Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Bump In The Road


Well, as we continue to prepare for our move, something frustrating was bound to happen. I spent 6 1/2 hours on the phone between airlines and our company travel advisor arranging for the dogs to get on the plane with us. It was emotionally draining to say the least....good times!! It is simply amazing everything you have to accomplish and have in order for pets to travel overseas with you. Health certificates have to go to Washington, back to me, to Saudi Consulate in Houston, back to me...blah blah blah. FedEx knows me all too well at this point. I received the final authenticated documents yesterday morning and then made the call to make the pet reservations...simple right?? Not so much. Our original connecting flight out of Frankfurt, Germany doesn't allow pets AT ALL. I can fit these two chumps in my pocket, but that doesn't matter. There are strict guidelines in place for different airlines and I found that out the hard way. Soooo, after 6 plus hours on the phone (and a lot of Vodka :) ) it was finalized, and the dogs are confirmed to travel in the cabin with us. Our entire itinerary changed and now we fly Dallas to Houston, Houston to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Saudi. The one thing that makes this all worthwhile is that ARAMCO is so good to their employees. We travel first class all the way which will make the 16 hours of flight more comfortable.

https://www.klm.com/travel/us_en/prepare_for_travel/on_board/travel_classes/index.htm
A link above to our World Business Class description...makes you feel important ;)

We have 16 days remaining...thanks for reading, more later. - Jeffrey

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Starting the Process


Angie and I started the moving process which consists of going through everything we both own and deciding what to give to friends, to sell, to store, and most importantly...to ship overseas to Saudi Arabia. On Tuesday of last week, we emptied the storage unit and moved it all into our apartment garage. Our plan is to sift through it all, reorganize, and start to make decisions on what goes where. As of today (Saturday), we have accomplished quite a bit. A lot of things are set aside for friends and others who could use things we just simply no longer need. A large amount made it to Goodwill. We have labeled boxes "SEA" and "AIR" as someone will stop by next Friday to do the survey for our shipment. ARAMCO provides the shipping allowance and will take care of it all. We have a 10,000 pound weight limit for our SEA freight and a 400 pound limit for our AIR freight. Angie and I both get an AIR freight box which they suggest for clothes, certain appliances, etc... Half of Angie's closet will consume hers lickety-split :) I can throw my entire closet into 2 large suitcases, so I will be using my AIR freight for school stuff I want over there soon. I am fairly certain some of Angie's belongings will find their way into mine. The SEA freight arrives approximately 3 months after departure and our AIR freight will arrive 3-4 weeks after our departure. The pic above in our garage is before we began this super-duper fun process and consists mostly of school stuff (minus the washer/dryer set)...I know, right??

Thanks for reading...more later. -JA

Monday, June 14, 2010

ISS Job Fair - Boston 2010 Conclusion

We went into the Tuesday interviews with high expectations. We knew we had drawn interest from quite a few schools, but some were not at the top of our list. Angie and I thought it was best that we needed to take advantage of every interview for experience and practice, and so we tried to schedule as many as we could as we entered the doors. We headed to our priority spots and then to others which had contacted us through our folders. We had NO idea that the school we chose (and ultimately chose us) would be one that was nowhere on our radar. We had offers from Moscow, China, Indonesia, and 3 schools in Saudi Arabia after Tuesday interviews...we canceled interviews with 4 others on Tuesday due to our offer from Saudi Aramco. They were hands down the best interview and had the most to offer. What made our decision so easy was with whom we interviewed...the Superintendent of schools is by far one of the nicest individuals we have met! He has such a presence about him and took sincere interest in explaining everything to us. At one point, I remember telling him "You just need to convince her (pointing to Angie), I am comfortable with everything"....and he did. Everything Aramco has to offer floors most people with whom we share this. It truly is an incredible opportunity and chance of a lifetime. Not only are we going to save quite a bit of money, but we will have the opportunity to travel the world, and also get back in the classroom with kids...where we both want to be. They (Aramco Schools) have been so kind and helpful to us. We have contact with the other newly hired teachers headed over there as well as current teachers and administrators of our elementary school. They want to make sure we feel comfortable before our move, August 5th.

I have so much more I could share, including details of our interviews, but it is just so much to take in...and to type :) We came back from Boston exhausted, yet hopeful. We were informed (by Aramco) that the hiring process would take some time, and they were right...3 1/2 months later, we got the phone call that said we could resign from our current jobs. For what SAS has to offer educators wanting to be a part of their school system, I certainly do not blame the lengthy process. It is completely worth it!!! And so now, we prepare for our move. So much to do and so many things to take care of...but we are both finished with school and can devote our time and energy to the wedding and the move. We are extremely excited about this entire adventure. Thank you for allowing us to share with you. More later.

