Four Months Later...

A lot has happened in the past four months!

My partner and I are now first-time homeowners (and landlords, too!). We're also in a lot of debt, thanks to the fact that we had to borrow money for a down payment and then continue paying rent on our previous place for four months. We also have a lot of credit card debt left from our transition back to living in the United States, so our focus right now is getting back on our financial feet. Our living room is also in desperate need of new floors. We're making more money than ever before in our lives, and one day we'll be settled, but for now we're just trying to work our way to "normal."

My job continues to be a huge drain on my time, but I still like what I'm doing. My students are progressing, and I'm learning a lot as my school's ESL lead. I actually prefer the decision making, meetings, data processing, and legal compliance side of my job to the actual teaching, which is probably a good sign if I ever manage to secure a future job in the foreign service.

As for that very important goal, I backed off for a bit but am back on track and working harder than ever now. I found a great Groupon deal for a subscription to The Economist, though I'm not sure when I'll have time to actually read it. I've also managed to read A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America from the reading list, and I'm working my way through an annotated guide to the U.S. Constitution and The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World. I also have one episode left of Civilization: The West and the Rest. The book version was on the reading list, but I'm taking a 6-hour shortcut. I'm enjoying everything so far and learning a lot (although the DVD is a bit hokey, and I don't really like the insistence on a West/"non-West" binary).

Language study is also coming along, and I think this is the area where I've made the most progress. I've been reading a lot in Spanish– the second Harry Potter book, Frida Kahlo's diary, and a book about the Zapatista movement in southern Mexico– and taking note of new vocabulary. I also finished watching Masterchef España and Masterchef Junior on RTVE.es, which helped my listening comprehension a lot.

I'm still using Spanish at work, and I've had a few new Spanish speaking students join the class (plus one Portuguese speaker from Angola), so I have some opportunities to practice speaking as well. I'm trying to limit how much Spanish I use with them because the goal is to teach them English, but for students who just arrived it's helpful to have at least one class during their school day where they can understand what's going on.

Finally, I started taking lessons via Skype through iTalki.com. I managed to spill some tea on my computer right after my first lesson finished, though, and now it's out of commission. With only one computer available in our house, I haven't made an effort to continue. I also really hate talking to people through my computer's microphone, but I know I'm going to have to get over that aversion and restart lessons soon.

In addition to Spanish, I've been working on my French a lot. I had a year of French in high school, and I love French music from the 60s, so French has always been on my to-learn list. Once I realized that French was the second most common language in my classroom among low beginner students, though, I started to take learning French more seriously. I've been working through Duolingo's French course consistently, and I'm about a month away from completing the course if I continue at my current pace. I've also been dabbling in the Assimil method, Pimsleur recordings, and Annenberg Learning's "French in Action" video series, all of which have been helpful in different ways.

My big plan for language learning was to go to Guatemala this summer and study there for two straight months. I'm more or less fluent when it comes to reading, and my listening comprehension is fairly good if I'm in a familiar context, but my speaking is really lagging, and I feel like a couple of months of immersion would help a lot in improving my Spanish. Unfortunately, the money situation right now will probably prevent me from going abroad until next year. That means I need to do what I can with my language learning from home, which means Skype lessons and language exchanges and working my way through some grammar workbooks I bought a few years ago. There's also a sizable French community here in Dallas, so I might start taking classes at the Alliance Française or at the international school's summer program. In regard to my foreign service ambitions, my primary focus needs to be Spanish, but I'm at a point with Spanish where it's difficult to make big gains, so I'd like the challenge of adding French to my skill set.

Lastly, there's the Red Cross. I was really excited about volunteering with them and feel like it would help my application to the foreign service a lot, but I just can't fit it into my schedule. You have to pick up materials at the Red Cross office by a certain time, which I just can't do because of the distance I have to drive. I'm also not sure my sleep schedule will be able to handle waking up in the middle of the night to go on call. I work 10+ hours most days, and I just can't sacrifice any more of my nightly 6 hours of sleep for a volunteer position. I need to find somewhere else to volunteer this summer, but I haven't had a lot of luck in my recent searches.

My goal is to study hard through the summer (since I won't have the distraction of work) and take the foreign service officer's test (FSOT) before the new school year starts. I'm not sure when exactly it's offered, but I don't want to start a school year without taking that first step on this long road to my dream job.