![\"1164604500_170359d4f7_z\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/1164604500_170359d4f7_z-225x300.jpg?resize=225%2C300\")
<\/a>1. It makes you tired, if you travel a lot.<\/strong>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n
Traveling around everywhere does have its downside. \u00a0The downside is definitely all the waiting you do both on the plane and in airports. \u00a0One international school community member\u00a0just recently commented\u00a0that they had three layovers to get back to their host country! \u00a0Many layovers also means that you most likely are on long-haul flights as well. You can get used to 12-14 hour flights like some international school teachers have, but they still take a toll on your body. \u00a0It is unlikely that you are immune to the all-powerful jet-lag.<\/p>\n
2. If you stay in one place, you get bored.<\/strong><\/p>\n Some international school teachers come up with an elaborate and intensive travel itinerary for their summer vacation (let’s say…6 different countries in 6 six weeks!), but others like to just go to one place for the majority of their vacation time. \u00a0Maybe they go to their\u00a0home country for the whole summer or to some popular beach-side city in a nearby country for a sizable chunk of their time off. \u00a0Many teaching couples have small children and that of course can affect your travel plans for the summer; sometimes making them less intensive. Even if it is your thing, getting time to really veg-out and relax (if you just stay in one place), it is bound to start getting a bit stale and routine for you. \u00a0It is possible\u00a0these people are actually enjoying their time in one place (read: not boring), but these teachers are also the ones that say to the other teachers (who are traveling around much more) how jealous they are of their travel plans!<\/p>\n It is possibly the worst thing, to find yourself surrounded by tourists from your home country, when you are on vacation. \u00a0We all roll our eyes and let out a silent gasp at them as they are usually “so loud” and “obnoxious” as they are walking around annoying you and the locals. Yes, yes, those tourists are probably thinking the same about you, but we all know we<\/em> are better than them<\/em>. (wink!)<\/p>\n 4. You get on a crazy time schedule of staying up late and waking up late, not good for going back to school<\/strong><\/p>\n It happens every summer vacation: you stay up until sometime past midnight and then wake up well after the “normal” time to eat some breakfast…almost every day! Having a crazy timetable for your summer days also takes a toll on your internal body clock. \u00a0Changes to your body clock can affect your digestion, well-being, health, etc. It can also create some sleep problems for you, and “Ain’t nobody got time for that.”<\/p>\n 5. Crappy free wifi in your hotels and restaurants<\/strong><\/p>\n After a long day of traveling in a country where you don’t have data access on your mobile (making\u00a0you anxious because of the tariffs that your roaming provider would charge you), you just want quick access to the internet almost immediately after you get into your hotel room. \u00a0However, your goal for this almost always fails as hotel and hostel wifi access is often very unreliable. \u00a0If you have you a smart IT professional also traveling with you, sure they can do some magic (unbeknownst to the hotel owners) to make it work better for you, but most of us don’t have the knowledge to do anything…which can leave you feeling frustrated and helpless. \u00a0No wifi = angry traveler.<\/p>\n 6. You lose track of what day it is<\/strong><\/p>\n You get so lost in your day-to-day adventures during the summer, and you always\u00a0start\u00a0forgetting what day of the week it is. It is both good and bad not knowing what day it actually is. \u00a0Good because you aren’t stressed about going to work on Monday through Friday and you can just be free to do whatever you want any day of the week. \u00a0Not knowing the day of the week may be bad though too because you most likely still have a schedule of things you need to do or cities\/countries to travel to next, and if you don’t have the right date and time straight in your head…then bad luck might start occurring for you (meaning an unwanted change in your plans, an extra fee\/charge to pay for, miss meeting a special friend that you haven’t seen in a year, etc.)<\/p>\n 7. You are with your family too much, after 1 day (hour for some people) with your mom can bring you too high\u00a0anxiety\u00a0levels.<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes we all love our moms, but we don’t all love it when they are overseeing our every move again. Moms get over-obsessed with our presence when we return for a visit and sometimes revert back to how she acted when you were a teenager. It is nice when\u00a0they do your laundry and cook you food while you are back, and you try your best to show a high appreciation for that. You go out to dinner with her\u00a0and take her\u00a0out shopping, good times. It is important to spend time with your mom and other family members, but\u00a0you still need some alone time when you are visiting back home because you are also “on your vacation” and\u00a0need time to yourself to veg and relax.<\/p>\n One of the favorite things to do as an international school teacher is to go back to your home country and buy and eat all the food that is your favorite and also not available in your host country. \u00a0Is this yearning for home country goods enough to make you move back? Unlikely. \u00a0So to solve this “dilemma”, international teachers crazily buy things (sometimes too many things)\u00a0to bring back to our host\u00a0country. \u00a0The worry of an overweight checked bag is always on our minds during summer vacation back home. It usually works our just fine in the end (just at or under 50 lbs), because no one wants to pay an overweight baggage fee (usually crazily over-priced) on their flight back to their host country for things that they “don’t really need”.<\/p>\n 9. You end up spending too much money because you are going out to eat a lot and not all meals you get are worth it<\/strong><\/p>\n When traveling, the biggest dilemma you have is where you are going to eat next in a city you don’t know at all. Even if you use websites like Foursquare and Tripadvisor for recommendations, you always end up eating at a “dud” restaurant. Paying more money for a meal too, doesn’t equal better eating experience and better taste. \u00a0Wasting your traveling-money away on bad restaurant is not the best scenario that your were hoping for in your summer holiday to a city that you were excited to go visit. \u00a0You don’t want to be worrying about wasting money either during a time when you should be relaxed and enjoying your break from work and exploring the world.<\/p>\n 10. You have to go through all your photos and edit them before posting them to social media.