Kellie and Brit arrive in Spain.

The fourth of July in Spain is not quite the same experience as it is the US….however because there were several American students, our Spanish school decided that we should try to have a regular 4^th of July Barbeque.  An apartment complex with a swimming pool and an outdoor grill was secured and then they asked if we Americans would do the cooking.  Of course, we will!

After being told that the Spanish staff would probably not eat much in the way of hamburgers it was decided to include some chicken skewers, marinated the way they would like them.  We kept things very basic, cheese burgers, hot dogs, chips and the regular array of condiments including fresh lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, mustard and ketchup.  As a nod to healthy lifestyle choices we added a big bowl of fresh cut fruit.  We tried for homemade lemonade but as nobody really wanted to bother making it, soda and beer, lots of beer were substituted with no complaints.

The day was hot and sunny, all you could ask for on the 4^th of July.  We had asked the staff to purchase 4 kilos of ground beef.  In Spain they use a combination of ground pork and beef (called “carne”) for most things including their version of hamburgers but we were insistent on 100% beef.   The staff decided that since not everyone would eat burgers, and beef is expensive they would just get 3 kilos.   We scrambled after classes were over for the day to get everything prepped and fired up the grill, which is of course not anything at all like a grill back in the states, more like an unused fireplace, but worked well enough with plenty of time and care.

We ended up with about 35 folks to feed over the course of the evening and everyone, Spanish folks included, did eat burgers in fact, some more than one as soon as they found out how truly great all beef American style burgers are!  It was loads of fun with American music playing and everyone enjoying the beautiful evening, we ran out of food, which is always a great outcome.

The following weekend was our most anticipated weekend of the summer.  Kellie, our youngest daughter and her best friend of many years Brittani were coming to Granada to take the TEFL course, and, if they could find jobs, to stay and teach for a year.  I went to the bus station in the hopes of catching them as they arrived in Granada from Madrid.  They had spent a week in London seeing the sights, then flew on to Madrid and then taken the bus to Granada.  Of course, I missed them at the station, still not sure how, but definitely missed them.

They found their way to the residencia while I walked back up the hill and met Mike at Puerta de las Pesas.  We had a drink and chatted with Fernando and Jose for a bit but I was so anxious to see the kids and worried that they had missed the bus, etc., etc., etc. (Mommy worries, but in my defense I knew they did not have cell phones that would work in Spain) that I just could not wait.  Mike and I walked over to the residencia and I was delighted and relieved to find them there. 

  Another one of those learning moments when you realize that your youngest child, traveling in a foreign country for the first time, where she doesn’t speak a word of the language, gets along just fine without her mother. 

The girls looked great and had wonderful stories to tell about the sights of London.  We took them back up to the restaurant to meet the family there and had a lovely evening catching up and talking about the TEFL course that was to begin for them the next day.  The girls headed in early so they could be ready in the morning and we spent the rest of the evening reminiscing about the other life we had lived in the states with both our girls close to home and seeing them all the time.  

Interestingly enough we found ourselves not missing the states and the time we had there but rather wishing that all of our friends and family could share this new life we are living now.   We knew that being able to share at least a portion of it with Kellie and Brit was going to be a fabulous and probably unique opportunity.  We were beginning to love Spain and had made some wonderful friends but we also know that Spain is not the only stop on this journey we have chosen.

Earning money while living abroad.

Once we decided to just start living abroad several things immediately became more relevant.  We are not rich and in any case, fifty is a relatively young age for complete retirement.  What if we were incorrect in our budget expectations?  What if our savings did not last?  What if the economy continues to do things no one seems to expect?

To add to the issue is the fact that it is complicated at best, almost impossible in other countries to obtain a work visa.  General rule: start the visa process at the embassy or consulate nearest you while in the US.  Retirement residency is available many places but generally requires an investment within a country or that you have a certain amount of proven income, the calculation of which varies from country to country and from bureaucrat to bureaucrat.  In some cases, this amount is expected to grow annually by a given percentage.  You can’t just go plop yourself down in another country and do as you wish; well like everything else that isn’t totally true either but it’s best to be legal.

It turns out that you can earn money while on any type of visa in most countries; you just can’t hold a job in that country that could be filled by a citizen.  Confused?  Don’t be.  One way to do this is to contract your services on the internet and be paid into your account in the US.  This way you are not taking jobs from the local population which is the main concern anyway.  There are many ways to earn money on the internet even if you aren’t an expert Ebay trader or specialize in computer programming.

Another way to earn money abroad is to teach English.  There is a seemingly endless market for English teachers all over the world and teaching English is a skill that travels well.  We had already taken the first steps towards having this internationally marketable skill set by becoming certified TEFL teachers.  A work visa to teach English is fairly easy to obtain in many countries except in the EU which is where we wish to spend quite a bit of time.  EU regulations state that if an EU citizen can perform the job, no work visa will be granted to a non-EU citizen and the EU includes those damned Brits who speak a language tolerably close enough to English that they can obtain employment as teachers.  So we needed something else.

