollars in cash while walking back from the bank -- an extra exciting experience in this country. It's strangeness all around.

* New York State Department of Ed is also pretty funny. A while ago, I was trying to get a duplicate copy of my teaching certificate, for job-searching purposes and also in case my current school gets audited. I went online, logged into the TEACH system, paid my $25 dollars, and then only afterwards saw a fine print somewhere on a totally separate FAQ page that they have, in fact, stopped the service of printing paper certificates for "time-limited teaching certificates!" In fact, they have completely eliminated the job of the person who used to print the paper certificates! Well, at this point, my options were to A.) pay another 50 bucks to upgrade my certification, still 3 years before the current one is going to expire, or B.) forget the paper copy. My potential employers and the Salvadorean Ministry of Education are going to just have to make do with my print-screen version of the "teaching certificate."

I was pretty mad (and almost equally amused). But, I am pretty stingy as well, so I decided to wait it out. --What do you know? Two or three weeks later, I get my duplicate certificate in the mail. :)

* I am about 85% sure I will be going to London in January for a job fair. I was waiting for days on a confirmation from my recruiters that my application and recommendations and payment all checked out, before I made travel arrangements. I had to follow up with them, because I noticed that the airfare had dropped $140 over the weekend (from $1100 to about $950). So, finally, I heard back from them this morning, and I rushed to log in to Kayak to buy the tickets. --Guess what? They're back up to $1100. And that's not including paying the recruiters, or hotel or food. So, that's all very expensive, and I'm back to being in a limbo about whether this is the right move. There is a good chance I won't get a job at this fair (for various reasons, timing and my lack of IB experience being the key ones), but if I don't go, I know I will regret it when I am stuck still looking for a job in April........

* Incredibly (as though I don't already have enough to do in the middle of job-searching and preparing kids for midterms), I am also working on applying to a summer program. I've already written my personal statement, put in orders for my transcripts (both undergrad and grad), and given the recommendation forms to my supervisors. I am feeling like this is not going to all pan out, but I feel OK about it. In case you can't tell, I am practicing being more of a go-getter, and my backup plan for the summer is to go to Herrang (in Sweden) during their month-long swing dance camp, and to dance until my legs break into pieces.

So, that's it. All of the things floating around in my head!

The Next Big Move

It's official: I am looking for a new job! Geoff and I had decided a few months ago that we wanted to move to Europe after this school year, the reason being that in a few years, we might be married with kids and will not have the same freedom we have now to travel and look around.

It took me a while to tell all three of my supervisors (mostly because they're each insanely busy, and it's not one of those things you want to say during the passing period), but now the deed is done. Next up: Looking for a job!! Scary. I don't have IB experience, which is a biggie when looking for European jobs, so Geoff and I will have to be extra flexible. But, we're hopeful that since I'm starting relatively early (now), that I'll find a job by June 2011. :) (Geoff's working on getting his British passport in the meanwhile.) The exciting part is that we get to go to somewhere different, that hopefully will also allow me to teach something different (ie. AP Calculus or IB)!

So, keep your fingers crossed for me that I won't be jobless (and homeless) by June.

Weekend at a Beach House

Since a couple of people have asked: Yes! We finally have cell-phone service and internet at home!! :) :) It took 5 trips down to the Claro store, but we eventually prevailed. The funny thing is that their computer system is so archaic, that 1. Even after we had submitted all of the necessary documents, we had to wait another few hours in the store for the guys to finish inputting everything into the computer, and 2. We had to go back the next day (Trip #6) to purchase a related monthly service, since the computer system does not update in real-time and it would take 24 hours for the system to begin recognizing us as existing customers. Goodness. We were in that store for so long each time just sitting and waiting, that the (extremely nice) sales clerk even taught me the word aburrido, meaning "boring."

The good news is that Geoff purchased a mobile internet service that would allow him to do work at any time on his laptop, even if our home network is down. If we decide to start traveling, we can also tag on $10 a month to extend the mobile coverage to other Central American countries, like Guatemala and Costa Rica, so that he can log on at any time and do emergency fixes. Pretty sweet.

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Geoff and I spent a chunk of the weekend at an amazing beach house, along with the rest of the new international hires and their families. The beach house is owned by our principal, and -- I don't know what I had expected before getting there, but -- I was completely blown away by how luxurious it was. We had driven a long time to get there, since it was near the border of Guatemala, and by the time we were finally there, it was dark. We had passed various corn and sugar cane fields (El Salvador is lush with agriculture), and eventually turned down a bumpy little alley way. His maid's family came to open the front gate, and it looked almost like we had arrived on a FARM!! He has so much land in front of the house, that he actually keeps two goats, a big dog, and a number of roosters as pets. The house itself is gorgeous, with brick arches everywhere and a feeling of openness typical to this warm-weathered country. The back yard has a serious pool, some hammocks, an outdoors sitting area, and it opens right onto a beautiful sandy beach that is essentially private. There are palm trees everywhere in front of and behind his house, and his maid's family has done a fabulous job with the upkeep of it all.

