Quick update - mum and dad arrived safe and sound yesterday from the UK. Lots of sunshine today to enjoy Washington at its best. Planning little trips and days relaxing - including (of course) some time at the casinos!
Other updates - well we've narrowed the countries for our job search following our English teaching certification in September - short list is China, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Turkey and United Arab Emirates. We have selected these countries because they pay well, are relatively easy to get jobs/visas as newly qualified teachers, and are safe and interesting places. So that is all getting quite exciting. ... Next step with the plan is we need to develop our grammar skills - this is a pre-requisite for the classes, and we were admitted to the program on the understanding we would know a little more than we did on the interview (!)
With Andy's parents visiting, that also means that is is not too far off for our trip to the UK in June. Nearly time to get ready for that.
Also, further good news this week was Evan solidly passing his Capstone Project for his degree with flying colors - what he had expected to be a draft was passed with an A by his adviser with just minor corrections. The degree is now within easy reach!!!
So, it now feels like we have moved onto the next step in the plan - the last few months of slog and hard work are starting to pay off, we can relax a little and let the next few months roll on. The countdown can begin!!!
.....
"The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it" (Chinese proverb).
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
Europe and Asia starting to firm up
So things are moving on. We have been looking further on in the year (after our summer trip to the UK and our CELTA class) and making firmer plans. We want to spend some longer time in the UK again later in the year to really get more of a feel it when we are not just on a quick one or two week trip there. Also, it would be nice to spend a bit longer on traveling in Europe - but we don't want to blow the savings all at once! We have been doing some research and budgeting, and with a pretty strict budget we are pretty sure we can make a couple of nice trips happen while we are there. We have pretty much decided to spend two weeks in Malta (a small Mediterranean island country), and a week in Morocco. We would love to go to Israel too, but it is much more expensive, and we are saving our cash for doing some working and traveling in Asia once we have gotten our teaching qualifications. Current frontrunners for these longer term places in Asia are South Korea, Japan or Hong Kong (which we really liked when we were there in 2009). Now we have sorted out Europe options, we will now be looking more closely at these Asian countries for living and working ....
Evan has continued to work hard to get his degree finished (this will also make his teaching prospects and pay as a teacher higher too) and turned in his first draft of his Capstone Project this week - all 66 pages of it - a really interesting paper. It is a discussion of observances of religious practices around the world using 7 of the countries we have visited on our travels, both from the eyes of a traveler and from an academic perspective. He chose Cambodia, Spain, Nepal, Egypt, England, Indonesia and Argentina as the countries to analyze and discuss. Hopefully his adviser will like it. Andy was very impressed.
Andy's mum and dad are just a couple of weeks away from their visit, so we are also getting ready for that. Both looking forward to it. With their arrival comes our planned slight deceleration with our very busy work/school schedules - Andy will cut back down to around 35 hours a week (has been up to 45 or so) and Evan should start to wind down a little both with school and his private practice (which has been pretty much fully booked the last few months).
Well that's our news for now. More to follow!
.....
"What are you waiting for?" (Lope de Vega)
Evan has continued to work hard to get his degree finished (this will also make his teaching prospects and pay as a teacher higher too) and turned in his first draft of his Capstone Project this week - all 66 pages of it - a really interesting paper. It is a discussion of observances of religious practices around the world using 7 of the countries we have visited on our travels, both from the eyes of a traveler and from an academic perspective. He chose Cambodia, Spain, Nepal, Egypt, England, Indonesia and Argentina as the countries to analyze and discuss. Hopefully his adviser will like it. Andy was very impressed.
Andy's mum and dad are just a couple of weeks away from their visit, so we are also getting ready for that. Both looking forward to it. With their arrival comes our planned slight deceleration with our very busy work/school schedules - Andy will cut back down to around 35 hours a week (has been up to 45 or so) and Evan should start to wind down a little both with school and his private practice (which has been pretty much fully booked the last few months).
Well that's our news for now. More to follow!
.....
"What are you waiting for?" (Lope de Vega)
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Updates ....
As Evan works closer towards completing his degree, and we are clocking up many additional hours at work, we've been pretty quiet with all the other stuff. However, as May approaches we are looking forward to a visit from Andy's mum and dad later on in that month, and starting to think about fun trips and places to visit. They will be our first proper visitors to our new home.
And then when June rolls around, we have two weeks off to go back to the UK for the 50th wedding anniversary celebrations. Just made plans for all of us (Andy, Evan, mum and dad) to take a 4 day trip up to Newcastle right at the end of June to see Aunt Sheila and Uncle Alf. Have a surprise organized with Steve and Sharon to mark mum and dad's big day. We're thinking that we probably won't do another side trip to Europe on this trip, to save time with family, as well as money for the bigger plans. However, have also found very cheap coach tickets to Paris and Amsterdam....