One day, while reading International Living, we came across an article from a man who calls himself and his company “The Barefoot Consultant” and who claims to be able to teach anybody how to find ways to earn money by contracting services over the internet.  We were intrigued and signed one of us up.  Winton Churchill (that is really his name) really did provide a lot of information and recommendations, geared directly at people who have never operated in this type of environment before.  If you stay with his program he will walk you through the entire process although you can work at your own speed if you wish.  

Through this process we became aware of the multitude of internet based contract work websites beginning with the largest, multi-purpose site; Elance.  The work available is incredible in volume if not in reimbursement but there is a trick to all of this.  Once you are established, usually by working cheaply, you will generate demand for your quality services and many times, the employer will not wish to return to the Elance auction process and pay a commission which will allow you to gradually raise your prices over time.  The sheer volume and types of projects out for bid astounded us and in addition, we discovered quite a number of additional websites, some of which specialize in certain work categories like creative writing, copy writing, computer programming and translation.

One word of caution, we found that when we started to look at work that could be obtained and managed over the internet we got tons of email advertising “Work from home and make $$$$ per hour on your computer”.  The vast majority of this is scam stuff offering for you to take surveys for a penny a piece or solicit all your friends and acquaintances for pyramid type schemes.  Being new to the whole concept of working on-line we actually read through a lot of it, and even tried a few things that were offered.  In every case it was absolute garbage.

You can make money through a large number of legitimate websites by writing articles, short stories or books, proofreading or editing books and academic papers, selling your photographs, blogging, designing web sites, providing artwork; you get the idea.  It’s endless.  Better yet, for us, we have a modest budget and any money we make simply makes our savings last that much longer.  We have watched our daughter, in her spare time; take this concept to some of the more specialized websites and starting with ghost writing work herself into an ebook deal.  She now can support herself wherever she is in the world as long as she has access to the internet periodically.  Neat huh?

As for us, we are just beginning to fully explore the processes so stay tuned.  A short list of sites that we have researched and are very reputable is provided below to get you started if you are interested.  The rest is up to you.

Elance.com

Freelancer.com

Odesk.com

Buying into our wild idea completely.

Late summer turned out to be a time of momentous decisions for us.  The Peace Corps contacted us and asked if we would be willing to delay our service for a full year, to which we agreed.  With Marilyn’s accident it was going to be difficult to obtain medical clearance in time to serve earlier.  I was informed that since I had turned 50 I would need to have a colonoscopy in order to clear medical.  Oh joy!  At this point however, we were beginning to wonder if serving in the Peace Corps was actually going to be in our future given the delays in our medical clearance process.

As Marilyn continued to improve from her hand surgery and whiplash we began discussing what we would do if we were unable to serve in the Peace Corps or if our service was again delayed.  Trying to time the sale of our home and ridding ourselves of all the things we used every day was going to take time and it would be a process that once started, could not be stopped.  After much discussion, we came to the conclusion that we still wanted to live abroad, see the world and experience new cultures.  Our friends were beginning to think we were crazy at this point and some of them wondering why we would want to live abroad or spend so much time together.

What followed was a series of life changing decisions as we now bought into our wild idea completely.  We decided not to replace Marilyn’s car and instead try to share one vehicle.  This was going to require some serious coordination which we figured would be good practice for us.

We also decided to go ahead and put our house on the market and try to get it sold by the end of the year.  This would give us a time frame in which we could organize all of the other things we needed to do.  Most importantly, we made the decision that we were going to just go, rather than wait for the Peace Corps bureaucracy to drive our actions.

From our reading and research we had developed the thought process that we might be able to “follow the sun” by living in Europe during the summer and then in South America in, well, the summer.  We really hate to fly however but we had discovered this really interesting fact; cruise lines relocate ships from the Caribbean and South America to the Mediterranean in the spring and reverse this process in the fall.  There were some fantastic deals available that made a 3 week cruise cost the same as flying.  Since we would be in no particular hurry and the cruise provided the added benefit of covering 3 weeks of living expenses; this became one of our preferred travel strategies.

We then took a lovely 3 day break during which our friends from the TEFL course, Nathan and Frannie, visited us.  I’m not sure we got out of the pool other than to eat or sleep for those roasting hot late summer Arizona days.

 Both Nathan and Frannie were freshly returned from several months in Granada and we were able to catch up on the news of our other friends there.  We really missed Granada!

Back to work, put the house on the market and immediately we found we needed to make several more important decisions.  Where were we going to go?  When were we going to go?  How were we going to get there?  What were we going to do when we got there?  It may sound like we really had no plan at all but that wasn’t true; it was the details and advanced planning required that we really needed to address and all of these details dovetailed with each other.

By early fall and after hours of discussion we decided to begin this adventure with a return to Granada, Spain and take Spanish language classes.  It made sense to us to try to acquire another language and Spanish is spoken in a lot of places in the world that we wanted to experience.  Now began the research on language schools in Granada (there are over 40).  We were familiar with Castila because they provided space for our TEFL program and we knew they were a quality program.  While they weren’t the cheapest program there was the benefit of familiarity for us and they would be able to arrange housing for us until we were able to find a place.

