By: Kristine Bolt
I love my job. That's something I never said before a few months ago, and I've been working for almost twenty years! And I'm saying it about a job that, as a teenager, I swore to my mom that I would never do. Ah, the folly of youth. But let's back up so you can catch up.
Don’t fight it. No goodbyes, only see you laters. Rip the Band-Aid off and coast.
I can’t tell you how to adjust to life abroad; all I can do is share my story with you. Everyone has their own routines on race day. Maybe you have heartfelt farewells with every human you know, or maybe you leave without saying goodbye, whatever works for you. I’ve lived abroad on five separate occasions and the worst part is the two weeks before leaving. Without fail, every single time I am devastated, I convince myself I am going to die. I don’t pack until the day before and I sob hysterically when I have to say goodbye to my dog. It’s to the point now where my parents just laugh at me when I cry at the airport.
And then suddenly it dissipates. As abruptly as the eff-it moment when you click the confirm flight payment button, the anxieties vanish. Bare feet shuffle into the daunting body scanner in airport security. The whirligig spins and I am free.
One day in my Business English lesson, an adult student asked me, “Miss, what’s the difference between a mugger, carjacker, smuggler, burglar, kidnapper, thief, pickpocket and robber?”After what seemed like the longest pause of my career, with an awkward blank grin on my face, I spat out the best answer I could come up with off the top of my head. Afterwards, I couldn’t stop trying to pinpoint the finer distinctions between those, and pondering WHY I didn’t know how to explain it. It was really quite simple – most people don’t have to be so acutely aware of their own language since it is learned passively. For many teachers that I’ve met, a huge challenge in entering the TEFL world was learning the meta-language and rules to English grammar since we picked it up inherently. Language awareness as well as cultural awareness have become the two largest factors in my learning experience abroad.
Just a few months after completing the online TEFL course with the International TEFL Academy, I find myself one month fresh into my ten-month English teaching contract in Indonesia. Instead of sharing a traditional travel anecdote about the colorful culture, freshly-fried food, or lovely society of Indonesia, I would like to reveal another side of where I live. I want to share about the violent side of Jakarta, the rough and tumble, the rumble and bumble. I have noticed that my tolerance for the beast has decreased, and I am much quicker to the draw. What is this beast, you ask? Oh, the beast has many faces, many shapes, sizes, smells and forms. At times, the beast is culture; other times, traffic, heat, traffic, pure gravity and terror become the enemy. Allow me to explain myself.
