Expat Life

I have resisted the expat lifestyle since I got here, saying that if I wanted to meet more people like me I would have stayed home. But I will tell you this, meeting friends in Singapore has been a bitch. Meeting Singaporean friends that is. I don't know why, I'm not saying Singaporean aren't nice or friendly, they just don't seem to want to be my friend. Expats on the other hand, are always willing to invite you along. We are a group of displaced persons so we are quick to welcome newbies and there's an innate understanding we all have of how the others feel because none of us are really "home."

I told Ben when he was here that you realize how many different types of white people there are when you live abroad because you see people who look like you and you think "awesome, people like me!" and then you hear them talking and they are speaking Dutch, or German, or French or some other crazy language, or they are speaking English with an Australian, or Kiwi, or British accent and you realize that they probably aren't really just like you at all. And that's something I actually really like.

It's made a big difference having more people to hang out with because during the week my life is an insane day to day battle to keep my head above the water and not drown utterly in the million and one things I have to do. They say your first year teaching is the hardest and I can also tell you that the work load of a Singaporean teacher is just insane. They have a huge problem keeping teachers in the profession here because they burn out usually in about 3 to 4 years and really it's no wonder with 40 kids to a class, homerooms, Lesson Study, Department meetings, setting exam papers, marking, CCA duties and every other extra administrative task that is passed to you, not to mention the courses and extra training we are always going for. Don't get me wrong, I'm really grateful to have my job and I love doing it, but holy moses is the workload here intense. And people keep smiling and saying that I'm currently "off-loaded" because it's my first year. If this is easy, I don't want to see hard.

So you see it is all the more important that on the weekends I can go to the beach with some friends and fall asleep in the sun and forget about the insane pile of marking waiting for me when I come home. And it's all the more important that I have my trip to Hong Kong for next month booked. I will make sure to post lots of pictures and tell you all about it!