Why is Greame even in Vietnam anyway???

Your school had a similar value system, right?  My High School had a smoking lounge....

Ever since the day I met Graeme's mom, Erin has talked of living internationally, traveling and seeing what else is out there.  She managed to pull off a stint just out of college and lived/worked for a year in Scotland.  But, as they say, "You can take the girl out of Lodi but you can't take the Lodi out of the girl"!  She stood no chance there as the average temperature in Scotland is "frigid"; compared to where she grew up and the average temperature is "nuclear".  So, home she came and  (lucky for me!) stuck around Nor-Cal for awhile....

Flash forward to about one year ago...doing a personal inventory on life, Erin approached me with the "what are we doing and where are we going and why?" questions...We took a look at where we were at, what we wanted to accomplish and discussed options.  We decided it best if she look into finding a job abroad in education.  She had known a few people who had done it and knew there were a few agencies out there that helped facilitate it.  We were pretty clueless how the whole thing worked but, nevertheless, the process began...

We were hoping to have the hoops jumped through and be vetted by International School Services before Thanksgiving.  It's quite an intense process, I even had to bust out my Creative Writing skills and prepare an essay (but then again, I always good at bullsh**ing writing).  After all was said and done, Erin's profile was complete around Christmas time.

Was this how you were greeted at your school?

There was a conference scheduled in San Francisco for early February (referred to by those in International Education as a "Cattle Call").  We didn't have a clue as to how the process really worked.  This would prove to be an advantage for Erin...

Basically, if you've been to college pre-computer era and have had to sign up for classes by running to a large room and waiting in line to see if you can get it, that is what these conferences are like.  They open the doors and you rush to a school you know has an opening and that you'd like to work for.  Not an easy task considering the amount of people looking for the same jobs as you at the same schools. 

Erin figured this out beforehand and while still working full time at South San Francisco High School, decided she couldn't spend 3 or 4 workdays at the conference.  She took action, got on the email, the phone and Skype to arrange interviews prior to the conference as well as schedule interviews during the conference but with set times and places versus waiting in line.  She was able to nail down 9 interviews with schools all over the world.  Places like Oman, Mumbai, Dominican Republic, South Korea......  Erin was not waiting in line, she was making it happen. 

She had a met with 9 schools and recieved offers from 7.  An 8th wanted to bring her on but she lost out to another counselor who had previous international experience.  That was OK because the hiring manager became a great mentor in the whole process and gave us great scope, guidance and clarity on how the entire thing works.  This is a very small, global community and having a person like that on your side is priceless.  It is very much a "who do you know" world out there and Erin is getting the know the right people.

The process was proving a bit stressful.  We didn't realize that when you go to this conference be prepared to have your bags packed.  When you get the nod you are heading to "insert name of country here" 6 months later.  I don't think we thought that part through enough at the time so there was some anxiety tied up in our decision making.  We had developed some criteria though as to what we were looking for as a family:  warm, able to live on 1 salary, not regress financially, be able to travel easily from where we were living, connection with the schools set of values as well as fellow educators, as well as a few others.  

Saigon wasn't really on the radar yet.  Erin had met with the Interim Head of School in her hotel room - the appointment was cancelled several times because she was flying from Boston where a huge snow storm had hit, but Erin tracked her down!  The Head of School was very interested in Erin but wanted her to connect with the Principal (who was traveling on summer vacation) via Skype a few days later.  Meanwhile offers started coming in from other schools and they wanted answers.  We had whittled it down to South Korea.  For some reason there was tons of anxiety and flip-flopping on our end making the decision.  We decided to sleep on it and if the answer was "no" then we'd wait until the next winter's conference to look into it again.  At least we'd be educated on how it all works and be able to go into it with a much clearer position.

Well the sun came up and the answer was "no".  A bit relieved I reminded Erin to cancel her Skype with the Principal at Saigon South International School as a courtesy.  I was leaving to take Graeme to daycare and the call was scheduled for that morning.  She said she was going to go through with the call anyway.  We went back and forth a bit - I was thinking we were on standby for the next round of conferences why waste this guys time?  Erin was thinking something different.

Not what my High School parking lot looked like.  No IROQ's here!!!

When I got back from dropping off Graeme and I saw Erin's face I knew we were moving to Vietnam!  She had such a great connection with the Principal, the schools values, the sense of purpose here and the challenge at hand.  We signed the contract that evening at the Head of School's hotelroom in SF.

Boom!

Since we've been here I've learned some interesting things about SSIS and what it means to be a part of it.  

For starters there were 22 positions open at the school for this year.  They received over 1,300 applications.  Erin was their only choice for her position.

We've met several people working here who have worked in as many as 7 or 8 different countries in as many as 20 years.  Many have been striving to get to this school based on it's reputation of the service it provides to it's students and support to its staff - Erin got the nod on her first international foray.

Everyone we've met associated with the school so far is top knotch, best-in-class, caliber.  That's why Erin is here too.

We are here on a 2 year contract.  After that if they like you and you like them you can sign on for longer.  We haven't come across anyone who hasn't stayed longer yet...seems once they land here it sticks.  Great combination of the Country, City, People and the School...

If we stay long enough Erin will help Graeme get into college!

SSIS is extremely family oriented when it comes to their staff.  Graeme and myself have been included in every step of the orientation the past few weeks and have been welcomed quite warmly.  I have access to my own SSIS email address to stay up on all the ancillary activities, travel perks, etc  We have access to the campus to use the pool, gym, playground and library.  It's a bit more like being adopted into a family versus starting a job with a new company (from the spouse perspective).

 If you haven't already reached out to Erin to congratulate her on her new position (or even if you already have do it again!) and what it took to get us here, please do.  She deserves it.  That is an understatement.  This is not an easy position to obtain and the experience it is affording our family is priceless.  Because of Erin's drive, passion, intelligence, make-it-happen-at-any-cost-ness, and ability to believe in a Dream, we are able to provide something for Graeme and our family that we used to only daydream about.  Graeme is learning new languages, new cultures, new foods, new people, new everything.  As well, next school year Graeme will start his education at a place and in a program that we would never be able to afford to provide him on our own in the U.S. (I am not sure a program he will be entering even exists there??)

So this post is for Erin (my Sugar Momma!) and to congratulate and thank her for who she is as well as let her know how much I love her and appreciate all that she does for Graeme and myself.

View from Erin's Office

Hòa Bình,

The Hawken Family in HCMC

#thetaoofgraeme