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gargamel · 05-10-2014, 01:51 PM

*UPDATE*

It's been almost a year since I started this thread, so I figure it's time for me to post an update.

After originally posting, I looked into the Australian mining/OG jobs, but struck out due to being over the 30-year-cutoff for the easy visas. Since I was 31, I pretty much couldn't find a decent job without a visa and I couldn't get a visa without a decent job. That realization resulted in me goofing around around the world for the next several months (Morocco, Bosnia, Turkey, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan were all awesome other than a minor teargassing incident in Istanbul), which wasn't a bad thing at all.

By October, I decided that the other suggestion from this thread (teaching English) was probably my best option, so I went to somewhere that I'd never been (Bogota, Colombia) to take the CELTA English language teaching course. Although the rules they teach are way too rigid, I highly recommend the course. I had no idea what I was doing as a teacher, and I felt pretty good about it by the time I was done (which is a good thing, because I doubt I'd have been any happier as a s****y teacher than I ever was as a lawyer).

After the CELTA, I accepted a job in Cambodia and have been teaching in Siem Reap, Cambodia, ever since. I still don't know what I'll do long term, but I can say without a doubt that I'm happier doing this than I ever was in my previous life. I just accepted a six-month contract extension, so I'm here for the rest of 2014. If anyone has any questions about the ESL expat life, I'm more than happy to answer them, but if not, I'm just happy to update that all is well with me.

05-10-2014, 01:51 PM	#53
gargamel First Line Centre Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Cambodia Exp:	UPDATE It's been almost a year since I started this thread, so I figure it's time for me to post an update. After originally posting, I looked into the Australian mining/OG jobs, but struck out due to being over the 30-year-cutoff for the easy visas. Since I was 31, I pretty much couldn't find a decent job without a visa and I couldn't get a visa without a decent job. That realization resulted in me goofing around around the world for the next several months (Morocco, Bosnia, Turkey, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan were all awesome other than a minor teargassing incident in Istanbul), which wasn't a bad thing at all. By October, I decided that the other suggestion from this thread (teaching English) was probably my best option, so I went to somewhere that I'd never been (Bogota, Colombia) to take the CELTA English language teaching course. Although the rules they teach are way too rigid, I highly recommend the course. I had no idea what I was doing as a teacher, and I felt pretty good about it by the time I was done (which is a good thing, because I doubt I'd have been any happier as a s****y teacher than I ever was as a lawyer). After the CELTA, I accepted a job in Cambodia and have been teaching in Siem Reap, Cambodia, ever since. I still don't know what I'll do long term, but I can say without a doubt that I'm happier doing this than I ever was in my previous life. I just accepted a six-month contract extension, so I'm here for the rest of 2014. If anyone has any questions about the ESL expat life, I'm more than happy to answer them, but if not, I'm just happy to update that all is well with me.