Teaching Holidays

Everyone complains that teachers are always on Holiday. Teachers with friends working overseas always complain about the amazing holidays their friends teaching in International Schools are having. Well, am I now doing my level best to ensure that the tradition continues. I'm pretty sure I work the same number of weeks as my friends in the UK, NZ and Australia it is just that through my school helping with the cost of day to day living I have more money to play with when it comes to holidays and certain countries and cities are that much closer. Quite frankly it would almost be rude not to go on holiday.

I've had a pretty great year travel wise as it is. I spent New Year in Melbourne with my fabulous friend before returning to my then home NZ. Easter was spent in Queenstown which was the last place on our must see before leaving NZ list. Queen's Birthday weekend we visited my previous employer in Sydney and then July we went to Hong Kong, Suzhou and Shanghai. In August we visited Xi'an and then in the October break for National Holiday we went to Guilin and Yangshuo. December will see us hitting the slopes at Niseko in Japan and then we have to ensure that we have booked something fabulous for Chinese New Year. We will stay around Suzhou in April as we will have visitors and in May we will briefly visit Beijing as we are doing the Great Wall of China half marathon. The end of the academic year sees us being given return airfare to our home of record, you can use this to go anywhere, and then we will need to start planning again. Sounds terrible really, doesn't it?

Why travel so much? Simple, there is a big world out there full of so many amazing things that and I just cannot bare not to experience them. Since my first taste of backpacking in 2006 my thirst for travel has been unassuagable. I'd also rather travel now while I'm fit and able. Why wait for tomorrow as tomorrow doesn't always come around. I also think that stepping outside of your comfort zone and outside of your own little bubble is good for you. I have learnt so much about myself and about the world through the people I have met and the places I have been. Nowhere is perfect either and it is very easy to become blinded by nostalgia and romance for your hometown or a place you once spent a week 3 years ago. I find myself looking at my friends on Facebook and see so many who are still in the town where we grew up. It amazes me and also makes me feel excessively guilty for moving so far away from my family.

I left the UK in 2008 and will step on British soil for the first time since then, on my flights from school, in 2014. It will have been nearly 6 years since I have been back by next Summer. It is quite scary to go back after so long and I know that I have a lot of catching up to do and a lot of relatives to visit. I am being selfish and only spending a short amount of time in the UK as I want to visit somewhere new too. Sorry!