Up 'til now, almost all of my travel has been for study. I went to Egypt to study Arabic and Middle Eastern Politics and culture, and then I went to Chile to improve my Spanish. now, however, I'll be teaching.
While teaching and learning are certainly not opposites in my mind, it does definitely bring a new perspective to my travels, and that brings me to what I hope to learn this year: how to travel without being dependent on someone/ a program. Yes, I will be part of a school, where my boss will hopefully not throw me to the non-English speaking wolves, but In the past, all of my major travels have either been to places where I either speak the language or have a program or a good friend to help me along.
Going in to this, all I have is myself and a few people I've exchanged emails with. While I have certainly had some wild and unexpected travel experiences in the past, I have, in general, had either the language skills (for example, when I was robbed in Spain) or the personal support network (say, during the revolution in Cairo) to deal with it.
I certainly hope that I will soon be making new friends in Korea, and that I will not be able to say for long that I have no support system there, but for now, the self-reliance I am forcing myself into is my giant learning hurdle at present. I think it will be a great learning experience.
This has been week three of Bootsnall's challenge, prompt:
Have you ever studied or taken classes on a trip? What did you study, and perhaps more importantly, what did you learn while on that trip? What would you like to learn on your travels this year?
While teaching and learning are certainly not opposites in my mind, it does definitely bring a new perspective to my travels, and that brings me to what I hope to learn this year: how to travel without being dependent on someone/ a program. Yes, I will be part of a school, where my boss will hopefully not throw me to the non-English speaking wolves, but In the past, all of my major travels have either been to places where I either speak the language or have a program or a good friend to help me along.
Going in to this, all I have is myself and a few people I've exchanged emails with. While I have certainly had some wild and unexpected travel experiences in the past, I have, in general, had either the language skills (for example, when I was robbed in Spain) or the personal support network (say, during the revolution in Cairo) to deal with it.
I certainly hope that I will soon be making new friends in Korea, and that I will not be able to say for long that I have no support system there, but for now, the self-reliance I am forcing myself into is my giant learning hurdle at present. I think it will be a great learning experience.
This has been week three of Bootsnall's challenge, prompt:
Have you ever studied or taken classes on a trip? What did you study, and perhaps more importantly, what did you learn while on that trip? What would you like to learn on your travels this year?
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