a bad website for daydreamers...
since probably 1995 i have gone to this website. and every day or nearly that.
nowadays i am way overqualified for most of these posts and i make much more than any of them pay. in terms of flexibility, i have more than any of these jobs allow. but i still visit this site every day. i don't know why.
is it too strong to say that a website changed my life in major ways? i went to shanghai because of this website. and tokyo. and bangkok. i've been offered jobs in new york, turkey, moscow, and mexico because of people i know involved in this site or companies that advertise on it.
everyone involved in ELT in the world today knows this site and if you go into any school with ELT teachers (foreign ELT teachers) outside north america, chances are you will find this site at the top of every computer's toolbar history.
i see people i know on this site. i even met dave sperling once, at the TESOL conference in st-louis in, mmm, like 2001. we were chattering away before i realized it was even him--i got all flustered and embarrassed (something that never happens to me). i felt like i'd just met a famous movie star.
and it's more than just ELT stuff, too: there is detailed information about most cities and regions throughout the world: which hotels to stay in, what kind of visa rules are changing, what borders are hard to cross at, what parts of town have the cheapest apartments...i can, quite literally, spend hours and hours on it every day (though i don't usually: just scan it and see "what's new").
be careful, though. it's a dangerous thing to do when you're stuck in a rut, hating your job, your S.O., or generally feeling like you wanna get out into the great big world and do something new.
