Working Overseas, Getting Ready to Go
Tumon Beach, Guam
It Takes Guts
I made this transition and you can too. I did it long before there were travel websites talking about it and before living overseas was the rage. I knew I was going before it happened. I’d done my homework, researched jobs, downsized my belongings and given up my apartment to rent a room in a friend’s daughter’s home. I knew in my heart my next home would be overseas. Within three months I had an interview in San Diego for a teaching position on the island of Guam. Within a week they offered me a job teaching fifth grade, I accepted immediately. I gave notice at my job, flew to the Midwest to visit my family and within a month I was living overseas, on the island of Guam.
My parents were cautiously supportive. They knew I was a free spirit and that I wanted to live overseas. I’d been talking about it since the sixth grade when I saw a slide show of Germany. My mom was the most open to my overseas life, but even she had concerns. I spent three years on Guam and fell in love with the tropics. Guam was a new cultural experience and was a turning point in my life. Taking that teaching job sight unseen and moving half way around the world gave me a deep seated confidence and enthusiasm to continue my journey of working and living overseas.
Working Overseas: Risks, Courage and a Back up Plan
Adapting to a foreign culture, working out of your comfort zone and moving around the world where you don’t know a single soul gives you a confidence that allows you to repeatedly plunge into the unknown without the fears of “what if..” Once you try international living it’s likely you’ll be hooked. Yes you may move back to the U.S. for periods of time, even buying a house as I have. But your heart will long for travel and you’ll find ways to travel and live internationally for periods that satisfy you.
Spring In Northern Germany
Taking Risks
I’ve taken risks to live internationally. I’ve given up good jobs with benefits, stored my belongings and headed to international teacher recruitment fairs in search of a job. Twice I gave up jobs to pursue my international dream. For me it paid off, I received a good offer and my international adventures continued from Guam to Hawaii and on to Berlin, Germany for a decade.
Be Prepared With a Back Up Plan
Both times I gave up my job and moved I had a back up plan. The first time I had a substantial savings to last while I searched for work in Hawaii, having taught three years on Guam. The second time I had little savings as life in Hawaii was quite expensive. I did have the promise of a place to stay with my father if I wasn’t offered an international contract. Fortunately I attended a June job fair and received three offers. I chose Berlin, Germany and within a month I was on my way overseas again. Believing in yourself is critical. Be flexible, but don’t leave yourself open for disaster. Have a back up plan.
If this life is for you, you’ll know it. You’ll feel it and you’ll act on it. It will change you and it will enrich your life.
Life’s Work, Travel and Education
Three Cups of Tea
Discovering what we love, pursuing what we love and creating an opportunity to do what we feel is our life’s work is a gift. For many these discoveries take time and evolve through opportunities, hobbies, travel and every day life experiences. Sometimes it’s a chance meeting, a conversation with a friend or a significant life event that propels us to change our direction, widen our horizon and open a door to our life’s work.
Recently I received “Three Cups of Tea“written by Greg Mortenson. I’d seen the book in bookstores, but never read it. This book is deeply inspiring, attitude changing and just a beautiful example of how following our beliefs and our life’s work can change not only our lives for the better, but the lives of many people around us. Greg Mortenson’s desire to climb K-2 took him to Pakistan, but it was his experiences in a small village in Pakistan that changed the direction of his life.
Three Cups of Tea should be required reading. It’s one mans journey to transform our world and our attitudes by building schools in remote villages in Pakistan and Afghanistan where girls are rarely educated. It’s Mortenson’s belief that if we educate women we can change the world. Women stay in the villages and teach others the knowledge they’ve learned. They share it with their children and their friends, thus creating a chain reaction of education and positive change within the villages. It is Mortensons’s belief that we will have more success ridding the world of terrorism through educating women and children than we could ever have through war. He has now built over 50 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan and his life’s work continues with great support and appreciation. It all began with one dream and one man’s simple income. He was a nurse, who sometimes lived out of his car to save money so that he could go back to Pakistan and build the school he had promised to the village of Korphe after his injuries and failed attempt climb K-2. This book will inspire you and touch you. For anyone with a dream or a vision of creating their life’s work, this book is a beautiful beginning. For more information on Greg Mortenson, view his blog.