Needless to say, the next day or so was extremely relaxing. Even though the electricity was out for a good amount of time during our stay, the people were great and we had a good time anyway. We swam in the ocean, chatted late into the night, read and napped in the hammocks, and drank many a coconut's juice. Geoff also went running in the morning with Brian along the beach, and even played a song or two on Eric's guitar for everyone! It was really a beautiful time. :)

After we got back from the beach house, Geoff and I finally set up a sort of bare-bones "entertainment system" for ourselves at home. We can download movies off of BitTorrent fairly easily, and then if we hook the computer up to our mini stereo-radio-thing, then we can watch movies in our bedroom. Hurray! We spent a lazy Sunday cooking, drinking, swimming, listening to Spanish lessons, and watching movies... I highly recommend He's Just Not That Into You, a decidedly gender-neutral flick. ;) (No, seriously -- Geoff liked it a lot, too.)

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It's looking like I'll have to go out and purchase some practical things this week, including short-sleeved work shirts and a battery-powered alarm clock. This morning, our power was out, and if that had happened on a school day, my plugged-in radio alarm wouldn't have worked, and I would have surely been late to school. That's a Must Fix! :(

We're learning to cope with the unreliable infrastructure here, slowly but surely. This is the third time in less than 3 weeks that we have experienced power outage -- each time in a different setting -- so there is a good chance that this is a common occurrence around here. Along with the electricity goes the water, since the water we use is pumped from underground somewhere. Just have to learn to roll with the punches, that's all.

Zones, Roads, and Mail

The country of El Salvador is divided into 14 departamentos, or states. Within each state are many cities, or ciudads. Geoff and I reside in the city of San Salvador, which is also located in the state of San Salvador. This city is the capital city of the country, but even within it there appears to be a vast disparity in wealth. The city further subdivides into zonas, or zones. Our apartment is in Colonia de San Benito, which -- depending on whom you ask -- is either itself a tiny zone spanning a few blocks in diameter, or is embedded in a bigger zone (Zona Rosa). In any case, we finally got some sort of address for the apartment when we signed the lease, but even without it, our mattress delivery guys had figured out where to find us based only on the zone information and the building name. Because the city is so small and compact, things are easy to find here and addresses are not too specific.

That said, we still need to test out our address before we set up permanent mail-forwarding from the States. Geoff has been doing a good amount of research, and it looks like we can either get a service that scans in our mail, or one that forwards them periodically without examining the mail. I think we are going with the latter. For now, all of our mail is sent to and held by Geoff's parents in New Jersey.

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Speaking of geography, trying to find a good city map here has been nearly impossible, and I have just about given up on the notion altogether. A free map that we got from a local restaurateur has turned out to be the best thus far. It highlights the roundabouts and major streets, even though it does unfortunately omit certain smaller streets. The roundabouts are important, because here you are very restricted in where you can make left turns. I would say maybe one out of every 6 or 7 streets allows left turns, and -- because the streets themselves curve -- before you know it, you are already going in the wrong direction altogether. The roundabouts are useful in allowing you to make all kinds of turns. Another traffic peculiarity here is that when you come to an intersection of two major streets, where there is no roundabout there is often a road bridge that raises the traffic from one road to be above the other. This avoids unnecessary waiting at the intersection, and is actually very useful, if you're familiar enough with the roads to anticipate the intersection. Their labeling of the roads is different from that of the States. When I get a chance, I'll take a picture. Geoff and I had a wild ride on the first day, trying to figure out what those signs mean and where we were on the map...

But, all is well. :) Still missing internet and phone services, but for now Geoff and I are stealing wireless bandwidth from our neighbor, so things are OK. I also miss dancing, but until we buy a car and are able to get out more regularly, my assignment for myself is to expand my jazz collection and jazz knowledge. It's something I had always wanted to do, but hadn't had time for. If you have killer jazz playlists, please do send them my way. :) Adios!

