Kathy Binns
a Canadian author living on Vancouver Island
Welcome to my website
Hello
I wrote "Whatever comes, Eat it" to share my experiences of living and working at international schools around the world. From 2004-2021 I worked teaching science, biology and environmental systems at schools in five different countries. Living overseas was challenging but the good always outweighed the bad.
My credentials include a Bachelor of Education, a Bachelor of Nursing and a Masters of Education. I worked as a registered nurse and taught at Excel Career College and North Island College from 1990-2003.
Preface
I worked overseas as an expatriate, or foreign national, for seventeen
years from 2004-2021. During this time, I taught at international
schools in Moscow, Bangladesh, Thailand, the UAE, and
South Korea. Living and working overseas was a unique lifestyle.
Well-established, English speaking expat bubbles existed in all
the places I worked. These expat bubbles enabled teachers, business
people, and other workers to get by with minimal knowledge
of the local language. Specific grocery stores, bars, and
restaurants supported our daily needs. Staff spoke English and
products were imported from around the world.
Outside the expat bubble life was very different. My ability
to be flexible and see humour in situations helped me navigate
through many tense moments. Miming and translation books
and apps were essential. My stories of buying food and ordering
at restaurants will resonate with anyone who has traveled to
foreign countries.
For teachers working, or considering work overseas, this book
is full of survival tips, good advice about the selection process,
and what to look for when being interviewed. I describe the
housing arrangements I experienced as well as the process of
getting work visas and travel documents. As a teacher of biology
and as the head of the science department I witnessed first-hand
how educational philosophies influenced teaching and learning
inside and outside of the classroom. Acquisition of supplies was
an issue in all the schools I worked at. A wide spectrum of attitudes
towards health and safety made life challenging at times.
I describe my experiences with dental services as well as
hospitalizations in Moscow, Bangladesh and South Korea.
Negotiating the private medical insurance systems provided by
the schools was enlightening as Canada has a universal, government
supported system.
My family, expatriate teaching colleagues, and nursing friends
encouraged me to write this book. Various real individuals appear
within the text. I have either changed their names, or omitted
surnames to safeguard their privacy. I could not include all my
experiences, so I focus on the more memorable and unique.
Living inside and outside the expat bubble was never boring.
My father's memoir
Bernard Binns
Improbable Journeys is the remarkable story of a life lived in keeping with Wilde's precept--the life of physician and teacher Bernard Binns. As Binns' friend Tony Brown said after reading this memoir: "You have led a fantastically interesting life, with a geographical journey like no other--from the Falklands and Kerala, to Srinagar and Kashgar, Suez and Gibraltar, Worksop, London and Oxford, Nigeria and Uganda, Winnipeg and the Arctic, San Francisco and Vancouver Island, and finally to your beloved Whakatane in New Zealand. You present your story as an education in itself. So many of your descriptions, perhaps in particular of ways of life in Canada, are so interesting to read, always with the knowledge that this is a real story."
