Friday, November 7 "No notice job interview"

No school for the girls, no plans to do anything special. The time 11:18 is stuck in my mind though, as the time I got a call to go to an interview today, before 2 PM, if at all possible. I called Becky on the off chance that she'd be around and completely lucked out. She came over, I got dressed, and I was outside in front of my building waiting for a ride by 11:50. I'm guessing it was a miracle.

After shutting off my, "Are you sure this is a good idea?" sensors (being picked up by a random person, referred by an email, in a foreign country, to go to some unknown location, with only the babysitter knowing I'd be gone for "a while"...not my usual style), I calmed down and decided it would be a good experience however it went.

"Murat" picked me up in his black Peugeot and immediately put me at ease. After I got the uncomfortable question of what his role was in this interview/opportunity out of the way, our conversation was pretty easy. He's a textbook salesperson (for Pearson, owner of many of the well-known textbook publishers) and so knows of school needs and vacancies and can work as a sort of unofficial matchmaker. So I just kept reminding myself that he is a salesperson and enjoyed the conversation and the ride. The school we visited is out near the airport, so the drive was vaguely familiar, but barely since I was in such a fog when we first arrived in Ankara.

I was waiting in an administrator's office once we arrived, with four little girls (maybe 2nd grade?) hovering outside the door sneaking peeks at me and giggling. It was quite unnerving at first, but then I started looking back at them occasionally and it was much like peek-a-boo with Aeden. Once Murat came to pick me up, one of the girls was brave enough to say, "Goodbye" to me, and I said "Goodbye" back, and set them all off into another round of giggles.

The principal was eating lunch, so we were to go join him. So we joined him in the cafeteria, and the wife of the couple that owns the school was there as well. Two trays of food arrived for Murat and me, and the conversation in Turkish took off from there. I smiled and ate and asked a few questions when it seemed like it was my turn, but the principal largely ignored me and tended to his paperwork, and the owner seemed distant and didn't know anything about the position so couldn't answer many of my questions. Hmm, not going as smoothly as one would hope.

We finished eating and went back to the Principal's office to talk further. Before I knew it, there was an English teacher in the office as well, handing me a half-slip of paper and telling me about "my schedule". It took me too long to realize that they were talking as if I had already been hired. At this point the principal softened and he handed me a school bulletin, turned to the faculty group picture, and said, "you should like to work with these people". I felt very good about the opportunity, but then became quite torn when we discussed work schedule (catch the bus at 7:30 AM and return about 6:30 PM 2 days, 1 PM 1 day, and 4:30 PM 2 days) and salary.

They asked to be told my decision on Monday. How on earth could I make this work? But the opportunity to work on a team again, with other teachers, and to learn about teaching is wonderful. But how can I trade my time for this little money and return to seeing the kids awake only 1 hour a day? And how could I survive being dropped into teaching mid-year with students from grades 1-7, and still get our laundry done? The salary would not really be enough to hire a cleaner, would my vacations match up at all with Brian's? Too many questions.

On a high note, Brian brought home a new cookbook that arrived from Kae in the mail! It is beautiful and full of recipes I'm looking forward to trying with the produce and cheeses here.