Just go, C!
I'm Charity, a proud auntie, wine lover, semi-nerd, and dreamer who can't stay in one place for too long.
Teaching English as a secondary language has been the most rewarding experience of my life, to date. Though I've just been teaching now for one year, I feel as though it is something I was born to do. It comes naturally to me, I enjoy it, and it challenges me.
I'm very fortunate to have found something that I think is a good "fit" for me. I was definitely someone who was trying to "figure herself out" for a long time before leaving home and beginning my teaching adventure. While I am still figuring myself out in many respects, teaching is something that has given me a sense of purpose and passion, something I was definitely lacking in my previous life. Maybe you're at a similar place in life, or know someone who is. Maybe you're trying to figure out what it is you really want out of life. Maybe you feel like the routine of life is giving you a sense of security, but it's also sucking life out of you. Maybe you've always wanted to travel more, but you couldn't justify it financially. Maybe you're just scared to leave the comforts of home and you need the reassurance that you'll be able to "make it" out there in the big world. If you're feeling or experiencing any of these things, or know someone who is, then maybe I can help. First, let me say that teaching English abroad is not for everyone. I'm not naïve enough to tell you that "anyone can do it" because not everyone can. My purpose with this blog post is to help those who think that it might work for them, and the information I give you could help you make a decision one way or another to either take the leap or stay put, or find something else that would work better for your life situation. In my ongoing pursuit of transparency, I will give you the good, bad, and ugly of teaching English in Thailand. The Good
The Bad
The Ugly
I would also like to mention that online English teaching is HUGE right now. If you're not quite ready to jump ship but would like to get some teaching experience, or to supplement your income, then online teaching could be a viable option for you. Just keep in mind that most of online teaching platforms are based in Asia (China, in particular) so you'd have to be able to work with the time zone differences. I hope you found this information valuable, whether it was to satisfy your own curiosity or to help fuel a life-altering decision. One of my greatest pleasures in life is helping others, so if you feel this information would be valuable to someone else, please pass it along. And, please don't hesitate to ask me any and all questions pertaining to teaching English abroad. I'm no expert, but I believe my experience thus far could certainly assist someone in deciding whether or not this path is for them. Thank you for reading!
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Life takes you to unexpected places. Love brings you home. --Melissa McClone Hello, friends! I thought I would post a quick update letting you know what I've been up to and what my plans look like for the next several months.
It's been pretty quiet here in Phayao; I haven't done a lot of traveling other than just day trips here and there to places close by. I'm still teaching until the end of April. I've sold my house back in Omaha. Oh, and I've been moving to a plant-based diet. This has definitely not been easy for me! I actually haven't missed the meat all that much, but I did eat a lot of eggs and ate more fish and shrimp once I came here to Thailand, so those have been the hardest things to cut. I'm also a sugar and coffee addict so that's a whole other battle. But, I already feel a difference just in the month or so that I've been making the changes. I'm optimistic that I'll continue down this path and eventually become 100% plant-based. Baby steps! (PS if anyone is on a similar journey, please let me know! I'd love to share tips, recipes, challenges, successes, etc. with someone!) Other than that, it's been pretty snoozy around here, honestly. Sometimes I feel guilty because now that I've been here in Thailand for (almost exactly) one year, it feels more like home to me and some of the novelty has worn off that comes with seeing and experiencing a new place. I often remind myself that I'm in freaking THAILAND, for crying out loud, and that I should find joy and excitement in those everyday routine things that were not at all routine to me a year ago. It's crazy how quickly humans can adapt to foreign surroundings. So, here is what I have planned for the rest of this year. I know by now that plans are always subject to change, but I feel pretty solid about my decisions at this point so I don't expect too much to go off course. Once my teaching contract is up at the end of April, I'll be taking a couple of months off to travel through Southeast Asia, including Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. I also plan to spend up to a week or so in Hong Kong to visit a friend from high school and get a flight back to the States from there. Yes indeed, I'll be going home for a little while next summer! My first priority is to spend some time with my sister and her family in Ft Worth, TX, and to meet my baby niece who was born after I left, and who will be celebrating her first birthday in July. From there, I'll visit and spend some time back home in Omaha. I don't know for how long, yet. I'm guessing around 2 weeks. There are several people I'd like to try to visit while I'm in the U.S. so it will just depend on how things pan out, and how much money I end up spending once I'm back. The U.S. is expensive as hell, yo! Speaking of which, I'm hoping that my friends and family will understand that I definitely don't have the same kind of budget I had when I lived in the States. I've been living on a Thai salary for the past year and my living (and traveling) expenses have been quite low by comparison. This is great, of course, until you need to buy international flights and travel in countries with much stronger economies. So, please do not be offended or disappointed if I have to say no to going out to eat or drink sometimes or participate in pricey activities. I definitely will on occasion but I have to be reasonable. Unless you're buying, then yeah, let's get after it. Haha. My plan is to stick around the U.S. until sometime in August, and then I'll be heading off again, this time to South America. I plan to start in Ecuador and work my way around for a year or two, teaching English in various cities. Why South America and why Ecuador? Well, the best I can explain is that I'm drawn there. I've had dreams and other synchronistic events happen which have led me to decide that Ecuador is where I need to go. That might sound silly to some people, and that's ok. I need to learn to trust in myself and in my journey. I hope I'll have a chance to see many (or all) of you when I return this summer. I know that life is what it is and I understand in advance if it can't happen. There's always next time. Otherwise, I'll see you in July, and I can't wait to hear about what you've been up to! |
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AuthorHi! I'm Charity. I'm from Omaha, Nebraska, USA. I quit my job in October 2016 to travel the world. Archives
June 2022
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