The Chain Continues: The TravelnLass' "7 Links"

Nope.  No pyramid "chain-letter" scheme here,  just a friendly round-robin of sorts that's been goin' round the travel blog circuit lately, dubbed "The 7 Links Project".  Initiated by the clever folks at Tripbase, it's a way to unite the blogging community and highlight some of the most remarkable (in a variety of ways) past posts that otherwise now seldom see the light of day.

In short, a blogger features 7 past posts (that match the 7 Links criteria: Most Popular post, Most Helpful post, etc.) and then tags up to 5 fellow bloggers to likewise revive 7 of their past posts.  Rinse and repeat.

Personally, when I first discover a new blog, I often don't take the time to wade back through the archives but rather, just drop the new blog into my RSS reader and sally forth from there.  But the 7 Links Project has truly unearthed some gems that I'd otherwise never have seen.

And though my own little TL blog is barely 8 months old, I've nonetheless managed to post nearly 50 bundles of blather to date - most of which have probably been read by a pathetic dearth of eyeballs. Thus below I offer a bit of a reprise - the TravelnLass' list of "7 Links".

Special thanks to ManontheLam, one of my favorite bloggers,

for tagging me for the 7 Links Project.

	1.  Most Beautiful Post: La Dia de Dos Noches
	"Beauty is in the eyes of..." so they say, but I believe most folks will find my "The Day of Two Nights" post (and preciously captured pics) of the total solar eclipse that I witnessed one sunny afternoon on a beach in Costa Rica to be both interesting, as well as "beautiful".  I know I surely did.

2.  Most Popular Post: Pay It Forward:  Helping a Fellow Wanderlust Here at Home

Oddly, this post was perhaps the least exotic - just a spontaneous encounter one rainy night here in my own home town of Seattle. A simple story of (literally) bumping into a fellow traveler far from his home (in Sri Lanka), and taking the time to help him find his way.  Indeed, likely most popular 'cuz we travelers have all "been there" in a strange, foreign land where we could barely speak a word of the local language - and have often (oh so blessedly often) likewise found help from a kindly local.

	3.  Most Controversial Loquacious Post: So You Wanna Be an Int'l Tour Operator, Huh?
	The truth is, I've (yet) to post anything here that's even mildly controversial, so I opted to tweak this Link criteria to instead be my "Most Long-winded" post of all. So windy in fact, it took a series of 4 separate posts to collapse my 20 year career running my own international tour company into something just short of a tome.

	4.  Most Helpful Post: Desperately Seeking... a Mail Forwarding Service
	g-knows I spent enough time researching this one.  Not just for the post, but more importantly, for my own benefit - wading through the ocean of mail forwarding services on offer, to find the best solution for handling my own snail-mail whence I'm tucked into that rice paddy in Vietnam. YMMV, but I'm delighted with my final choice.

5.  Most Surprisingly Successful Post: I (heart) NYC

I guess I didn't think New York City would prove exotic enough to interest many, but it turns out that I'm clearly not the only one who "hearts" NYC. For me it was but a quick final visit to the Big Apple (arguably THE iconic "heart" of the U.S. of A.) before I head to Asia for... perhaps forever.  And every moment (not to mention every tasty bite of that legendary NYC-style pizza) proved to be most memorable.

6.  Post That Didn't Get the Attention it Deserved: Travel'n Haiku Contest

Personally, I favor interactives in the blogs that I frequent.  So I rather thought my little Travel'n Haiku Award contest was just short of brilliant.  I mean, creating a bitty haiku is easy and takes but a few minutes.  And I thought it would be great fun to see what folks would come up with. Apparently I was wrong.  'Cuz to date, only one solitary soul has submitted a haiku.   Nope.  We're not givin' away a spiffy iPad for the very best haiku.  But won't you pretty-please take a moment to give this one the attention it deserves?  Uh, did I mention... pretty please?

Take the Quiz!	7.  Post I'm Most Proud Of: Do You Have What It Takes To Be a (happy) Indie Traveler?
	A post that was great fun to write.  Deliberately tongue-in-cheek, yet also somewhat serious.  Take the quiz and see if YOU'VE got what it takes to be a (happy) Indie Traveler. (hint: a dash of "lunatic" will boost your score)

Well, there you have it - the TravelnLass' link in the (never ending?) "7 Links Projet" chain.  Hope you enjoyed this little walk-down-memory-lane.

