Thursday, April 05, 2001

Greetings Friends

Greetings Friends,

Ron and Ryan have made a major life decision. We are selling the house and moving to Asia or Eastern Europe. We had finally decided to sell the house and travel for a year, after putting our things in storage in NJ (where Ryan’s brother and father live). Later that same night Ryan received an offer from Kazakhstan for the position of Coordinator of English Undergraduate Studies at their Institute. Ryan was thrilled and talked to his friend Myrtis about it since she has taught all over the world. She is currently in Croatia. She told Ryan to get his foot in the door wherever and it would be easier to move from place to place then. We have had a long time desire to live abroad.The problem with Kazakhstan, above and beyond the remoteness and various other obvious issues, is that you need a visa for getting in and a special one for staying. Looking through the web, we found out that the school needs to get my visa. Ryan was concerned about Ron getting a visa. Since Ron has a credential for teaching English as a Second Language, the contact said he could be hired too. They gave contacts for two other schools that were hiring, but the school that wanted Ryan did not have current positions for Ron.

They want Ryan there August 15th, which is tight since the house goes on the market this weekend (June 23, 2001). We still have to sell furniture and move it to NJ where Ryan's brother is living. When we do move back to the States, we don't intend to return to California. Then Ryan found that they have done nothing about getting a visa yet. That could take up to 4 weeks. Ron has not heard about the other schools yet either and that would prolong his visa too. Right now don’t know what our specific plans are, but we do know we are leaving Modesto and California. We are either moving to Kaz. or traveling for a year. The rest will fall into place somehow and it will turn out. That much we have faith in.

We had plane tickets for Boston when there was a really good sale and we were anticipating looking at properties. Since that fell out, we decided not to spend the money to go to Boston for a vacation. Ron has not seen his family in Iowa for over 6 years and needed a family fix before we took off for a period of time. He is using the time we were going to Boston to see family. Ryan is using the time to spend at our friend Myrtis and Randall's home in San Francisco, since they are both overseas. She gave Ryan a set of keys. Ryan needs the time to relax his body and mind before the chaos really begins for sure. This might just be the last time Ryan will see San Francisco for a really long time.

So this is where we are. The travel and possible teaching abroad just may give Ryan the added experiences that he needs to land the perfect job that he wants in academia. We can only hope that this is the right decision and it is an advantage. Our crystal ball has been in for repairs fora hell of a long time and it is tough making all of these decisions without some clues as to what is right and what is a stupid mistake. We have tried predicting our moves ourselves, but we will never get a job on 1-800-PSYCHICS with our accuracy rate.

For now, we do not know where our mailing address will be. We are not sure if we will stay overseas for more than a year or less than a year. Our life plan is open for the Universe to negotiate with. The only sure addresses we will have are our e-mail addresses.
Ron – No longer valid
Ryan – No longer valid
Both of us – (Notice there is a _ between the e and s)
If any one is aware of Educational employment opportunities abroad, where Americans can work, we would be happy to hear about them. Happy Trails from us to you and may the spirit of adventure be with you.

Ryan and Ron

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