How's Everyone's 2015 so far...?

[abcdavid01]

Great. New job's not bad, lasts until August. Living with some cool guys. LOTS of native Chinese people in the area, especially girls, especially girls my own age. Any of you remember what I posted about my job you can figure out what I mean. So I just start chatting and ask them to teach me more Chinese. I'm making some good progress. I actually made a stupid English mistake today cos I've been speaking so much Chinese. I get the feeling I'm going to hate having to finish up one more semester of college. I just want to get back to China when I'm done.

[Tsar]

I would say my 2015 is likely not going to be a special year. I don't have any special plans at this point but by the end of the year I might have enough funds to make a major decision that would change my life.

[MarcosZeitola]

In the year 2015 I have, thus far, enjoyed myself greatly. I entered the new year with my wife, child, and family by my side. I ate well, I drank well and I made sweet love. Now I am working long hours back in the West to realize our dreams. This year is going to be a great year, full of amazing adventures that lay ahead. I've also reconnected with some old friends back home which was quite enjoyable, and made one very good friend in the Philippines around New Year's.

[xiongmao]

I've had a crazy week, which has included:

Getting sent to the North of England on a work assignment. The women are more, er, open up there, they have adorable accents and they dress better. On the downside there are more scary people around. I would seriously consider finding a job in Newcastle, Liverpool or Manchester, working there would be a lot of fun. I studied in Nottingham, and that was tremendous.

Last weekend I also went to a TEFL recruitment event. It was mostly aimed at people wanting to teach English in China. I got quite a bit out of the event, even though I've actually been there and done that so to speak. Take home message - a good school will pay you around 1500 GBP per month (excluding accommodation) although that it pretty much for a full time job. But the younger guys here would have an opportunity here to save maybe 8000 RMB a month. Other take home messages: you got to be 24+ so if you're younger do something else and bolster your CV. And you need a degree, so get one of those as well.

The weird thing was that the prospective teachers in the room were NOT representative of those teachers I met in China. On the other hand only crazy people would ever consider living in Guangzhou.

Finally I aced my CELTA interview and I've been accepted onto a course. There's the small matter of quitting my job first though. I can't even do a 120 hr TEFL at the same time as my job, so I'm not working and doing a CELTA simultaneously. And to mix things up a bit I applied to do my CELTA in Europe, so if it all goes through, I'm going abroad again, and in just over a month!

You don't need a CELTA to teach, but it would open a tremendous number of doors for me. And it would be tremendous for personal development.

If you don't want a CELTA, 120 hr courses aren't bad, but do one that has at least 20 hours face to face rather than just all online.

[Ghost]

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[xiongmao]

Wow, I quit my job today. In 30 days time I'm going abroad. Again. I am really excited about this one, maybe more excited than when I went to China. China was a certain known quality. This time I am going to a country I've not visited since I was about 15, and I've never visited the city I'm going to be living in.

So it's all official, next month I'll be in Spain!

Yes Spain is near to the UK (2 hours on a plane) but it's nothing at all like the UK. I hope some latin confidence will rub off on me, but if it doesn't then the CELTA course will definitely make me more confident.

I know you can do a CELTA at home but I think I will do better on the course if I do it in a country where I've never studied the language. Plus the sinking Euro makes it a great time to visit Europe.

I have no plan for the rest of the year, other than I have a family commitment in Berlin in July. My family haven't been there since my late grandfather was there in 1945.

Ah, who am I kidding? My plan is to follow Falcon and bother him wherever he goes next...