<\/strong><\/p>\n There are a few people who just post their traveling photos straight from their smart phone, that’s easy. Some of us though have an SLR camera and take a lot of photos while traveling around the world. We have blogs to write on, various social media websites to post on, family members to write emails to with attached pictures, etc. \u00a0That is a lot to worry about and think about when you are on summer vacation. \u00a0Good advice: it is better to edit and post your photos in small batches so you don’t get so overwhelmed with your 100s of photos to go through and edit.<\/p>\n This article was submitted by a guest author and member of International School Community.<\/em><\/p>\n Please comment and share your reason why summer vacation isn’t all it is cracked up to be!<\/em><\/p>\n We have a Travel Information<\/strong> section on our school profile pages<\/a>. Our 4600+ members<\/a> have submitted\u00a0over 400 comments in this section; sharing their knowledge about traveling around while working at the schools they either work at now or have worked at in the past. \u00a0Check out some of our latest comments here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the best things about being an international school teacher is that we have the ability to travel, sometimes much more than if we\u00a0were teaching in our home country. \u00a0*Some items in this list are meant to be “tongue-in-cheek” and making fun of our “first world people problems” that we sometimes experience while traveling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1948],"tags":[1951,42,186,1950,1949,1775,603],"class_list":["post-3542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-10-lists","tag-comments-about-traveling","tag-expat-life","tag-international-school-teacher","tag-school-holidays","tag-summer-vacation","tag-travel-information","tag-traveling-around-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/1164604500_170359d4f7_z.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2flVT-V8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":127,"url":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/survey-results-are-in-how-many-countries-have-you-traveled-to-so-far-this-year-in-2011\/","url_meta":{"origin":3542,"position":0},"title":"Survey results are in \u2013 How many countries have you traveled to so far this year? (in 2011)","author":"ISCommunity","date":"January 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The survey results are in, and it seems as if most visitors and members of International School Community have been to 1-3 countries in 2011.\u00a0 We were thinking that people would have traveled to more countries as a typical international school teacher travels many times throughout the year, especially during\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Surveys"","block_context":{"text":"Surveys","link":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/category\/surveys\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/12\/screen-shot-2011-12-31-at-10-47-30-am.png?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3351,"url":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/new-survey-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":3542,"position":1},"title":"New Survey: Where are you traveling during the summer break?","author":"ISCommunity","date":"May 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A new survey has arrived! Topic:\u00a0\u00a0Where are you traveling during the summer break? It's what every teacher is (un) patiently waiting for right now...the summer break! \u00a0So many weeks, so many places to visit! If you are lucky and are working somewhere that allows you a lot of money for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Surveys"","block_context":{"text":"Surveys","link":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/category\/surveys\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Screen-Shot-2014-05-14-at-10.14.49-PM.png?fit=553%2C470&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Screen-Shot-2014-05-14-at-10.14.49-PM.png?fit=553%2C470&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Screen-Shot-2014-05-14-at-10.14.49-PM.png?fit=553%2C470&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1338,"url":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/survey-results-are-in-where-are-you-spending-your-extra-money-while-teaching-abroad\/","url_meta":{"origin":3542,"position":2},"title":"Survey results are in: Where are you spending your ‘extra’ money while teaching abroad?","author":"ISCommunity","date":"September 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0survey results\u00a0are in, and it seems as if most visitors and members of\u00a0International School Community\u00a0who voted are spending their 'Extra' money on traveling, clothes and food. I guess it comes as no surprise that international school teachers are traveling a lot. \u00a0If we have the time and means to do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Surveys"","block_context":{"text":"Surveys","link":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/category\/surveys\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/09\/screen-shot-2012-09-15-at-1-47-10-pm.png?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9124,"url":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/the-summer-vacation-dilemma-to-go-home-or-not-to-go-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":3542,"position":3},"title":"The Summer Vacation Dilemma: To Go Home or Not to Go Home","author":"ISCommunity","date":"April 30, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Summer vacation is the time of year all teachers are waiting for (and I suppose all students as well!).\u00a0 The 1.5 to 2 months of summer break is especially important though for teachers who work at international schools because it is typically when they take their annual trip back home\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Discussion Topics"","block_context":{"text":"Discussion Topics","link":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/category\/discussion-topics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/house-g86ca68022_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/house-g86ca68022_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/house-g86ca68022_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/house-g86ca68022_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/house-g86ca68022_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7223,"url":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/which-popular-isc-blog-articles-are-in-the-top-10-most-viewed-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":3542,"position":4},"title":"Which Popular ISC Blog Articles Are in the Top 10 Most Viewed List?","author":"ISCommunity","date":"January 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Our blog gets hundreds of views every day. One time we had over 2200 views in one day! ISC writes and publishes many of the articles on our blog, but we also have a growing number of member-submitted articles. 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<\/a>3. If you are surrounded by tourists, especially ones from your home country, its annoying.<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"2014-06-27](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/2014-06-27-13.42.24.jpg?resize=300%2C170\")
<\/a>8. You miss the food there in your home country too much<\/strong><\/p>\n