Returned to Canada to care for my aging sick 85 year old mum in Sept 2019, rather than have her go into a care facility I wanted her to be comfortable in her own home with her beloved cat and then in March 2020 the world changed with this pandemic.

Upon seeing what was happening in China in late January 2020 especially, I assumed this was going to have dramatic lasting impacts on living overseas, travel, freedoms, our schools, student life, and travel shutdowns worldwide. We saw the writing on the wall and decided that was it, after more than 25 years overseas we packed it in and made the decision our int'l lives were done. My mum then passed away and we took time to figure out what was next for us.

Not wanting to go back overseas to schools shutdown and online learning AND not feeling ready to retire, we knew we had the energy to try something new and that we didn't want to work in the Ontario school system. We had done well with saving and investing over 25 years so decided to go a new route, but still using all our skills and knowledge. We bought a tutoring franchise, opened in Sept/21 and it has been an incredible experience. In fact we have broken the records for a new location. We work hard, it has been a steep learning curve but we equate it to being at a new int'l school, as we learn new systems, policies and procedures, get to know our new city, hire staff, learn new curriculum and assessments, how to market etc. We have adjusted far more easily than we thought after living in some pretty difficult countries. I have to say life is easy here in Ottawa. We don't feel the reverse culture shock but maybe that's because life where we are is still very much in covid restriction mode. We approach this as another new location, only this is our home country, but in a city that is new to us. We lucked out buying a home in a super friendly area and have been amazed to find 5 neighbours who have lived and worked overseas for either the foreign service, int'l companies, banks, or overseas schools and we all have stories to share and a common understanding. We assumed we would be out of the norm, that people wouldn't get us, but NOPE we fit right in.

Do we miss our adventurous lives overseas and all the travel we once did? Not right now with this pandemic still raging. We feel lucky we have done so much incredible travel and when things improve we look forward to exploring our own country. I feel really sad for all those who just retired if they waited for their travel adventures to begin in their retirement and now faced with the current state of affairs, restrictions, closures, shutdowns,cancelled flights, testing, and general unknowns.

Life is what you make it and we feel our moving home is MAJOR success story. In fact we feel it has been a dream.

mysharona wrote:
> My wife and I are of the age when you start seriously thinking about
> pulling the plug and calling it a career. Well the past 8 months have
> made us reconsider the plans we had at the end of 2019 and we are retiring.
> The past 8 months, and specifically the past 2 months, have made us
> realize there is more to life than working overseas. We have pulled our
> SA applications and are looking forward to exploring our corner of North
> America.

Similar situation to mySharona, my husband and I have also taken a "Covid life detour" we call it, whether or not it is retirement for good is our unknown, but for now we are certainly taking our own sabbatical. After working overseas for 25 years, which has been an incredible professional experience and fabulous life adventure, we are "nesting" for now back in Canada. This pandemic will affect us all for a few more years we believe and we foresee that it might further affect int'l schools in the next year with the economic downtown worldwide. We are enjoying being back on home turf reconnecting with family and spending time with our last aging parent. We thought we might have stayed overseas 5 more years, but this pandemic completely had us rethinking our priorities.

I can also speak to this topic as the teacher wife whose husband progressed through the path from Athletic Director to a HS assistant principal, to a HS principal to a head of school in a variety of schools. I am a very social person and I would totally agree with the others saying that your life will change. I am not as "thick skinned" as my husband, something you need if you are considering going into senior leadership. Also you are on constant duty. Holidays are MUCH shorter. You need to be back before everyone else. And let's say during this current Covid pandemic crisis that it is INSANE.There was no summer vacation AT ALL for most HOS. My husband was fielding calls, emails and messages EVERYDAY from the board, parents, teachers, support staff, Ministry of Ed, other HOS, school lawyers, business manager, and the registrar.

In the 5 schools we have been in, we have managed to have a social life. We do host parties, especially for the leadership team, and I do have friends on staff. But I do so quite cautiously and selectively. I know when I walk into a staff room that some stop talking, start whispering, or leave. You have to understand that it comes with the position. I know spouses who feel very alienated. Also if you have children, they can also be affected.

