(soft music)
- Good morning from uh it's cold today here in Zagreb.
I'm out of my patio right now.
I will show you more.
So down there is more of Zagreb.
And then this is more of Zagreb.
We have the mountains in the back
and then I go to school up here in that area.
I'm going to grab the rest of my stuff for school.
My I'm just gonna collect everything
and then I'll show you my walk.
It is 7:22
I can't leave any later than 7:25
I have a 10 minute walk.
And then my bus will take me all the way
up to the top of the hill, where my school is.
Okay. I am now
in my classroom so much for bringing you on my walk
but it's honestly not that entertaining of a walk.
So I'm gonna show you my classroom really quick.
So I have 11 students.
So this is my classroom
that I need to slowly start setting up.
I'll tell you quickly about what I do here.
So I'm actually the year four teacher.
I teach Music, Art, English
We've International Primary Curriculum.
So I teach that.
I don't teach math because I specialize in IPC here.
So my partner and my best friend here
she teaches math for my class and I teach IPC for hers.
And I'm also the year five music teacher as well.
So I have my Bachelors in Theater Arts
and then I received my TEFL back in,
I took it during quarantine.
I came home for a few months
after living in France and I started get my TEFL.
And then I moved here in June to get my job.
I was doing a ton of research in quarantine
but obviously everything was shut down here.
Everything was online.
No one was really hiring.
So when I moved back here
in June to work down for a seasonal job in the coast
I then started calling some schools
and I got ahold of this one Bright Horizons
which were an International British School.
I should have told you that.
But my biggest recommendation is that
if you want to work in Croatia, emails are
like the worst way to communicate, which is hard if you're
out of the country because they just won't answer emails,
they answer phone calls.
So I was lucky enough to be able to be here a little bit
before I needed to work up here in Zagreb.
And I was able to make that phone call.
There are a few, so we're the British International School.
There's one more British International School.
There's the American International School,
and then I believe I know there's a German private school
and I think a Dutch
there's some other smaller English speaking programs,
sorry I'm very sweaty for my walk,
(laughs)
but there is the Croatian American Society, CAS
they're always hiring.
So that's a good job to kind of start
with here and then move on if you wanted to.
Alan Drone also has a school
in Zadar down on the coast and up here in Zagreb.
I think those were the only two places
and there's a bunch of kindergarten preschools
that are also English speaking as well.
So there's a few options
but there's a reason why Croatia is not
there's not a lot of information
on how to teach English here because it's not very common.
Just to clarify really quickly.
I am in Croatia.
Zagreb is the capital of Croatia up here
in the continental Northern part of Croatia.
I am about the vetting on where on the coast I wanna be
I'm about tops four hours from the coast.
If you're going towards Zadar
to if you're up in Isthria and from the varavnic
I'm not sure I have yet to go there.
So I do have to wear a mask
and I'm going downstairs to get my temperature checked.
All of my kids, the kids one through four on year four
they don't wear masks, but years, five to eight.
That's what we have in our schools.
We have one to eight, five to eight all wear mask
and every child gets their temperature check
in every morning.
We currently have two students out
in isolation that are doing online learning because
of they came in contact with their parents have gotten sick
but we are staying in school.
We're staying healthy.
Everyone is, is doing well.
And we are proud to go online any time.
We have a Google classroom set up
in around nine schedule if needed, but right now
we're staying hopeful and we're wearing our masks
and just doing lots of hand-washing.
My kids are watching me take this, but okay
well you answered for the video.
Do I speak Croatian?
- [Kid] No
(both laughs)
- (indistinct) No, I do not speak croatian.
I speak a little bit, but you don't need to be able to
speak that to work here.
So I took the online, like it's a (indistinct)
So I did online.
Yes. I think it was like a 10 week, 11 week course.
And honestly it was like a couple of hours a week
that I took from my time.
*Cause I was also teaching for VIP kid at the time
My first job was down on the coast about Kashani.
I ran an Arts Department for an international camp
and I knew I wanted to move back up here.
And so that's how I decided in Croatia was
*cause I lived down in the coast for two summers now
The biggest challenge
has been the language and cultural difference.
No, you don't have to speak (indistinct)
you know you don't have to speak the language,
but it's a little isolating here.
So making new friends, making those connections.
So what's really important for me here was to
make friends inside of school and outside of school
and have that those connections so that I
Schools hasn't started yet, but it's about to start
some of our kids are starting to get here.
So I just shared my expenses, like a rough
kinda estimate of all my expenses.
My apartment that I'm living
in is expensive because it was meant
for two people and not, I'm just living in it alone.
So in February I'll move
just so I can be standing a little bit more money
But overall with my private school salary,
It is you can live off of it.
Usually rent should be about like a 1000 some kunas.
So I will be saving significantly more
but Croatia is a little expensive, but coming here
in US dollars is really nice, but that's my savings.
So now I'm spending everything in Kunas and it can go fast.
So I just have to budget,
make sure I know what I'm spending and bringing in.
And it is, I don't have to work another job.
And I first got hired.
I was given my contract.
I'd to take everything to moop, which is our police here.
And I had to file for a work, a work visa.
So my work visa is good till April.
*cause it's something
with like only allowing six months of time.
Or my biggest tip is to come with savings just
in case that finding work is a little bit difficult.
*cause I think it's best to come here
and be able to call and visit in person.
So just come with saving so that you have some buffer room
I'm an American citizen and only have that passport.
So now I have a Croatian ID because of my work visa.
People it's just a process to get your work visa like
anywhere else, but it's totally possible.
And you don't need your EU citizenship.
The biggest challenge has to be
that my kids are of different abilities in their English.
I have for instance, two boys
from Turkey where their English is, okay.
