Job Discussion Forums

[anubistaima]

How was your first month away?

I used to read this website several times a day when I was looking for my first ESL position. I remember many posts about people in the same position I was. I am now in Siberia, working with a large school, in a position I enjoy. I was wondering how many others found their first job in these last few months and their views after being in place for about a month. Anybody wants to share? I�ve read so many horrors stories and, since mine is not one of them, I was wondering if other people also have good things to report after being away for about a month.

You can post here or PM me.
Thanks.

[XXX]

My first month was in Moscow, and I was a stranger in a very strange land. Luckily for me, the school helped me get situated. I can't imagine what SIBERIA would be like for a newbe. I hope you brought your longjohns and a sense of adventure. My shapka is off to you!

[dmb]

My first month away was in a small town of 2000 people and I was the only foreigner living there. I arrived during ramadan. Nothing was open. The one pub was closed down and the two restaurants only opened after iftar. My initial thoughts were 'what have i done' however after ramadan was finished it was all ok. I'm in the same country 13 years later.

[zaneth]

I think it was within my first month that I met my now sortof ex wife. The exact point where we first met is now a point in mid-air. They're building a new building where they tore down the old one, but not near as tall, so our meeting point, like our current marital status, will remain up in the air for some time.

[travelingirl68]

aah, that lovely first month... my question is how are you doing now? it is early March in Novosibirsk - things are STILL frozen... how are you coping with culture shock?

[travelingirl68]

Oops, my apologies, I do not want to interrupt your honeymoon too early - I misread the date of your post. Your culture shock will probably start at the beginning of Spring - somewhere in May!

[zaneth]

culture shock comes and goes in waves. Again and again.

[thelmadatter]

Lets see... following the pattern of culture shock... my honeymoon period was all of a week. (oh wow look at this kind of thing). The rest of the first month was feeling like the rug had been pulled out from under me. I went to Mexico with the assumption that I would adjust fairly easily because a) I had lived in Arizona for 11 years prior, only 70-100 km from the border and knew Sonora fairly well. and b) I lived in Germany for 4 years (1988-1992) and had no problems.

Wrong!

First, Sonora sure ain't Estado de Mexico (near Mexico City) - I realize that when I saw folks kissing each other on the cheek! Second, my experience in Germany was not terribly relevant as I was there with the military and part of a large American presence. Makes it easy to hide from the local if/when you want to. No such thing where I am now.

But I survived and I can even laugh about it now.

[Sweetsee]

How was your first month away from what?

I spent the first 6 weeks in Japan in the luxury of the Century Hyatt Hotel in Shinjuku. Can still remember the cheesy jingles from the TV, the view of the roof-top tennis court (where I did manage to hit with the pro) at the neighboring Hilton and having to hoof it all the way to Kabuki-cho to get something to eat. My mate was under contract to develop a theme park and I was recently unemployed. We eventually were moved to an apartment in west Tokyo where I found that all the foreigners I was meeting, aside from the ones working with my partner, were English teachers.
I was hired at a bar by a manager of a local eikaiwa 15 years ago. He ended up stealing about 70 students, a young teacher and who knows what all else and opened his own school around the corner. His departure should have been my promotion but wasn't and after 10 years I found the door.


Loving life,
s

[biffinbridge]

My first month away was simply awful.It started with the 24 hour bus journey to the Czech Republic.'Language Link' assured us it would be a state of the art coach but it didn't even have a toilet and that's a bit necessary on a journey like that.Then after a short train ride we got to Decin,described by 'Languuage Link' as being a 'Little Switzerland' but by me as a polluted, dirty sh*thole.The 'western style' accommodation lacked a fridge and cooker and the bath water was orange.My flatmate was a happy clappy, half American Christian ,who slept with eye and ear defenders on and screamed when woken up,(to answer the phone).We lived up a hill, miles away from anywhere and there was sweet f.a. to do.Happily,the neurotic loon moved out and life got a bit better.About a month later,having lived on a diet of Czech open sandwiches and 'pastirska pomezanka' I met a real beauty and started a nice romance.Got drunk everyday for the next 8 months and left vowing never to work for that cowboy outfit again.Oh yeah,the teaching was easy and the students were nice.The next year...Poland...fanfeckintastic.