Now we had to decide when.  That would be determined to a large extent by our travel schedule because Castila initiated beginner level classes every other week.  We had put this largest of decisions off as long as we could.  It was time to commit…. so we signed up for classes beginning in early May and committed to an intensive course for 12 weeks.  We found a 2 week cruise that left San Juan, Puerto Rico (a place we wanted to visit) in mid-April and traveled to Malaga, Spain which is only an hour and a half from Granada by bus.  We wanted to spend a few days in Old San Juan and by working backwards like this our departure date was identified.  Our departure would be on April 11^th; my birthday.

We put the house on the market and decided to join a very interesting group called InterNations that was forming a new Phoenix chapter.  InterNations is a networking group for people who are either living abroad or simply interested in traveling abroad.  It is a group of widely diverse people of many different nationalities and they are a friendly group of people.  In fact, not long after we joined we were contacted by an American who had been living in Granada for 3 years offering whatever assistance or guidance she could.  Amazingly, it turned out she worked for Castila and her assistance was both invaluable and appreciated.  Gracias Allison.  Te echamos de menos.

We felt were definitely on the right track, and the train was now running at full speed.

Accidents happen, life moves on.

It was Father’s Day and a beautiful day it was too.  I was just settling down to watch the final round of the US Open (a Father’s Day tradition for me) when my cell phone rang.  It was Marilyn, obviously shaken up telling me she had just been in an accident two blocks away.  I ran for my truck.

When I arrived I found a much shaken woman with no apparent life threatening injury.  Thank God!  A young girl driving an SUV loaded with tires of all things; nevertheless a very heavy vehicle had turned left right into Marilyn’s car as she crossed the intersection.  Marilyn’s car lost the battle and was dragged clean out of the intersection.  Both vehicles had pulled to the curb and the police had just arrived.

It took about 45 minutes for the police officer to take information for his report.  When he asked Marilyn to fill out a basic information form we realized that her hand had been injured a little more severely than we initially thought.  I had to fill out the form and sign it for her (this was to become a recurring theme).  The officer indicated that the other party was obviously at fault and asked me to pull Marilyn’s car around the corner into a subdivision which I did.  He then asked if we wanted him to call an ambulance which we declined.  I would drive her to the emergency room myself.

When we got to the emergency room we realized there would be a little bit of a wait, even on Sunday morning and since we thought that only her hand was the issue, we decided that I would leave her there and go try to salvage the car load of groceries that were starting to bake in the 105 degree temperature.  While I was doing this, Marilyn called our insurance company, reported the accident and arranged for a truck to tow her car.  Back to the vehicle for me and the tow truck driver advised me to empty the car of all personal belongings which I did.  The car was obviously totaled.

At the hospital I found Marilyn with a large bandage on her hand waiting to be discharged.  The physician explained that her hand had indeed been broken and advised us to see a hand surgeon as soon as possible.  After another half hour wait we were on our way to the pharmacy for medication and home.  Marilyn seemed to still be in shock so we made her comfortable in a recliner and she took a nap.  I of course, took a dip in the pool and watched the final couple of holes of the US Open; don’t remember who won though.

Later, our girls came over for dinner as was our Sunday night tradition.  We joked with Marilyn a bit because she seemed a little out of it which we all thought was due to the pain medication she was taking.  The girls left early and we settled down for what was an uncomfortable night.

The next morning, Monday, Marilyn was in a lot of pain up and down her back, especially in the neck area and her hand ached considerably.  Before dealing with anything else we took her to her physical therapist.  After about 30 minutes he told us both that Marilyn was going to be very stiff and sore because she was suffering from a bad whiplash injury and her neck was really out of alignment, he encouraged us to get her to a chiropractor as soon as possible.

Back home we dove into a whirlwind of phone calls to work, the insurance company, the tow yard, the chiropractor’s office, finding a hand surgeon and by early afternoon we were fielding calls from Marilyn’s office, clients and a bevy of concerned friends. 

That afternoon we made an appointment with a hand surgeon for the following day (apparently a hand injury should be addressed as soon as possible) and made arrangements for Marilyn’s business calls to be handled by her office manager who would then contact me if necessary.  Many wonderful friends wished to drop by and bring food for us which was both good and bad.  The food was appreciated but Marilyn was in no condition to receive many visitors, she simply needed to rest so we arranged to funnel all calls and food through a good friend who would schedule and limit the visits.  Thanks Herme!

The insurance company calls and questions were becoming difficult to deal with and we were receiving what we believed to be irrational requests; it was time to hire an attorney to deal with this.  We were becoming overwhelmed.  The attorney we were referred to arranged to meet us on Thursday but in the meantime suggested a physician to manage the case.  We saw him late Monday afternoon.  From the physician’s office we went directly to the imaging center for a complete set of back and neck X-Rays and to the hospital to pick up her hand X-Rays.  Whew!  We returned home to a wonderful meal prepared by one of Marilyn’s friends and tried to relax.