So at the moment, not much else to report. We're really getting ourselves well positioned to do some much bigger stuff later in the year. We have many ideas, but are just letting it all unfold right now as to the order we do it in. Still serious about teaching English overseas (obviously as we wouldn't take on the CELTA certification training), working as therapists (Hawaii, New Zealand) and traveling. But with exciting plans in May, June and onto July, and then the classes starting in September, the next few months will likely fly by. So we'll see what happens in October!!
The weather here is now very spring like, so we have been enjoying evening walks and time out on the beaches and parks around here. Time to appreciate what we have, and how far we've come.
And then when June rolls around, we have two weeks off to go back to the UK for the 50th wedding anniversary celebrations. Just made plans for all of us (Andy, Evan, mum and dad) to take a 4 day trip up to Newcastle right at the end of June to see Aunt Sheila and Uncle Alf. Have a surprise organized with Steve and Sharon to mark mum and dad's big day. We're thinking that we probably won't do another side trip to Europe on this trip, to save time with family, as well as money for the bigger plans. However, have also found very cheap coach tickets to Paris and Amsterdam....
So at the moment, not much else to report. We're really getting ourselves well positioned to do some much bigger stuff later in the year. We have many ideas, but are just letting it all unfold right now as to the order we do it in. Still serious about teaching English overseas (obviously as we wouldn't take on the CELTA certification training), working as therapists (Hawaii, New Zealand) and traveling. But with exciting plans in May, June and onto July, and then the classes starting in September, the next few months will likely fly by. So we'll see what happens in October!!
The weather here is now very spring like, so we have been enjoying evening walks and time out on the beaches and parks around here. Time to appreciate what we have, and how far we've come.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Celta update and ongoing plans
CELTA update - we accepted the offers of the place on the class - to begin later this year. We will have some preparation to do, especially in making sure we are up to date with our understandings of grammar. We are excited about the opportunity, but also a bit daunted - it is quite a commitment to study and work, and it will fall so soon after Evan has finished his anthropology degree. But it is the next step forward, and we are very excited about all the opportunities.
In other news, we are starting our plans for more travel this year, including a trip back to the UK in the summer for Andy's mum and dad's wedding anniversary. Evan continues to work towards completing his degree, a goal getting closer by the day. With spring seemingly here, we are celebrating the fact that we no longer have a garden to keep up - a recent trip to the home improvement store was a happy event as we could breeze past the lawnmower belts and pesticides and the lumber to look at garden chairs and wall hangings!!! Wonderful. No we are not missing the house.
We are working hard to save more money for our education and travel plans. Evan's private clinic is doing remarkably well these days, and we are both busy at our jobs, but still finding time to travel to Seattle and Vancouver and the casino as much as possible. Visited the Japanese garden, Frye art gallery and various coffee shops and restaurants on our trip to Seattle this week. (Quick stop at a casino on the way home - $50 richer!!)
Hopefully by next post we will have more definite travel plans developed. People are asking us when the next trip will be - so we have obviously been too quiet for too long.
Just finished reading "Travel as a political act" by Rick Steves - highly recommend this book.
That's all for now!
......
"Follow your bliss" Joseph Campbell
In other news, we are starting our plans for more travel this year, including a trip back to the UK in the summer for Andy's mum and dad's wedding anniversary. Evan continues to work towards completing his degree, a goal getting closer by the day. With spring seemingly here, we are celebrating the fact that we no longer have a garden to keep up - a recent trip to the home improvement store was a happy event as we could breeze past the lawnmower belts and pesticides and the lumber to look at garden chairs and wall hangings!!! Wonderful. No we are not missing the house.
We are working hard to save more money for our education and travel plans. Evan's private clinic is doing remarkably well these days, and we are both busy at our jobs, but still finding time to travel to Seattle and Vancouver and the casino as much as possible. Visited the Japanese garden, Frye art gallery and various coffee shops and restaurants on our trip to Seattle this week. (Quick stop at a casino on the way home - $50 richer!!)
Hopefully by next post we will have more definite travel plans developed. People are asking us when the next trip will be - so we have obviously been too quiet for too long.
Just finished reading "Travel as a political act" by Rick Steves - highly recommend this book.
That's all for now!
......
"Follow your bliss" Joseph Campbell
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Accepted
Well, Andy had his CELTA interview about a week ago, and Evan's was yesterday. We're happy to say that we both received offers to the program! If we accept, and learn to teach English on the program, we will be working with refugees and recent immigrants who cannot afford to take classes to learn English in their new country - so that is a cool bonus to working in this program.
