Bone Tired

I had eight interviews yesterday:

Atlanta (ssh, don't tell my parents)
San Francisco
Hanoi
Antwerp
Amsterdam
Budapest
Buenos Aires
El Salvador

I received 2 firm offers (Buda and Hanoi) and 4 schools asking me not to sign any contracts before talking to them. El Salvador won't be hiring until at least Wednesday and Atlanta is really looking for someone who will teach both middle school and high school, my only real rejection.

It's hard to have your game face on from 9 - 6. But in the end I am myself. I was honest with the schools about what I'm looking for and I feel like they were honest with me.

Today I have 3 more follow-up interviews plus the presentations from the other schools. My mother is, of course, desperate for me to go to SF or Amsterdam. My father wants me to be happy and said that he is happy to visit Argentina. I would love to eat Vietnamese food every day, but don't think I want to live in Asia.

Off I go to the SF presentation!

15 minutes until Cattle Call

15 minutes until sign-ups for interviews begin. When I arrived yesterday for sign-ins my folder over-flowith with invitations. Of those, I rejected 70%. The ones I kept:

Luxembourg
Hanoi (knew about)
Budapest (knew about)
Madrid
Argentina
El Salvador

Considered but Rejected:
Tokyo
Manilla

Rejected:
Egypt (2 schools)
Turkey (2 schools)
China
Bahrain

Before I go to the ones I kept, first I'll be heading to Zug (Switzerland) and Amsterdam to try and get an interview.

I actually interviewed with both Budapest and Hanoi yesterday. Both went great. I'm still not sure I want to live in Asia, but everyone I've spoken to talks about how great the city is, how easy it is to get into the country. And Mickey, there's LOADS of hiking/trekking in Vietnam, lots of mountains!

It's starting to happen!

First off, still no word on Diane. She continues to be mixed into my thoughts, daily. Very tragic situation for hundreds of thousands of people.

However, in the midst of those thoughts are my own preparations for Friday when I leave for the job fair. Honestly, I had assumed that at this point I would have already had a job. However, I've only had one interview with a school in Cape Cod. Part of leaving Moscow is in search of a better quality of life, one that I think Cape Cod could provide. At the same time though, I wonder if I'm really ready to move back to America. Probably not...

And then this morning, I check my email and have 2 (TWO!) invitations to interview before the fair, one with the UN school in Hanoi, Vietnam and another with Budapest. So it is finally starting to happen, just later than I thought it would...

At this point Switzerland is my number one, but I'm open to possibilities. Any votes?

Diane Berry

I went to college with Diane. We played frisbee together for at least 2 years. We haven't been in contact since that time, but I have memories of her standing in the sun, always with a smile. She had a quiet, peaceful way about her.

She worked for the CDC out of Atlanta and was in Haiti working on an AIDS relief project.

It's still unclear whether she survived the earth quake or not.

And her family, their pain, her pain are on my mind.

Mixed in with a bunch of other stuff.

Olympics Video Available to International Viewers

I tried watching a preview of US Figure Skating (yes, I like figure skating, it all dates back to my first viewing of the Cutting Edge. No wait, maybe I like the Cutting Edge because I like figure skating) tonight. However, the video isn't available to international viewers. These are a few suggestions of videos that are available:

* Davis and White: Mid-Western Values

* Steve Holcomb on his Park City Roots

* Chad Hedrick: Why I love Texas

This is for their international viewers. Is the mid-west recruiting?

NYE with Amanda

NYE with Amanda
Originally uploaded by Traveling Em

I had a really lovely 3 week vacation and am now back in Moscow. School picks up again tomorrow. I've beat the jet lag (I hope) and am ready to see my student - and to get back into an exercise routine!

Shabu Shabu!

I was invited over to a parent's house this evening. She's Japanese, he's American, I've taught their son for 3 years now and tonight I was invited over for dinner. The son should have been on his way to America. However, due to the snow storm hitting the NE, he was there as well. No matter.

