Having spent the majority of my free time over the past week in bed recovering from a throat & chest infection, I felt like doing something more productive than watching TV show marathons (I got through all 9 episodes of How to Get Away With Murder in a day & now I’m cursing the producers for the mid-season hiatus). A new blog post is long overdue, and I have half a year to recap. As I’ve started and failed to finish so many other blog entries ranging from my opinion on the negative press surrounding Lauryn Hill’s UK comeback tour, to an incomplete poem tentatively titled ‘Tim Wonnacott: Hipster Icon’, I’m determined to knock this out and hit ‘publish’.
As many of you know, I previously lived in South Korea for over 5 years and returned to the UK last October following a trip through Asia, passing through Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Singapore. Things back at ‘home’ didn’t go quite as I hoped they would. I was unable to find work, so I decided to create my own job and fulfil my dream of being a full-time performance poet and musician. I managed to pick up a few commissions and workshop gigs, but nowhere near enough to sustain a living. Perhaps if I’d stuck it out longer than eight months things would have eventually worked in my favour, but after going through a couple of traumatic experiences I realised I had to make a decision about my future, so after making an inner vow not to go back to ESL teaching, I accepted the fact that sometimes you need to take a step back in order to move forward, and spent the bulk of my savings on an intensive teaching course and a one-way ticket back to Thailand. As sod’s law would have it, once I’d committed to leaving the UK, I received confirmation that the proposal for a one woman show I’d submitted to the Edinburgh Fringe had been accepted, but after much deliberation I turned the offer down as there was no way I could afford to fly back for the Fringe. There have been moments when I’ve regretted my decision, but it has given me the confidence boost and the kick up the arse I’ve needed to further develop my script, plus having the opportunity to travel again has provided me with new experiences and new material.
I began my journey in Bangkok where I spent a week visiting friends, then I headed north to Chiang Mai where I spent a month studying for the aforementioned Cambridge CELTA course at International House. I had initially applied to do the course part time in Seoul, but turned down the offer after accepting a job in R&D at a large Korean electronics company (which I quit 2 months later due to a breach of contract).
I had no concrete plan as such, but my intention was to teach in Vietnam for a few months, save up some money, see more of Asia and do some voluntary work, then eventually return to the UK & get a part time job teaching ESL at a college and continue to freelance as a second job. However, I ended up signing a 10-month contract with an international school in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, and am currently working as a year 3 primary teacher. I’m finding teaching as challenging as ever, but the students in my class are a great bunch of kids and they keep me motivated on days when I feel like giving up.
I don’t really feel like going into great detail about expat life in Vientiane right now, I’ll save that for a future blog post that I’ll probably never get round to writing if previous habits are anything to go by. For now, I’ll leave you with this impromptu recording I did with the amazing Scott Hildebrand (my lovely housemate’s brother who also happens to be a Seoul expat) during his visit to Laos.
Carys 'Matic' Jones 