The waiting is over!

It had been two days since our interview, and still we hadn’t heard from our sponsor! It was now the weekend and I had to leave Jack and head back to my home town for a few weeks. We felt so confident we had done really well in the interviews, although the more time went by, the more I thought of things we may of not excelled very well in during the interviews.

It was Monday morning, and I received a text from Jack: “Have you heard the news? We got the jobs!” I was so delighted, finally the agonising wait was over, and all our preparation had paid off! J Later that afternoon, our sponsor, Maggie, emailed us all the literature, including contracts and visa applic

ations. It seemed like A LOT of work and a lot of documentation to organise. It was even more difficult to gather everything together and get things in order on our own.

Our employment is due to begin at the beginning of August, although we have to arrive in Hong Kong for orientation and training from August 17^th! Jack was visiting friends all that week, and I was busy organizing a lot of things. I don’t cope very well with stress; Jack tends to have a calming affect on me, with his laid-back attitude. Although he wasn’t around to do this for the duration

of the next three weeks! I did a lot of running around, sorting out all the relevant documents required for obtaining a visa. We also didn’t consider the vaccinations, which we would be required to have, and the time in which we had to have them! I think this was the biggest strain, as we had to use private doctors with most medical requirements, costing more than £300!

It is recommended that anyone visiting Hong Kong has polio, Hepatitis A and B vaccinations. You must also have proof that you do not have Tuberculosis, as well as having a vaccination against it. This whole process can usually take anything from 6-8 weeks, but luckily, I had the choice of a fast track program at my GP surgery, which meant I would be covered in just 3 weeks! Having to use private clinics for a TB scan and vaccination meant that this process would also be a lot quicker, at a cost!

We have now set off al the relevant documentation, and have booked our flights! We will be stopping off in India for just over twelve hours, so Jack will be very happy, as he has always wanted to visit India. We depart on the 14^th of August, and arrive on the 17^th, so we have a lot of airtime to look forward to.

I am due to disembark my train in London now, so I will leave you with an image of the city I will soon call home.

Image from flickr

Kindergarten Interview...

Currently on the train to London, then hopping on the underground to Kings Cross station, then finally jumping on a train to Cambridge. Today is officially a train-hopping day, with over 6 hours of traveling. A prefect opportunity to fill you in on the latest...

It’s been a good four weeks since the lady from Hong Kong contacted us with news of interviews with two separate kindergartens. Both myself and Jack received emails with details of the interview process. We were both expected to create a lesson plan suitable for teaching 3-4 year olds, with the choice of teaching numbers, colours, or animals. The lesson plan had to consist of a song to begin, a story as the main, and lastly end with a game, relating to the story and teaching the chosen topic.

This seemed like so much fun, and was aimed at the age group we both want to teach! Although, we had received this email just three days before the interview processes were due to begin, so we weren’t left with a lot of time to prepare! Jack’s mum was very helpful and gave us many children’s books that she had kept from when Jack and his brother and sister were children. We spent most of the next day at the children’s section at the local library, researching and preparing our materials.

I already had an idea of what I wanted to teach; it was just a case of finding the right books to combine everything with my chosen topic. Jack was a bit less aware of what topic and theme he wanted to base his lesson around. We got to work the following day, creating games to link in with our topics. I created a numbers game, coinciding with sea creatures, and Jack created his own storybook and game, entailing farm animals.

Our interviews were with different schools, both very early in the morning and both through skype video. Jack was first, although was very embarrassed as we were both expected to act as though the principles of the schools were the children! He didn’t feel comfortable doing this at first, and ended up just explaining his lesson plan. This didn’t work out so well, as he wasn’t offered the job. We both learnt from this, and left our shame behind us.

My interview was the following day, at 7am! I had everything prepared and rehearsed in front of Jack’s mum. I was so nervous before hand, but also very excited! Jack’s mum advised us to use a lot of body and facial expressions, and to encourage the principle to interact with the lesson. It went quite well, although the principal was concerned with the fact that Jack didn’t yet have a job. She was chatting with the sponsor lady in Chinese for a while, then the lady explained that the principle had six different opening in six different schools, and wanted to interview Jack for a place. If we both were to secure these jobs, it would mean we would both have the same curriculum to teach, and holidays. J I soon woke Jack up from bed and told him the news. He was half asleep when he had his interview, although did a lot better than the first one.

We were both told we would hear back from the school in the next couple of days, to let us know if we had the jobs. In the mean time, we were sent links to the school’s website, so we could check it out. It looked amazing, very colourful and very wealthy! We felt as though this would be an amazing opportunity, and the perfect jobs! J The only draw back was the waiting….