America Bound!

Just wanted to let everyone know I've booked my ticket to come back to the states! I'll be landing in Houston at 4:23pm on Wednesday, June 8th for anyone who wants to surprise me at the airport ;) That's right, I'll be back in less than 2 months! I've been away from home for more than 7 months now and I can't believe it's gone by so fast. It seems like not long ago I was counting upwards saying, "Wow, I've already been here for 3 months," and now it's almost time to go. I won't get started on lessons I've learned here or how the trip has affected me because there's still time left to learn more and make those judgments.

While I'm sure you're all thrilled to know that I'll be stateside soon, the next question I'm sure you've all got for me is "For good?" or "For how long?"

While I would love to be able to answer that question, right now I, myself, am still unsure. I have a plane ticket to come back in August, but whether I'll be back for vacation or for another year is still up in the air. As you can probably tell from reading my blog, I absolutely love being here in Almería. I've found myself a second home and I think it would be ridiculous to come back to the states to a flooded job market when I've got an opportunity here to make decent money, have 3-day-weekends every weekend, learn to speak Spanish, and live on the gorgeous Mediterranean.

That being said, I have completed my contract renewal application to come back next year. As a renewal candidate, you get preference of whether or not you want to stay in your same school, same province, same comunidad autónoma, etc. However, being the retard that I am, I didn't realize that there was a deadline to be able to keep your preference. Only when I started looking for round trip plane tickets to go home in June and come back in August, did I realize that I had missed the deadline, which was March 10th :( So I have still completed my renewal application to stay at my same school, but since I sent it after the deadline, I have allegedly lost my preference and I'll get treated like any other applicant.

I did, however, get some legit letters of recommendation from the director of my school, Alberto, and from Yolanda and Valeria, two of the bilingual teachers. Now, I've got nothing left to do but play the waiting game. Last year I got my job offer on May 17th, so I'm hoping that I'll know before then since I'm technically a renewal candidate and they assign renewal positions first.

Here are possibilities of what could happen for next year (best case scenario to worst):

1. The Ministry of Education recognizes what a great job I'm doing, how much my students and fellow teachers love me and want me to come back, and they decide to be nice and let me stay at my school in Rioja. I have a fixed job for next year and nothing to worry about over the summer. (Unfortunately, knowing how things are here, I'm thinking this option is not gonna pan out for me :( )
2. The Ministry says "Sorrrrrry, you snooze you lose!" They tell me that I waited too long and they can't give me a renewal contract in Rioja, but they can send me somewhere else. That could be somewhere in Almería, in some other province of Andalucía, or for all I know, they could send me to the Canary Islands. It's a complete gamble.
3. Once again, the Ministry reminds me that I have failed by waiting too long to renew my contract, but this time, they can't offer me anything. The positions are allegedly given on a first come, first serve basis. Last year I completed my application on March 29th and received the application number 1375. This year, I completed my application ONE day later on Mar 30th and anyone wanna guess what my application number was? 5213! FIVE-THOUSAND, TWO-HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN!!! Unbelievable that so many more people have applied this year. Thank you economic crisis for likely having killed my chances of getting a spot. However, since the application is free and there is no commitment if you are accepted, there's a good chance many of those applicants before me don't really intend to participate and have just completed the application as a backup plan. At least, that's what I'm hoping for.

If option number 2 happens, I'll almost definitely accept the job offer just hoping that wherever they send me, I'll have just as good of an experience as I have had here in Almería this year. If option number 3 happens, I've got a couple of difference choices:

• Since I've already got my plane ticket to come back in mid-August, I come back for the fería (basically a big town party) of Almería, hang out for a month or two, do a little travelling, and then head back to the states in the off-season when plane tickets are cheaper
  
• I get my tourist visa, come back for the fería and have some fun but at the same time get my ass in gear looking for work. Hopefully I can find work in an English academy or something and they can provide me with the necessary paperwork to legally reside in Spain, have a bank account, etc.
• I come back for the fería, find work, but unfortunately they can't provide me with any documentation to verify my legality here. So, I work until my tourist visa runs out, then I stay and work illegally til I wanna go home. Then, when I wanna go home, I get kicked out of Spain and probably can't come back for like a year or something haha  

Basically, the conclusion is, I have NO IDEA what's gonna happen next year. For now, everyone just keep your fingers crossed for me that I get my contract renewed in Rioja and I don't have to deal with all this other nonsense. And don't forget the most important part...on JUNE 8TH, I'll be back home in GALVESTON! Can't wait to see y'all! More blogs coming soon!

Beautiful Galveston
(www.down2houston.com/assets/images/home/large/galveston-beach.jpg)