Flying with Skot

I've flown long distances by myself before. I've done a 15 hour flight in two legs to Hong Kong...4 times so the 10 hour flight to London non-stop seemed easy. Oh yeah and I was flying British Airways. I flew them when I went to Italy two years ago and loved my experience.

So I flew out of LAX since they had a non-stop and it was considerably cheaper. My lovely parents drove me up to the airport and off I went through the international terminal that is getting a huge overhaul. You literally are walking on exposed cement and the walls are made of plywood. Welcome to Los Angeles, everyone!

As I was lingering around the gate waiting to board, I noticed a few characters. With a plane this big, you're always going to have a few interesting people. There was the Sheik family that kind of freaked the Americans out, but didn't bother me. Just because men wear turbans doesn't mean they are all terrorists. I mean, most people wouldn't even recognize that they are Indian, not Arab and it's a totally different ideal. Also I had an Indian professor once who went on and on about the differences because she was tired of being stopped at every single airport she went to. But then I digress...

There was one guy who had a nicer purse than me and his carry-on was a big pleather black bag with gigantic red letters that said, "100% SEXY!" Haha...yeah, he was definitely from LA. And as I found my seat and sat down, Mr. 100% SEXY! turned out to be my seat-mate. His name was Skot and he was on his way to Oslo, Norway and was super nervous. Not to fly, of course, but of being cold. In a rare event that could only have been orchestrated by Jesus, the middle seat was open and Skot and I got to spread out. Woohoo!

Also a big woohoo for the fact that British Airways updated their entertainment system and now each screen was a touchscreen where I could choose from 36 movies, 25 TV shows, about 40 CDs and a whole host of other things to eat up time. It had a pause, rewind, fastforward button and everything. Which is great especially if you have to go to the bathroom and don't want to miss the most crucial scene of a movie.

The flight was uneventful and as usual I didn't sleep a bit. I did manage to watch 95% of The Duchess but tragically, we landed before I could see the ending.

I said goodbye to Skot and breezed through immigration before picking up my luggage and heading off to the Tube...

The why of it all...

Number one question I've gotten: why? Why would you even want to teach abroad? Why go all the way to London to interview for international teaching jobs when there are jobs right here in the US?

Well, my answer to that would take a lot longer than I have room for, but here's the short and sweet version.

It's my passion. I student taught in Hong Kong for two months and had the best teaching experience of my life. Ever since then, it's been my goal to teach in an international school.

Now what an international school is NOT:

• a military school; these schools have nothing to do with the Department of Defense
• a missionary school; these are not religious schools
• an American school just like in the US with American kids only

The schools I applied for have many different backgrounds but the common theme is that parents wanted an English language education for their students. Curriculum is usually the International Baccalaureate program for elementary (called PYP) or an American curriculum adapted for an international audience.

So enough introduction...let's here about my trip!