Fall Break!!!!

I probably say this every year, but this time, I really mean it, the last four weeks have been the WORST I can remember. For whatever reason work has been exhausting, I haven’t been sleeping at all, and by at all, I mean up at 3:00 and staying up, SO annoying, coaching soccer is wearing me out, I am not doing it next year. Between Fall Trip, coaching and a few trips by choice I am just going crazy. I’m currently sitting on the runway in some airport in Africa, I couldn’t even tell you what country, because my easy flight from Vienna to Amsterdam to Nairobi has, of course, turned out a little different than planned. I wonder if there will ever be a time when I get on a plane and everything goes as planned, including getting my luggage at the other end of the trip. Probably never.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind. Work is crazy; it was just announced this week that our principal is moving to the High School and there is no current plan in place for the Middle School. This will make for an interesting and challenging rest of the school year. I am going back and forth trying to decide if I should stay in Vienna for another school year, or be looking for another job. If the last few weeks and now this big change is any indication of how the next couple of years are going to be, for my own sanity I might want to consider a new position and a new city. Like I said, I haven’t been sleeping very well at all, I’m sure a big portion of it is stress and anxiety related. Living abroad is really, really, really hard. There are a lot of great benefits, financially and travel opportunities are amazing, but day to day life is just plain hard. And exhausting. When you think about looking for a new job at home, it doesn’t necessarily require a work visa, moving across the country, learning a language, etc. I think what I’ll do is apply for a few specific jobs if they open up and will be doing their hiring before December 15, which is when I need to tell my school what I am doing. I was thinking Singapore, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, possible Kuala Lumpur, we’ll see what happens. I think I just want to stay in Vienna though. Things really are going well, except work, it’s just too much right now, something has got to change.

I am now at the hotel in Nairobi. I ended up getting here around midnight or so, had to wait in the car at the gate while they swept the car for bombs. My mom and Nicole stayed up and waited for me to get there, we stayed up for a while and talked, I was SO happy to see them! We got up this morning and after I went to the gym had a super delicious breakfast and then I went to my conference and my mom and Nicole went to the hospital that Kristin is working at and also did some shopping. I’m really glad I decided to attend this conference, it’s the first time I’ve done any professional development that is actually geared towards counselors, so I feel like I’m learning and will learn a lot during the whole thing.

While I will learn a lot from this conference, I am ready for the vacation to start… and to see my sister!