Steven Ayy - ESL in China: A New Life Traveling the World on Empty Pockets

A crying baby keeping me awake. The food is awful. I'm currently on a flight from Beijing to Vietnam. I'm flying China Air, honestly my most hated airline, and none of the in flight viewing options work at all. "How did I even wind up here?" I wonder, "to the point where I travel so often I can complain about it?"

I was born in Toledo, Ohio, one of the most miserable cities in the United States. I graduated high school by the skin of my teeth. I floated around Community Colleges for a while and worked a few years as a substitute teacher. It is not a glamorous, or well paid, job and the work is the opposite of consistent. I was born poor and figured I'd die poor. I had never left my country, hell, I barely left my home town. Then one day I got on a plane to China and after only one year I have a few thousand dollars in the bank, a beautiful wife to die for and I'll be visiting my sixth country for pure vacation. How did this happen?

If you have downloaded this eBook it is likely that you are looking for a massive change to your life. ESL teaching abroad is often times seen as an easy job for young people in Western countries to stumble into, save money and see the world. I won't argue with any of that.

I often make the joke that meeting other ESL teachers abroad is like prison. You will meet people from other countries, backgrounds and culture but we can always start the conversation with "So what did you do to wind up here?" Some are just paying off student loans and heading home in a year or two, others are diving in to murder a boring life and create a new identity while there will always be the ones (you want to avoid) who are running from some tragic past. They will likely tell you all about it over a dozen beers.

For whatever reason I always think about the song The Way by Fastball. It was a quick 90's hit that I heard when I was about 13 but is always right there on my mind. Its the tale of a group of friends who decide to leave their lives behind and chase eternal summer slacking.

Thats how my life feels. Eternal summer slacking.

I wear shirts with cartoon characters on them, to afford my trip to China I sold a decades old comic book collection for peanuts, I've never bought a TV with my own money before in my life, I am a kid.

This book is for everyone out there seeking eternal summer slacking. 20 hour work weeks in foreign lands, struggling to order food because you know its all good, devouring self help and inspirational audio books as you jog along the third new beach of the year.

This is for The Culture Bums.

There is no way I was meant to pay bills and die.