Tuesday began with more physical therapy and a trip to the hand surgeon’s office.  I had an engagement that couldn’t be broken that day so our friend Brit drove Marilyn to her appointment where she filled out all of the paperwork (thanks Brit!).  The surgeon spelled out the choices and it was decided that Marilyn would have surgery in order to save as much use and capability in her hand as possible.  The surgery, to rebuild the shattered knuckle at the base of her index finger and hold it together with 4 pins was scheduled for Friday.

We did find time for an hour with the chiropractor Tuesday afternoon (more forms for me to fill out and sign on Marilyn’s behalf) who took the time to discuss the ramifications of whiplash.  As it turns out, the brain is concussed during a severe whiplash injury and doesn’t process information as quickly or as well for a couple of weeks and the chiropractor strongly recommended that Marilyn make no important decisions for at least week or two.  She also informed us that Marilyn’s short term memory would probably be pretty lousy for the same time period, which meant that I needed to be the one listening to instructions. 

Thus began a seemingly endless series of trips to the chiropractor, physical therapy, the surgeon’s office, the case management physician and the lawyer.  Marilyn couldn’t work and was on short term disability, living on pain drugs and anti-inflammatories.

For 6 weeks Marilyn pretty much stayed on the couch and slept, if she wasn’t with a doctor of some kind or a physical therapist.  Rehab for the back and neck were ongoing two or three days a week and then after the hand surgery, rehab for the hand was needed three times a week.

Our daughters were wonderful and my clients were patient since my travel schedule was completely disrupted.

We cannot begin to explain the value of having a qualityattorney to assist us through this time.  He allowed us to focus on Marilyn’s health and try to straighten out our suddenly disrupted lives.  We did not have to take one more phone call from an insurance company!

It was the middle of July before we knew it and we were unsure just how badly our Peace Corps timetable had been interrupted.  There was some good news however:  Frannie and Nathan, two of our friends from the TEFL training class were going to come and visit us in August!

Getting on track...

We were on track, for the time being.  Seemed like there was no end of things to do; setting up paperless statements, taxes, scanning records, scanning photos, scanning, scanning…….

After all the scanning there was shredding, and shredding…you get the point.  We killed at least one shredder and our printer/scanner would never be the same but that was okay, we didn’t care; it wasn’t going with us.

About this time our youngest daughter and her roommate began to talk about traveling abroad and taking a TEFL course like we did.  Their destination; Istanbul wow!  Our original thought was that this was a little bit exotic for two young girls on their first trip abroad but who were we to judge; after all, we’re nuts right?

A funny thing was beginning to happen to us as we slowly began emptying out all those custom made storage cabinets in the garage and shredded our paper files; we were closing doors on many old, no longer relevant parts of our lives.  Yes, there was some laughter and some teary eyes as we found pictures, letters and items with memories of people and events from long ago.  It was pretty good therapy actually.

We also started making a special effort to spend more time together, you know, just to see how that might work.  How the hell were we going to do that?  Well, this may sound corny but we started with “date night” where at least once a week we would go out together, have dinner and a couple of drinks and simply talk.  This gave us time to plan our now complicated lives and to simply listen to the other which was something we found we had stopped doing.  Pretty quickly, we began having date night a lot more often than once a week.

We were really out of shape and were working our rusty old bodies out for an hour or two, at least twice a week and probably would have injured ourselves if we hadn’t had a physical therapist designing our program.  The problem is that by the time you are fifty, if you haven’t maintained a regular exercise program, your body has had time to degenerate and injuries both small and large have accumulated, so care must be taken to strengthen all areas, slowly in order to avoid injury.

Marilyn started wrapping up service on all the Boards and Commissions she was involved with, letting them know that she would not be available to serve in the following year.   Projects that needed special attention required some hand off and she found people to work with her, so that they would be able to carry on without her into the future.   Wonderful people stepped up and most of the big projects that are very close to her heart (see links below) were taken over by competent, caring individuals, who will undoubtedly continue them successfully.  She also had a built in network of professionals that she could hand off any client that had unfinished business to, when the time came.

The Turnbow Foundation
Ms. Senior Arizona Pageant
The Cameo Ball
The Cameo Foundation
Save The Family
Butterfly House
Tempe Chamber of Commerce

Mike’s partner of several years and he ended their partnership in the spring, not over any disagreements but due to the fact that we were planning to be abroad for an indefinite time period.  We were starting to investigate things we could do to earn money abroad that would help us stretch our savings and were encouraged by what we found.  Writing, proofreading, photography and many other things in addition to teaching English were all things we could do anywhere we found ourselves, provided we had access to the internet.   We both still had to maintain our existing clients while investigating these alternatives and otherwise preparing our lives.  We were busy!

It was a beautiful Sunday morning on Father’s Day and I had no plans to play golf.  Marilyn was running a few errands and I settled down to watch the final round of the US Open golf tournament, my usual Father’s Day thing.

