Yep, teaching. Though, I can't say that I teach very often. 20 hours a week is considered full-time over here. I don't even work that much. I've been partying pretty hard. In a dinner type situation it's rude not to drink a ridiculous amount of alcohol. As for culture shock and home-sickness - I've only been gone for 3 weeks but I haven't started to miss Brisbane yet. I just moved into an appartment last week with one of my friends. Actually, the whole experience has been excellent. There is a large quantity of foreigners over here. All of which know each other. It's great. I'm going to save up a bit of cash and purchase a notebook. When that happens expect me to become a full time forum poster again.

:frown: I miss you already, Epsie..........and I haven't even met you yet. :P

Yeah, you get yer arse on saving up for that notebook and get back in here! Glad you're having fun.

Japan lucky you :) It's one of my most favorite countries, and I wish I can go there for a year as well.

That sounds like great working conditions. I teach (though on sick leave right now) as well and I do a minimun of 45 hours/week.

I miss you guys too. Never fear... a laptop is in the woodwork. Shouldn't take too long to save up for one.

As for the comment about never meeting me... Don't worry about that, you will. It's inevitable :)

Actually, I only stayed for one night in Tokyo. As it turned out, we arrived at the Narita airport (the Tokyo interaction airport. Approx. 1 hour away from Tokyo City) somewhere around evening time. Granted that the train takes one hour to get to the city coupled with the fact that the trains stopped running at 12 we were faced with 2 choices. 1. Stay in Tokyo city till 6 A.M the following morning and catch the first train back whilst praying not to miss our 7-something flight to China, or 2. Stay in our free accomodation at the Narita airport hotel. Wisely, We opted for the later. It turned out great. We purchased some Suntory Time Wiskey and patrolled Narita City (For a refreshing time drink Suntory Time - Lost in Translation referrence. The second I saw it I had to have it).

Anyway, to the point, the city that I'm staying in is called Qingdao. It's China's most famous costal city, also one of the most popular tourist destinations.

Woah! 45 hours a week. That's intense! And that's actually real teaching. As an ESL teaching in China all I really do is try maintain a state of order and read instructions for a book, along with doing a little bit of explaining here and there.

The 45 hours/week includes staff meetings, lesson planning (expr?) and PTA meetings.
Your job sounds absolutely great! Surely an experience for life.