Greg Mortenson’s new book Stones into Schools was released last month by Penguin Books. Order a copy of Stones into Schools.
Special thanks to my friend Elizabeth for sharing Three Cups of Tea, with me.
Writers’ Retreats and Workshops
Sunset Retreat
As a writer I dream of quiet, uninterrupted places where I can write for hours without be disturbed by a slobbering dog or a cat meowing for food. If you’re a writer with children I imagine you muliply that desire x 20. So what’s a writer to do to get away and just simply write?
Retreat…………
To one of many places where writers are given a quiet place to create while the world slips away for a weekend or a week as we explore our artistic nature and do the work we were put on this planet to accomplish. Where can you as a writer retreat in a beautiful space? Read on for my growing list of options for writers who need to retreat.
Writing Retreat or Workshop on a Budget
Writers Digest Create Your Own Mini Writing Retreat
Want to be inspired or meet with other like minded professionals? Try one of many workshops around the country and the world.
Florida Workshop in Gainesville
Laguna Writers Retreats and Workshops
Orcas Island Washington Writer’s Festival
University of Northern Florida Writers Conference
Travel Writing Workshop Hudson, NY
Clarity Works Inspire Your Writing Asheville NC
Photo Credit: Lisa Overman
Working in a Foreign Country
This is one in a series of articles that will include tips for living and working overseas.
After spending nearly a decade traveling and living overseas I realize that I can use the insight and knowledge I gained through my experiences to inspire others to transform their lives with travel. Read more
Traveling in Turkey Behind the Wheel
Travel in Turkey Driving to Cappadocia
This is one of a two part series on driving in Turkey.
Traveling to Turkey is fantastic. Visitors have the opportunity for many cultural and historic experiences. One adventure I wasn’t expecting in Turkey was my time behind the wheel of our rental car. Turkish drivers live on the edge with their death defying driving maneuvers. I will never forget my week of driving in Turkey. It felt like life on the edge every day.
By the second day my travel companion was enjoying the motto, “When in Turkey, live as the Turkish do.” For him that meant driving with the same insane vigor as the local drivers. For me it meant a great deal of clinging to the arm rest and closing my eyes as I gasped at the continued antics of Turkish drivers. By day two in Turkey my companion had decided I should put my driving skills to the test. I think in that moment I stopped breathing. Was he insane? Seeing he was serious and wanted me to give it a try I braved it and sped off on the mountain roads, wondering how we’d survive. His emotional support made all the difference. Yes, there were more than a few hair raising moments when Turkish drivers passed me on curves and tight roads where it seemed perfectly insane, but we survived and had an amazing adventure.
Tips I recommend for your time traveling in Turkey.
* Drive Defensively and realize you are NOT driving in America. You are driving in foreign country, where the rules are very different.
* Start with short drives to areas that feel managable.
* Drive in daylight.
* Be prepared with maps and make sure you fill up your gas tank for driving in the mountains.
Photo Credit Tricky Driving 300td.org
Lakeshore Park – Ashtabula, Ohio
I grew up in Ashtabula, Ohio, next to a town park right on Lake Erie. On a recent visit home, my sister and I took several walks through this park, as one of its entrances is only a couple hundred feet from our mother’s front door.
With the help of the Army Corps of Engineers, Lakeshore Park has grown into a very nice something-for-everyone park. Some of the features include beach, boat launch, Frisbee golf course and bocci courts, picnic tables and hibachis, duck pond with ducks, geese, and swans; pavilions, lots of open space, ball field, playground, bathrooms and a concession stand. The one notable drawback (in my opinion) is that dogs are not allowed in the park.
Oh, and for those of you who need you some WiFi, Lakeshore Park is equipped!
There is no fee to get into the park, but reservations may be necessary for pavilion space for family reunions, or weddings, say. If you find yourself on American’s ‘North Coast’, specifically, Ashtabula, Ohio, take a visit to this lovely and historic park.
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On a recent business trip with lots going on, we ended up taking our lovable Labrador with us. There were many reasons behind this decision, not the least of which was a scheduling conflict with her usual care provider. For all but one of the five days we were there, we managed to meet her needs while having her with us. Read more
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Ten Universal Travel Skills
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