Then my cell phone rang and I answered to the sound of my wife’s sobbing and shaken voice……”I’ve had an accident.”

The learning process and new decisions....

With the prospect of Mike going blind now firmly behind us and both of us working hard to get back into decent physical shape to minimize any future health issues, it was time for some hard evaluation.

We had learned that we did like being on the ground in another place and a different culture.  We had learned that the Charles Schwab checking account worked exactly as advertised and was perfect for us.  We had learned how to use Gmail and Facebook in ways that suited us.  We had learned that we absolutely hated flying long distances and we had realized we would now never be content without some significant exposure to other people and cultures in our lives.

The Peace Corps seemed like a perfect way to begin that process of living at least part of our lives outside the United States.  We continued to work on all the medical forms, made appointments for doctors, dentists, lab-work, diagnostic procedures and continued to move that process forward.  We had made the decision when we went to Spain for the TEFL course that we would live in the residencia, a far different environment than we had ever used for vacations (we had been of the 4 and 5 star resort and golf course mentality).  While it was a new experience for us it was also a rewarding one the we thoroughly enjoyed.

Our new perspective was that the Peace Corps would really take us back to our roots and help us learn to live very simply and frugally.  We started to realize that our perspective on the entire world and how we would live in it had changed.  Gone was the desire for more stuff or to recreate our American lifestyle and in its place was an insatiable curiosity about other people, places and cultures and a desire to not only see them but to live and experience life with them.

Suddenly it was time to seriously start getting rid of stuff.  We did not know exactly what the future would look like but we knew that we had some significant changes to make.  The house had to go, being a long distance land lord just did not have any appeal to us.  Getting it on the market became a priority for the summer.

First and most important we had taken the time over the holidays to explain to our two daughters what we were thinking.  They actually both thought the Peace Corps was a really cool idea and they were very happy for us.  They had mixed emotions when we told them we had decided to sell the house and that these could be the last holidays we celebrated in this house we had lived in for 17 years.  Then the really big thing….here are your sticky notes, go through the house, pretend we died, and mark anything you want to keep:  books, furniture, artwork, kitchen supplies, everything.  Difficult for them, easy for us!

We actually figured that we would need some kind of small storage unit for the things we would want to keep, thinking that we would need some furniture and maybe a few boxes of things to get restarted with when we came back to the States.  Assuming that we would leave for the Peace Corps sometime in the next 18 months as planned, we would be getting through sometime in 2014, and who knew what we would want to do at that point.

Then the real work began, with more learning, like how to use Ebay and Craig’s list, how to figure out what you should try to get for stuff you haven’t seen for 10 years,  and what charities you want to give things to that you either can’t or don’t want to sell. 

We also had to learn how to manage what we were calling our “leave behind” budget.  A storage unit, life insurance policies, property taxes, and all the other little things that we would still need to pay for even if we were living somewhere else. 

Learning new ways of dealing with each other was no small task either.  Never, in our entire married life had we spent so much time together.  We needed to work as hard on making our relationship work for both of us as we did on all the other stuff.   Two very strong personalities making tough decisions in the midst of very high stress can take a toll on any relationship and yet for us in many ways it seemed to help bring us together.  We began to see that even if we came to the answers from very different perspectives, we kept coming to the same answers.  

The idea now was to get the house on the market so hopefully it would sell by the end of the year.  Once the house sold we would become apartment dwellers, renting until time to leave for the Peace Corps assignment, whatever and whenever that might be. 

The idea of continuing to travel after our assignment just kept getting stronger.

The TEFL Experience

We have both been away from a structured educational system for many, many years.  Starting formal classes Monday morning was a mixed bag of emotions: some excitement, tempered by some apprehension and a lot of curiosity.  Being naturally early risers, we had plenty of time to kill.  We discovered that the one coffee shop that we were aware of near the school did not open its doors ‘til after the owner dropped his daughter off at school, sometime between nine and nine thirty, too late for a quick cup before class.  We were stuck with Nescafe.

On day one of the TEFL course we were given course books with detailed narrative about the requirements and expectations, essentially a book length syllabus.  If you are in a university program this course is worth 6 hours of graduate level credit.  Can you imagine 6 hours of graduate level classes, homework, projects and exams, plus student teaching in just 4 weeks?  The schedule was grueling to say the least, and by the end of the first day we knew it was going to be a challenge.

Our schedule essentially went from nine in the morning until 9 in the evening with one coffee break and two meal breaks.  Each individual had different times for teaching and class prep but if you were not teaching in the evening you would be evaluating the other students or prepping for your next class, so there really was almost no “down time”.  We had four instructors and they all made it clear that they were there to teach but that we had to do the work and be very self-directed, there would be no hand holding on this course!  Furthermore, you could not expect to pass just because you had paid a lot of money to be there.  You either passed based solely upon your own merit, or you didn’t.

