About: zipben

Name:zipben
2007-11-19 00:27:05
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Posts by zipben:

Damn teenagers

Hey guys

I was watching tv the other day and i saw this documentary about this group of kids that went and did some volunteer work overseas, and the whole time they were bitching and moaning about the whole experience.  I couldnt help thinking about how much better suited i would be to an experience like that ( as arrogant as that may sound).  Why is it that the only young people you ever see on tv are either drunk, high, horny, or just retarded.  Does any one else feel this way.

December 16, 2007 | Filed Under General Forum | 13 Comments 

Help with a decision

Im currently faced with a decision that i am having a very hard time making. I thought that maybe you could all weigh in on it and perhaps that would help me finally make up my mind. Im trying to save for university right now. I want to study hospitality and tourism administration but im having a hard time putting money away. On the other hand i really want to travel. I currently have my TEFL teaching qualifications and have been offered some jobs overseas but they only pay enough to live on and not much else. Im torn between staying in canada and working until i can afford university or going back to china and working and puting of university for a while. What are your thoughts?

November 20, 2007 | Filed Under General Forum | 6 Comments 

Hello Im Ben

Ok so ive been putting of posting my intro for the last couple of days but i guess now ill just get it done.

My name is Ben Donaldson and ive ived overseas since i was 11. I was born in Canada but as many of you can probably appreciate it doesnt feel like home anymore. I moved to china when i was 11 because my dad was supposed to start a branch of his distance education school over there. After one year though it fell through and we went home to canada. We were there for the summer and my mom decided she wanted to spend more time overseas so we moved back to china to the same city we were in and my parents got jobs at an internationaly school called Qingdao International School. I went to this school for about two years until the SARS crisis in China and we were forced to move back home. I guess at that point i was happy to move back “home” but within a year i was tired of it. I came from a small town that no one ever left and when i got back things that i had never clued into before became glaringly obvious. Things like races ism and ignorance of other cultures. I started getting in trouble with my friends parents because i would correct there over generalizations about places like the middle east telling them over dinner that there was in fact places in the middle east that were safe to travel in. After about two years of this my mother and i were both getting tired of Canada so she went to an international job fair and found a job in Almaty Kazkhstan. We moved there for two years until i graduated and now im back in canada saving for university, but im having trouble saving because all i want to do is go hop on a plane and get out of here again. Im going into hotel management so hopefully that nets me a job overseas which is where i want to be.

So thats my life in a nutshell

November 20, 2007 | Filed Under General Forum, Introduction | 12 Comments