As we hear from our friends around the world, I have to say my husband and I are quite relieved we made the VERY difficult choice to take the year off to evaluate our future, to focus on our only remaining sick aging parent who we really want to keep in her own home and not move to a care facility, to reconnect with our kids who are now working adults, and to watch the fallout of this global pandemic from our home country. Not sure what the future holds but certainly after working overseas since 1992 we are ready for either a break or even a new direction. Glad that we have been saving and investing and are able to have the choice to retire and try something new and maybe less stressful with evenings to ourselves! Watching what schools, admin, teachers, parents and students are dealing with, the reopening plan A/B/C/D that are getting rewritten again and again as the Covid situation is entering the 2nd wave, many teaching online for a quarter or a semester or what may turn out to be the entire year, not getting to travel for vacations or get home to family with closed airports, limited flights, airlines going bankrupt, quarantines ..... we feel for everyone. What a crazy rollercoaster of a year or two or three ahead.

These are certainly uncharted times and there really is no precedent in the era of Coronavirus, self-isolation, and virtual school.

I do have a few comparisons in my many years of experience overseas. In Venezuela a few years ago we were told to delay our return to school for the start of the year due to protests and instability, thus giving us an extra 2 weeks of summer vacation. BONUS summer vacation time!! It was a small school owned by an oil company and the school covered all fees related to changing your flight date. A year before we ended the school year early and again the school paid for that change fee so we could leave the area which was getting less and less safe. BUT keep in mind this is a small oil school with only about 15 FH teachers.

Years ago, I was in Saudi Arabia as the Middle East prepared for the 2nd Iraq war to start. It was few weeks before spring break and our school was nervously anticipating the possible ramifications if air space closed as they planned to still keep the school open. We then received a request from the school admin to not leave the country for spring break. Most of us understood the predicament and honoured the request. I recall a few teachers didn't, as they thought the school had no right to request that of us. I don't remember if there were any fees involved in cancelling tickets back then. The amazing thing was the families all ended up having a really fun social time on our compound, around the pool, dinner parties hosted by a different family each night, games and movie nights, and kid sleep-overs. That was life before social media, video streaming and Netflix. Back when people did stuff socializing together rather than binge-watching a series on your own all day/night long!!

Life right now and the near future will be ruled by this Coronavirus.It sucks. Everyone is totally entitled to feeling pissed off. My advice is to try to stay as positive as you can people. And wash your hands. Constantly.

Check out the International School of Bern in Switzerland. If you are a ski enthusiast you might be interested in their winter school schedule. The whole school has ski school on Fridays. Not for me, more of a beach person myself. But my husband interviewed there a few years back and as much as I am a non-winter person, I thought for the right person that would be a dream job!! Just not my dream job, instead more of a nightmare. As long as you know yourself and what makes you happy!!

In 2001 after several exhausting summers going from friend to family to friend with 2 kids in tow, we said ENOUGH. We felt exhausted at the start of a school year, not the way you want to begin a new year ! So we decided to buy a summer cottage on a lake and it has been GREAT. Everyone (family, friends at home and colleagues who are now close friends) loves coming to visit and they even will drive 3-5 hours for a weekend, or fly from another part of the country for a bit longer to catch up. It means we have a home base for our summers, feel connected to "who we are" and we don't have to travel around therefore we can relax and regenerate for the next school year. It is not a 4 season place so we need to close it up when we head back to school. It also keeps us grounded doing all the fixing and maintaining and think that teaching our sons those life skills they often miss as TCKs has been a HUGE benefit. Our sons LOVE the memories of the cottage, a place they have gone to since they were 5 and 7 years old.

sid wrote:
> My bag is packed. Looking forward to seeing some ISR reps there. Offering a
> few nice positions too, though just a few this year. Turnover is low.

I heard directly from school director friends that they filled many of their openings at GRC in Dubai (in November). For both candidates and schools it is a MUCH cheaper place for recruiting with no candidate fees and no placement fees for schools.

Anybody go to the brand new early in the season Search fair in Panama? Or know anybody who went to the fair? Impressions? Were schools making offers?