Gap Year (2 Viewers)

[nhoustonrocks]

Who has already been/going to go/wants to go on a gap year?
I really want to in 2011, but I haven't made up my mind about what I want to do.

Any ideas?

 

[philphie]

most people who take the gap year tend to waste it and when the time comes to go to uni they're either too lazy or not ready because it's been a while since they did any work. if you're going to do something useful like an internship or if you're going to backpack (pereferably as an aid worker or something) then that's a gap year well used.

 

[philphie]

and lol Abbotsleigh girl, so what are you going to do on your gap year? find a rich old business exec and marry him? (just perpetuating the stereotype)

 

[nhoustonrocks]

and lol Abbotsleigh girl, so what are you going to do on your gap year? find a rich old business exec and marry him? (just perpetuating the stereotype)

hahahahaha. that made me laugh quite a bit (out loud)

nah, girls at abbotsleigh who go on gaps tend to go to england to work at a boarding school. i couldn't think of anything worse, leaving school and then having to go back to a school environment again.
i would love to do some aid work or teaching in a developing country, but my parents want me to go to a developed country seeing as it is my first travel experience by myself - so no africa, south america, middle east or india .

so i'm thinking i want to go to the US or canada to work at a camp.

 

[philphie]

hahahahaha. that made me laugh quite a bit (out loud)

nah, girls at abbotsleigh who go on gaps tend to go to england to work at a boarding school. i couldn't think of anything worse, leaving school and then having to go back to a school environment again.
i would love to do some aid work or teaching in a developing country, but my parents want me to go to a developed country seeing as it is my first travel experience by myself - so no africa, south america, middle east or india .

so i'm thinking i want to go to the US or canada to work at a camp.

well AusAid run a program called AYAD for people 18 and over. assignments are usually 6-12 months long and some you will need special skills for, you can go pretty much anywhere in east, west, and south asia, as far as Bangladesh. they pay for your visa, accom, and airfare.

if you want to go to places like africa/south america/middle east you would have to go with private NGOs and that means $$$ but i assume you could afford it.

if not outside Australia then there are plenty reserves in rural Australia that need help.

working at a camp to be honest can be very disappointing, i've spent a fair amount of time in America and you can't even imagine the kind of kids you might end up getting.

no offense, but it is a shame that so many upper class families shelter their kids like this.

 

[nhoustonrocks]

well AusAid run a program called AYAD for people 18 and over. assignments are usually 6-12 months long and some you will need special skills for, you can go pretty much anywhere in east, west, and south asia, as far as Bangladesh. they pay for your visa, accom, and airfare.

if you want to go to places like africa/south america/middle east you would have to go with private NGOs and that means $$$ but i assume you could afford it.

if not outside Australia then there are plenty reserves in rural Australia that need help.

working at a camp to be honest can be very disappointing, i've spent a fair amount of time in America and you can't even imagine the kind of kids you might end up getting.

no offense, but it is a shame that so many upper class families shelter their kids like this.

well i guess i can understand my parents opinions - seeing that i have been brought up on the north shore of sydney, perhaps going to a developing country might be very confronting for me and maybe after i graduate from uni when i've matured a little bit and experienced the "real world", i would be able to handle the situation better than i would have if i've just left school.
even my parents who just recently went to india (i think delhi, taj mahal and some other touristy places) were very shocked and confronted to see the conditions that some of the people had to live in, and i guess noticing the massive gap between the rich and poor in india didn't really help much either.

i did tell my parents that i wanted to do something that would help out people who actually needed it, so they suggested parts of asia, rural australia and the pacific islands, so i'm really looking around for something worthwhile for me to do.

 

[Peartie]

nah, girls at abbotsleigh who go on gaps tend to go to england to work at a boarding school. i couldn't think of anything worse, leaving school and then having to go back to a school environment again.

im not a girl at abbotsleigh (obviously) but i did the same thing...and it actually wasnt that bad....

but there are options through organisations where you can do community care, environmental care, outdoor ed, aid and development, teaching english in impoverished countries.... and so on....

i recommend doing a gap year - i came back to uni and was fine going back into study BUT other people get lazy and then decide not to go to uni after doin a gap year....

 

[nhoustonrocks]

im not a girl at abbotsleigh (obviously) but i did the same thing...and it actually wasnt that bad....

but there are options through organisations where you can do community care, environmental care, outdoor ed, aid and development, teaching english in impoverished countries.... and so on....

i recommend doing a gap year - i came back to uni and was fine going back into study BUT other people get lazy and then decide not to go to uni after doin a gap year....

did you go through lattitude (previously called gap activity projects)?

 

[philphie]

well i guess i can understand my parents opinions - seeing that i have been brought up on the north shore of sydney, perhaps going to a developing country might be very confronting for me and maybe after i graduate from uni when i've matured a little bit and experienced the "real world", i would be able to handle the situation better than i would have if i've just left school.
even my parents who just recently went to india (i think delhi, taj mahal and some other touristy places) were very shocked and confronted to see the conditions that some of the people had to live in, and i guess noticing the massive gap between the rich and poor in india didn't really help much either.

i did tell my parents that i wanted to do something that would help out people who actually needed it, so they suggested parts of asia, rural australia and the pacific islands, so i'm really looking around for something worthwhile for me to do.

i don't know, throwing yourself in the deep end works pretty well, worked for me. AYAD has plenty of assignments in southeast asia and pacific islands, Vietnam is the first one i could think of. if you want to work in rural areas of Australia then i recommend this (only because it's the only one i know of)
Lasallian Youth Ministry :: Programme Details

and i don't really see the problem of being confronted by such realities like that unless you're some kind of social elitist or something (not to say that you are, again perpetuating north shore stereotypes)

