My time as an Australian teaching in London was full of some great ups and some hard downs. I got to swim in the crystal blue seas of Malta, explore Luxembourg, I got to develop new hobbies and make some amazing friends I will cherish forever. It was an amazing time full of unbelievably lovely memories. Of course, it was full of the downs, too, and that blog post will be up in about a week or so.
Many of the reasons we choose to teach abroad are unrelated to the job (as they should be!). As a teacher, teaching is just one very small part of who I am. I have friends and hobbies, places I like to be a regular and skills that I am trying to learn. One of the greatest things about London is that it is so big and diverse that whoever you are, whoever you want to be, you’ll be able to find your people in London.
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Here is my top 10 list of new experiences I had as an Australian teaching in London.
Life is a mix of all things I love, just like this list. So be prepared for a mix of travel highlights, work highlights and experience highlights – all this is could not have experienced unless I was teaching internationally in London.
Interested in the other side? Check out this blog post here My 10 Bottom Moments Being a Primary Teacher in London
1. Friends make everything sweeter
One of the biggest benefits of any time you travel, not just teaching abroad in London, is the people that you’ll meet along the way and the memories you’ll make together. As an Australian teaching in London, I had the absolute privilege of living with some of the most amazing people who made my time in London the lovely memory that most of it is.
I mention some specific events later in the list that were made a thousand better by the presence of people I loved, but I wanted to give space to the small moments. The times of BBQing in the backyard late into the summer night, to ice skating in front of Somerset House, to going for walks by the local canal on Sunday mornings. Life is full of small moments, and their company made them memorable. Of course, this leads to a hard part of living abroad, the saying goodbye, but I am all the more richer for having them for even the smallest of moments where we managed to live in the same place at the same time.
2. Enjoying the Snow
If you have been following along with my journey, then you’ll know that I have been obsessed with Sweden since my study abroad year when I lived so far north that I could see the northern lights from my bedroom window, and it snowed for like 7 months of the year. It was everything! It wasn’t the first time I had ever seen snow, but it was the first time I saw snow falling, and it was beyond beautiful. I got to relive that life and excitement in London one day when snowed. As an Australian teaching in London, I wasn’t really expecting to see snow. You hear that it rarely happens, and if it does, it doesn’t stick. But I got lucky. The snow hung around for about a week. It was honestly magical.
Not only was it glorious, and I very much enjoyed the silliness with my housemates, it was when I was teaching nursery, and I got to enjoy the wonder of the world with them as we walked around marvelling at the crunchy sound of the snow, built a tiny snowman and constantly slide on the ice. It was just amazing!
3. Summer Break in Malta
As so much of my time in London was in lockdown or some form of restrictions, my trip to Malta with one of my friends was an absolute highlight. The water was so clear, the weather warm, and the food cheap. It was an amazing trip. I am starting to realise that pictures speak louder than words, but this trip was good for the soul. Summer trips and weekends away are a huge draw card to teach abroad in London.
4. Mid-Term Break Trip Romania
My Romania trip was during mid-term break in October, a couple of months before I was leaving London. I went with my housemates, who are both fellow expat teachers in London, and we got to explore Bucharest. One of the biggest perks of London is that it is so close to mainland Europe and flights are so cheap. I highly recommend that everyone goes to Romania for a weekend away. The food was delicious, the small towns quaint, and we explored Dracula’s castle. Best of all, was a relaxing day at Therme pool, which I keep trying to find similar places in Asia now that I live and teach abroad in Hong Kong. It was honestly so relaxing, and I had the most amazing time with my friends. The pictures speak for themselves.
5. Teaching Nursery for the First Time
I cannot highlight my time in as an Australian teaching in London without talking about my time in Nursery. Nursery was probably the only grade that I would have said no to when asked if I wanted to work there. I am technically not trained for it at all because they were so young. However, the school that I loved asked me to do it for a couple of months as a favour because the nursery teacher had to isolate as she was vulnerable.
I am so glad that I said yes because I had the most amazing time. As it was covid, I only had about 7 students and 3 left halfway through the day. I got to play and teach and play some more. Of course, the job wasn’t easy, but obviously a third easier than it normally would be because I only had a third of the students. It was like this short little infinity during school closure, where I had a blast every day. I absolutely loved these children, and it still hurts my heart to think about them.
While I don’t think I will ever teach this age again, I am so glad I said yes. Of course, it was still nursery, and there were only so many times I could sing the one song, but also, they let me play the Koo Koo Kangaroo song “Superheroes” at least twice a day and matched my excitement, so it was all fair.
That’s one of the greatest perks of teaching abroad in the UK, getting new work experiences, that perhaps you wouldn’t have been open to back home.
6. Weekend trip to Luxembourg
Of course, my list as a teacher abroad in London would include a significant amount of travel. I went to Luxembourg very early into my time in London, perhaps in my 4th week. It was a super easy trip for the weekend. I left on a Friday night and returned on Sunday night, ready for work the next day. Embracing easy weekend travel is a must for international teachers in London. Everything is so close and so doable, and if you get your times right, cheap too.