The first week started out with a full schedule of classes during the day and with our evenings spent practicing our evaluation techniques while our instructors taught English classes to native Spanish speaking students.   Our DOS (Dorector of Studies) Dylan had many years of experience and is one of the best teachers we have had the pleasure of observing. The TEFL program is designed to put you in front of students, teaching, as soon as possible and to have you teach at each of five levels of classes offered from Beginners to Upper Intermediate.   Each class had two “trainee” teachers assigned, one for the first hour and one for the second.  The lessons were dovetailed to fit together and the two teachers were expected to work on the lesson prep together.  Because they put you in front of students so quickly, at times you will not yet have had all the classes that you need in order to know how to prepare a particular lesson or the classroom management tools you will use as a teacher, but ready or not, you teach.

The instructors are aware of this and so in your first teaching prep they are much more involved and give lots of assistance and advice, then they purposefully give less and less assistance with each subsequent lesson.  During the day when we were not teaching or prepping to teach, our days were filled with classes on teaching methodology, linguistics, phonology, classroom management, student assessment and a myriad of other related topics.  We were expected to complete three individual term projects simultaneously as well. 

The first project was a Foreign Language Journal.  During that first week we had three classes in the Hungarian language taught by a professor who never used a single word of English.  We had to evaluate how he taught and how we learned.  Evaluation sheets and a project paper were due the second week of class.  Our second project was to create at least two sets of materials for classes that we taught that could be scaled up or down depending on the level of the class being taught and used to illustrate at least two different possible lesson points.  The materials themselves and the papers written about each set describing the lesson points and scalebility were due in week three. 

The most difficult project was referred to as the ISP or Individual Student Project.  This consisted of securing a student from one of the classes and setting three outside of class times to meet with them.  We were required to find or design testing materials to test their reading, writing, listening and speaking skill sets; evaluate the results of each test and identify problem areas that could be facilitated with a private lesson.  We then had to design the lesson plan and all materials to be used, teach the lesson as a one-on-one tutoring session and write up an evaluation of the entire process, including a critique of our student’s performance and our own in all areas and suggest a future study program for the student.  The expectation was that this project would require around sixty pages to complete including all materials used, and would be turned in no later than the beginning of week four.

Needless to say, the very first weekend of the course was the only one we had any significant time away from homework and projects.  We took a day and went to visit the Alhambra, the most visited historic site in Spain, because we could not imagine being in Granada and not being able to see it.  So much for thinking that we could get to know the city!  The course was extremely demanding and our time was very focused on completing projects, teaching classes, and preparing for the final exams in Phonology, Grammar and Teaching Methodology. 

Many nights were spent with several students gathered in the salon or around the dining table as we worked on our projects, prepared for class or studied for exams.  This program should really be taught in a five week course and the instructors all agreed that four weeks is just too short a time to be able to accomplish everything required.  The issue is: people can find a way to take four weeks to do an international course but the threshold stops at that point; they just can’t sell a five week course, so they work with what they have. 

The fourth and final week began with exams and ended with course evaluations and reviews of our work with grades on Thursday.  There was time scheduled for a chance to retake of any test that was not passed on the original try.  Fortunately for us, we both passed them the first time through so it gave us a small window of time to see a bit more of the city for a couple of hours.

We spent Thursday night with our entire group going to dinner and a Flamenco show.  It was a wonderful evening in the Albaizyn at the restaurant Zoraya, and we all ended up at Hannigans of course.  There was good food, good Flamenco, lots of drinking and great company.

Friday morning there were scheduled a few follow up sessions and then a graduation ceremony with homemade Paella and Sangria.  We decided to skip the ceremony in order to take advantage of our last chance to visit the Nazrid Palaces at the Alhambra.  This was a justified trade-off in our opinion (sorry fellow trainees!). 

Friday evening we picked up our diplomas, had our “room check” to be sure that we were leaving our room in the same condition that we found it in, and then went out with all our fellow students to catch a few final drinks together.    We had lived, worked, studied and played with these people for a month and we knew we were going to miss all of them. 

Dylan has since written a great e-book, A Short Guide to TEFL if you are really interested in understanding the TEFL world. (Shameless plug for a good friend!)

Granada, for the first time....

Arriving in Granada in the pouring rain at seven in the evening wouldn’t be any fun even if you knew where you were going and how to get there, which we didn’t.   We had arranged our accommodations through the TEFL school and were a bit nervous; we had made the very conscious decision to “go local”.  We had booked into their version of a “boarding house” called the “residencia”.  We had been able to secure a bedroom that had its own private bathroom attached but knew that the rest of the house for the most part was bedrooms with shared bathrooms in the hallway.  We would be sharing a kitchen and living area, an experience we had never encountered before and which we expected to be a significant learning experience.

