So the photos in the slideshow that have been up for weeks are courtesy of Sussanah, the ELF who was teaching at my assignment all last year. Yes that is my house, classroom, potential students and pizza delivery system.
The last couple of weeks before leaving had been spent putting my ducks in a row by amassing all the material things I want and need for this trip. Now I enter into the information gathering mode. Washington DC, where all the ELFs come together and learn everything about this program from the bureaucratic record keeping and expense report end to special teaching projects we might get involved with.
The pre-departure orientation (PDO) in DC was interesting and informative but a big info dump that takes time to process even having had read through the handbook. Like any bureaucratic system, there was a lot of paper and many ways to make sure people get the point. Knowing how to submit expense reports was a big take away from this. We're paid as an independent contractor which basically boils down to "save all your receipts." Sadly DC came and went so fast that I didn't have much time to see much even though the Smithsonian and Capital were visible from my room. I did walk around a bit and assuming all goes well (at some point soon) with the photo uploads you should be able to see some of what I saw.
I won't waste your reading time explaining all that happened in the meetings but if you are reading this because you want to join the program, read the handbook that is linked to the English Language Fellows website. It will give you a run down of most of what the PDO is all about.
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