How It Happened: From Chicago to Colombia

As much as I have been loving Chicago, I began seriously thinking about moving to South America almost a year ago. Last August I woke one morning and realized that summertime Chi had come and gone, and most of my skin never even saw the sun. And I don’t even think I had played one round of beach volleyball. I had been commuting to the suburbs and working in an office full time. On the weekends, I was working too, bartending. I was happy enough, but I wasn’t working towards any long term goals, I wasn’t saving money, and I was feeling stressed. I loved my jobs and friends, but I knew something had to change.

I always wanted to be a teacher, and thought it would be easy to find a job with a Math degree because everyone always says we need more math teachers. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much luck without a teaching certificate or any classroom experience. A friend of my Aunt Donna had taught at an American school in Rio de Janeiro, so I got her number and she told me about a couple of teaching fairs.

The first teaching fair was in December, for the American Schools of South America. This was the same program she had worked with, so I spent weeks preparing the online application. After all my work of getting letters of recommendation, writing essays, getting my resume and cover letter prepared and finally sending it in; I was emailed by the event organizer asking where my certification was. I had to explain that I was not certified. He let me know that there was practically no chance for getting hired without it. I thanked him for telling me before I had to pay the application fee. After all those emails, he must have seen something in me, because he told me he would accept my application if I really wanted to go. It could be a good experience, if nothing more, and you never know what can happen. I had to think about it. I was practically broke, and couldn’t really afford to take off any days of work, not to mention the travel costs. If there was no chance of being hired, maybe it wasn’t worth it. I needed time to think about it, but the deadline was now only 24 hours away. I had just read the Alchemist with my book club and knew that I had to pursue my own “personal legend”.

I went to the teaching fair with a positive attitude. My pride balloon was quickly deflated. Brazil and Colombia had been my top two choices for a new home. However, beggars can’t be choosers so I planned to distribute my resume to all 32 math teaching positions available. The first day, one room was filled with all the schools from South and Central America, round-robin style. Within 10 minutes I discover that Brazil’s government requires two years experience before they will approve a work visa. That took about half the planned schools out of the picture right away. The rest of the morning was filled with kind rejections, like “we probably can’t use you, but we will hold on to your resume, just in case.” Some schools even handed me back my resume, and that hurt. Out of 32 resumes, I only got one follow-up interview, rejected by 31. Later that day we had an amazing interview where we both seemed excited about the possibility. When I went back to my room, I wanted to seal the deal so badly that I sent an email from the hotel, telling them I would love to sign with them as soon as possible. I signed a contract that evening!

It’s a two year contract, with my housing provided, and furnished. My flight and extra luggage paid for by the school. I even get a gym membership! I have a set salary to cover any living expenses and bonuses after every semester! It all adds up to more than what I was making full time here in the States! So I’m ecstatic. I have a job, an adventure, and a brighter future all starting next month. I fly there July 7th and will be officially living in Colombia before noon on July 8th. This is also my personal invitation for all of you to come visit me! You will always have a place to stay with me, and the round trip tickets are as low as $500!!!! I'll be living in a town of approx. 300,000 people called Armenia. It's about 2.5 hrs from Cali, and 6 hrs from Medellin. I'll be teaching 6th grade Math/Science. I'll have two classes, each for half a day, each about 25 students. My summer and winter break are both about 1 month long, with a lot of 3 day weekends during the school year, so I can come home twice a year, and have time to explore Colombia. I'll be teaching in English, because it is a bilingual school K-12 where the high school is accredited by the American High School Association so most students will be going abroad for their higher education. I'm hoping I can entertain these kids everyday for the next year, but I am nervous. All you teachers, please send out helpful hints!