How did this happen?

I realized recently, that not all of you know how we ended up going from our little HUD house off Federal to glamorous Seoul, South Korea.

Jim: "Hey, let's move to Asia" Irish:

"you're insane"

A very, very long time ago, Jim decided to teach in Taipei, Taiwan. He lived there for 2 years and met me when he got back. That was 12 long awesome years ago. This entire time he's told me how he would like to move back to East Asia. For 11 years I said, "No. Way. Jose."

Then, at the beginning of this school year, there were rumblings of change at my school. Our state assessment scores left something to be desired (something being, native English speakers from the middle or upper class) and there are a couple of ways the district "fixes" this problem. One of those ways is by letting all the teachers go. If you have tenure, like me, they'll place you for one year, then after that year, you're on your own. It's pretty bleak and I was sad to leave a staff of extremely talented, caring teachers, but what can you do? I know what you can do-you can leave the country!

We signed up for the Overseas Recruitment Fair at the University of Northern Iowa. That was an intense weekend. On the flight to Cedar Rapids we were sitting next to the middle school principal at Korea International School. Korea hadn't really been on the radar, but after a brief interview on Sunday, and then several Skype interviews, and a little bit of research into life in Korea we were on our way.

That's how it happened. 11 years of convincing and one quick weekend of deciding!