Prognosis: Travel Bug

Hey, strangers!

Guess what? I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!

For those of you who are somehow misinformed, albeit countless facebook posts, text messages, excited phone calls, or maybe even an old-school face-to-face chat (do those happen anymore?!) I am on a new leg of my travel journey – the one to Sundsvall, Sweden – for my alt prac. “What’s an alt prac?” you ask?  As part of my Bachelor of Education, I had the chance to choose a focus. A focus can be anything from at-risk youth to outdoor education, special education, or anything in between. In my case, it was educating abroad.  After our 3 blocks of Canadian placements, all teacher candidates have a 3-week window in March to complete an “alterative practicum” in this area of focus. So why did I choose this focus? Well…those of you that know me, know a very important and relevant medical fact about me that answers this question: The travel bug attacked my body at the tender age of 12 or 13, and I can’t seem to get it out of my system. Ah, well.  Life could be worse. 

So I first planned to go to Chile – which didn’t work out because I found a school there, but couldn’t find accommodations (with the school, families in the school or teachers as home stays! The only option was staying in a hostel, a 1-hour commute to and from the school in a country I don’t know, in a language I don’t know…). The next choice was my ol’ bonny land of Scotland the Brave.  But alas, that option fell through when I could find accommodations, but – you guessed it – no placement! Since all the education students in Aberdeen are on placement at the same time, there wasn’t anywhere where they could fit me in! That, and the length of time it takes to get security clearance to teach basically meant that it wasn’t going to be possible. As my hope drifted away across the ocean, I finally and reluctantly settled to stay in Kingston for alt prac, at the School of English. Not a bad choice, especially since I know the staff there, but you know…it just kind of missed out the whole “abroad” part of “educating abroad”. 

It was past the due date for submitting and confirming alt prac locations, and Amanda and I, who have most of our classes together, were both in quite a pickle (dill, duh).  As I was in line to sheepishly inform my liaison of my prac-finding worries, and tell her that I had settled on Kingston, I spoke to Amanda. Apparently, she had just been placed that day at a school in Sweden.  Knowing she was in the same teachable subject areas as me, I 20%-jokingly and 80%-seriously gave her a playful elbow jab and asked her if there was room for 2 at the school she’d been placed at.  We sent an email, and a few days later we heard back from our contact, and BAM.  Before we knew it, 2 weeks after the application deadline, after all this searching around and failed attempts, we were both confirmed placements, from March 11^th -31^st at the Internationella Engleska Skolan i Sundsvall. 

For more pictures and/or information, go here.