Three Years In: Advice and Thoughts?

Having returned to the UK for Christmas, I am compelled to return to this blog to read of my thoughts and ambitions not so long ago.

I am struck by how much teaching abroad is different to the UK.

There are better holidays. There is an expectation that people will leave on the day that school finishes, catching a flight literally hours after the final bell. I had one holiday in five years, and perhaps two in ten before that. Now? Perhaps half a dozen, if not more.

Kids are the same anywhere, unless the school is selective. They require inspiring, and have many more things to take their attention.

Kids definitely have more to lose, though, than some in the UK. The behaviour is superior en mass.

My advice is this: I have carefully selected the schools in which I intended to work. I have not applied to just any school. That has made the difference.

I should say this, too: I was not called for interview in the lower tier schools (GEMs etc) in my latest post. Instead I attained a position in the top ranked school in my region. I save more money than I would have earned in the other schools. That, and my colleagues are immensely qualified and professional, although of course I would not say that to past colleagues.

There is certainly a drinking culture in international teaching. There is more pressure on relationships. And students may lack particular elements of culture. However, as a lifestyle and as an aspiration, it really is something that you can make of it. I sit here with better clothes, more money, and more interesting people. I am not entirely sure of what I might do, but I know that I am more dynamic than ever before.

My ambitions may not be visualised, let alone realised. However, I feel that being where I am, and how I am, is worthwhile. I also feel that I would want others who might want to embark on the journey as me, in whatever way they wished to do so, might benefit from some of these words. We will see.

We will see.

What kind of weekend lifestyle do I want?

Something has struck me recently: this time last year I had very many weekends where my preparations prior to the week ahead were lesser than I expected. This was due to:

1) Much more fun and games - I spent family time nourishing others and myself.

2) Not have as structured plans as simply 'poetry' or 'novels'.

3) Not having so much an ideal structure for My to-do lists as I do now with Wunderlist.

I have ambitions ahead, but I also have some judicious procrastinations. Before I begin I need to decide on the following - how do I approach my to-do list when I simply do not want to? I think that I need to be able to even just look at it, and to star what I want to do.

The starring of my to-do list is an important facet of what I want to do. I want to be able to choose things to do that fit with my values; quite how this works, I am not sure. There comes a point when I simply need to 'slog' through the list. And how should I do that with family? That is a good question, too.

The truth should be told: I have not had to spend too long on my to-do list because going through it isn't so bad. The problem is, sometimes, that I begin to do tasks as I do them, and then do not even look at the entire list.

The struggle is, as always, to be able to make choices about the things in life I do in a substandard way - that I need to choose what I deprioritise rather than have that choice made for me.

Of course, the temptation to plan to the nth degree exists far too strongly. I want to have time to another life.