If you haven’t noticed, I like to make lists. My apartment is littered with post-its, my notebooks scribbled with to-do lists, grocery lists, to-buy lists, to-read lists, bucket lists. Lists help me mentally and visually keep things neat, clear, and orderly. When making major life decisions, I’m that person who makes the cliché pro vs. con list. I had to have an intervention with my neurotic self when I, sadly, started penning a list of lists to make. That’s when I knew I had to reel it in.
Each time I wrap up living abroad somewhere (studying abroad in Spain, teaching ESL in South Korea, now the Czech Republic) it’s a ritual for me to create three lists: things I’ll miss, things I won’t miss, things I’ve learned. It’s this time, my third venture living abroad and coming home again, that I’ve dug even a bit deeper. Since I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs, I recently set out to answer this question: is living and teaching abroad worth it? Here’s my list, and based on my oh-so-scientific-quantitative-list-data, you can draw the conclusion yourself.
CON: You’re constantly moving.
In the past five years since I’ve graduated, I haven’t lived in one location for more than a year and a half. That means countless hours of packing, mountains of cardboard boxes, and continuous shuttling from location to location (my parent’s home address acting as a glorified P.O. Box). The short-term leases have made it difficult to want to invest in decorations or furniture for the apartments, and I desperately want to have a tomato plant for more than one season.
PRO: You stream-line your life.
An unconscious side effect of constant moving is stream-lining my life. When you have to cram your entire life into merely two suitcases, you tend to quickly see what’s important and what’s not. That sweater I got on sale but never really fit just right? My old class notes and papers from college? Unnecessary. I realize how much stuff I don’t need and it’s liberating.
PRO: You get a clean slate.
While moving constantly means uprooting again and again, it does mean a fresh start. You have the chance to reinvent yourself. New friends, new trips, new adventures. While tiring sometimes, it’s stimulating and exciting.
CON: Inevitably, you get homesick.
More surprisingly, I found myself getting homesick about the weirdest things. During January in South Korea, I got homesick about the Super Bowl. This is bizarre for multiple reasons, mostly because I a. do not like football b.very rarely watch sports and c. could not care less about the Super Bowl. It was just the fact that something so major was going on at home, and no one was even acknowledging it where I was (Upon further reflection I’m pretty sure I was just missing the parties full of taco dip and chicken wings).
More reasonably, I always get a little homesick on the 4th of July or Thanksgiving. While many other countries celebrate Christmas and Easter, these holidays are uniquely American. Nothing is sadder than reporting to work on a “normal day” when your entire family across the world is gathering for a delicious meal and friendly chatter.
CON: You miss out on milestones at home.
While abroad, I’ve missed my grandpa’s funeral, the birth of my nephew, a good friend’s wedding. These are made bearable only by the fact that I’m creating so many new memories and personal milestones during my experience. Plus with today’s technology, there’s no excuse to be out of touch. Skype dates, WhatsApp, and Facebook updates have all aided in connecting with loved ones while in two seemingly different worlds.
PRO: You get a seriously fresh perspective.
Living in another country exposes you to a different way of life, and sometimes for the better. It took moving away from the U.S. to realize that wow, we work a lot. We really do eat aggressively sized portions. We pay an arm and a leg for health care and higher education. In Europe, I love how the concept of “holiday” isn’t just a luxury, it’s a right. For a standard job, Americans are allotted ten days of vacation a year. Ten. And maternity leave? A piddly 12 weeks. Compare that to the two years a Czech women gets (which even can be extended, with a few stipulations). Work/life balance takes on a new meaning in Europe, and it’s refreshing and inspiring.
But it’s not all criticism. Moving away has made me appreciate more about my homeland as well; I miss the concept of customer service, diversity, efficiency, and most importantly, filtered coffee.
CON: Some days, everything seems just a little more difficult.
When you live abroad, particularly in a country where the language isn’t your native tongue, every day hiccups can morph into frustrating, confusing endeavors. Simple things like changing a light bulb or explaining how you’d like your eggs cooked can even be a challenge (This might sound dramatic, but trust me, both have happened). Knowing your basic rights as a foreigner, applying for visas, filing for taxes, things that are difficult in your home country, are five times more tedious. You often feel dependent on others to translate or inform, which can make you feel helpless or frustrated.
I’ve also abandoned all hope of making small talk with the cashier at the grocery store or the waiter at the cafe. While not a deal breaker, it’s these small things that remind you that you are constantly living in a little foreigner bubble.
PRO: Travel!
In the cumulative two and a half years I’ve lived abroad, I’ve traveled to 26 countries on three continents. I rang in my 25th birthday in Sumatra, hiking a misty Indonesian rainforest to stand just inches away from a family of orangutans. I spent this Christmas in a tiny cottage in the English country side sipping tea by a roaring fire. I zip-lined through a jungle in Laos, bathed elephants in Thailand, walked the Great Wall of China. Teaching abroad has provided me the means (both money and accessibility) to take the type of trips I thought I’d have to wait until I was retired to take.
PRO: You gain legitimate life skills.
While you might be freaking out about the gap in your resume, there’s something to be said about flexing your ability to adapt, deal with ambiguity, and communicate effectively. Sometimes I think that if I can be stuck in a room full of 25 Czech three and four-year-olds, who know not a lick of English, all crying or screaming, and teach them how to speak in complete sentences, I can do a lot of things.
PRO: You learn about the world.
Travel has opened my eyes to not only different cultures, traditions, and languages, but to varied perspectives and philosophies. While this lesson in diversity is enormous–and key to mutual appreciation and respect–I have also learned just how universal some things really are. By working with children in three different countries, I’ve noticed how when you break it down, children are really all the same: innately innocent, curious, and funny.
One of my favorite recent memories comes from the week in kindergarten we were learning about space. Two especially bright six-year-olds inquired about animals traveling to space, and to their delight I told them that both a dog and a chimpanzee have made the voyage. Obviously we then had to google photos, which yielded as amazing results as you would think. After translating into Czech I told the boys the first chimpanzee sent into space was named “Ham,” or “šunka.” We genuinely laughed for a good five minutes. Some things, like naming your chimpanzee astronaut after a deli meat, are just universally funny.
PRO: You learn about yourself.
At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, I can honestly say that I have learned more about the world, myself, and what I want, than any experience I could have sitting in a classroom. I’ve also realized just how capable I am. Moving across the world by myself was scary. But not only did I survive, I thrived; I made amazing friends, unforgettable memories, and developed a new sense of independence, openness, and self-confidence.
PRO: You get some pretty cool stories.
Someone once told me that if you’re the most interesting person in the room, you’re doing it wrong. I’ll never forget one of my first nights in South Korea, sitting around a plastic picnic table outside of a 7-11, chatting with a group of foreigners in the muggy summer air, feeling secretively a bit nervous and self-conscious. Someone started going around the table asking about everyone’s travels. Where have they been? For how long? Proudly, I piped up that I had studied in Seville, Spain, and also skipped around Europe during my semester abroad (something that made me oh-so-worldly back on my college campus of 5,000 students in the fields of Upstate New York). The next girl casually mentioned she had just gotten back from a two month solo backpacking trip across Cambodia. I was out of my league. And while for a fleeting moment I felt upstaged and almost a bit juvenile, I realized that this quickly turned into intrigue and inspiration. The bar had been raised, and I liked it.
*If you are currently living abroad, or merely toying with the idea, check out this scene from the film Lost in Translation. To me, this scene is the most accurate portrayal of just how frustrating, weird, and funny living abroad can be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXGXZiX0pCA
czech point 