A Journey To Teach Abroad

I'm exhausted. Really exhausted. Now that I've got that out the way, let me explain why I'm exhausted. I'm sure all of my teaching friends will understand what I mean when I say this year has felt like a VERY long year. For those of you who are not teachers, it goes a little bit like this. We work hard throughout the year and put in far more than our contracted hours, to the point where I suspect it gets more than a little bit dangerous for us to be working. Add to that all the usual stress of teaching and by the end of the year every teacher is literally at the end of their ability to stay awake. Don't worry, I'm not about to go into some huge rant about how my job is harder than others, that's not the point of my blog. Besides it has been done far more eloquently by others than I could ever attempt to do. If you want to hear all about it simply do a quick Google search, you will find plenty. I'm simply setting the scene a little bit. Wonderful P...

Guess what turned up yesterday!!!! Yep, DHL actually did their job properly. More to the point, and much to my surprise, they actually did their job REALLY well. The contact turned up a day earlier than their claimed delivery date, wonders will never cease. What was in the contract I hear you ask? Well, I'm afraid I have no intention of going into any specific details, as it's private, however I will tell you a few generic things compared to the standard UK teachers contract. Firstly, they own your soul. The contract is weighted in their favour, unlike in the UK where our unions have negotiated us a great deal that protects the teacher. I'm going to clarify that a little bit, it all seems to be reasonable and nothing within it concerns me in any way, but as international school are businesses they have a vested interest in protecting themselves. Once I had read the contract I only really had 1 question for the school. The contract wasn't particularly clear in...