Chào!!

Hello friends!!

I am writing to you all with rather exciting news! As most of you know, today I accepted my first teaching job in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam! It was a stressful weekend and an emotional roller coaster at the overseas recruiting fair, but I couldn't be more happy about the end result.

Like I said, it was an emotional roller coaster! I left for Waterloo having NO idea what to except. Let me give you a little sample of what my weekend consisted of. It all started bright and early on Friday morning with an orientation session. All 700 of us hopefulls looking for jobs gathered in a huge room and we listed to several people talk about their experiences with the career fair. They talked about the places they had gone and what to expect. The number one thing I gained Friday morning was learning to be being open-minded and not ruling out a country because CNN has not reported on them in a positive light. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't ready to hop on a plan to Iraq, but I was ready to reconsider some countries I had x-ed off my list! So after listening to the 'pep talks' Krystal (my teaching partner/friend/now-future-roomie) made a list of schools we really wanted to interview with that had openings in elementary education and early childhood. Next came the round robin. It was CRAZY. In a large room all the schools had a table set up where you went to introduce yourself and hoped they were interested in interviewing you. I should also mention, that before the round robin, some schools give out yellow slips that say they would like to request an interview with you. Krystal and I had a few of these, so we were excited to talk to these schools right away. Three of the schools wanting to talk to us were schools that we hadn't even thought of. We also had a request from a school in Poland who I had made contact with before the fair. So we made our way to a few tables and set up about three interviews before heading over to talk to Vietnam. When we got there the line was huge, I mean really super-dupe long. It was intimidating. So I held down a spot while Krystal went and scored us some more interviews. We were feeling more than confident with six interviews set up (most people have about 5-6 interviews throughout the weekend).  We thought we were golden considering it was our first fair and neither of us having any teaching experience. So when we finally got through the line to talk to the director of students for the school in Vietnam we were even more thrilled to land our seventh interview. Vietnam was no where on my radar of possible places to live, but after talking to Mario (the representative for the school) it shot up to my number one choice. He was so nice and down to earth, and I knew he was the person I wanted to work for, for the next two years.

Next came the interviews. First was Poland on Friday night. The interview went great, but I just had a feeling we weren't getting an offer, and while the school looked wonderful online, it didn't seem like the best fit after talking to the principal. So we called it quits for Friday and geared up for our four interviews on Saturday. Well, to make this story short and sweet, we soon came to learn three of our four interviews were canceled throughout the day. Ouch. Talk about a bruised ego. I was more than down and in a flat out mad and pessimistic mood (ask my mother, she claims I was more than in a grumpy mood) . I was quite positive I would be leaving without a job! We still had one interview with a school in Bahrain that night, so after a day of sulking we went on to our one interview of the day. Right away we were offered a contract and I was in high spirits again! The school looked great, but I (and I think Krystal too) was still really excited about and invested in Vietnam. So we told Bahrain we would know in the morning. I was so excited to call my family and tell them that at the very least I knew I had secure job for next year. But I was even more excited getting ready to interview with Vietnam, everything about the school and the job just felt right. Our interview was so laid back and felt more like a conversation. I was feeling very confident and was so excited when we were offered the job. We said we needed a few minutes to discuss it, however the second we walked out, both Krystal and I looked at each other and knew it was where we were going to be living and working for the next two years.

So here I am. In less than 72 hours I experienced some rather stressful times, some extremely happy times, loads of stress and went from being a recent, unemployed grad to having a job for the next two years locked down in Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam. Wow. Now I am sure you are all rather curious about the details, so here it goes.

-I'll be teaching 2nd or 3rd grade (I'll know for sure next week)
-My flight is paid for there and when I return home in two years
-I am given a monthly housing allowence that will more than cover my rent/utilities
-They hook me up with a realtor and help me find a furnished apartment close to my school
-Vietnam is extremely safe and is actually very touristy now (if you don't believe me, check out the Department of State)
-They have great medical care
-My salary won't have taxes taken out.. yay! (That's a lie, the school pays all my taxes, so they're still there)
-They speak Vietnamese, but my students will be fluent in English
-I will be teaching at the American Internation School

There ya have it. It is so crazy to me to think that in hardly anytime I will be leaving America again, except this time I have no idea when I'll be back. It will be my first one-way ticket! There are so many random things I have to do before leaving. Little things like doctor appointments and um... selling my car.. weird! (I'm a bit sad about that since I JUST paid it off, but I'll take that to move to Vietnam!) I am so excited to start this new adventure, but at the same time I am sad to be leaving my friends and family. I will really miss watching my cousins growing up and going to visit my sister in her first year of college. I am sure holidays will be hard as well, but with skype and the internet, I know I will get to talk to everyone and see them all the time!

While my blog has been (and will probably continue to be) boring.. in six short months I will be on to new and hopefully exciting adventures! So hang in there, I promise I will have lots to share and can think of no one I rather share it with more!

Until later, thanks for reading about my life! Get ready, things are about to get exciting!

Michelle