[biffinbridge]

My first month away was simply awful.It started with the 24 hour bus journey to the Czech Republic.'Language Link' assured us it would be a state of the art coach but it didn't even have a toilet and that's a bit necessary on a journey like that.Then after a short train ride we got to Decin,described by 'Language Link' as being a 'Little Switzerland' but by me as a polluted, dirty sh*thole.The 'western style' accommodation lacked a fridge and cooker and the bath water was orange.My flatmate was a happy clappy, half American Christian ,who slept with eye and ear defenders on and screamed when woken up,(to answer the phone).We lived up a hill, miles away from anywhere and there was sweet f.a. to do.Happily,the neurotic loon moved out and life got a bit better.About a month later,having lived on a diet of Czech open sandwiches and 'pastirska pomezanka' I met a real beauty and started a nice romance.Got drunk everyday for the next 8 months and left vowing never to work for that cowboy outfit again.Oh yeah,the teaching was easy and the students were nice.The next year...Poland...fanfeckintastic.

[denise]

My first month was not too bad at all. I spent the bulk of it doing my TEFL course in Prague. I was new to teaching and new to Prague, but I was optimistic all along. Made it through the course OK, had a few interviews lined up during the last week, and ended up with a few job offers and an apartment of my own (I somehow "slipped through the cracks" with my TEFL program and instead of getting a room in their hotel I ended up in some sort of monastery for my first few weeks) before the course had ended. I played it safe during my course--did a bit of sight-seeing in the evenings and on weekends, but avoided pub trips, clubs, etc. until the end of the course.

d

[merlin]

My first month away from the US I helped organize a strike. Korean Hakwon. Director didn't know what hit him but after everyone else pulled a runner I stayed on for two years. I figured "Why break in another director when this one's nice and trained already."

[eo-nomine]

Haut Limb�, near Cap Ha�tien, Ha�ti - that's where I spent my first month abroad, as a volunteer teacher. We'd spend the mornings help rebuild the school that had been destroyed during a hurricane. During the afternoons, we taught the kids under mango trees, by 40� C, with no blackboards, no pens, no paper. The kids had no pens or paper or books either, mind you.

We slept in a nearby building... we soon discovered that we had to walk for about ten minutes to find the toilets - a funny-looking hut with a door that didn't close that well, a hole in the ground covered by a tin lid. As soon as you removed the tin lid, co ckroaches would get out of the whole and run around wildly, between your legs, on your toes, but, thank god, never inside your rectum, although that was the recurrent nightmare of many other FT's.

Of course, no hot water - for that matter, there was no running water. Every morning we'd walk forty minutes to fetch some fresh water, but we only had to do it once a day. The locals did it several times a day. No showers - you'd splash water on your face and body at night. On some nights, it rained so hard and the water was so warm that you could take a shower - almost like at home! - by just standing there, scrubbing your face with soap and being watched from a distance by the kids. While I had no problems with Hait�an girls admiring (or so I liked to think) my feeble white body, it did piss off some other FT's.

Boiled banana for breakfast, boiled banana for lunch, and boiled banana for supper. Fresh bananas for dessert, sometimes mangoes. Water with lemons floating in it to drink. Sometimes we would also have a rather small piece of fish, some cabbage, some avocado, but never without banana. Once - that was at the end of the third week - we had beer. Not quite cold, but boy, that was the best beer I've ever had. Even Czech beer can't beat that. We had meat once a week, roughly. I felt bad, as the other Haitian teachers we were with had none - but they wouldn't share with me. One day we had fried eggs, and again, those were the best eggs I ever had in my life.

That first month abroad was a real eye opener. But the Ha�tians were friendly, sometimes going out of their way to get us some things we thought we needed. The kids were, once they got to know us, great to work with. A shame the girls were too intimidated to even speak in my presence before they party they threw in for our departure, but all in all, I liked my first month abroad.

[yannick]

Mine flew by quickly, the honeymoon phase where you ignore all the inconveniences and the unpoliteness