Some sort of update that totally was planned out

So I went over a short list of things you need for your own ESL adventure!  So I suppose before I go into specifics about the list I am going to write about why I want to teach overseas.  As I told in my generic first post I have not really traveled much in my life due to financial reasons.  Not willing to put myself into debt just to have a fantastic week or two, but I have always loved studying people.
When I found my major in college (cultural anthropology) I was bitten by a bug with the desire to travel and to do new things.  I always had the desire to be dropped into a new culture and be forced to assimilate, and perhaps write a kick ass enthnography along the way.  There isn't much anthropologying I can do with a bachelors degree, but teaching English abroad makes me feel like I would be doing something with it.  I finally get to experience getting immersed in a culture very different from my own middle class suburban lifestyle.

I am cautiously optimistic about what our experience overseas will be like.  One of the biggest issues I may end up coming across is adjusting to a new style of cooking.  I am pretty bland and routine when it comes to eating, I am a pretty meat and potatoes kind of guy.  I don't really go out of my way to try exotic cooking, and that could be a problem since eastern food is very very different than American style food.  The language barrier will also be an issue until Manda and I establish a basis of our host country's language.  I expect the culture shock to be pretty marvelous.

The last thing and probably biggest issue I (and I know my wife will as well) face is the fact that we will be forced to leave our cats behind for a year.  We will probably go through cat withdrawal and have the shakes while on the plane!

Daydreaming Ahead

Sometimes you need to take a break from the planning to do a little daydreaming. So today I'm going to take a little break from the mechanics (there is pleeenty of time for that!) to just do a bit of thinking out loud.

In the midst of all the TEFL certificate completion, paperwork planning and shipping, and the recent part time job, there are larger plans in the works too. Zach and I attended a volunteer interview at the largest children's museum in the world and hope to make some good connections and have some wonderful experiences. We also have a friend moving closer with possible hopes for once we make our return from overseas. I'm also starting to look more into grad school programs and figure out what it is that I really want to do.

I feel driven to pursue information, so a graduate program in library science seems to be the ideal route for me to pursue. Interestingly enough, it seems like the thought continues to develop as we delve further into the ESL experience and plan ahead for what happens when we return. With several friends and acquaintances having recently completed graduate or undergraduate degrees in library science, it spurs me on to make the leap myself.

So, I guess what this all means is that by starting this journey, if it has truly even commenced yet, has made me think even further ahead to what I want, what I want to learn, and other fine details.