A Wild Ride
Physical and emotional adventures around the world
We haven’t updated in a while. There’s been a lot of life to catch up on!
The overview:
After spending Fall Break in Japan, Leandra traveled on a work assignment to Lower Mustang in Nepal (post coming soon!). After that, the semester quickly wrapped up with Woodstock’s fall concert, Christmas chapel, and end-of-semester staff banquet. Then we were off to the US for Christmas and New Year’s.
The US provided time to see family and a few friends, as well as experience the lovely cold that Indiana winters bring. This Christmas hit a bit hard. Leandra’s family was mourning the sudden loss of her Uncle Jeff, who died on December 5th. And my family was coming to grips with my sister Aubrey’s stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis in October. Aubrey celebrates her birthday today (Feb 12) and finishes her sixth round of initial chemo on Tuesday, and I couldn’t be more humbled by her strength, positivity, humor, and grace facing what would shatter many. She has shared her journey openly — her fears and triumphs and medical updates — in a way that I can only admire. (Happy birthday and congrats to you, Aubrey, for finishing the initial rounds of your journey. <3 You are not only a “fighter” — a term we employ often with cancer warriors — but also just a good human who I love.)
We left the US bound for Da Nang, Vietnam, where we spent my three-week virtual learning period (this too shall be saved for another post!). Da Nang is 1.5 hours ahead of India (good for synchronous classes) and a visitor’s dream:
(mostly) warm weather
a beautiful beach
nice accommodations that won’t break the bank
coffee and spas on every corner (often combined into the same business)
amazing food from around the world, all on the same block
And now for some personal big news:
As I write this, we are sitting in the back of a taxi for a six-hour drive from Delhi up to our house in the hills (that’s not the news). It will most likely be the last time we make this journey because I have officially accepted a job at St. Maur International School in Yokohama, Japan (!!!) for next school year. The week preceding Christmas was a wild ride emotionally and professionally. Leandra had flown back a week early to attend Uncle Jeff’s funeral in Pennsylvania and be with family while I finished the semester and wrapped up odds and ends at our place on the hillside. While she was away, I received news from a dream school in Europe that after three interviews with them and making it down to their final cut (me and one other candidate), I had been passed up for their band director vacancy. Long story short, and a total of 11 interviews into teacher recruitment season, I was heartbroken. But less than a week after that email (the week of Christmas), I found myself in a completely new position: I had three offers from international schools on three different continents (including an offer to replace the band director who got the job I had initially interviewed for). It was wild.
Leandra and I talked over and over about all the possibilities, and we always came back to Japan. It was such a hard decision between the three schools, and I felt extremely honored that school directors and principals and music heads made the time to set up calls with me during their winter breaks — and then gave me an invitation to work with them. We feel really good about the decision we did make, and are already talking with people in Yokohama to make the transition in August as smooth as possible. We can already sense that this will be an exciting new chapter for us.
For now, however, I am on the road to Mussoorie. For today, we will enjoy Cheetal Grand (the familiar road stop on this journey), unpack the last two months (emotionally and physically), order a pizza, and finish our journey in India that inspired this newsletter.
