First time abroad, now back, need advice..?

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kingja200
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First time abroad, now back, need advice..?

Post by kingja200 »

Hi all....
Last edited by kingja200 on December 6th, 2020, 1:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: First time abroad, now back, need advice..?

Post by Winston »

That's great! I told you guys that once you get out of the US matrix, your dating, social life and self esteem will SKYROCKET! Beyond your wildest dreams too! Firsthand experience is everything, more convincing than just my words alone!

Well i definitely would not recommend taiwan. It has a negative vibe and is cliquish and judgmental and people are more concerned with privacy now, not social connection. Theres no interest in making new friends or meeting people. So you are basically ignored like in the US. Theres no curiosity or creativity either. Its soulless but peaceful and safe. Kind of like the society run by the AI Landrew in the star trek episode "The Return of the Archons". I heard Japan and Korea are similar but they have much better cultural experiences.
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Contrarian Expatriate
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Re: First time abroad, now back, need advice..?

Post by Contrarian Expatriate »

Your stomach issues are common when you first start living abroad. The microbes in the food and in the new environment are different from the microbes in your home base so your body has to adjust to them.

I got sick in Latin America early on in 1987 and I got sick in Africa early on.

Drinking bottled water and refraining from consuming local ice is half of the measures. Unless you peel your fruit, you have to soak it in water with a tablespoon of bleach for 15 minutes to kill the bacteria, some of which can be quite bad in 3rd world countries.

You can also dip your fruit in boiling water to kill it off too. I used to do that to my apples and plums.

Next time you go, take a supply of Peptol Bismol tablets with you for your first couple of weeks.

Other than that, great job on taking action abroad! The more you do it, the better you get at it.
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Re: First time abroad, now back, need advice..?

Post by Master »

Consider this...

Fallling in love with the girl of your dreams in those infested countries and then moving to a country that you can "stomach" with her.
Introduce a little anarchy, upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos.
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Adama
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Re: First time abroad, now back, need advice..?

Post by Adama »

In comparison, does the USA seem like a dark, deep, narrow pit? Does it seem to be almost completely negative and disheartening? It's like slowly being starved to death, with no infusion of nutrients, because you must abstain from eating due to the quality of the food and water (no pun intended in relation to the OP's story; I'd have made a similar analogy anyway).

It's like being stranded at sea and literally dying of thirst while surrounded by plenty of water. There's water all around, but it certainly is not available, although it's very plenteous. And if you attempt to drink the water because of your desperate desperation, your death might just come sooner, and you'll probably lose your mind.

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Re: First time abroad, now back, need advice..?

Post by MrMan »

Thanks for sharing your story. It's cool you went to VIetnam. Now you can say, "Back in Nam...." and tell a story.

I'm sorry about the stomach problems you faced. I have spent quite a bit of time in Indonesia. They even have a word they have created by combining parts of the words for vomiting (munta) and poop (berak) to form a special word for a vomiting-diahrea combo illness 'muntaber'. Students will tell you they missed class due to diahrea. It happens and people aren't as ashamed to talk about it as they are in the US.

But it sounds like you had it a lot worse than I did. I would get it every 6 months or so. Ironically, I got sick from California Pizza Kitchen and Wendy's before. I asked for sauce to dip my crust in at CPK, and I think they brought me 'raw' sauce that had tap water in it because they weren't used to the request. I got sick twice off a chicken sandwich at Wendy's. I'd forgotten about the first time when I ate there the second time. I also got stick at other times.

When I ate at food stalls in Jakarta, I would refrain from eating raw vegetables that were washed in tap water. I would ask if vegetables, like lettuce, were washed in tap water or boiled water. Some places say they wash in boiled water. Korean restaurants in Jakarta do, though I don't know if Korean restaurants do in Korea.

Over time, I think I built up some resistance to local bacteria. I would eat off the street. During my last stay, though, I rarely ate street food. Vietnam sounds like it may be dirtier, but I have noticed that Indonesians don't mind food that has been sitting out of the fridge for quite a long time.

A friend of mine, an expat, in Jakarta said when he first got there, he was sick on and off with diahrea for a year. He went from being very big and buff to being skinny because of his illness. He probably had some kind of bug that took a long time to get rid of. He was careful about his food. If something didn't taste right, he'd spit it out rather than swallow it, like he'd done one time before he got that illness.

So it may not be that Asia doesn't agree with your stomach. It may be you just got a particularly nasty bug that kept coming back. If you get rid of it, and you are careful, you might be able to live in Asia.

It may also be that VIetnam is pretty low for cleanness and sanitation.

What you can do now is eat lots and lots of yogurt. If you are functioning normal, you can eat kimchi. In Indonesia, I liked to have some oralit, which is kind of like orange or lemon flavored powdered pediolyte. If you get sick and can't drink water without throwing up, sometimes you can drink this stuff. And it makes you feel more normal when you've lost a lot of fluid and sodium. I also had 'Loperin', the local version of Immodium AD. If I got diahrea, that would clear it up for a few hours, long enough to get to the mall and eat something, some grilled chicken maybe, and get some antibiotics from the drug store. There are other medicines to solidify the wastes a bit. A great thing about Indonesia is you don't have to go to the doctor to get antibiotics. Just gets some amoxillin or bactrim from the drug store and that can clear up diahrea if it is bacterial. I hear if you take more than 8 immodium pills in a row, it can permanently shut down your digestive system. You can also take activated charcoal, enzymes, and probiotic bacterial tablets.

