One week away

Back in the Fall of 2012, Ryan and I started thinking of teaching internationally. I had no idea what that meant or how to go about the process, but we have been fortunate enough to travel to many places, and knew we were interested in an adventure. The decision was not easy because of how amazing our life in Chicago has been. We have great families and friends in Chicago and we were teaching some of the greatest students. 

After talking to Ryan's cousin Christi, who lives in Belgium, about her amazing boys and their international school, we knew we wanted to try teaching internationally. We joined Search Associates, put our resumes and references on the website and started emailing schools. When we had our first Skype interview with the American Community School in Beirut, we didn't have high expectations. We were blown away. ACS seems to have everything we were looking for in a school. Ryan will be working as the athletic director/activities director for the school, which includes elementary through high school. I will be teaching World History for Sophomores, and the first year of the International Baccalaureate to juniors, which includes the 1900s. ACS sent me to a conference this summer in Lake Tahoe to learn all about this program, and it seems amazing. 

Fast forward to today, and we are just about one week from leaving. The last few months have both flown by and dragged on. We have had an incredible summer traveling around the US, seeing family and friends, and of course Lollapalooza.  Everyone we talk to asks us if we're nervous, and weirdly, we are not nervous. We are excited for this new chapter. We know moving internationally is going to come with challenges but we are excited for the next two years, or possibly more, in Beirut. 

The first challenge will be packing! We are lucky that we are moving into a three bedroom apartment right near the school and near the Mediterranean. Three bedrooms is the biggest place I have lived in since my sweet house with five girls at EIU. The apartment is furnished, including towels, sheets, hangers and more so all we really need are our clothes, computer and pictures. The other big item for this week is unlocking our phones and figuring out how to use them in Lebanon. 

The goal is to keep this blog updates with our adventures and pictures. Also, hopefully to give advice to anyone thinking of embarking on the same adventure.  I hope to post soon after we land with pictures of our place and the neighborhood. School doesn't start for a couple of weeks so we have time to do some exploring. The school has set up some trips right away when we get there, including the first trip to Costco. Now I have never even been to Costco here in the States, so I am doubly excited for a huge jar of hummus. There are also trips set up to go to dinners, the wineries and more.