KK

It takes a few inducements to convince people to leave behind their lives in the States or Australian and relocate to an international school in Asia. In addition to a salary and a housing allowance, it is pretty standard for international schools here to offer decent professional development stipends.

The biggest educational conference in the region is hosted every year by EARCOS (East Asia Regional Council of Overseas Schools). The four-day conference rotates its location among Bangkok, Manila, and Kota Kinabula in Malaysia. Considering the tropical locations, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the annual EARCOS conferences are pretty popular. This year, the conference was in Kota Kinabalu.

We went several days early in order to do a few things as a family. We stayed in a low-budget hotel in town so that we could afford to switch over midweek to the more upscale hotel where the conference was being held. For the last four days of our trip, Julie and the girls sat by the pool while I attended the conference. This gave the second half of our trip a decidedly different feel than our usual backpacking treks through Asia. I told the girls to enjoy it while it lasted because this was the first and last frou-frou vacation I would be taking them on.