Amanda Kendle - 5.5 years of teaching English aboard.
Five and a halve years of teaching English in Japan, Slovakia and Germany to travel blogger and podcast host.
About Amanda
Amanda is a lifelong travel addict who has lived and worked in Japan, Slovakia and Germany before returning to her hometown of Perth, Western Australia. She runs a travel blog at NotABallerina.com and is the host of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, all about how beneficial travel can be for us in so many ways. She lives with her seven-year-old son and two cats and is always on the lookout for excuses to take her son travelling.
“I always think about a Christmas I spent in Tunisia in Northern Africa. I went there by accident as it was the only place that had available flights left.”
When coming home...
- Emotions Amanda faced - Resistance, hard work.
- What had changed - Many friends had left, no friends from home wanted to hear about her trip, missed out on pop culture for 5 years so just couldn't relate to those around her. Couldn't contribute to the 'normal' conversations and didn't feel like she could fit in.
- Biggest stress - Fitting back in with her friends, cost of living due to mining boom in Perth.
- How Amanda supported herself - Having the job and Friends from the english learning school. Once she had children she found common ground with old friends as she was at a similar stage of life. Started a travel blog and looked and started planing for more travel.
- How did her mindset change - Didn't want to have a 'liner' career path. Money became less important. Much more open minded.
- 3 Lessons learned from travel and reverse culture shock
- Get outside of your comfort zone.
- Adaptability.
- Open minded and empathetic to others.
- Advise to herself for returning home - Step back and remember to be empatheic to those around me.
“I realised how much I had grown from travelling and that I really wanted to give that to other people.”
LINKS
Website: notaballerina.com and amandakendle.com
Amandas Instagram: @amandakendle
Facebook: NotABallerina
Twitter: @amandakendle
Pinterest @amandatravels
The thoughtful travel podcast
The Thoughtful Travel Podcast features chats with travel writers, photographers, travel bloggers and other travel lovers about topics centered around why we love traveling and what we learn from it. Abby featured in episodes