As a person who has spent a lot of time in Phuket over the last 3 years I can honestly say that taxis are anything but cheap. Phuket is very touristy, so the taxi company takes full advantage of this. You can rid in tuk-tuks which can be cheaper, but you share those with others. Believe me, you will need/want a car there.

Now in Northern Thailand is where you'll find cheap, but you will not find that in Phuket.

Shouldn't you be at your meetings at your new DoDEA school, PsyGuy? Watch what you post on a DoDEA network, it says monitoring assumed, but they're watching you...

PsyGuy, have you reported to your new station yet? Teacher report day is Wednesday. If your "orders" dropped as you claimed on another board, you should be where you need to be by now.

DoDEA is roller coaster. Once you're strapped in and the ride has started there is no getting off until the end. Enjoy all of the ups, downs, sharp turns and upside downs that you're going to experience. Our mission is what keeps me going. Our kids deserve the best! I truly believe that. Unfortunately, they don't always get it. So I hope that you're a good teacher that will make a difference in their lives.

Here in the PAC, our moms and dads go off to play war games with the Japanese, South Koreans, Thais, ects. Over where you are in the EU, your parents go off to war. I hope that you remember that...

@PsyGuy,

Only know 1 principal out in the EU. Know all of them in the PAC. We're small and I tend to network. I don't want to be an AP forever and with the way DoDEA is heading you just never know which of the current PAC principals will be an Asst Sup one day. So I've asked around the PAC if they've hired someone, anyone, that was teaching last SY in Demark in a coordinator position at an IS. All answers came back a big negative on that one! Now I'm not saying that you didn't get hired, I'm just saying that you didn't get hired in the PAC, unless you were less than truthful, or are being less than truthful with all of us.
Hey, you continue to be that bundle of joy tripled wrapped in psycho that we have all come to love about you. EU DoDDS teachers, as I'm sure you already know since you know everything, are bit suspicious on new "CONUS" arrivals. They're going to want to know everything about you. They'll compare notes on you. I wish you luck over there. I think you'll fit right in with the lot of them.

We all had different associates.

Also, you need to grow up. DoDDS teachers are notorious for ostracizing know it alls. Also, I know you aren't coming to the PAC. I asked around at our admin conference and no schools hired any international school teachers out of Denmark. So you're either EU, or nowhere...

@PsyGuy

People wants facts, not hyperbole. Besides my associate, 4 others have told me that their associate also takes online payments. That's 5, so it seems to becoming more the norm. Embrace the tech.

BTW, I've heard that you're joining us in Europe? While I have my doubts, congrats isf it is true...

@PsyGuy

Then why don't you say, "each associate has their own standard practice" instead of the blanket statement of, "Search doesn't take online payments". Semantics can be your friend.

Japan is as safe as you can get. It's expensive to live in, but if all you do is go to the amazing parks they have for kids (most free), don't own a car and use public transportation, you could save a little.

I've been to Thailand, it's pretty safe and cheap. Also Korea is pretty safe and cheap.

Have you heard of DoDEA? It's the Department of Defense Education Activity. It's basically public school for active duty, dod civilian/contractors, stationed/living overseas. The pay is great. The benefits are better and you can save a ton of money. It's tough to get into, but we have schools on military bases all over the world including Japan, Korea, Spain, Germany and Italy, among others. Check us out at DoDEA.edu and good luck.

Search does take an online payment. I paid my fee via PayPall and had to forward my associate the email with the confirmation in it.

You can always network. You can always collaborate with other teachers on projects that aren't in your physical location. Things are changing in DoDEA. Some say evolving. Jobs are tightening up. Money is drying up. In the end it will be about how you've distinguished yourself from the rest of the pact of applicants.

Be creative...

AP is growing. I know a lot of schools want to expand it and DoDEA is spending the money to get teachers trained. If you're certified to teach AP, especially AP math, science, ELA, then you might stand out a bit more when we're looking over your profile.

I've never heard of dual enrollment as an option for DoDEA students. That is to say that it doesn't exist, I just have never heard of it.

Again, I suggest that you meet some teachers on the FB page. I suggest maybe setting up, and/or pitching a project idea that you would like to do with our students. I know a lot of teachers would love to collaborate and get their students doing collaborative projects as well.

French, and Chinese are both in demand positions. French is more popular in Europe, while Chinese is more popular in the Pacific. I did see two French positions open in Japan and Korea this year. As with all positions it always depends on how the winds are blowing. There is no exact formula to what is/isn't going to be an indemand position. It also depends on how admin group their openings.

I wouldn't worry about what is going to be the in demand positions in any given year. I would worry about networking with our teachers and getting your name out there. That way when there is an opening you may already have a leg up on others by already having a direct relationship with a school, or admin.

You'll find that living overseas can be a cleansing of sorts. We're so glutenous and are often amazed at how so many other cultures can live with so few of the things that we live. So take my advice with a grain of salt if you believe differently.

We live in Japan and while we do get to shop on base for our American conveniences, we have found that we often don't. We order vitams, toothpaste and deodorant from vitacost.com. They pretty much have most of the brands that we're used too. Of course we also have an APO and you may not and I'm not sure if they'll ship to China. On the occasions that companies won't ship to us here in Japan we ship our products to our family, and friends and they ship it out to us. Vitacost.com is great! They even sell food products like cereals, chips, and other American goods that may be hard to find overseas.

Enjoy the journey of being an expat and do your best not to stress about everything. It is a lot different than living in the U.S. where you can get everything 24 hours at a WalMart and that's the point, to do something different.

Iogi, I'm actually on a family vacation right now and am not in Japan. I will shoot you an email when I return later in the summer. My wife is limiting me to only an hour on my iPad per day.

Your experience sounds perfect for DoDEA but the competition is very thick. Every admin has a different way of approaching hiring. There is no one size fits all model for us. We just hired a teacher with only a BA and 5 years of teaching experience because she nailed the interview and her current admin wrote a glowing recommendation for her.

We have a teacher at our school that was hired on our 2nd day back a few years ago. He was 3rd on the list. When the other 2 fell through for one reason or another he interviewed us because we were so desperate for his position and for a warm body. Lucky for us he turned out to be an excellent hire.

It really is part luck, part experience and part interviewing well. The advice that I give DoDEA hopefuls is to network with current DoDEA teachers. Create a PLN and invite them to collaborate with you. Advertise it on the DoDDS Facebook page. You'll get a few interested in possibly doing projects with you. Cultivate those relationships and be diligent when the hiring season comes along to inquire about open positions and express your interest. If you have worked on creating a positive professional relationship and if there is a position that you are interested in at a location that you desire then ask for the teacher to drop your name to the admin.

I can't express enough how much weight a valued and trusted teachers recommendation can be worth for you with some admin. Not all, but some. But it takes more than being anonymous on these boards and really rolling up your sleeves to make and build relationships with us.

Good luck!