I've got the travel bug bad

I blame Mike Elgan. See, before I read his post 'Inside the secret of digital nomads', I was happy to float along in my non-nomadic apathy, yearning for the day when I'd be able to travel and work overseas yet never having enough impetus to actually start looking at my options.

That all changed when I started reading the 'nomad' blogs that Mike posted, such as Brave New Traveler, Vagabonding and Location Independent Living. From that point on, my eyes were opened. Lea Woodward's post in particular was great as it broke down the cost of living per month in different countries.

All of a sudden, I started thinking 'hey, I can actually do this!'. As a freelance writer, I've already got a source of income that I can start working on moving overseas.

After discussing it with my partner (who's equally keen to make the move), we've settled on Thailand as our destination. He mentioned that a friend of his is working there as an English teacher and that the only requirement you need is having a degree. Bingo - I've got two of those! I did a Google search and discovered that Seek runs a TESOL certification program for teaching English overseas... with guaranteed job placement. I left my details with them to contact me about it (it's the Easter long weekend right now, so I'll probably hear from them in a couple of days).

Meanwhile, I've been scouring Craigslist for English teacher job vacancies in Thailand, all of which only list having a degree and being a native English speaker as a prerequisite. I saw one that looked promising and sent an email enquiry - and they got back to me the next day saying that they had vacancies in May and  I should send scanned copies of my degrees, passport and latest photos to be considered. Holy Batman! So I've sent that documentation through, and I'm steadily getting more excited about the prospect of moving there.

I've even told my parents that I'm thinking about moving to Thailand, although they didn't seem very impressed. They're from the Philippines, and don't understand why I would want to move to another country like it when I'm already living in Australia. I can understand where they're coming from (they worked their butts off to get out of South East Asia), but they don't really get my hunger for adventure and change. I want to get out of my comfort zone and see the world. I've had lots of other friends do and now it's my turn dangnabbit!

Now I'm just waiting for Seek and/or that Thai school to get back to me. I've been applying for jobs on other blogs and websites - stuff that's location independent so I can do it in Thailand or Australia. The English teacher position is a good start, but the ultimate would be for me to have a set amount of freelance writing that I can work on while travelling.