The 411

Hi everyone! Thanks for your interest in following along on my journey.  Since I’ve received a lot of questions, I wanted to write a post with some general information about what I’m doing and where I’m headed.

I’m on my way to Thailand to live and work as an English teacher for a year. I’m not sure why, but there seems to be a lot of confusion about this. So just to clarify, I’ll be teaching in Thailand. Not Taiwan (wrong Asian country), not Tanzania (wrong continent), or any other place that starts with a T you might have it confused with. When I first arrive, I’ll be living on the island of Phuket (pronounced Poo-ket) for three weeks while I take a 120 hour TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) course and earn my TESOL certification. You might be more familiar with the term TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) but the terms are basically interchangeable. However, since the word "foreign" is considered politically incorrect by some, TESOL is becoming more widely used. 

As you can see from the picture, Thailand is right in the heart of Southeast Asia. I personally think it is somewhat of an oddly shaped country.

Unfortunately, I have not received my exact placement yet so I do not know what school I’ll be working at or what age I’ll be teaching. However, I should be receiving this information in the next few weeks and will keep you posted. I do know that I will mostly likely be living near Bangkok and will have my own apartment. The month of October is a break from school so I will officially begin working in November at the start of their second semester. 

However, just to confuse you even more...I am currently writing you from Taiwan. After stopping in LA for a few days to visit my friends Coley and Erik, I made another stopover in Taipei, Taiwan to visit my friend Alan who lives here. If you're not familiar, Taiwan is an island country officially named the Republic of China (R.O.C) but more commonly called Taiwan. In the picture, you can see it is the green island off the east coast of China. It is a very interesting country and I can’t wait to write more about my experience here this week. Finally, I’ll be heading to my final destination (Thailand) this weekend. 

Please feel free to leave comments and questions on any of my posts or contact me directly through the contact page. Don't be shy; I’d love to hear from you!