An Unexpected Return

 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

On June 19th, school finished for the year and the possibility of going home to NH for the summer was not looking good. The Beirut airport was still closed and the opening had been pushed back several times. I was weary that it really would open July 1st, and even if it did would I be able to rebook my flights? My chances were slim, but I tried to remain positive. I should also mention that Simon was stuck in Germany and we had not seen each other in 4 months, and rebooking his flight from a different country was another obstacle. My adventure to get home is not the focus of this post, so to cut a long story short, through a lot of phone calls and stress both Simon, myself, a friend Michelle and her 2 cats all made it home after a very long journey.

I was so excited to be home and to be able to see my family. It has been a really long and tough year to say the least. Not only did we face COVID-19 in Beirut but in October a political revolution began which spanned the remainder of the year. I was glad to be home and for the first time in months I felt like I was able to breath and truly relax. It was able a joy to be able to see my husband. Not to anyone's fault but in our first year of marriage we had spent more time apart then together and it was seeing Simon felt like coming home. 

After settling into NH I was able to put my thoughts of the past year and all that I had experienced in Beirut away. Things seemed to be great and I was really enjoying my NH summer. I got to spend my anniversary with my husband, I got to spend time with my family and friends and I couldn't ask for more. Little did I know that one email who completely change the course of my life as I know it. 

July 23rd, 2020 is a day that I will never forget. I received and email from my school, as did everyone else that changed the course of my life and career. Not to go into too many specifics but it stated that at the recent board meeting they had made the difficult decision that the school would no longer be able to send a portion of our salaries to the states and that we would be paid our whole salary in Lebanon. Now I want to clarify that this is a major perk that my school was doing for us, and was not the norm. Also in normal circumstances it would not have been an issue, but since the revolution had started no one was able to send any money out the country. The email went on to say that if we wished to break our contracts and resign we would be allowed to, they would work with us. The catch? We had to give them our decision by July 30th... one week.  As you can imagine my friends and I immediately began messaging each other and some were freaking out. Me... I was not surprised at all, in some weird way I could sense this might be coming. I spoke with Simon and my family and started weighing out all my options. Go back to Beirut, not be able to pay off my student loans and other financial commitments, or come home and risk not be able to get s job. 

To say that this was a stressful time is a massive understatement. Simon and I went back and forth and just weren't sure what we should do. We knew that in the future we wanted to settle back here, but were we ready to it now? Ultimately we made the difficult decision to not to return to Beirut. As you can imagine there were a lot of logistical pieces to work through. Simon had a roundtrip ticket to Germany so he would return there, and then he would fly to Beirut to pack up the rest of our belongings and then fly back to Germany. We also decided to start the green card process so he could come and live and work here in the states. Not how or when I thought I would move him, so an unexpected return for sure.

I went into job hunting mode, I revamped my resume, collected letters of reference and immediately started applying for jobs. I must have applied for a dozen jobs and only got 2 phone calls for interviews. One was in Vermont and it was a zoom interview. I followed up a few days later only to get the disappointing news "We loved you and you crushed the interview, but we are going with someone else." Feeling discouraged I kept applying but wasn't hopeful. About a week before Simon was set to leave, I received an email asking me for an interview. If I am being honest, I had applied for so many jobs and heard nothing I couldn't even remember the posting. I set up my interview and then looked up the posting again to realize it was only a part time job 2/3. This made me nervous but my mom and Simon encouraged me to go for it anyway. 

The interview was on a Monday and I arrived early as I was nervous. The interview went well, and I was able to ask some questions about the job being part time. The interview lasted about 45 minutes and then I left and drove home. A few hours after the interview I received a phone call from the principal saying they were very interested in me and if they were to offer the job would I accept? They were nervous that I wouldn't because the job was part time. The principal and I spoke for a bit and talked through the job being part time and they were able to answer some questions I had. I had no other prospects and the job did sound great, minus the part time status so I agreed to accept if I was offered the position. They said they would check my references and get back to me. Two days later on Wednesday I was trying to keep busy and I was test driving a car with Simon that I was interested in. I sat down in the showroom to find out more about the car and I got the call... I had gotten the job. I immediately accepted and an hour later I bought a car. 

I know this seems fast but I was to start school the upcoming Monday... I know, I had to start my new job in 4 days, but I was so excited and ready to begin. Saturday came and Simon left and it was extremely hard to say goodbye to him again, not knowing when I would see him again. You see the spousal visa is a long process with no deadline, and with COVID, the process has been made longer. 

I arrived at school on Monday with a lot of nerves. I have not taught or lived in NH in 7 years. I know it doesn't seem like a long time, and it did go by in a flash. I started my career abroad thinking it would only last two years and then it was... "well one more contract, ok "maybe one more" and that's how 7 years happened. Everyone was so welcoming and nice. When they introduced the new staff to say my resume stood out was an understatement. Shortly after my first welcome meeting I got an unexpected surprise. I was meeting with the district office, and doing paperwork when head of HR asked to chat me with. They asked me how would I like to made full time? I was shocked and was of course interested. They told me that the principal raved about me and were going to have me do some tech training, and AV setup as part of my job. I was thrilled! 

Fast forward, and I just finished week seven with students. It has been a whirlwind to day the least and it has been so much fun. I am really enjoying my position and working with the students and all of my colleagues. It has been a wild ride teaching with everything go on at the moment, but we are all doing the best and I can tell the students are happy to be back at school even if it's only two days a week.

This has been a long update, so I am going to end by saying thank you for reading and stay tuned for another post soon.