Transition Time and the Epic Visa Quest

In 4 weeks and 1 day we are leaving China. Time to wind down, pack and enjoy the company of friends or you could write reports, review curriculum and endure an epic quest to get a visa. (Teachers do work right to the end of the year and during the holidays, in case you were wondering.)

It's funny how your block out the annoying, time consuming and negative things that happen when you move overseas. I feel somewhat like an ostrich. I am really trying to bury my head in the sand and pretend that certain things are not happening! I love the massive spring clean you do when you move, it is just so liberating! I don't love the paperwork. I am a perfectionist and I know from living in China how precise you need to be. The errors and discrepencies between different consulates and the HR team I am working with have been driving me to distraction. It would be really nice if every consulate for a particular country required the same paperwork. It would also be nice if they listed all the paperwork they wanted rather than expecting you to read their mind. It would also be nice if they didn't hang up when you called to ask a question.

We still don't have visas. No time to think about that though! I want to make sure that I leave the curriculum and my resources in a format that makes sense and meets the needs of the students. Nothing worse than arriving at school where documents are missing and you can't understand a single thing the previous person taught. I really hope that my units and plans can be understood.

This time the shipping company dropped boxes off, which I think I mentionned. Initially I was confused as they are paid to do the packing. However, I started packing at the weekend and it felt great! It really helps you to get in the "moving on" mindset. I am only packing the non-breakable items, such as sheet music and snowboarding clothes. I would rather the professionals are responsible for my breakables so that I can be mad at them and not me if they break!

We are 5 weeks into our epic visa quest and we can count 13 problems so far. Impressive huh? Clarity, efficiency and competence are all things I value highly. Sadly these elements are not all present in our current quest. We are following the trail of breadcrumbs and hoping that it leads us into our new adventure on time and unscathed...

Countdown Take 2

In around 3 months we will be leaving China behind and heading over to Phuket with our labradoodle to start another adventure. If you follow my blog you'll know that we've known about our change of location since November, but even that advance knowledge doesn't prevent the avalanche of paperwork that magically appears and needs completing in seconds.

March is known affectionately at my current school as a month of madness. Moderation is due, we have had parent - teacher conferences and I'm not quite sure what else has been happening. What I do know is that it has been excessively busy and full on for everyone. Everyone is looking ahead to next year. With 11 teaching weeks left I'm trying to perfect units, tidy documentation and do everything that I possibly can to make the handover to whoever replaces me as smooth as possible. At whole staff meeting we have been shown the faces of our successors. A brief bio was given for each newcomer and it appeared as if we were sitting in some form of weird dating agency presentation as the marital status was almost the first piece of information to follow the name. There were definitely some excited singletons eagerly awaiting August. I'm wondering if my new school also does a "Blind Date" esque introduction for all of the new staff. Just replace the principal with Cilla Black and insert some add breaks for some light entertainment.

Preparing for our move we have to deal with competing shipping companies, vet appointments, gaining import permits from Thai quarantine, working out flights, getting local police checks, vaccinations, visas and whole host of other documents and organisation that I haven't thought of as yet. I am very thankful that my husband is dealing with the vet and import permits, but it is very scary and so much of the information is contradictory. There is a lot to do and with little opportunity to do these things due to work hours and many of the places we need to go are in Shanghai.

I have the email for my new school already set up and have been asked to take a survey about my IT abilities. Thank goodness I am going from one apple mac environment to another, but having been in China with its "Great Firewall" I need to get used to google docs fast. It is very hard to be perfecting and working on the curriculum in one school with the knowledge that you  have a new challenge up ahead and it is rare that your existing resources will be used. I personally am still tweaking units as I want the best for my students, but the thought of creating new resources is both exciting and daunting. Being in conversations at 2 work places you begin to feel very torn.

There are so many things that require your time and attention that can't wait. Despite all of the paperwork you really want to be making the most of the time you have left with friends and enjoying where we are. Walking down our favourite alleys, running around the lake, going to our favourite restaurants and our favourite sites in Shanghai. 

We've moved country before. We can do it again, hopefully!