The waiting begins

I returned home to Maryland and was very hyped up!  I actually did it!  I was offered the job of my dreams. I was told to be prepared to leave the country any time after December 26th. That was just over 3 weeks away! Now, all I will have to do is wait. Well, that is not exactly true. I now have a TON of paperwork to complete.

 First: I am still waiting for my passport to arrive. I chose to pay for expedited service since I wanted to make sure I had my passport in time. However, at this moment, it has yet to arrive. When it does come in I must make at least 8 color copies to be used in the UAE for government

Second: The biggest task is to have all my documents authenticated. When I was told I needed to have this done I had a hard time understanding just what this entailed. As it turns out, my college diploma, state teaching certificate, and marriage license must be certified official by the State department and the U.A.E embassy. The steps to getting this done is pretty complicated. The first step is taking my original documents and full color/size copies of my originals to a local notary public. The Notary will notorize my color copies of my documents. After this is completed, I send the notorized documents to the county court house. (note: You must use the same county court house as the location of the Notary). The county courthouse will certify that the notary's notarization is authentic. When they are returned to me, I am to send my documents to the Office of the Secretary of State, in Annapolis for certification. When these are returned to me, I am to forward the certified coduments on to ProEx. ProEx is a company that helps to wade through all the paperwork and completes the process. In essence, ProEx processes and sends on my documents to their final destinations: The U.S. State department, and the U.A.E. Embassy. My documents will be stamped, signed and affixed with an acutal UAE stamp. This finalizes the authentication of my documents and my documents can be used to complete the VISA process. As you can see this process take alot of time, and handling by many people. One suggestion, make color copies of all returned documents! It would be a huge mess if your documents were to become lost in the shuffle.

Fortunately, this process worked through smoothly for my documents. Although, I must admit I was pretty nervous that things would be lost and I would have to do the whole process all over again!

Since this process has been completed, I am just waiting for the UAE people to complete my VISA process and contact me with travel details!  I hope they contact me soon for I am raring to go!

Interview complete--I get the job!

The nice young lady working the front desk told me I was to go upstairs for my interview. Riding up in the elevator, I practiced how I would introduce myself, and took some deep breaths. I knew this would soon going to be a make it or break it moment. The elevator door opened and I walked up to the door, knocked and entered when I heard someone say "Come in". I had a brief thought..."I hope I am in the right room". I would have been sooo embarrassed if I walked into a complete stranger's room!  Mr. Amerie stood before me. He was a distinguished, older gentleman with a charming accent. After quick introductions, Mr. Amerie reviewed my paperwork. While we waited for the interviewer to be ready, we casually discussed the possible interview questions and how I should approach them. In addition, I was given the time to look over the Abu Dhabi teacher's binder of education standards. The standards pretty much fell in line with the same format that I am familiar with. I was extremely glad about that!

The interviewer arrived and I followed him down to the lobby of the hotel. He decided to sit in the lobby at a small table by the window to do conduct our chat. After brief pleasantries, the interview began.
1) Since textbooks are no longer used, the Abu Dhabi school district uses thematic units to teach their lessons. Give me an example on how you would use a thematic unit to cover your required tasks?
A) I decided to choose "Space" as the theme. I then went on to discuss various lessons that would incorporate math, english, and of course science.

2) How would use use centers?
A) I explained how I would have various centers that covered different areas within my "Space" theme. These could include: math, arts and crafts, reading, language arts, experiments, hands on activities etc.

3) What about "word walls"?
A) I told him how I have used "word walls" in the past. Either as a partner or independent activity, students were given a word to define, use in a sentence, illustrate, and identify part of speech. They would then construct a mini poster using the information they found. When complete the student(s) would "teach" the class the word. They could do this by pantomine, skit, song, or other different means. After this was conducted, the poster would be hung on the wall. Future words would be attached to the previous words making a long "word worm".

When the discussion was over, he said he was delighted to offer me a contract!  I was floored!  I had expected to hear within 24 hours as all the previous documentation had stated. I accepted, shook his hand, and was quickly escorted back up to the original room. I followed along in a daze. I couldn't believe it. I had just gotten a job that would move myself, my husband, and my pooch half way around the world!!  I knew the next month would be very exciting indeed!

Interview Part 2

As I watched Chris' car pull away, I knew I better get a move on! My interview was scheduled for 10 am. and I am not exactly the fastest walker.  I looked at my printed out directions-- They appeared easy enough. I hiked up my travel bag and my briefcase and began walking. The final goal was the Affinia Shelburne Hotel located at 303 Lexington Ave. Walking and dodging the tons of people on the street, was tough!  My heavy shoulder bag (which carried my interview clothes and shoes) kept slipping off my shoulder. I followed my directions as well as I could, but due to traffic and construction some of my intended route had to be changed. Of course, I ended up going the wrong way, and I walked about 5 blocks out of my way before I got back on track. I was sooooo worried that I was going to be late!  I even tried to hail a cab, but at this time of day all of them already had fares inside riding to work. Since my paper directions were useless, I pulled out my cell phone and proceeded to use my Navigation app. Thank goodness that worked!  It put me back on track and soon I FINALLY located my final destination!

It was 9:15 am. I quickly went into the lobby and asked if there was a restroom I could use so I could change/freshen up. They directed me to a downstairs restroom and I just about ran to it. I walked in and looked at myself in the mirror. My face was beet red and my hair a mess due to the strong outside winds. Looking at myself, I asked "Do you really want to do this? Do you want to move yourself and your husband to the other side of the world?" Shaking my head, I knew that I had followed this through to much to change my mind. I also knew this was probably a case of nerves.  I quickly changed, cleaned up and returned to the lobby.

Interview pt 1

Well, I received my phone interview and it went well. I then waited for the in-person interview. Since I live in Maryland, I knew the closest place for the interview would be in NY.  This was aweome on numerous levels. For one, my Aunt Nancy (my mother's sister) lives in West NY, NJ. This is just across the river from manhatten. I knew after my interview I could spend some time with her and her two sons Chris, and Tate as well as their families. With this in mind, I asked my mother if she wanted to tag along. In this way, she could spend the day with the sister she hasn't seen in a long time. She was thrilled and she would too would book her ticket on the train. I was told to watch the ADIC's (American International Development Council- http://www.aidcinc.com/) website to find out the interview date and times. I waited, impatiently I must confess, for about a month. When the dates were published, I secured my interview time and immediately booked my ticket on Amtrak. I decided to take the train since the cost would be less than $75. Plus, the train arrives downtown, and I could actually walk to the hotel where the interview is set up. If I flew in, I would have to get a cab and potentially need alot more pocket cash to do so. I found out the hard way that the train DID have its drawbacks. One, the train I decided to take left the station at 4:10 am!  Oh my!  To get there in time, I had to leave my house around 2 am. Second, I learned that the train station does not officially open until 8 am. This means that there is NO ONE around. No one except for some unfortunate characters that made me a trifle nervous. Three, the NYC train station was actually about 10 walking blocks from the hotel. When the train arrived at 7:20 am, I called my cousin Chris. My mother waited outside of Madison Square Garden (the station is below) for him to arrive. Since the traffic was terrible, Chris picked up my mother to take her to his mother's house and left me to my own accord. I then began to hike as fast as I could to the hotel.