I've had some people ask about what exactly our family is doing with this exchange, and I realized that I actually never posted it on the blog. I am participating in a year-long teacher exchange to Australia. A teacher from Australia and her family will come live in our house, while we go live in theirs. The Australian teacher will teach in my classroom while I teach in hers. The program I went through is called the Colorado International Teachers' Exchange League (CITEL) and is the only teacher exchange program left in the US now that Fulbright lost funding in 2013. There are two countries you can exchange to as an American: Canada and Australia. Since we already live in an environment like Canada, we decided to go for Australia.
It has been a long process. I started the application back in July 2015. It was due in December 2015. We started getting "hits" (possible matches) in February 2016. Beteween February and May we reviewed about 9 applications of possilbe matches, but none seemed to be right for us - or we weren't right for the Australian exchangee. In May we were notified that we had a possible solid match and then on the last day of school May 2016 I got my official proposal. Since then we have been preparing our house and our lives for the exchange. Some questions that people have asked: Q. Are you going to exchange cars? A. No. Bron is going to buy a car when they get to Seward, and we are going to buy one in Oz. Then we will both sell before we leave. Q. What are you going to do about utilities? A. We are both keeping our own accounts and will pay each other's bills. Q. Are you going to meet them? Will your paths cross at any time? A. Sadly, we miss each other by 2 hours at the Anchorage Airport. We have talked on the phone and have Skyped. We both don't have return flights so maybe at the end of exchange our paths will cross. Q. It must have been expensive to buy plane tickets to Australia! A. We used Alaska Airlines miles. A one way flight is about 40,000 miles. Q. Are you shipping your stuff? A. No we are each bringing two bags. Q. What will you be teaching? A. I have will teach a Geography class (probably Australian geography) to Year 7 and 8 students (7th and 8th grade) and a 20th century Australian History course to Year 9 and 10. Q. What will Tom do? A. Tom is going to be a stay-at-home dad. He is going to plan our adventures and make sure the kids are adapting well. He's definitely looking forward to a year off! Q. What about your pets? Will she be watching your cat? A. We rehomed the ducks. Our dear wonderful old dog Kena died in March. Sven, our cat, will go live with my good friend and cat-whisperer Naomi.
1 Comment
Peg Kenaga
12/28/2016 23:04:07
Thanks for sharing this info about the exchange program and the process you have gone through to make this happen. So many details, I can not even imagine. However, it seems you have been handling things well. I expect that you and Bron are both feeling the same way - overwhelmed. lol
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AuthorThe Liljemark's enjoy exploring the world. This blog chronicles our adventures. Archives
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