With that said, we have a lot of thinking to do before we accept. The tutors were both discouraging of commuting from Bellingham because of the intensive nature of the course, so this would mean making arrangements for Colorado as well the added cost of staying in Vancouver during the week. We need to weigh out if that added cost is worth it, or whether we should reconsider doing the course abroad (in a less expensive country), or ignore the advice and commute anyway (if we followed all the advice we've received over the years, we would not be where we are; one has to pick and choose advice carefully); or simply not do the course since some employment is available with just a degree and no additional qualifications. We'll work on this decision tonight and then accept the course placements or not.
Ev has completed winter term and is now focused solely on his capstone project for the next couple of weeks- until spring term begins. This gives time for a bit of a breather. Timing is good since there is a lot to think about at the moment regarding plans for the future.
Andy continues to work hard and is back volunteering with the dogs at the humane society today after a needed break to move into the condo and settle in.
Life continues to tick right along- it is really stressful to be making plans of the scale ours are with all the other factors of everyday living, but the alternative seems pretty boring, so we are happy with our choices.
" Our souls look back in wondrous surprise at how far we have made it, so far from where we started." - Maya Angelou
With that said, we have a lot of thinking to do before we accept. The tutors were both discouraging of commuting from Bellingham because of the intensive nature of the course, so this would mean making arrangements for Colorado as well the added cost of staying in Vancouver during the week. We need to weigh out if that added cost is worth it, or whether we should reconsider doing the course abroad (in a less expensive country), or ignore the advice and commute anyway (if we followed all the advice we've received over the years, we would not be where we are; one has to pick and choose advice carefully); or simply not do the course since some employment is available with just a degree and no additional qualifications. We'll work on this decision tonight and then accept the course placements or not.
Ev has completed winter term and is now focused solely on his capstone project for the next couple of weeks- until spring term begins. This gives time for a bit of a breather. Timing is good since there is a lot to think about at the moment regarding plans for the future.
Andy continues to work hard and is back volunteering with the dogs at the humane society today after a needed break to move into the condo and settle in.
Life continues to tick right along- it is really stressful to be making plans of the scale ours are with all the other factors of everyday living, but the alternative seems pretty boring, so we are happy with our choices.
" Our souls look back in wondrous surprise at how far we have made it, so far from where we started." - Maya Angelou
Monday, March 7, 2011
California update
Quick update to upload our photos from our recent trip to sunny California visiting family and friends and old haunts ... oh the memories!!! Good times were had.
Monterey and Heart Castle with Mom and Nick.
Lauren and Walt in Berkley.
Gina in San Francisco Bay Area - including 2 of Andy's favorite places : Pier 7 and Cha Cha Cha's in Haight Ashbury.
and Cozy the French bulldog.....
Monterey and Heart Castle with Mom and Nick.
Lauren and Walt in Berkley.
Gina in San Francisco Bay Area - including 2 of Andy's favorite places : Pier 7 and Cha Cha Cha's in Haight Ashbury.
and Cozy the French bulldog.....
Friday, February 18, 2011
We Applied
Well, our biggest news is that we finished our applications for the CELTA English teacher training course. There was an application form as well as a "task" to complete which involved reviewing a magazine article and identifying parts of speech and other grammatical details. We also had to attach a resume and make a statement about our reasons for pursuing certification. Anyway, we did all this, and this past Tuesday had a great day up in Vancouver, the highlight of which was dropping off our applications at the Global Village English Training Institute. The school was very nice and professional, and we were both impressed, so we are excited. Once accepted, we will study for an intensive month in September then be eligible to teach English all over the world!
The rest of our visit to Vancouver was very nice. We had lunch at a place called Lonsdale Quay which is a food court of all sorts of ethnic choices. We had a couple of coffees at Tim Horton's (an upscale Canadian version of Dunkin' Donuts). We did a lot of wandering and appreciating the hustle and bustle of a big city. It was a nice day away.
We look forward now to our Cali trip which is fast approaching... Ev is cramming in a lot of school work so our time there won't be filled with that, and Andy is cramming in a lot of work so that our trip is easy on the bank account. So nice and busy!
Won't include too may other details this post as the news of applying for the CELTA program deserves a bit of relishing.
" If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them." - Henry David Thoreau
The rest of our visit to Vancouver was very nice. We had lunch at a place called Lonsdale Quay which is a food court of all sorts of ethnic choices. We had a couple of coffees at Tim Horton's (an upscale Canadian version of Dunkin' Donuts). We did a lot of wandering and appreciating the hustle and bustle of a big city. It was a nice day away.
We look forward now to our Cali trip which is fast approaching... Ev is cramming in a lot of school work so our time there won't be filled with that, and Andy is cramming in a lot of work so that our trip is easy on the bank account. So nice and busy!
Won't include too may other details this post as the news of applying for the CELTA program deserves a bit of relishing.
" If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them." - Henry David Thoreau
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