And now the fun part - my nominations for continuing the 7 Links are:

Chapter Three
Four Letter Nerd
Ruth in Asia
Snaps & Blabs
Vagabonding Life

Have you been nominated?  Be sure to check the 7 Links list to make sure the bloggers you nomiate haven't already participated. 

Packing Practice

With little more than 12 weeks til blast off, the time will no doubt soon begin to blur and I best start to get serious about just what goes, what stays, and what gets sold, given to charity or tossed out.

Evidence of a budding "flash-packer"

Normally when I travel for 3-6 weeks I pack only a small rolling backpack that holds just 24L.  But for moving lock, stock 'n barrel - my electronics ALONE fill that pack (incl. my new 17" laptop, my Asus netbook, the new DSLR camera, my little Lumix point 'n shoot, plus the Kindle and the iPod Touch and portable speaker set - not to mention all the cords, mice, portable hard drive, chargers and batteries that go with 'em.)  So clearly I'm gonna need an additional backpack for clothes and other miscellany.

Clothing-wise, I've been lately very diligent about selling my better clothing discards on consignment at Funky Jane's here in Seattle (I get 40% of what each item sells for, and I've already banked over $200 - which... could easily feed me for TWO MONTHS in Vietnam!) You can only bring in 12 items at a time and I'm generally only able to get up there but once each week. So now that we're into summer, I need to seriously separate what clothes I'll take, and what I need to tote up to Funky Jane's over the coming weeks.

So today I waded through all my summer duds, setting aside my usual travel clothes kit: 1 long crinkle skirt, 2 pairs of capris, 1 pair of long pants plus a few T-shirts that I normally limit myself to for a short trip. But now we're talkin' MOVING PERMANENTLY overseas, plus I'll surely need some "teaching" clothes, etc., so I dare say I best bring along a few more clothes than usual.

Going through my closet, I tossed each item into a "for sure" pile, a "maybe" pile, else back on the rack set aside for Funky Jane's. The "for sure"s will likely later be further whittled down (I tend to cull in stages as my trip departure draws nearer and the reality that it all has to go on my BACK kicks in.)  But for now, these include my usual travel standbys, plus I added a 2nd long skirt along w/ a 3rd (short black) skirt for teaching. Pants now include 2 capris, 1 long pants plus (and this is HIGHLY uncharacteristic for the TravelnLass) a pair of capri JEANS! Normally jeans loom far too heavy/hot for the off-the-beaten-path travel I do, but hey - we're talkin' LIVING in Asia, and a girl's GOTTA have a pair of jeans, no? Also unheard of for me, I tossed in 2 cotton sun dresses (again, I figure I'll need something a bit more respectable for teaching.) And for tops - I went a little crazy and lost count of the t-shirts, tank tops, blouses I tossed on the "for sure" pile.

A girl's gotta have sparkles, no?

I know, I know, it's not like I can't buy clothes in Vietnam (indeed, I understand most things are much cheaper there), but still...  Did I not mention...I'll be LIVING abroad - for MONTHS, even YEARS???  And a girl has her favorites after all.  So I couldn't help but toss in a few "fun" clothes (like my black mesh sleeveless top with the sparkly red star on the front,  and my favorite pink voile Asian t-shirt.)

And the good news?  It all fits into my new ($8 at the Goodwill) High Sierra rolling backpack (50L w/ a nifty zip-off front rucksack.)  All the clothes plus my lightweight tripod, toiletries, sleep sack, travel towel, binocs, etc. - yay!  No doubt there will be lots of tossing, adding and shuffling between the packs as my departure draws nearer.  But for now, at least I know I'm on the right track and will be able to tote it all to Vietnam without hiring my own personal trans-Pacific barge.

EVERYthing for life as an expat

The pack on the right in the pic is the smaller 25L pack (that I normally take sans the rolled fleece on top, plus a Katadyn water filter bottle.)  That now holds all my electronics.  While the new 50L pack on the left has the detachable rucksack on the front, and both have enclosed backpack straps and wheels.  The little one will go carry-on, while the larger pack will get checked to Saigon (yikes! checked baggage, another first for the TravelnLass!)

