Fantastic news!!

I'm thrilled to report that I have a job lined up for this year!! With only a week to look, I didn't get my hopes up. I figured I could always come back to Santiago and look after my trip to Seattle. It seems like that's how things tend to work anyhow. But not for me! I interviewed on Wednesday morning with a great company that gives classes to corporate clients -- in banking, telecom, insurance, etc. -- usually off-site (i.e. at the corporation). The academic director is from the U.S. and was thrilled that I had gone to UPenn, studied economics, and gotten great grades. We scheduled a demo class for Thursday morning. Since everyone is on vacation, I gave the class for the company's secretary, a sweet young woman named Daniela. She was a great sport and we had fun. The academic director talked to me afterward and was really happy with the demo. What was even better was that she presented her incredibly helpful "criticisms" as things I can work on in my second year of teaching.

She offered me a job (starting in April or May, giving me plenty of time to visit my family and her time for this year's contracts to kick in), but I told her I'd think about it and get back to her the next day. I didn't tell her why, but I had two other interviews that day. The first one was okay, but left me feeling kind of ehh about the place. When I asked if teachers spent a lot of time planning outside of class, the academic director replied that teaching "is not rocket science". He wanted to schedule a demo class, but I demured and said I'd contact him after I checked my schedule. The pay was lower than the first place, no contract or visa was required (meaning you work illegally), and I was turned off by the academic director's lukewarm enthusiasm about teaching.

In the afternoon, I had an interview scheduled with the English department of one of Santiago's many universities. I was excited about it because I'm a big nerd and love academic environments. I also really liked teaching large (up to 18 student) classes, which you don't generally find at language-only institutes. I called about an hour before we were supposed to meet because she had never replied to my e-mail asking for directions. She said, "Oh, it's good you called because I can't meet you this afternoon." You were going to tell me when? She asked for my number and said she'd call me later to reschedule. I'm glad I didn't wait around because she never called. She did send an e-mail, though, saying she'd like to get together the 25th or 26th of February, which won't happen. Her finking out was another major turn off.

So I didn't wait until today to accept the first job offer. The logistics are good -- they process and pay for my visa, classes are in convenient locations, vacation time is flexible, pay is reasonable -- and I know that I can learn so much from the academic director. My dad also pointed out that it will be good for making contacts in the international business world. Yay!

Speaking of my dad, I can barely wait to see my family!! I'll be there the morning of the 30th. It's been a really tough year and I tear up just thinking about the hugs I'll get, the laughs we'll have, and how "at home" I'll feel being around the world's only other Wingard-Phillipses. The only sad thing is that my older sister won't be there. She's working like crazy in East Timor, which is a lonnnnnng way from Seattle both literally and figuratively. I miss her. But having access to a land line and 10 10 987 should make it a lot easier to talk. Her internet connection is too bad to support computer-to-computer calls.

Okay, I have much more to say, but I'm meeting my WorldTeach field director for lunch. I'm hoping he'll sell two extra cell phones I managed to accumulate this year to the next batch of volunteers.