Job Discussion Forums

Perpetual Traveller · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 651 Location: In the Kak, Japan

You want to live in the most romantic city in the world and yet love is not a priority? Shame on you!!! Laughing

You said that you love "Europe", have you considered looking further East? If you don't fancy the idea of Asia then you might like to think about Eastern Europe, the money will probably not be as good but at least you will be where you want to be.

PT

jsbankston · Joined: 12 Sep 2006 Posts: 214 Location: Texas

I'm thinking seriously of Eastern Europe, but am researching which place would be the best.

I am a writer who is seeking to see the world and gather material, and teaching overseas sounds like an interesting way of doing that, but some people on the site seem to think if I don't want to dedicate myself 100% to teaching for the rest of my life that I shouldn't bother.

Perpetual Traveller · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 651 Location: In the Kak, Japan

That's their problem! Wink

As long as you give it your all for the time that you are doing it that is what's important. After all these days how many people stay in the same job/career for their entire working lives, very few I would say. You are experienced and although you may not have the qualifications for an international school there are other options. If you do succeed in making a go of it with your writing then great, if it doesn't work out the way you hope then at least you have something else to fall back on! What kind of books are interested in writing?

PT

jsbankston · Joined: 12 Sep 2006 Posts: 214 Location: Texas

Travel writing, non-fiction essays--that sort of thing.

I had been crippled with a degree of writer's block for awhile (I was having no trouble with short works, but had no ideas for longer ones), but that one-week trip to Paris I took earlier this year just woke me up. I cranked out a 271-page book in less than two months. But i seem to need to have experiences, to see new things, to get the juices flowing.

The book is ostensibly a travel memoir, but it's also a miniature psychological autobiography, or sa I've pitched it to agents, "a Fodor's guide to a midlife crisis." It's amusing, but also dark.

Anyway, as far as going overseas, now that I've had a nibble and had my awakening, I want more. Doing the same-old same-old 9-to-5 in suburban America isn't good enough. And I'd rather try and fail than just sit here and play it safe the rest of my life. I'm single, I have no committments and only one major debt--what do I have to lose?