This little fish is back!
Just detailing day-to-day student life got a little dry, hence my long hiatus. Plus I pretty well eat, sleep, and breathe school. While I'm sure you all are dying to know about my most recent discoveries into the world of Paradise Lost or know what the English Club is up to this month, well, I'm betting you don't.
My return to the bloggersphere is due to a most exciting letter I received about a month ago. This spring I will be boarding the plane once again. This time, destination: Ede, Netherlands.
Over the summer I applied to the Consortium of Overseas Teaching (COST) program, offered by Kent State (Auburn is a cooperating school through their program) and after many months of nail biting, I got a placement. Let me elaborate: as an English/Language Arts Education major (a major that will henceforth be referred to only as English Ed because typing out the real name is obnoxious), my last semester of school is a teaching internship where I will be in a classroom full time, observing and teaching. Essentially a real teacher, but with a safety net. I can't even tell you how I stumbled upon Auburn's affiliation with the COST program, but last fall, I decided to go for it. After months of editing personal statements - for the record I almost never edit or revise anything so having seventeen drafts of a piece of writing was quite the new experience for me - I submitted my application. I was able to rank my top four countries that I wanted to be placed in - Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, or Greece. More of a horizontal ranking, I didn't care where I was going just as long as I was going. Then I just sat back and waited (which looked far more like anxious pacing and barely concealed crazy while explaining to people that I, in fact, did not know what I was doing the next semester, did not have a lease for spring, and would just figure it out when I got there).
Two other COST students got their placements before me, so needless to say, my crazy eyes were at full force by the end of September until:
Standing in line, waiting for my coffee with two fellow survivors of the previous semester's History of the English Language. Briefly checking my phone, I notice a new email in my inbox. Expecting one of the usual eighty million pieces of spam (dang it freshman Caitlin, you do not need to sign up at every email list on War Eagle Day!) I open my email.
Voice shrill and eyes about to pop out of my head: "Jordan, my letter, my letter." and after a few moments, every head turned as I jumped up and down, backpack still on, shrieking "I'm going to the Netherlands, I get to leave!!!" Sorry I'm not sorry, Starbucks.
There's the condensed version. In the meantime, research has been done, placement coordinator has been contacted, paperwork has been started. I'll be teaching at Marnix College, which is a bilingual school for 6th-12th grade, from January 14th through April 4th, and my coordinator is working on finding me a host family to stay with. People have been coming out of the woodwork with helpful tips and contacts for me in Amsterdam - something that has been much appreciated.
Others have offered...less... helpful advice. For instance, my coordinator warned me that I may want to kick my coffee habit because "The coffee is very different at Marnix". Which is probably a good idea regardless, given that without caffeine I am a monster and that really does not make for a great first impression. After sharing with peers that I am working on kicking the habit over Christmas break, no less than three people have suggested that I bring a kurieg with me in my suitcase.... helpful.
I shouldn't roll my eyes, honestly one day they'll probably get stuck. :)
I'm going to try to keep this blog updated with any news and eventually will turn it into my travel blog. For now it's just paperwork and tying up loose ends here at Auburn. T-minus two months until my biggest adventure yet, finishing up school work should be a breeze, right?
C.Sher