So, where else could you go and be a rock star with the girls? When I lived in Korea, it did seem like some girls were interested in me. But Koreans considered dating or marrying foreigners controversial. Korean girls tended to be a bit shy or demure. Some of the Southeast Asian girls let you know they like you through stares or tellng friends who pass it on. I did not notice this as much in Korea, though I was set up on a 'meeting' date with a girl without knowing that's what was intended. It was a girl in my English class, a really pretty girl, but I didn't pursue that with one of my own students. I dated a couple of other girls while I was there. One was Korean, and another was Indonesian (before I'd ever gone to Indonesia.) The Indonesian was easy to 'read' that she was interested in me. They give off more signals.

I think if you want to go somewhere that foreigners will be a 'rock star' with the girls, Indonesia is a decent place. The Philippines may still be as well. Both are multicultural countries. In both countries, politeness is highly valued. I have never been to the Philippines, but I have spent quite a bit of time around the Filippino community in the US. I have spent about a decade in Indonesia. I don't know if you would be a rock star in China. I have only spent a little time there.

As far as attractiveness goes, from my experience with expat Filippinas, it seems like Filippinas may have a tendancy to be prettier, on average, than Indonesians. In China or Korea, out of a population of 100 thin college-aged girls, I might have found 12 to 15 attractive enough for me to consider if I were only concerned with looks. In Indonesia, it might have been more like 9 or 10 of them. It seemed like in Seoul, for example at the subway stop in Kangnam, there were lots and lots of 7s all over the place There are beautiful girls around in Indonesia, but all that is a matter of personal taste. Indonesian women tend to be curvier than some of the North Asian women.
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Re: First time abroad, now back, need advice..?

Post by Master »

somewhere that foreigners will be a 'rock star' with the girls
Everywhere I go my cock is hard like a rock. I am the Hard Cock Rock Star where ever I'm at.
Second to none.

It means nothing if your surrounded by a bunch of ugly poor bitches and you out muscle them.

Rock Star Persona is either in you or not. Its either your mentality, lifestyle or your just a f***ing loser poser.

When I step on the scene you bet your ass I demand respect, direct attention, and all the pussies point at my dick!
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MrMan
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Re: First time abroad, now back, need advice..?

Post by MrMan »

If you want advice, you need to give us more info. What is 'the city.' I hear for people who live around NYC, that means NYC, but your uncle could be with that job in China. It's hard to tell from the context.

If you want to spend a lot of time in Asia teaching English, you probably need to finish a degree. I posted a link I came across to a job in Thailand where you could teach English while working toward a degree from Thailand. I wouldn't do that. I'd want a US degree which is worth more in Asia.

Any old degree plus a TEFL certificate will probably still get you a job in most countries. China used to take non-degreed native speakers with TEFL teaching certificates, but I think that would be hard to find a legal job where you can get a visa without a bachelors' degree. There may be some niches where you could earn a living without a degree. I met a Brit who consulted for shoe factories. He lived in Hong Kong but didn't make money there, so he didn't pay taxes there. He made money from China, but didn't pay taxes there because he lived in Hong Kong. He had an apartment in southern China to stay in, though. As a UK expat, he didn't pay taxes in the UK. So he paid no income tax. I think he said he didn't have a degree, but he was an expert in his field.

If you get a degree, get one you can make money off of in addition to just teaching English. English teaching is okay when you are young, but it doesn't pay that much. If you do want to teach English and earn a reasonable living, get a degree in education and get certified as a teacher. That way you could teach ESL or something else at an international school and get paid a developed-country salary overseas if you get in with a good school. Btw, ESL is hard to teach. Lecturing on a content area is easier than getting people to actually learn how to use a foreign language. It is cool when you see people improve their language skills, though.

If you can handle the math, there are a lot of engineering fields that pay well. Georgia Tech had a list of starting salaries for their grads online. That's a highly ranked school, but it can give you an idea of some tech degrees that pay really well. I'd say don't be shy about doing a bit of math. I didn't really like math that much, but I tended to get B's and some A's in school, so I was okay at it. I just avoided math for my undergrad, which wasn't good for me later.

Business degrees tend to be pretty good. If you major in Psych, and think, where can you work with an undergrad in psych, then you might think an HR department. But you are competing with HR or business type majors, so your resume is at the bottom of the stack. Or you could go to business school and fit well into a lot of companies. There is math in business, but most of the stuff you really use and need isn't that complicated. The stats for finance at the undergrad level may be a little hard at first, but not when you get used to it.

If you go back to school, try not to spend too much money. Choose a good value-for-money school.
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Re: First time abroad, now back, need advice..?

Post by snede »

If you go back to school, look at Charter Oak College, Excelsior or Thomas Edison for external degree programs. Lots of credit by examination. Much faster and cheaper.
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