An American in England: My next great adventure

I have now been in England for nearly three months and I'm preparing to move on to my next location: Indonesia via France. My three months here have not exactly been the best. It has been the rainiest English summer in the past century, my husband and I started off searching non-stop for jobs and once we found a job, started studying non-stop to get our TEFL certification. However, we have managed to find a job, and are a test away from certification, which are definitely good things.

I will be working as an English teacher with a company called English First. My husband and I were able to both get jobs with the same company. We happened to find the position by chance while looking for positions for couples. Through our research we discovered that companies are more likely to hire couples than individuals because couples are more likely to be established and willing to make more of a commitment to the position as compared to an individual who might get homesick and want to leave. We had our search narrowed down to positions in Russia, Turkey and Indonesia, and finally decided Indonesia had the most attractive contract for us. We'll be teaching English to a range of students, from 3-year olds to business people, for the duration of a one year contract.

map of Indonesia

In order to travel to and get visas in Indonesia, we've had to run around to prepare things. We needed to get an HIV test, drugs test, vaccinations and health screenings. We got our HIV test in Redditch, drugs test in Birmingham, vaccinations in two different Redditch locations, and health screenings on two different days in London. Although it was a very hectic two weeks, we were able to at least enjoy our time in London with friends and family. A college friend of Alexander came out with us to dinner and we were able to spend time with Alexander's brother James and James' girlfriend, Julie.

Other than running around to get all our testing and shots, we've also been studying to get a TEFL certification. We signed up for a 100-hour online course, which we finally completed, and now we just have to take a test to get certified. We aren't required to have a TEFL certification for our position in Indonesia, but we decided it would be better for future endeavors if we had certification. Eventually, we might just travel the world as teachers... who knows.