I loved exploring the main city in Luxembourg and then a quieter village. It was very quaint and a perfect trip for just the weekend. It was a bit chilly, and I remember sitting inside in a gorgeous cafe drinking the most delicious hot chocolate!
7. Enjoying the Pub life in London
Can you say you were an expat teacher in London if you didn’t embrace pub life? I don’t drink, but I did enjoy a good Sunday roast at the pub. London is full of so many pubs, I would really be surprised if this weren’t on everyone’s list. I had so many positive memories of going to a local pub after school on a Friday. Going to them for lunch when travelling around England on the weekend and, of course, pub trivia.
My favourite local pub was a vibe, too. It has this gorgeous outdoor setting that is quite rustic, and drinks and food are named after local places and was one of my favourite places to eat. It was also helpful that it was relatively cheap. I cannot tell you how much I miss a good pub here in HK, and would love to get a chicken schnitzel! Embracing pub life is like embracing the little moments, where it isn’t really one moment that sticks out but hundreds of little moments shared with friends.
8. Discovering New Loves
One of the best things I take away from London is my newfound love of tumbling. I randomly bought a pass to an adult gymnastics class to do with one of my friends and kind of just fell in love with it. As someone who has continuously been studying since high school, and is just about to apply for a second master’s degree (I have to have one, after all, to match my second bachelor’s degree jks. I just apparently am a sucker for punishment).
It was so much fun to do something that didn’t matter whatsoever. There was no workaround about how this was a good use of my time or money, or if it is somehow good for my career. I simply loved it, and I loved being really bad at it. There was no pressure to be good, like somehow, by now, I should be able to backflips or something. I was just as good (more like bad) as I should be, and it was a joy.
And of course, all physical fitness is good for your mental health, so there are some benefits, but that’s not why I do it. I do it because I like it and nothing else. And I definitely love being able to share something so simple with my students (I usually video my attempts – so funny, so great) and being able to giggle with my class. I obviously took it too seriously when my instructor said, “don’t worry about the landing; just focus on the take-off”
London as a city has so much to offer, from exploring the museums to making the most of the West End.
These little experiences here can turn into something much bigger and bring you so much more joy than you would have thought. One of the best things about being an international teacher in London is getting the opportunity to fall in love with new experiences.
8. My List of New Experiences as an Expat Teacher in London isn’t complete without the realness of Lockdown Trauma
Of course, lockdown was a nightmare. I was lonely, poor and locked inside after just moving to a new country, but there was also a lot of light in the dark. Of course, when everything is bleak, small moments become hilarious, and I could not have survived this time without my housemates, whom I will cherish as lockdown trauma sisters for the rest of my life.
From dealing with our other crazy housemate to ordering insane amounts of chocolate cake from this random Italian pizza shop to enjoying the ‘hate corridor’ where we get time and space to vent our frustrations at stupid things and just be heard by them being “willing participants” (the bias of being the author of this blog post) to my read aloud of the twilight book from Edwards perspective (what else was I supposed to do when locked in the house for 3 months!) or hearing me give like daily updates on my sims families, I could not have survived lockdown without them, and I will forever be grateful to fate for bringing us together.
This is the classic story of the hard times being forgotten and the difficult experiences being turned into funny stories. To the girls of the house. Thank you. Oh how lucky am I to have had something that made saying goodbye so hard. (But it was never really a goodbye, though!)
Of course, Lockdowns were also insanely hard. Wanna know more – check out the sister blog to this one here: My 10 Bottom Moments Being a Primary Teacher in London
10. Celebrating the Holidays
I cannot mention my top times in London without mentioning the holidays. Of course, for expats, holidays can be really hard, which is why generally, you put in an effort to make them good. The expat community really come together during holidays, whether it’s orphans Christmas, making the most of the holiday traditions you don’t do at home, or getting to partake in national holidays of other countries.
I got to experience an amazing Christmas in London, Easter holidays abroad, a Canadian Thanksgiving and a myriad of birthdays, winter equinox traditions and many other celebrations. Being an expat teacher abroad brings you to the world and the world to you.
There is so much I loved about being an Australian teaching in London that didn’t make this list: the parks systems, how easy it is to get around, the west end and, of course, so many great school memories. But these are the moments I chose. The moments that bring me joy. Of course, many of them took place in my house (because of covid), or were small moments. But life is full of small moments, and I want to remember them all.
If you are interested in teaching abroad and don’t know where to start – Get the Teaching in London Guide Today!. It is the perfect place to start your teaching abroad journey.
Want to know why I moved and decided to be an Australian teaching in London?
Or what I have learned in my time teaching abroad in London?
Check out my these blog posts:
My 10 Bottom Moments Being a Primary Teacher in London
5 Honest Reasons I Became an International Primary Teacher Abroad
4 Big Lessons I Actually Learnt Teaching Abroad in London
5 Hard Truths that Bust these Common Teaching Abroad Myths
10 of the Best Reasons You Should Teach Abroad
Related Articles:
Top 5 reasons to teach in the UK as a new teacher graduate
Reyne’s “Just back from teaching in London” Travel Blog – Teach In
What Living In London Taught Me About Life – Gina Bear’s Blog.