Dinero, Manejo, y Otras Cosas

Everyone here rocks the Hamiltons, or $10. In fact, that is the largest denomination dispursed by the ATM. :)

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In El Salvador, since the late 90s there has existed a privatized Social Security system. Anyone who works in El Salvador would see an automatic payroll deduction (for me, I believe it will be roughly 6.5%), but it is money that they can reclaim either at retirement, as pension, or at the time when they permanently leave the country, as a lump sum. Employers also contribute to this Social Security. The same Social Security system also provides a form of socialized health care in this country. Although foreigners like us are also eligible for the ubiquitous health care, they typically go to private doctors to avoid the long lines (and to ensure "better care", whatever that means) -- hence the private health insurance that we pay for. But, it's good to know that the poor is somewhat provided for in this country, at least in theory.

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Thus far, Geoff and I have had a fantastic experience in El Salvador! People have been super friendly and helpful -- not to mention extremely patient with our Spanish. Things are definitely much slower here, except when we are driving. As in many developing countries, speed limits and traffic signs/signals work more as recommendations than as hard-and-fast rules here. Even lane divisions aren't so clear-cut; people habitually cross over to the opposite lane (in face of on-coming traffic) in order to pass a slower car. Maybe surprisingly, the craziest drivers appear to be those of busses. On our first day with a car rental, Geoff and I had a few close encounters with busses coming at us at full speeds while we are stopped, or witnessing bus drivers making 3-point turns in the middle of a busy street! Holy mother of God. They are CRAZY! Also crazy is the fact that pedestrians are literally everywhere. In the busier parts of town, at every traffic light there would be teenagers coming up to wash your windshield. They don't take "no" for an answer, even though most cars do not pay them for the unsolicited service. The same goes for street vendors who weave in and out of traffic to sell all kinds of stuff. We even saw a juggler in front of a taxi cab that was stopped at a light. On the way to the beach last weekend, we also saw cows and horses walking unsupervised alongside the cars on the highway. One kid crossed the highway in front of us on a skinny horse, which he was spurring along with a random tree branch. Geoff and I could not stop exclaiming how crazy people are down here, but it seems to be just a way of life for them, no hay drama.

I really like how things are different here. As it turns out, getting an apartment wasn't so hard; obtaining a permanent visa also seems to be fairly straight forward, albeit a matter of time. What Geoff and I have spent the last few days agonizing over, ironically enough, is setting up our phone and internet services. To get those set up, not only do we need a passport and a NIT card, but we also need apartment contracts and formal letters from my school, vouching for my employment contract and salary. And, as you can imagine, pulling those details together is not just a matter of hours, especially down here. It is a bit frustrating, because even though we are gaining basic Spanish proficiency pretty fast, it isn't helping to hurry along the settling-in process, and Geoff is losing time daily for work as long as he does not have reliable internet access at home...

I am holding my breath that everything will be OK by the end of today. The 85-degree ocean is, too, holding its breath...

First Tasks

Upon arrival in El Salvador, the customs officers issue you a 90-day tourist visa at the border. After that, your first order of business should be to obtain a "NIT" card.

The NIT, Número de Identificación Tributaria, is the local equivalent of the Taxpayer Identification Number, issuable to any individual who holds a valid passport -- even if they only have a 90-day tourist visa. It is a stepping stone to doing other important things, like setting up a local bank account.

Fortunately for us, one of the school staffers took Geoff and me to apply for a NIT on the first day. The whole process took about 10 minutes and 50 cents. --You read that right, 50 cents! For both of us combined! The same awesome lady also took me to open a local bank account, which took significantly longer. There were a lot of papers to sign, and it looked like the only reason why things went through so smoothly was because I was backed by the Escuela Americana staffer.

Then, Geoff and I spent the rest of the day looking at apartments (putting what little Spanish we know to the test). Even though there is still paperwork stuff to iron out, we are pretty sure we have found our first home! yay! For future reference, doing everything in El Salvador is about whom you know. There is no Craigslist or real-estate agency... You go look at apartments that are owned by a friend-of-a-friend, or by the mom of a cousin of a co-worker. Pretty funny. :)

Keeping our fingers crossed, Geoff and I will be in our home by Sunday, minimally settled by next week (with cellular phones and internet access all hooked up, and our bed delivered), so that we can start taking surf lessons! :) (As it turns out, one of my new co-workers dates one of the top-ranked surfers in El Salvador, and he offers $10 surf lessons... As you might expect, Geoff has already enthusiastically chatted him up and gotten him to agree to teach us to surf!)

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Incidentally, I looked it up briefly out of curiosity, and it looks like the requirements for getting a tax ID number are indeed much stricter in the US than in El Salvador, as one might expect. As a foreigner looking to apply for a Social Security number, you would have to either prove that you have permission to work in the States or prove that you are part of a federal program (ie. federal funding) that requires an SSN.