I must admit, the new pack looks HUGE to me and I honestly think taking so much is over-the-top.  But once I'm settled in my own place somewhere in Vietnam (hopefully Da Lat - see the real-time temperature gadget in the right sidebar --->), I'm sure I'll be glad I have a few more "luxuries".

SpotColor - a Purely Magical Photo App

Now I'm not one to recklessly download every ipod app under the sun, but I do seem to be mesmerized by any and all things photography lately, and when I stumbled across the SpotColor app by LiquidThought, I swiftly loaded it on my iPod Touch. For a mere two bucks, this app is amazing.

The samples shown in the iTunes description are fantastic of course, but I was leery that I'd not be able to whittle anything nearly as fine.  But this honey is pure magic.  Perfection in every way.  Simple yet powerful for what it does: lets you easily (we're talkin' in just minutes I had my first creation) take a color image and transform it into an eye-catching black and white with... as the app name suggests - a spot of color anywhere you want it - as much or as little as you like.

And so easy!  Seriously, just a handful of functions:  load a color image from either your iPod photo albums, else simply take a new photo with the iPod camera.  The color image loads already transformed into black and white.  Then it's just a matter of "painting" with your finger.  Everywhere you touch the black and white is replaced with the original color from the photo.  And should you miscolor a smidge, there's a separate function that likewise let's you "finger-paint" any mistakes back to b/w. And the best part is - you can zoom in like a gazillion percent - right down to pure pixels, just by double tapping the screen.  There's a separate button for scrolling around, as well as an "undo/redo" function. In short,this app is great fun and truly outstanding!

Now I ask ya - is this app kewl or WHAT???

Sooo easy to color the bicycle - a scene from... yup, Amsterdam of course!

Highlighting a red-bowed lass at the Belize Zoo

A lad and a watermelon in an Egyptian market

A red balloon - Belize

A youngster amid the backstreets of Egypt

"We don't need no ed-u-ca-tion!"

And finally - a quick b/w SpotColor remake of the "Just another brick in the wall..." wallpaper that I created last year for my iPod.

TravelnLass Wooo-HOOO Alert!

A great big ol' Woo-HOOO!!! here today 'cuz... I had an hour-long telephone interview last night with a CELTA lass (in Vietnam) and...

I woke this morning to a CELTA ACCEPTANCE LETTER in my email!

That does it.  It's now official - I've been accepted into the November 14th CELTA course in Saigon - yippeeee!

Of course as I said, I don't HAVE to have a CELTA to pursue my dream of living/teaching in Southeast Asia, but no doubt it will help me a lot (teach me how to be a teacher for starters!) and give me the confidence to go anywhere I please and teach English.  Even if I end up teaching at a school only part-time (my druthers) else just dabble in some private tutoring - the CELTA is a great credential, and I'm very excited about the course.

After speaking with the CELTA lass last night (8pm Wed. Seattle time / 10 am Thurs. Vietnam time), as well as reading the details now provided on the day-to-day schedule/tasks of the month-long course, I'm even more impressed (read: terrified of) the intensity of the course.  As if the 11 pages of grammar conundrums in the application weren't enough - there's now  another "Pre-course Task" to complete that's... no less than *50* new tasks!

Good grief!  What have I gotten myself into???

Ah but I'm thrilled to have been accepted, and I look eagerly forward to the challenge of starting a wholly new career as an EFL Teach, and living/exploring Southeast Asia.

Note that I'd originally asked for a slot on the October 10th course, but suddenly panicked last night (th-th-that's little more than 3 months off, and I still have sooooo much to wrap up here- yikes!) and asked for the November 14th course instead.  So will likely leave here around November 7th to allow time to settle in before starting the course.

So I necessarily updated my little "count-down" gadget here at TravelnLass - added another 37 days to sell stuff, find a home for my kitty, et al. <insert big exhale of relief here!>

Special thanks to Ruth (at Ruth in Asia) and Lisa (at Chicky Bus) for their private tips and encouragement on the CELTA.  It meant a lot to me 'cuz both these lasses have "been-there-done-that" themselves!

To Do: Apply for the CELTA in Saigon - Check!

