Boston, Mass, Champaign, Il, and Carbondale, Il.

I have returned from an adventure. This adventure involved a whirlwind of job interviews, bad weather, car break downs, and family. But like the tortoise in the fable, slow and steady won the "race" and everything went as well as possible.

The bottom line of the trip was to find a job, and I met success in my quest. Adam and I are moving to Tarsus, Turkey, in August. I have taken a two year teaching posting with Tarsus American College, heretofore TAC. The people who interviewed me from TAC were friendly and welcoming. If they are any clue about what we are in for, I think things will be better than just okay living in Turkey.

There was some drama at the IRC, the place I went for the interview process. I had had several Skype interviews with a school in Taiwan, but at the last moment the person who was going to be leaving changed her mind and the job evaporated. I also interviewed with a school in Argentina that would have been a good fit too, but I got the job offer from TAC first.

I was offered the job on Tuesday, which left me with two days to fill before heading on my next leg of the journey. As I had been coping with poorly made Starbucks coffee, I set out to find something that resembled the delicious coffee that I expect here in the northwest. I stumbled on a shop called Sip. This shop is in what looks like an old conservatory (greenhouse) with glass from floor to ceiling. It also reminded me of a fancy iron birdcage from the outside. The reason I went in was the advertisement of "latte art" prominently on the sandwich board outside. I figured any coffee house that spent time training barista's on latte art would likely pull a good shot of coffee.

I got to talking to the guy at the counter and, low and behold, he is from Olympia, WA, via Portland, OR! He said that there were about four shops in all of Boston that make quality coffee, and had I had more time he would have given me the addresses so I could check them out. At Sip, I had a celebratory cup of coffee. It was delicious!


The next leg of the journey was to see family in Illinois. I got to meet Dan Swift, the quiet but refined man in A's life who is taking her to Guatemala this summer. I also spent time with Miah, Jessie, and the kids. Miah makes a mean chocolate fondue and, can I just say, Settlers of Catan anyone?

We went out to lunch with the kids, and here are pictures of Jessie with Cecilia, and me with Benjamin.



Here is a pic of the Johnson kids in attendance. Only Josh is missing from this one. Miah is standing, which is why he looks taller than myself. This was taken at a gyro place near campus that Jessie says makes, "The best fries," and I'm going to agree with her. The gyros were delicious too.


So now I start the "moving to Turkey" process. I'm making all sorts of lists and need to get loads of stuff done in preparation, as you may have guessed. Today is the beginning of a long trail of hoops that must be gotten through before we fly in August.