What to do next?

Lately I've been thinking about what my next plan of action after Korea might be.  Right now I'm happy and comfortable with the job I have, and the fact that I have more freedom to plan and enjoy teaching the lessons to my students.  I like the fact that my coworkers are awesome, I have more free time outside of school for vacation, pursuing my hobbies, and enjoying being in Korea than before.  Not to mention being able to save more money from my salary this time around.

But that doesn't mean I wonder what I will do when I'm finally ready to close this chapter of my life and open a new one.  I think about going home and trying to get a job somewhere, or going back to graduate school to study.

I'd still like to get my master's degree in teaching, but I think my focus has shifted more from teaching English literature to teaching English as a second language.  The market for English language teachers is ever-growing, with more and more people desiring to learn it as a means of communicating in the global market.  (By no means is English the only language gaining prominence, however.)

The desire to continue traveling plays another role in this.  Having lived outside of the US for almost three and a half years now, I've come to enjoy the lifestyle of living in a foreign country.  The opportunity to travel and see new places still holds strong with me, and I want to see as much of the world as I can.  I'll be traveling to my fourth continent later this month, but there's still much more to do and see elsewhere.  I would love to go back to Europe, or to explore South America and put my Spanish to good use.  Africa is also on the list of places to visit, especially South Africa.

So that brings me back to my original statement:  what to do next...I've been looking into graduate school programs both in the US and abroad, seeing what options are available for study.  I found a super-cool program in Norway of all places, where you can study at public university there with free tuition.  Might be time to go explore my Norwegian roots?  European graduate school programs are definitely one option.

I've also been toying with the idea of taking an intensive CELTA course for four weeks in some locale in the world.  That would open up new doors for teaching English in Europe or South America.  The cost of living is higher in other countries, and the pay is not as much as Korea, but it could be an option with money saved up.

What it all boils down to is where logic leads me next following Korea, whether it is grad school at home, grad school elsewhere, or teaching English in another place.  Where opportunity knocks, then that's where I want to follow.