Category: Expat Tales

I hate this job. I need to get out of this town. I wish life was more exciting. This is where it starts for most of us. The idea. The dream. The decision. It’s one of the most familiar questions for vagabonds worldwide: why travel? Believe it or not, there are both unhealthy as well as life-changing answers.

Have you ever walked into a public bathroom, only to realize that you’re in the wrong one? That man at the sink is looking at you like you have three heads (or that you’re definitely missing a required part to be in this particular room). You are immediately embarrassed, and suddenly, you’ve forgotten how words work. The best you can do is back out slowly and hope that he doesn’t tell his friends (whom you’ve never met anyway, but still would rather them not find out). Well, living abroad in a very foreign country can feel a bit like that sometimes.

You are walking down the bustling town center with your overflowing Osprey 75 Liter strapped to your back like a turtle shell, last night’s laundry drying from every available strap.  Tourist tassels at their finest.  But hey, who can fault you for being efficient?  No matter; right now, fashion is the obvious concern.  Your day…
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When we live in our hometown for too long we can reach a certain level of ‘stuckness’. We go to the same places, do the same things each weekend and don’t make much effort to meet new people because of our existing group of friends. We feel that we have enough friends, so why should…
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I used to live in Bali. I haven’t met many people on my travels that can say that they used to live there, many pass through and stay a little while but living there is different, it’s natures beauty blended with tourism’s destruction, it’s an island of contrast.

Meet our latest travel blogger Anna Jen who has shared some of her experiences with us traveling around SouthEast Asia. Here she gives us some insight into long distance travel between countries and beautiful scenery.

Non-verbal communication is a pretty standard idea. We communicate so much more not by saying it, but by showing it. It makes sense that when you travel the world, you start to recognize the true beauty of the non-verbal.

Introducing our latest interview from our Reach To Teach teacher Maggie Attoe. Maggie hails all the way from Wisconsin and is currently teaching English to young learners in China. Read on to hear more about her adventures in China, and what she feels are some of the positive and negative aspects of living there.