 

[nhoustonrocks]

i don't know, throwing yourself in the deep end works pretty well, worked for me. AYAD has plenty of assignments in southeast asia and pacific islands, Vietnam is the first one i could think of. if you want to work in rural areas of Australia then i recommend this (only because it's the only one i know of)
Lasallian Youth Ministry :: Programme Details

and i don't really see the problem of being confronted by such realities like that unless you're some kind of social elitist or something (not to say that you are, again perpetuating north shore stereotypes)

thanks for that, i'll look through it in more detail later on.

well i don't think this would happen to you, but i totally freak out just reading newspaper articles and seeing pictures in my geography text book. the extent of my explorations include accidentally stumbling upon the "bad" neighbourhood of LA (the mcdonalds restaurant there had to have bars/screens between the customers and the counter due to the cases of crime and robbery) and walking through the park in tokyo where all the homeless people in their tents and boxes live. i do really want to help out the people who really need it, but i'm not sure if my gap year is the right time to do that, i'll have so many opportunities later on throughout my life when i've had more life experience. maybe then i won't freak out by pictures in my text book.

 

[Peartie]

did you go through lattitude (previously called gap activity projects)?

indeed i did

 

[nhoustonrocks]

indeed i did

that's the company i would like to go with, only problem is the amount of money you have to pay just to go with them.
out of curiousity, what school did you go to in england? i have a few friends who are going up north to work at a boarding school next year.

 

[philphie]

that's the company i would like to go with, only problem is the amount of money you have to pay just to go with them.
out of curiousity, what school did you go to in england? i have a few friends who are going up north to work at a boarding school next year.

well like i said AYAD is a fully funded program so you won't have to pay for a single thing and your safety is probaby much better with them since they are a government organisation. most of their intakes are for graduates so after you're done with uni AYAD should be the first thing you look at.

remember, free:
.visa
.airfare
.housing
.food

and guranteed safety.

 

[philphie]

or if you really want to start helping people right away, go on St Vincent's Night PAtrol in the city. basically it's just providing catering services to sydney's homeless community and just having talk with them. i use to volunteer here a lot during school, on school nights as well. you'll be working with adult volunteers so they'll look out for you if anything goes wrong (nothing will go wrong though) and plus the homeless guys are all very decent, good manners, nice, some are also very smart, good to talk to. patrols run every night but you get rostered so you might only do it once a month, ask if your school participates in it, a lot do. when i did it i did it through my own means which meant i could pretty much work any night i wanted when the numbers were down so that was most days.

if you do go on this, the city like this looks absolutely amazing. one thing that will blow you're mind if you decide to go on full rounds is when you stop at the Mtthew Talbot hostel, opposite the entrance is a large brick wall, and on each is the signature of almost every hjomeless person in sydney. it's absolutely beautiful

 

[yoddle]

hahahahaha. that made me laugh quite a bit (out loud)

nah, girls at abbotsleigh who go on gaps tend to go to england to work at a boarding school. i couldn't think of anything worse, leaving school and then having to go back to a school environment again.
i would love to do some aid work or teaching in a developing country, but my parents want me to go to a developed country seeing as it is my first travel experience by myself - so no africa, south america, middle east or india .

so i'm thinking i want to go to the US or canada to work at a camp.

The whole middle England boarding school thing is endemic in all private schools. After spending 6-12 years in such a protected and (usually) conservative environment, why would you immediately want to dive back into it upon acquisition of freedom? I don't understand my peers.

From my skimming of the thread it looks like you're very keen on going to the developing world and helping out, which sounds amazing, however I'll still contribute my idea.

Which is couchsurfing. CouchSurfing - Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch At A Time
You may already know about it, it's been called "facebook with a purpose", where you basically go sleep on randoms' couches, or beds, etc. I am buying my flights on Wednesday for a round-the-world trip where I'll spend a large chunk of my time doing exactly that. Me and friends did it in Sydney in October (I'm from tassie) and it was amazing, instead of waddling along the tourist track doing the tourist things with the other tourists you delve straight into local life. We got invited to a USYD house party and got told off amazing zine and art festivals and little bookshops and we cooked for them and played board games into the wee hours and shared stories and its so amazing.

Rant and a half.
Sleeping Around is suggested reading. About a guy who did a round the world trip Couchsurfing. Its V funny.

 

[philphie]

lol only a guy from Tazzy would have so much fun playing board games into the late hours at i'm guessing 8pm?

 

[Peartie]

that's the company i would like to go with, only problem is the amount of money you have to pay just to go with them.
out of curiousity, what school did you go to in england? i have a few friends who are going up north to work at a boarding school next year.

i was down in the southwest of england...

It wasnt that much you had to pay them - the majority of the costs were plane, insurance, visa, police check and accommodation for the orientation.

Its a good time

and yes you can go with AYAD but as has been said they want graduates with specific skill sets, meaning you will still have to finish university, and have skill sets in certain areas to go....

 

[yoddle]

lol only a guy from Tazzy would have so much fun playing board games into the late hours at i'm guessing 8pm?

How about you just ignore my entire post and say something not useful/funny at all.

 

[philphie]

haha i'm just having fun mate. i've already given my 2 cents to the OP.

 

[yoddle]

Sorry i was having sex with my 1st cousin and didn't read your post properly.