Knowing only that it was located in the oldest part of the city, the Albayzin, in a renovated 16^th century building with tiny narrow streets that were like a labyrinth, being tired and carrying baggage we did the only intelligent thing and decided to forgo trying to learn the bus system for another day and just take a cab.  Much to our dismay there were other passengers waiting at the cab stand but no cabs……in the cold and the rain.  In hindsight we think the couple of lone cab drivers that showed up in the next 10 minutes to take the first few groups of passengers into town must have just called all their friends told them to take their cars to the airport.  Eventually we got in a cab that did not have a meter, signs or anything that remotely made this late model Mercedes look like a cab but the driver was taking us to town so off we went.  Stupid, but at the time there were not many alternatives.  We made it to our destination 45 minutes and 35 euros later, should have been 30 minutes and 20-25 euros but, what did we know?               

Thankfully the rain had stopped while we were in route and we were let off right in front of a big archway that led to what looked like a church with a big wooden door to the left that turned out to be our destination.  The residencia had originally housed a seminary and was where the young monks lived while preparing to enter the order.  The area had originally been part of a Moorish palace complex built in the 11^th century but that was destroyed by the Christians at the end of the 15^th century.  The monastery was built on the location in the 16^th century.

The architecture still carried the Moorish flavor and featured very thick walls to keep the heat in or cold out depending on the season.  When we entered the building it immediately charmed us with an inner courtyard that had a fountain and plants and that would be open to the sky three stories up when the weather was nice.

It was larger than we expected and as Antony, our contact from the school, showed us around we found that the building had a rooftop terrace with the most spectacular views of the Alhambra that we could imagine.

Our room was tiny with two twin beds that we made into a king, a small nightstand and a small desk.  All of the furnishings were very rustic antiques in keeping with style of the building.  The room had one window that opened into the interior courtyard but not to the outside.  The bathroom - a sink, toilet and shower crammed into less than 5 square feet was surprisingly functional.

The entire Albayzin , this oldest area of the city, is a protected UNESCO World Heritage site.  This means that no updating or remodeling can be done without very a very rigorous permitting process which makes it very time consuming and expensive.  Everything has to be done to protect the integrity of the original structures and this means that the foundations cannot be dug up and new pipes put in underground unless the old clay pipes fail and there is absolutely no other choice.  We discovered that this meant no paper of any kind goes in the toilets.  Every toilet has a basket next to it with plastic bags and you NEVER flush toilet paper… talk about new experiences.

Antony explained the cardinal rule of never getting lost in the Albaizyn.  You can only go two directions, up or down, no matter how far to the right or left you go you will always be able to find your way to your destination within a few minutes’ walk.  He walked us to the school; 2 minutes away so that we could find our way to class and showed us the most common way down to town so we would not get easily lost.  While in town we picked up a few basic supplies fearing that everything would be closed the following day, Sunday, and then got settled in.  Our house manager was a lovely little Ecuadorian lady who spoke no English at all but was more than able to make you understand her meaning when it came to the rules of the house.  She showed us where to store our stuff in the communal fridge and cupboards and we learned that in addition to the TEFL students there were other residents in the house, some for short stays others as longer term boarders.

Sunday we walked around the area in the daylight to get oriented and discovered that “everything is closed on Sunday” doesn’t really mean “everything”, we had a meal in a charming little restaurant near the church San Miguel Bajo and picked up a few more supplies for the kitchen.  Our fellow students were arriving and we had an orientation meeting scheduled that evening at 8pm.  This was our first real experience with people who live on a Spanish schedule and for them, 8pm is not considered late for a meeting to start.  Orientation was, as most are, 2 hours of information that could have been covered in 20 minutes, but then we did get to take a lovely group walk to the Mirador San Nicolas to see the Alhambra all lit up for the evening and we later stopped at Bar Kiki for a drink and a tapa before heading back to bed.  Granada is just about the only city left in Spain in which tapas are free when you buy your drink.

We were definitely the old folks of the group; our fellow students were significantly younger than us, all under 35 and most under 30.  Ten students, from 5 countries, it was quite a mix.  The young enthusiastic energy that this group created was great for us, and everyone was very accepting of each other, so it was with a very positive outlook that we all got ready to begin classes at 9:30 Monday morning.

Moving forward...

Okay, now what?   We had been told that the Peace Corps application process could take 18 months to 2 years for a couple that wished to serve together.  Seems like plenty of time but there was a lot we needed to do.

First, there was the house; sell it or rent it out?  Then there was the issue of our personal property, our stuff.  Storing it all for two or three years just didn’t seem to be a good solution.  On top of this there were the endless little things we started to realize we needed to do to prepare ourselves; banking, communication, acquiring additional skills and more.

We decided we had time to figure out what we were going to do with the house.  We determined that travel abroad, for any length of time, was going to require us to make a significant improvement in our technological capability.  Complete conversion to electronic methods would be a necessity.  Our laptops were going to become more important to us, MP3 players which were unnecessary to us in our current lifestyle needed to be acquired and most importantly, we were going to need e-readers of some kind since it would be impractical to travel with a lot of books.

We also wanted to spend some time, perhaps as much as 5 or 6 weeks, immersed in another culture; just to see how we adapted or in other words, how uncomfortable we might be.  It seemed rational for us to schedule a working vacation, abroad, acquiring our Teaching English as a Foreign Language, or TEFL certificates.  This is generally a one month course and they are taught all over the world.