Months ago (after much research) I determined that the best credential I could get for teaching EFL around the world wasn't gonna be some dinky online TEFL course (laughable among most all hiring personnel, and an excellent way to toss a couple few hundred bucks down the drain) but rather, the gold-standard of EFL certification, the CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults). Accredited by no less than Cambridge University in England, the CELTA  is recognized and prized worldwide, and includes 120 hours of rigorous teaching instruction, as well as hands-on teaching experience.  The month-long course is offered at select locations 'round the globe including Vancouver, B.C. and San Francisco (but not Seattle), as well as Costa Rica, Thailand and several locations in Vietnam.

Technically, as a native English speaker one doesn't HAVE to be CELTA certified to teach EFL in many corners of the globe (though most require some sort of Bachelors degree at a minimum).  But suffice that A. given that I haven't a CLUE how to teach English, I want the very best training I can get to prepare me for standing in front of a classroom of 40 to 60 Asian eyeballs staring back with the expectation that their "teacher" knows what she's doing; and B. I just want to be sure I have the best credentials I can muster to better ensure that my crazy notion of starting a wholly new career teaching EFL in some g-forsaken rice paddy on the other side of the globe - at 60+ - will halfway succeed.  In short, a CELTA in my pocket (along w/ my B.S. and M.S.) should help mitigate any potential age-discrimination I may run into, as well as give me optimum leverage when negotiating just how many dong I deserve for my labor.

Nuget Waterside, Chaing Mai, Thailand

Thus early on, I knew that I'd take the CELTA somewhere - I just couldn't decide precisely where.  For a long while I was pretty much set on taking it in Chiang Mai, Thailand, mainly because I fell in love with the serenity of the Nugent Waterside setting where the course is held.  Chiang Mai also happens to currently be somewhat of a mecca for expats drawn to its charms, coupled with cheap rent, food, etc.  I've been to Thailand before and loved it.  Thus I considered taking the CELTA there perchance it would better set me up with contacts for teaching there after the course.

But in the end, my druthers swung back to my first love - the mystique of a less hyped, more adventuresome locale: Vietnam.  My choices there for the CELTA were either Hanoi in the north, or Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in the south.  And as I still have my ultimate sights on settling in Da Lat (about 6 hrs. by bus northeast of Saigon), I opted to apply to take the CELTA through ILA in Saigon.

Which brings me to the present, and my struggles with completing the somewhat daunting ILA CELTA course application.  Downloading the application packet from the ILA site, it turns out to be no less than 11 pages, including a five-part series of grammar questions.  Uh, make that a seemingly endless stream of confounding grammar conundrums.  For example:

Q: (i) What is the difference in meaning between the following sentences?

     (ii) Identify the grammatical structure underlined in each sentence.

(a) When I arrived at the station the train left.

(b) When I arrived at the station, the train was leaving.

(c) When I arrived at the station the train had left.

As native English speakers we of course KNOW the nuanced difference in the timing of that train, but EXPLAINING in simple terms the difference between past simple tense vs. past progressive vs. past perfect - uh, that's a bit more challenging.

Then there's:

Q: Spot the mistakes in the following sentences and correct them.  Explain the nature of each error....your explanation should be clear enough for your students to understand (i.e. "wrong tense" is not acceptable - you must explain WHY it is the wrong tense.)

(a) Borrow me your pen, will you?

(b) Can you remember me to go to the bank?

(c) I am absolutely agree with you.

(d) I'm boring with this exercise.

Again - we native English speakers can spot the grammatical errors above instantly.  But trying to explain WHY the sample sentences are incorrect is a tad more dicey.

The ILA school recommended a couple of grammar books for completing both the application and for use when taking the CELTA course.  So I ponied up for the 658 page book: Practical English Usage by Michael Swan (oh, how I wish it could be Kindle-ized!) that I'll now have to pack 7,000 miles to Saigon.  Still... it turns out to be a great book.  Indeed, as a life-long lover of  the nuances of my dear mother-tongue, I find the book utterly fascinating with clear-cut explanations and examples of every stray grammatical twist and idiom.  Best of all, it proved a great help in noodling out my answers to the many questions posed in the application.

There were also some especially novel sections of the application, like...

Q:  In everyday English the sentence "What are you going to do?" could be pronounced something like "Whataya gonna do?" or "Whatcha gonna do?"  Make an argument for and/or against teaching foreign students this pronunciation.  Consider the needs of speakers, listeners, writers and readers.

