New Friends

For those of you reading this blog wondering how our plans for a move to Korea are going, here is an update.

We still don't have plane tickets in hand; we're still waiting to finalize our Visas. But the packing and sorting have begun. And the thing that excites me most is that we have begun making new friends with future colleagues. Email is a wonderful thing!

We'll be working with people from all over the world - US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China, and more. They're single, married, married with children, newer teachers to veteran teachers. . .

Here are a few samples. . .

"I have four married daughters, several grandchildren, and a son who will be coming with us."

"I have been living back and forth between Toronto and Seoul and it is becoming more unclear where my hometown is anymore. . . "

"Last year I took a year off and sailed singlehanded from Sidney, Nova Scotia to Colon, Panama."

"I've been teaching third grade in Virginia and will be teaching second grade at KIS."

"Warm, tropical greetings from Malaysia! . . . [Teachers working abroad] work hard and play hard. Families find a great balance and therefore are happy and content. The absolute best part is the atmosphere created when working with people from diverse backgrounds, but yet all living and experiencing the same things. Your colleagues soon become your best of friends and your overseas family."

"I'm from New Zealand and will be teaching HS English."

"By the way, I love to host dinner parties."

"I have heard wonderful things about Korean people, travels and food."

"I am ---- (Ningbo, China). I will be teaching MS Mandarin."

"Currently we are wrapping things up at an American school in Warsaw, Poland."

"Prior to teaching at the school we are currently at, we taught for a few years in an outback community with six hours of straight road and a lot of kangaroos between us and civilisation."

"I've traveled a bit, but nothing like a two-year gig."

"Living in the Middle East has been great (Oman) but we are looking forward to our new adventure in Korea. . . I hear many good things about the friendliness of the staff and the many all-staff activities at KIS so it sounds like it is going to be terrific."

"Currently I teach k-12 art at HIS in Sapporo, Japan. . . . In my previous life I was IB Coordinator and IB Visual Arts teacher at the first IB school in Alaska."

"We have been shiftless and drifters. Guam, Egypt, Colombia, Australia and the currently embarrassing state of Arizona have all been addresses for us. . . . My father taught Physics at the U in Whitewater."

If you want to hear more, let me know!
And if you need any junk, stop by our garage sale in July!