The most common new years resolutions seem to gravitate around weight loss and healthy eating. But in recent years educational resolutions have been making regular appearances on peoples lists. Most commonly, learning a language. If you’re learning a language as an adult you’ll know how…  Read

Working holidays are an excellent way to visit a new country for an extended period of time. They enable you to live in the country of your choice and experience the life style in a completely different way than you would as a tourist. Being an expat has so many advantages to typical tourism. Of…  Read

Are you considering a year of teaching in South Korea? I can’t recommend it highly enough. But here are a few things to consider before signing that contract. Make sure you have a reputable agent. It is easy to click on the hundreds of job adds looking for teachers and offering great benefits.…  Read

I took a holiday to France and then I lost my job. After spending a few days in France we flew back to Berlin. It was nice to be home, in my own bed, with clean clothes and food in the cupboards. But something felt a little bit odd. My work emails were a little suspicious and no one seemed to be…  Read

It is coming up to almost one year since one of the most stressful periods of my Berlin life. Around this time last year I submitted my first set of documents to apply for a sponsored work visa. My working holiday visa was nearing its expiration date and I had found I wasn’t ready to leave my…  Read

In my mission to better my German I adopted a few new systems. In my last post I asked for recommendations for German music. One lovely reader told me about a couple of groups I should check out but I am yet to get my hands on the albums and get the music onto my ipod. A friend of mine lent me a…  Read

My weekend was filled with sight seeing, games and relaxation. One of my oldest friends visited me in Berlin. She only had to jump across from London but while she was here, we uttered at least a dozen times that we couldn’t believe we hadn’t made more of an effort to meet up in the last two…  Read

My attempt to competently grasp this language so far has proved to be a very slow process; a result which I can only accept as being wholly my own fault due to multiple reasons. These reasons are coupled with the frequently uttered ‘I really need to improve my German’ expressed with the same…  Read

Berlin is full of expats working and looking for work in Berlin. It is difficult to walk down a street in central Berlin without hearing a familiar English sentence being uttered in an American, British, Australian and occasionally a Kiwi accent. Expats arrive here in crowds annually armed with…  Read

Getting excited about things is one of the best feelings in the world. As we get older the things we look forward to and anticipate with foot tapping impatience change a lot. This becomes especially apparent to me at Christmas each year. As I get older I think that perhaps that exciting, magical…  Read