It was a wonderful meal of shabu shabu (meat cooked in boiling broth), then with the left over broth rice and egg was added to make a porridge (sounds better than gruel and way more delicious than gruel sounds also, want not, waste not, right?) all with sake, lots and lots of sake. Then we adjourned to the couch and the student adjourned upstairs and the evening continued with wine. It was great. Of course, now I'm wondering if I'm going to make my flight.

You see, Delt4 has canceled their direct Moscow-Atlanta flight, so I have to connect through JFK. And as we all know, my luck runs either really hot or (especially when coming from Moscow) really cold with air travel. A and I are supposed to arrive within an hour of each other. I really hope it all works out!

PS - I'm really, really annoyed with 1tunes. All the music I purchased under my old AOL screen name on my Mac Mini won't play on my MacBook. The customer service woman I've been working with for TWO days seems to be useless. Give me the music that I paid for, jerk holes.

3 more days

Still really, really cold. The windows on the bus have been frozen (from the inside!) for the past 2 nights driving home.

It's seriously f*cking cold.

However, in 3 more days I get to go to my parents for Christmas vacation. Here's what that'll be like:



Except that we'll get to insert my friend A! Yep, I've got a friend coming from California for a visit. In talking to my parents recently:

Mom: "Now who's A again? Is he the one that you went to visit Aunt Cathy with in his van?"

Me: "Yep, on our way to Death Valley"

Mom: "Oh, right, the hippie." (I have no idea where she got this from except maybe my Aunt thought we were strange for going to Death Valley to sit in the hot springs in the middle of the summer... note: she was right, it was a bad idea)

Me: "Um, mom, you know I'm a hippie too, right?"

Mom: "I prefer to think of you as 'bohemian'"

Me: [involuntary shudder]

Minus 24 is cold

I know, I know it seems obvious. But really -10 is managable. However, I've discovered that I can't figure out how to layer to keep my thighs warm when it's below minus 20.

Play Write

Every year for the last assembly of December, there has been a Pantomime in which the teachers perform a mostly improve play where each character is based on a senior. It's always been written by a staff member who left last year.

The Student Council took up the slack... supposedly. However, it's a busy time of year, one student dropped the ball and it didn't get written. However, this is one of my favorite things of the year and I really wanted it to happen. As such, I spent all day writing it.

It's based on A Christmas Carol and I hope it will be funny but not offensive. I'll try to get it recorded.

In other news, it's gotten cold, but not horrendously so. And I've been watching season 5 of Angel obsessively. I like it much better than season 4.

Oh, and I got an A in my class (missed an A+ by 1%). It really does make a difference when you like your classes or are freakishly good at writing papers that you don't really care about.

Winter Wonderland!

It's finally snowed here. I watched it snow all afternoon and then went and took the first shuttle home. It only took me an hour. The people who left later, it took them from 2 to 6 (SIX) hours! But it's beautiful. This was taken by Nat from our apartment windows today.

Executive Thriller

Executive Thriller
Originally uploaded by Traveling Em

Remember when I told you that the Student Council was creating dances to Thriller? Well, I didn't get a video of the final production, but here's a rehearsal. This video is of the executives. Head over to flickr to see the other grades!

More Music

Even though I've yet to write about them, I've been getting out and going to a few concerts recently. On the day before Thanksgiving, 6 of us went to see the Harlem Gospel Choir. I was really hoping for a few hours of gospel, but the fine print was that it was gospel plus a MJ tribute. Now, I really like MJ songs, but a gospel choir has no business singing "The kid is not my son!" At least they didn't do any crotch grabbing.

Our favorite part: "When I say Jesus, you say Christ."
Choir: "JESUS"
Bree and I: "Christ"
The rest of the audience: Silence punctuated by crickets.

This past Tuesday (I just want you to note the above was on a Wednesday and then I went out on another week night! Wild and crazy, that's me), was the Moscow Oratory Society's annual concert. They always do a medley of carols and then part of Handel's Messiah. I really enjoy this every year. This year especially as they were in a church and there is really nothing better than a huge cathedral filled by choir music. The only downside was that it's a church in the middle of renovation. As such, the enjoyment of the music was detracted by the smell of paint fumes and the huge outdoor flood lights on the second floor. You can see what I mean in the video:

Ludovico Einaudi

I can't stop listening to the music this guy has written. Before today, I hadn't really considered "contemporary classical" as a genre. However, I gave my students a quiz and had my favorite classical radio station on. When I heard this song, I wrote down the artist and title: Einaudi - Two Sunsets. I've been listening to many more on You Tube and tomorrow will buy ever album. I'm addicted. Have a listen:

What is that?

