first job interview

Before I get to the content of my blog--have a look at this picture we took while walking the paths around our neigbourhood: its is a century-old tree growing directly up through the path! Now do you think my home country would allow this??? If you are on a bike, using a stroller or challenged for mobility in any way, this is not the path for you!

Now back to our previously titled entry:

I have mixed news: yes, I was successful in getting an interview at my international school of choice, but unfortunately I was not exactly qualified for the position, in spite of my fast talking. It was for elementary special ed, a self contained class of 8 kids ranging in age from 4 to 11. I totally don't have any experience with this group, and I would think if anyone more qualified showed up I wouldn't have had a snow-balls chance in hell...they were gracious enough to offer me an interview, but alas, an individual with 20 years experience in the field also applied and was offered the position. I would have been out of my element anyway.

As a consolation prize, I was heartened to hear that they were very impressed with my skills and with my ability to communicate about my philosophy of education, so the administrator has offered to "talk me up" to her colleagues and keep my phone number handy should anything come up. I will keep my fingers crossed, and check in with their website regularly, should she be untrue to her word. Until my VISA comes in, I can't work without a job offer, so even supply work is out of the question at this time...too bad.

Tuesday or Wednesday, I plan to travel with a neigbour (just across the street, two girls in my two boys' classes--of UK origin) who works at an outlying international school, in the countryside near Waterloo (the same one for which Napoleon was infamous)...the name is St. John's and yes, it is catholic in principal, but in actuality, at the secondary level this is only a characteristic of certain aspects of the curriculum and not imbedded as thoroughly as it potentially could be...I am looking forward to meeting the administration there and letting them know my intentions wrt supply teaching and potentially getting on staff. I will do my best to be charming and charismatic, as always...wearing a power suit can't hurt, so I'll be sure to visit the 5-en-Sec (drycleaners) Monday to ensure I don't come across as road-weary as I feel.

On a completely different note, yesterday we had a mini adventure. M and I met up with three of the Cloes family and visited to one of the more modern Cathedrals in the city (I think the name is Ste Catherine--only finished 70 years ago and a real monstrosity) and took in the Leonardo DaVinci Exhibit. What a spectacle! This man (ah, he was called a rennaissance man) was artist, architect, humanist, musician, historian, and party man all rolled into one. He died 500 years ago, but some of his inventions look like they could have been designed by engineers today...such as the triple-platformed 30-head cannon...ten shafts fire as the next 10 are being loaded and the previous 10 are cooling from just being fired. Not that I'm into war machines, but wow...that's innovative. His understanding of the human form have lasted these 500 centuries and have set the stage for portraiture and anatomy ever since. Something interesting I learned is that he was responsible for the exploration (and shall we say dissection) of some 30 corpses in order to understand the working of muscles, nerves, the brain and the vascular system...all in the days before refrigeration...Now there's a man with fortitude!