Thank you for reading...JA

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

ISS Job Fair - Boston 2010 part deux

As I said previously, we had a few schools contact us through our folder but it wasn't what we wanted, so we were a bit discouraged. Well, when we went back to check our folder again, more schools had contacted us. This lifted our spirits a little since we had no idea what to expect from the job fair. The same day we arrived, we ended up interviewing with a school (w/ the Superintendent) in Saudi Arabia and a school in Moscow. What we quickly learned is that most schools take advantage of people who are there early and highly qualified, so we had 2 interviews before the actual interviewing day on Tuesday. We were offered positions on the spot from one school and the other offered us positions the next morning. We strongly considered one, but dismissed the other for our own reasons.

Funny thing...on our way to dinner Monday evening, we go back and check our folder (after our interviews and an information seminar) and have a ton of school business cards and folders wanting us to stop by their tables Tuesday morning. We were extremely happy about the possibilities at this time. We had a nice dinner and looked over all the information to prepare for Tuesday.

Thanks for reading. I need to peace out...to be continued.

ISS Job Fair - Boston 2010 part 1

We had everything ready to go. We had done extensive research on the schools with which we wanted interviews. Our resumes were updated and printed. Suitcases packed. We arrived in Boston on Monday, Feb. 8th, and took a cab to the hotel. We booked rooms where the actual job fair was being held. It was a nice place with access to lots of restaurants and a nice mall. We checked in around noon and went to the room. We decompressed a bit, changed clothes and headed down to register and look in our folders. They had folders for us where schools would drop information in if they wanted to interview or visit. We looked in our folder and didn't have much at all...I looked at Angie and she was so discouraged. I told her it was okay and that we needed to be patient and more would arrive (in the back of my mind, I was also very discouraged but wanted to stay positive for her). It was still early in the day and interviews didn't begin until the next day, Tuesday 9th...or so we thought. We walked around to get familiar with the conference rooms and the hotel in general. We looked over our paperwork and discussed our game plan.

Thanks for reading...To be continued.

How it all started...

For those of you not completely familiar with the background of our story, let me drop some knowledge for you. I grew up overseas from the age of 2 to 15. My stepdad worked for Halliburton and we would move every two years. We lived in Scotland, Singapore, Spain, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. It was an amazing childhood for me and made me more tolerant, understanding, and appreciative of all cultures and diversity in the world. I grew up without prejudice and my parents raised me to respect other cultures. My brother, sister, and I always attended American schools where other kids from all over the world also attended, many being from the United States. We came back to Oklahoma in October of 1987 and finished Jr. High and High School.

Since graduating from college in 1997, I always thought it would be nice to get back overseas someday, as a teacher. I made the effort to begin the process in 2002. I completed all application requirements, paid my fees to ISS (International School Services), and was about to buy my plane ticket to Philadelphia for the ISS job fair. I ended up needing shoulder surgery from baseball and it kept me from attending the job fair, also losing $500 of fees...awesome! So, I finished my Masters in Education Administration and packed my things for Texas in 2004. Administrative opportunities were far better and teacher pay was better. I taught 3 years in Texas and was an Assistant Principal for 3 years. Okay...that should catch you up to now.

Angie and I were in Jamaica last summer (2009) for vacation and met a couple who teach in Germany. We had dinner with them and asked a ton of questions. They were very gracious and helpful as we were very interested in how it all worked. This recaptured my desire to pursue it once again. Angie was on board and willing to at least attend the job fair in Boston (February, 2010). We spent the majority of October through January doing research on schools overseas. I still had my profile and application with ISS and Angie created one. I am not going to lie...it was a lot of work and extremely stressful at times, since we were both also committed to our jobs in Texas, and had plenty to do. I spent many days working until 8 or 9 at night sending resumes and applications to more than 30 different schools all over the world. There were many schools we didn't contact for different reasons. Since we were applying as a "couple", we had to seek out schools which had openings for both of us. Angie wanted to focus on Europe and wasn't too keen on Saudi Arabia, even though I told her good things about it. I understood, as she hadn't been exposed to life elsewhere. We didn't apply to any schools in Saudi Arabia...until one contacted us. KAUST on the west coast was a new school and looked very promising. I replied and maintained interest but never heard back from them...we were both unimpressed with the lack of professionalism in that regard (more on them later). We completed more online applications and sent more resumes than I care to remember.

To be continued...

Monday, June 7, 2010

Blog Setup

Hello All,

Well here we go. I am setting up our blog to document everything from our move (from Frisco, Texas) to our life experiences overseas. It will provide many opportunities for Angie and me to share this experience with our friends and families.