My girlfriend Slovenia, her English and Croatian is perfect
but some of my Croatian kids are so struggling with English
and all classes are that last one got cut off a little bit
but all, everything is taught in English, except for
of course there are other language courses
like German,Spanish and Croatian
So this is the other fourth grade teacher
and my best friend.
How many years of teaching experience do you have?
- [Guest] This is my fifth year teaching.
- [Indistinct] It's my first
(laughs)
So to better explain that.
Yeah, Sarah who teaches me is she has been teaching
for five years.
She was in England.
She was just a Munich.
And now she's here and this is my first year teaching.
So really that's your answer
for you just have your certificates
in your Bachelor's and apply away.
So the visa process was extremely painful.
Like any other, I got a visa to live
in France and that was just as painful.
Sarah, because of Brexit is gonna have to do it very soon.
We'll give you the real answer.
The question is I got my contract
for my job and I had to take that with
I don't even know what paperwork anymore, but I had to prove
that I also had to prove like my, my address here
my insurance is covered by the school.
Pretty much your contract decision that
you can start the process right away.
Moop has this list of things that they have you email in.
And then what you do after that is my boss just
kept calling them, being like, okay,
What does she need now?
Because they won't update you or anything.
When you're missing something
you have to just call and call and call.
But like a few trips later
few emails later, a couple months later
I finally got my visa in through email.
I had to pay for it and now this says
I'm gonna pick up my actual Croatian ID
So it's such a, it's a long process.
But if you used to visas, then that a shock to you.
It is what time is it Sarah?
3:15, 3:20
(laughs)
It's the end of a Tuesday.
Tuesdays are rough, but we're done.
Our kids are done.
If you guys wanna look, we're making pumpkins.
This is Sarah's
look how nice that looks
Now Sarah and I are off to
we're going to the gym and then we're gonna
do some lesson planning for next half term
which is a real romantic date night
if I've ever heard one,
I am back home.
I'm about to go to the gym.
Something cool about that is like here.
I don't know if they do it anywhere else.
I don't know but we have this thing called
the multi sport pass
and its whole point is to get companies to
help support their workers, do get out, get moving.
And so we have these multi sport passes that have us like
We can go to any gym in all of Croatia.
So we go to the gym near our house
and we go to one with like a spa.
We it's a very like social thing too.
So that's awesome.
So what I did that, but before I go
I'm gonna show you my apartment,
As I said I bought this apartment
with another person who's no longer with me
So it is a big, cute apartment that I will be done paying
for in February.
So it's disgusting
*cause what I told you that Tuesday, we around my, I mean
I guess it's not that bad.
This is dramatic, but it just kind of gets, it needs to
be put away.
So yeah, so like this is the main room.
So like I'm at the door now I'm walking in.
So living around the kitchen and then I'm very lucky to
have like a gorgeous balcony that has a cute little view
no furniture, but you know, this is my big girl purchase.
I highly recommend everyone gets a TV.
It has an extra spare bedroom for when I have a child.
That's a joke
and no bathroom oh sugar
And the main bedroom, which is a mess I got I'm so sorry.
This is my clothes on the bud.
Yes.
So, but my apartment is my biggest expense.
It is about half of my salary, which is a bummer.
But
Whatever
You know, you gotta make it work.
My biggest, this kinda goes into my biggest advice.
*cause Sarah and I are both expats and we traveled
for work.
Is that your if you're moving somewhere and you like planned
to stay for a good chunk of time
like invest in your life there.
Cause like for instance, I wanted a TV and like
I was like, no, like, I don't know where
imma be here till I don't know where I'm going next.
And Sarah was like, well if you're gonna act like
you're gonna leave soon then you're gonna leave.
But if you want to make a life here
like starting investing in it start, you know
cause we live out of what, two suitcases
most of our life and like most of our life, most of the year
like traveling from spot to spot.
So if you find a spot
and you find your people like invest in that life
*cause then you're, it's gonna be more successful.
Talk a little bit more about my school.
We, I told you we're one through eight for the four years.
And every teacher in each grade, there's only one teacher
for each grade except for mine, which is fourth grade.
So I was very, very fortunate
and lucky that when I called Bright Horizons
and I talked to my principal, she was like, Oh my gosh
I was actually thinking
about splitting your four into two years.
Like she had just hired Sarah and the class was too big.
So she wanted to split it *cause each class
I guess the height is about like 17
18 is the most we'll put in one class
which is actually really nice.
And so now I have 11 kids
and Sarah has 13 instead of just one of us having 24
which honestly I could not imagine doing, even though I grew
up in the States where it was like 30 plus kids
to one teacher, but this is you're up.
(laughs)
So yeah, that's that on my school.
And I don't know how to end this.
If you've gotten all the way
to the end, I'm super impressed.
My school is Bright Horizons, British International School.
And then the camp that I worked
for is International American Camp
which is called Camp California down in Pakistani
about 30 minutes outside of Zadar
So if you have any questions, put it in that box.
You, I will tag myself
so you can follow me and send me messages.
And thanks for being on this little trip with me.
I am back interesting.
I've been getting a lot of questions asked
about what course I took up. Just broke my computer.
I took the 10 week online course
which I highly recommend it.
I loved it.
I had a great professor teacher, strong woman
but I was also teaching for VIP kid at the time
which was not only great money
but it was also great experience.
I understood what I was learning
because I was teaching it at the same time.
So highly recommend taking the online course
and teaching VIP kid at same time if you can
I'm a full-time school teacher for year four students.
So I teach Monday through Friday, I get in at 7:45
and I leave anywhere between 3:30 and 5:30
depending on how well on top of my lessons plans I am.
So its.....
(soft music)