I am a certified Teaching English as a Foreign Language instructor, and I don’t know what that means. A majority of teach-abroad placement organizations and schools now require a TEFL certificate, or a related one. This is a change from about 10 years ago, when you only needed to be a native E[...]
Archive for May, 2010
May 28th, 2010 - 11:19 am § in Around Town, Mexico
On My Toes
I’m in a dangerous place. Not because of the drug war going on around me. Nor because I’m 30 feet up a rock face of El Potrero Chico. Not because I’m hanging by a 10-millimeter-wide chord on my handy dandy harness. It’s dangerous because it’s comfortable. The comfort zo[...]
Thoughts for the Outbound Voyager
While I was nursing a particularly virulent strain of post-grad school wanderlust, I received a card in which was written simply: Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt. It was Horace, and can translate from the Latin as: They change the sky, not their soul, who run across the sea. [...[...]
May 26th, 2010 - 3:59 pm § in Around Town, Guatemala
Living in Shades of Gray
My confidence and comfort in life for the past six months was built solely upon the statement, “I just got back from a year in China.” The line demanded respect in a “what have you done lately?” sort of way and diverted attention from life’s next step and my flat lining socioeconomic statu[...]
May 26th, 2010 - 10:35 am § in Around Town, Costa Rica
Quetzals, Jaguars and Morphos, Oh My!
Man, how about that International Biodiversity Day? I’m sure you’re still exhausted from all the celebrations and events and – What’s that? Never heard of it? Well, you’re probably not alone if you live in an urban environment. It was new to me. However, biodiversity is a m[...]