We chose Granada, Spain for a combination of reasons.  Our research showed that the programs offered there were some of the most rigorous in the international TEFL society.  Granada was also the home of a major university and over 40 language schools.  We didn’t want to be in a large urban environment and programs in Sardinia or one of the Greek islands seemed a little too much like a vacation rather than a serious learning experience.  We also wanted to spend time in a place with a rich history we could explore in our free time.  Granada fit the picture so we signed up.

Now we were on a schedule.  It was late July and our class started the first week of October.  We had never tried to get away for more than two or three weeks before plus we needed to implement elements of our long range plan.  We had to work out coverage for our clients and figure out how to stay in touch.  Keeping the long term plan going meant we had to start getting rid of our stuff, the books had to go.

We are voracious readers, reading several hundred books per year.  Needless to say, we had built up quite an extensive library (in excess of 4,000 books).  We took the time to list them on EBay and Half.com and started to sell them.  We almost cried when we sold the first one.  After quite a bit of research we bought Kindles, and vowed not to buy another “real” book.  With so much free and inexpensive content available for our kindles we knew we could keep our reading habit alive at a significantly lower cost.

We also bought MP3 players and started to burn our existing music to them.  We upgraded one laptop and purchased another high end but very light weight model.  At the risk of sounding Bohemian we decided that backpacks were the way to carry them and our other electronics while we traveled.   Another month of research to figure out which type and size to buy (we bought Northface but there are lots of options), then trying it out at home to be sure everything would work and we were set.

By early September we were very busy with travel and business arrangements, selling books, buying e-books and burning music.  We set up Skype accounts in order to communicate with our clients, family and friends.  Later, we were glad we had set up our Facebook page so that we could easily share our international experiences. 

There was also a major change in our banking arrangements.  While most banks (but not all) have electronic bill pay capabilities, we were facing issues like currency exchange rates and using ATMs outside of the country.  The fees and other costs could become enormous.  The solution came with Charles Schwab HighYield Investor checking.  Here we get bank exchange rates, no foreign transaction fees, all of the electronic services we needed and they refund all ATM fees charged to your account from anywhere in the world.  Wonderful!

The next thing we knew we were on an airplane.  Our short stops in Philadelphia and Madrid flew by and we found ourselves in Barcelona, Spain.

First steps

One of the things we talked about was the possibility of serving in the Peace Corps for a couple of years when we were ready to retire.  This idea appealed to both of us and sounded like an ideal way to begin our retirement.  Initially we had planned to retire in our early sixties.

We looked long and hard at the Peace Corps and found positives and potential drawbacks.  We could serve together and it wasn’t unusual for people with more “life experience” to serve (5% of volunteers are over 50).  After attending a couple of recruiting meetings we were more or less convinced that this was something we could do.

As we evaluated other parts of our lives including downsizing our home and simplifying  our day-to-day existence we started to think: “Why not now?”  We could sell or lease our house while serving and restart our lives when we returned.  Perhaps the perspective we would gain while serving in the Peace Corps would help us determine the next direction for us. 

The application process; what can I say?  The Peace Corps application process is designed for the recent college graduates that make up the vast majority of their applicants.  Imagine finding dates, locations and physician names for vaccinations or surgeries that occurred 35 to 40 years ago, and getting transcripts from every university where you ever took a class. Then there’s the reference letters.

Reference letters are supposed to come from recent work or volunteer supervisors, kind of difficult when you been self-employed and haven’t had one for over 25 years.  Additionally, a personal reference letter is required, that’s the easy part…just gang up on your friends and see who is willing to put in the time required to fill out the online reference form sent out from the Peace Corps and answer all their questions about you.  Our friends, well you’d have to know our friends.  They could do more damage than help all in the name of humor or, alternatively, would be very uncomfortable or unfamiliar with the type of evaluation asked for.

We fought our way through the application process completing and submitting them in less than 5 weeks.  Las, our wonderful recruiter, explained many things to us about serving together and having significant “life experience”. Turns out it is difficult for the Peace Corps to place a couple together because they must match both of your skill sets with positions that come available, simultaneously.  This can take some time.  Although we both have quite varied skill sets the programs only classifies or needs a few.  To facilitate the selection process we decided to add to our skill sets whenever possible.

But what skills do you add to a lifetime of business and non-profit experiences?

As part of our research into retiring and living abroad we looked at ways to earn money or make a living overseas.  There are more alternatives than we originally thought.  One thing that made a lot of sense for us and that fit into the Peace Corps model was obtaining a TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) certificate.  Teaching English, especially the TEFL method is utilized by the Peace Corps and is in demand worldwide.

TEFL certification courses are taught all over the world.  From a personal growth standpoint, we wanted to spend some time on the ground, living in a different culture where we didn’t know the language and would be required to learn some, and where we had never been before.  Kind of a “stick our toes in the water” approach before taking on a Peace Corps assignment.

We had always wanted to go to Spain….