Of course I personally enjoy deliberately butchering my own prose here on TravelnLass (indeed, the very name of the blog is a bit of a mangle of the "ing" in "Traveling".)  But that's DELIBERATE and meant to liven up the story and make things a bit more friendly.  Nonetheless, we all DO tend to mash our words together when speaking casually - "How are you doing?" becomes "How ya doin?", "kind of" becomes "kinda" and "Do you see?" becomes simply "See?"  So the question is - how best to prep EFL students in both formal and casual English pronunciation?

There was also an easy-peasy section that asked for 5, multi-syllable adjectives to describe my personality (showing the accented syllable of each word.)  For these I chose:

1. FLEXible
2. EnthusiAStic
3. ReSOURCEful
4. ReSPONsible
5. FRIENDly

(I rather thought "PSYcho",  "LUNatic" and "CRAzy as a fruitcake" might not be putting my best foot foward here, am I right?)

And finally, in Part Four of the CELTA application tome, there was this decidedly ponderous mandate:

The TravelnLass in a Nutshell - click to enlarge

Use a chart or diagram to represent your progress through your career and/or life to date.  The choice of design and what information you include or leave out is entirely up to you - but find some way to give us a sense of who you are and what you've done.

Uh, a diagram... of my whole LIFE???  At first I didn't know where to even begin.  I mean, maybe if I were a young 20-something my life/career might fit on a single page.  But with six decades of life chapters... tough to choose just what to highlight and what to leave out.

In the end, I opted to simply spell out the main milestones (leastwise since I became a single mom) - in a colorful continuum (so as to make it a bit more creative - seemingly a favored trait in a good teacher, no?).  The result is to the right  ------>

Who knows what TPTB (ThePowersThatBe) at the ILA school will think of me/my answers.  My greatest concern is that they'll take one look at the breathtaking size of my chronological age - and issue a "Reject" out of hand.  But hopefully, my brilliance will shine through and I'll soon be doing a telephone interview - the next step in the CELTA application process.

Stay tuned... (and cross your fingers for me!)

Inspiring Other Lasses of "A Certain Age"...

Recently a pair of lasses kindly commented on my "Narrowing Down the Expat Options" post about the delicate subject of  we lasses "of a certain age".  And when I tried to respond, it swiftly became obvious that a short comment reply just wouldn't do.  So instead, I thought I'd post their query along with my (usual, loquacious) reply here as a separate, full post.  To wit:

Q:  I'm delighted to have discovered your site.  A friend and I (61 & 71) would love to adopt you as our mentor.  I have a BS & MS in Education, but haven't used it in 25 years and she has a BS in English.  We'd both like to teach and be able to live from our salaries. Are we too old to be hired?  How does one begin to determine where age is not an issue?

A:  I'm most happy to inspire you and your friend, Mary. And while we of "a certain age" (thanks "Anonymous" for that lovely phraseology!) might find getting hired a tad more challenging than a 19 year old, suffice I've done tons of research on just that particular dilemma and..

I'm convinced that it won't pose a significant problem. For example, I'm presently in contact w/ a lass who just finished the CELTA course in Saigon (precisely what I plan to do) and she confirmed that one of her fellow students for the course is 70 yrs. old. I've also been encouraged by many expats presently teaching in Vietnam. And I believe that with both a BS and an MS plus a CELTA (the gold-standard credential of EFL world-wide) I'll easily find a job in VN.  If nothing else, I can always do private tutoring.

That said, I strongly recommend you have a bit of a financial "safety-net" before rushing off to the other side of the Planet. It needn't be a fortune, but enough to get you a ticket home along with some resettling funds, should you find that the life of an expat in a developing country isn't for you.

It's a HUGE subject, that clearly I can't cover in a mere comment. But in short: I honestly believe both of you CAN do it if you want to bad enough. Like any dream, it likely will take sacrifices and/or certainly trade-offs. I don't know what standard of living you're used to, but suffice you/anybody CAN live a most satisfying (indeed, exciting/fascinating/comfortable) life as an expat in Vietnam (and many other parts of the globe) if that's what tickles your dodderin' toes! ;)

Seriously. It's just a matter of making it happen!

Do keep in touch. I'd love to hear how it goes for you and your friend.