As for opening US bank accounts as a foreigner, the process is so mind-bogglingly complex that I would have to recommend browsing through this link to get a sense of the difficulties involved. It is pretty insane how unfriendly the US framework is to foreign businesses, and yet how many people still want to do business with us. ...For now, anyway.

Last-minute preparations

Last day before flying out! Perhaps predictably, these last few days have been very busy. Most of it has been purely logistical.

• Getting follow-up immunization shots. I am now mostly immunized against common illnesses in Central America. Among other things, you can stab me a few times with a rusty knife, and I will still be OK (possibly unhappy, but physically OK).


• Printing out handy docs. We will be meeting up at the hotel, so we each will need a copy of the hotel reservations to get through customs. We may also need each other's itineraries (in case the customs folks give us trouble) and maps to the hotel...


• Mailing teaching materials to El Salvador. Note to future mailers of packages: You will need to fill out American customs forms for your goodies, and the items will be held at the Salvadorean customs for me to pick up.


• Scanning important documents. We are storing all of the actual copies at Geoff's parents' place, but we will be bringing digital versions with us. That includes teaching papers, medical reports, my diploma and transcripts, etc.


• Doing last rounds of laundry, packing, taking measurements and weights of packages. Even though it differs a bit from airline to airline, generally speaking, we are each allowed two check-in bags weighing 50 lbs, with "linear measurements" of 62 inches or less. Linear measurements indicate length + width + height. Because of the various constraints, we have had to change up our plans and go with regular suitcases instead of the sexy duffel bags. In the end, our suitcases are too wide to sit directly on top of our scales, so Geoff has had to weigh himself standing on top of the scales with and without holding the luggage, in order to find out their weights. It's a good technique to use, if you ever find yourself in a similar situation! :)


• Storing things at Geoff's parents' place. There are a few sentimental things I needed to keep, like Frankie Manning's signed autobiography, my HKN scrapbook, some baby pictures, and my old records. Besides that, Geoff is storing some clothes and shoes, his guitar, and various paperwork.


• Booking a hotel. We will be staying temporarily at the Tazumal Guesthouse, hopefully only for a few days while we look for a permanent apartment. It's a pretty cheap place -- $40 a day between the two of us. We are keeping our fingers crossed that they will have reliable internet and allow Geoff to do some work while we are in transit. If you don't hear from us within a week after our arrival in El Salvador, you'll know where to begin looking for missing bodies. --Just kidding! Sort of. harhar.


• Buying medical supplies. It looks like both CVS and Duane Reade have stopped selling the facial lotion that I use. A bit worrisome, but I bought an alternative type instead. Hopefully it will not make me break out while I am down in San Salvador. We have both replenished our supplies of contact lenses. I have also gone and refilled my inhaler meds. Even though my Albuterol is almost out and so is my prescription for that type of emergency inhaler, I think I will be OK to have just my Advair and the allergy meds for a while, as long as we don't move into a cat farm.


• Figuring out our insurance plans. Geoff researched various options of international insurance plans, and has hopped on board with Goodhealth already. I will be covered by EduCare, which seems to have a pretty good coverage both within the States and in El Salvador. The best part is that the school covers 75% of the premium for me. The bad part is that dental and vision are not covered. I may have to look around for a vision insurance when I get there. (It's not a big deal in the short term, but I do need to go to the ophthalmologist regularly to check up on my retina. There is a chance that I could need emergency surgery some day, despite my optimism...)


• Cleaning Geoff's apartment. Living in a transitional place with transitional roommates and no lease is great for commitment-phobes like us, but as you can imagine, the bathroom is grimy! ugh. This was definitely my least favorite part of moving.


• Bonus: Geoff has had to spend hours dealing with some unexpected technical snafoo. :( Thankfully, it all worked out beautifully in the end.

...But, with all of that said, I think we are finally, finally ready to go. This is where the craziness starts!!

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PS. What do you think we are doing in NYC on the eve of our departure? --We are heading up to midtown to grub on Chicken and Rice, and then heading over to Lincoln Center to buy Spanish-English phrasebooks and to watch the midnight showing of Harry Potter! :) There is no doubt that we are going to miss NYC... what a great city.

My Inner Frannie

The CDC recommends that travelers receive Hep A, Hep B, Typhoid, and Tetanus shots prior to traveling to El Salvador. So, today I went downtown to a doctor to get those shots. Geoff had already gone there last week and had said that some of the shots would require a follow-up dose; my going today would allow for that buffer period to pass before I could get the second dose.

As it turns out, getting properly immunized is very expensive! In fact, neither the cost of the travel vaccines nor the visitation fee is covered by most insurance policies. When the nurse broke it down for me, I was flabbergasted. --In all, that would mean $250 for the visit alone, and another $360 for the shots! Holy smokes.

