Como el burro que tocó la flauta

The above post title, literally translated from Spanish, means "like the burro that played the flute," which is equivalent to saying "by a stroke of good luck." The story goes that when the burro found the flute, he accidentally brayed, managing to play the instrument successfully; when the burro thought he had played with skill, a wise bird told him it was just luck. And so, in the case of my new job in Costa Rica, I am a lucky ass.

But my story didn't start with much good fortune. Tim and I went to an international-teaching job fair in Boston with high hopes, which were quickly dashed when we saw how the laid-off crowd had infiltrated the job market. Not only had the number of attendees risen, but the number of open positions had dropped. My school, for example, initially posted three positions that they ended up deciding not to fill to save funds. At the fair two years ago, my mailbox was full of inquiries and my dance card eventually was full of interviews. This year, we had only one inquiry, and we had to beg for interviews, even from schools that previously said they want to meet us at the fair. We were outright denied for me not being Christian or Tim not being certified. We only had four interviews over two days. Two, from the inquiry school in Germany and another in Ecuador, went well, but resulted in "not the right fit." Another, with a school in Egypt, went a little too well, as they offered us the jobs five minutes into the interview; however, my spidey sense told me to deny the offer (as it turns out, it looks like we dodged a bullet, according to online reviews of the school).

We left town with only one lead, with another suspect college (read: diploma mill) in Turkey. But with no other options we continued the application process, first having to analyze and write essays then having to do Skype interviews. During this process is when I found the flute: A school in Costa Rica contacted me about an English teacher position. Even though there was no position for Tim, I agreed to do an interview with this school because Tim thought he could find private ESL positions in the country.

I was offered the job, but I was wary of Tim having to play the visa game again; once bitten by Israeli bureaucracy, twice shy, you could say. So despite my unemployment worries, I decided to turn down the job to wait for potential positions in the States. So far, no bird was chirping to me; I thought I could still find a job through my skills. But in response to my "regret to inform you" e-mail to the Costa Rican school, I heard a little birdie start to sing: An ESL teacher at the school was about to go on maternity leave and another wanted to go part-time before eventually retiring. These occurrences have nothing to do with my skill, just luck, and yet they are the reasons that Tim interviewed for a job at the same school and that we eventually accepted positions in Costa Rica. I basically will be the high school English department, teaching all levels both reading and writing. Tim will be a middle school ESL teacher, supplementing in-class instruction. And the moral of my story is, An accidental ass is better than an unemployed one any day.