Do you travel much? Do you want to travel more?

As an international teacher I only teach around 185 days in a year. That means I have around 12 complete weeks vacation each year. I'm not counting long weekends here either!

So, I guess you could say that I travel loads! I've just bought new luggage tags for my back pack that I'm really excited about. I'm sure you're wondering how anyone can get excited about luggage tags! Well, these are bag tags like no other!

You see, Globalbagtag provides worldwide 24 hour protection for my luggage using the internet. And it's not just your luggage that's protected, Globalbagtags protect your home from thieves as well.

Your address isn't on the tags, your address is held on the Globalbagtag database and is only accessible to airport security and airlines via a secure internet website. Random thieves cannot check out your luggage tags then go and rob your house while you are away on a trip.

Does this sound good to you? I was so impressed with the idea that I bought myself a set. I haven't travelled with them yet, but they're on my bags ready for my next trip. They're pretty stylish too!

Just think, when you secure yourself a contract teaching overseas, you can inform Globalbagtags of your new address and start travelling right away, with complete peace of mind!

That's what I'm doing...

It's a small world! Surrounded by flying objects!

This afternoon I am busy putting together study notes on communication technology for my senior students.

It suddenly occurred to me that there are loads of little (or not so little) satellites in geosynchronous orbit around the world with the job of making it possible for me to use international direct dial (IDD) to phone home.

I phone home a lot!

Since I've been teaching abroad I've noticed a lot of changes in communication technology. When I first started 10 years ago, I didn't know anything about email. I wrote and sent postcards (real ones, not electronic!) and letters. Then I moved onto sending my parents faxes. I am so impatient I couldn't wait for 3 weeks for the letters to get home to NZ.

In my recent interview series, Overseas Teacher Talk, quite a number of the international teachers I interviewed mentioned that a drawback to living overseas is the distance you are from your family. But with all the options for communication there are around today, you can be as close or as far as you like! I probably talk to my family more when I'm living abroad than I did when I was living in NZ. And I make a real effort to stay in touch with my friends too.

I love email, but when I travel, I still send postcards.