I was actually outraged over the amount of money that the girl had stated. I figured that there had to be some sort of mistake or loophole. Wishfully, I called up my insurance company, but they confirmed the disheartening fact that they would cover no part of the fees. Frustrated and desperate (and really, shameless), I ended up talking to the nurses for a while, because I wanted them to help me find a solution. They wanted me to go back on Wednesday, after they have a chance to consult their "fees person" about giving me a discount. That wasn't an option for me, since even going there today had required me to leave work early, and leaving early on Wednesday is absolutely out of the question. But, I also did not think I wanted to be a cowgirl about paying the $600 today. So, I kept asking if there was anyone she could talk to who was there...

Eventually, the girl relented and went to go talk to the doc, and they both agreed to turn the visit into a consultation for my chronic asthma condition. That way, they could legitimately bill my insurance for the visit, and I would only have to pay for the shots themselves. --Score! So, not only did I end up saving more than $200 on the visit today, but I also got some free allergy medicine samples and some free asthma advice! Good stuff.

--Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I hustled them today. ;) The whole time while I was talking to the nurse, I had pictured my friend Olajide in my head. I knew that if she was there, she'd be hustlin' them like mad, so I did my best to invoke my inner Frannie. And it actually worked. wow. :)

De-clutter

I have started to pack and clean up my stuff! Today was day 1, and I threw out a bunch of stuff. Things I still need to do in terms of packing and cleaning:

• Send my nice dresses out for dry-cleaning.
• DO LAUNDRY, and start packing away clothes that I want to keep.
• Bring old clothes down to the Salvation Army.
• Return my reference textbooks to the school.
• Donate my own books to the local library.
• Take pictures of my gazillions of old cards / photos and then get rid of the hard copies.
• Go through my paper documents to keep only the absolute necessary things, and throw out the rest.
• Mail only my favorite reference books to El Salvador.
• CONTINUE TO THROW OUT STUFF!!

For once in my life, I want to be clutter-free, even though I know that it will be hard to do. (I came across some old cards from dear friends while cleaning, and felt instantly sentimental.) :)

My Little Nemeses

I contacted my future supervisor, and he told me that they are planning on having me teach regular Geometry (9th grade) and honors Algebra 2 (10th grade). :) I'm excited! Please forward me any info you might have about good reference material for Geometry, so that I can make this class fun!! :) That will no doubt be my challenge in the upcoming year...

Some other things I will need to get before heading out:

• Inhaler refills
  
• Contact lenses


• Some sort of insect-repellent thing (...Yes, I get bitten that much! I am a little worried about Dengue fever, actually.)


• Passport photos (for visa apps)

Last night, Geoff and I had decided to leave the window open while sleeping, since it had been sweltering in my room. Within two hours of going to bed, I woke up to find both of my legs covered in mosquito bites! It was sick. I counted at least 10 bites in all, and they were already so swollen and itchy that they had woken me up. I had to actually close the window, slap on a layer of toothpaste (a home remedy that always works for me), and then cover my head and body entirely with a blanket, because I knew that if I had left my face out in the open, the mama mosquitoes would munch happily on my face like they had done in D.C.

Today, Geoff told me that he does not think he was bitten last night at all. That's crazy! I did some research, but could not find any satisfactory explanation for why I am always bitten so badly. I don't sweat much, and I don't use perfumed lotion! >:( Ridiculous! ...What is even worse is that supposedly the mosquitoes can smell you from 100 feet away! WHAT??!!

Duffel bags

Okay, so maybe I won't need a duffel bag that is so big that I can fit myself comfortably into it. But, that doesn't mean that I should preclude the possibility that I might.

So, I went and got two of these from a local army store at $35 each. As my students would say, "That's OD!" :)

Departure date!

We finally have a projected date of departure: July 15! --Or at least, that is when I will be leaving; hopefully Geoff will be able to book a flight on that same day as well. :) The rest of the new international staffers will be arriving around July 23, which means that we have roughly one extra week to find an apartment and to settle in before my orientation starts.

In other news, Geoff has sent out evites for our goodbye party, which will be on the last Saturday of June. Seeing that both Geoff and I are playing-by-ear types, I am truly amazed by how early these are going out, but his mom -- the hostess of hostesses -- had been anxious about not knowing how many people will be in attendance, so some parental pressure was definitely involved in making this early evitation happen. :) I don't know how many New Yorkers are going to trek out to Jersey to party with us, but it is going to be a good time regardless! At the Coxes', drinks are always flowing merrily...

Translation: I'm going to throw up on someone's foot, and my boyfriend is going to piss on my leg. Just sayin'.