BIG Things to Think About for the AcadeFamily

After finding out that the search committee chair contacted my remaining two committee members last week, it looks like I'm still in the running for the job at a regional campus of my home university. This is a t-t position, with a 4/4 load, specifically in my field. While I'm trying to pretend I've forgotten about this, clearly I haven't. But, as of yet, it hasn't at all prevented me from getting work done or anything.

Yesterday, however, Hubby dropped a bombshell of an e-mail on me concerning a very different job opportunity. As it happens, there are faculty posts open in both his field and mine at an overseas branch (Middle East) of our university. Hubby had previously been made aware of a history position after a professor for whom he was a TA decided to sign a 3-yr contract to go over there. This professor mentioned that there would be a future opportunity for hubby to go, and hubby brought the idea up at home last year, at which point I promptly squashed the idea like a bug.

Yesterday, hubby received an e-mail from this professor that indicated two faculty posts were now open and the College of Liberal Arts was "desperate" to fill them. Furthermore, they'd be excited to get an academic couple, and this would likely give us an advantage during negotiations. He then explained the "obscene" salary (roughly 75% over the base starting salary for an assistant professor in the States), the fully furnished house provision, living costs, private school tuition for all children, $13,000 annual research/travel allowance, etc. Let's put it this way, we could be credit card debt free in two months, put a big dent in our student loan debt, and still come back with a huge down payment for a house. In short, there are NO economic disadvantages.

Oh, and the teaching load? It's a 2/1.

I've talked with my advisor, my committee member/placement director, a female faculty member who's there now, and the general sense is that people have enjoyed their time there. It's in a very wealthy and secure area, and though it's an Arab country, it's seen as a modern one.

The program director for the CLA gave me some initial details and said that if I was interested I should forward my CV within the day. I did (so did Hubby), and he's already mentioned us to the female faculty member/administrator who's there now.

My head is still spinning a bit, and there's so much I still have questions about. They plan to hold video interviews for the English post next week, and then for the history post shortly after. I know that if they're interested in us, they will fly us over, business-class, with no committment at all, so we can see the place, meet the people, etc.

Somehow, even the standard practice of making a list of pros and cons isn't helping me right now. This. Is. Just. So. Much. To think about right now. I generally have no concerns about the location, the economics, or the professional aspect. I'm always up for an adventure, and as long as I have my husband and children with me, I'm solid. My concerns rest solely on how this will impact my oldest daughter, who still has a biological father in Home State, which is currently 6 hours away. She, too, has an adventurous spirit and would no doubt benefit in many ways from the experience. But, I know there are intangibles, factors that I may not think about or that may come up after the fact, and those are the things that worry me.

I post all this here and now not for the purpose of concluding anything, but simply to introduce it to this space. To let it out of me so that I can -- please, please -- think about something else for a bit. I feel like it's all happening very fast, and I need it to slow down. For now, I want to be a sponge. I want feedback from as many people as possible, from as many angles as possible, and I want to just soak it all up. For now, I still have a dissertation to revise, and this *must* return to the forefront of my mind.