It's already gotten to the point that seeing the sun leads to questions like the above. We've been having 10 days stretches with no sun, but Friday it was out and was bright enough that for about 10 minutes I could have the lights off in my classroom.

No new job prospects, though I've started considering Latin America, tentatively. Better climate than most of W. Europe, you know? Any suggestions, besides me coming back to America? I'm still not ready for that.

And now a reminder of blue skies from this summer at Storm King Art Center:

Crockpot Catastrophe

Tonight was our 3rd annual Thanksgiving potluck. For the 3rd year in a row, I brought stuffing, because there is nothing I love more on Thanksgiving than stuffing. At least I tried to bring stuffing. I made a big ol' crockpot full. And then carried said crockpot over wearing oven mitts because it was hot, dammit. However, oven mitts lack grip. And as I walked in the building entrance, in slow motion, the crockpot fell out of my hands and shattered. Stuffing everywhere.

At least it made the entrance way smell good...

Editted to add: Finding a replacement insert is looking to be far more difficult than I'd anticipated. Meh.

Successful StuCo Event #57

I never wanted to be a Student Council adviser. But one was needed last year and my principal asked me if I was interested. So I gave it a whirl. And while I didn't really enjoy it all that much, when this year's executive team was elected, I decided to stick with it another year. And I'm so glad I did.

Earlier I mentioned how they all made up their own 30 second dances to Thriller. The Halloween assembly was awesome and the student body got really into it. This week we had another spirit assembly where the activity was drawing.

Yep, 4 kids per grade level up on stage drawing. Sounds a bit like watching paint dry, right? But nope, they were given Edward Munch's The Scream divided into fourths.



The first person had both hands. The second person only one hand. The third, no hands. The fourth no hands and blind folded. It was hilarious and the crowd was TOTALLY into it.

Tonight, we had our first Homecoming dance. 150 out of 380 kids showed. This is AMAZING. Our record for students attendance was 70. Yep, I love my job.

But just so you know, I still don't feel the need to stay next year.

Let it snow!

Winter is coming late this year! Mind you, I'm not really complaining, but I'm happier with snow than I am with rain and the snow is finally beginning. Temperatures are still hovering right around freezing, so things are a bit slushy still, but the trees were coated with white this morning as was the football field and it was really just beautiful.

One Quarter Done

Grades have been submitted, parent conferences are on Thursday. This is it. One quarter of the school year done. And really, it flew by. I think the next 3 will go by even faster. Pretty excited about that.

That time of year

I've stayed home sick from work twice this week. Was sick most of my time in Houston, especially the last 2 days in which I only laid around on the couches of my friends (thank you and I hope you haven't caught what I have). Pretty sure it's not N1H1, no fever, no aches, just a lingering cough and sniffles.

I'm feeling a bit better this evening, cooked dinner (well, it's cooking as we speak) and I brought home a bunch of grading I could be doing. There's also report cards (written narratives) are due by Monday morning, rough draft of my huge project for my masters class turned into my proofing partner on Sunday, an additional paper for said class by Saturday. But you know how when you have so much to do, that you can't even begin. Yeah, that's where I'm at.

The best part of Houston, well, second best, because the best really was seeing friends and family, but the second best TACO TRUCK! I wish I'd've felt better because I wanted to hit way more than 1, but the one we hit. Hot damn, Gina. It was great. Tender meat grilled to have crispy bits, generous tacos with cilantro, grilled onions and avocado. Yum-o. Although, I've decided I prefer my onion raw. Yeah, baby, I like it raw.

Antwerp, Belgium and Vienna, Austria have added posts for math jobs. There's one in Zagreb, Croatia as well.

Opinions?