At the end of 2004, after seven years of "semi-retirement" from full time teaching I was ready to "reinvent" myself. The question - what to do?

I have taught in various fields at Secondary Schools and at TAFE colleges over a period of around 25 years full-time and seven years part-time, and also created and managed a small merchandising business during my "semi-retirement". In addition, I am an avid traveller who has backpacked to various parts of the world over a period of about 30 years. TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) seemed a natural choice. Decision made.

Over the next 12 months I studied part-time and in December 2005 completed a Professional Certificate in TESOL from the Global TESOL College in Brisbane (now known as the Australasian Training Academy). After a whirlwind online application process I accepted a position teaching Oral English at a Normal College (teacher training institution) in Taizhou, Jiangsu province in the East of China for an initial period of one year, commencing February 2006.

In June 2008 I completed two and a half wonderful years in China. My time in China was amazing, full of life-changing experiences and I had many varied adventures both in the classroom and while exploring the great "Middle Kingdom" and beyond. These adventures continued throughout the northern summer and into the winter of 2008, when I embarked on a 5 and a half month trip encompassing Mongolia, Russia, the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, the UK and the USA on my way home to Australia. Many of these adventures are yet to come to light on this travel site (I have 118 blogs saved but only 48 published!), but they will get there eventually! It will just take a bit of time!

This blog was originally inspired by my colleague Mr Hans Schneider, who has an excellent blog on this site. I am keen to extend my knowledge and skills of technology while providing a regular (?) update on my old and new adventures for family, friends and other interested visitors to this site. In addition I use this blog as a tool to encourage my students to practice their English out of class and to learn more about their own country and beyond.

I am now back home in Australia and actively pursuing work in the area of language teaching in the domestic market. I am excited by the prospects awaiting me in my own hometown, although I miss China dreadfully and hope to return sometime in the future.

For those of you who are searching for more meaning and satisfaction in your life and feel that teaching languages overseas might fit the bill, I enthusiastically encourage you to take up the challenge as I did three years ago. You will never regret it. In fact you will probably say "Why didn't I do this years ago?"

Read on and enjoy!

Visited Countries Map

---

---

---