ITP - 009: Travel the World Through Teaching

Greg: Welcome to another episode of ITP, the International Teacher Podcast, a very unique podcast. This episode may not be as funny as usual because my co-host Matt, the family guy, is off buying baseball cards or something, so I’m going solo as Greg, the single guy. It may not be as funny, but it will certainly be informative for you.

Greg: I have the opportunity in this episode to talk to an international teacher, a traveler to many places, a great storyteller, and now the author of *Peddling to Kylish: Cycling Adventures and Misadventures Across the Roof of the World.* My guest is Graydon Heisenberg, coming at us from Bali.

Greg: Welcome to the International Teacher Podcast with your host Greg, the single guy, and Matt, the family guy. We’re recording episodes from around the globe to tell you about the best-kept secret in education. That’s right, it’s teaching overseas. We’re glad to have you.

Greg: Graydon, I know we were friends back in 2004. We met in Egypt. Where are you now?

Graydon: Right now I’m in Bali, Indonesia. I’m between teaching gigs. I should be traveling, but with COVID, I figured this is about as beautiful a place to wait out a pandemic as any. We’re doing a reasonable amount of diving, some sea kayaking, some snorkeling. It’s pretty beautiful here.

Greg: One of the reasons I really wanted you on this show is that I look up to you as a world traveler. When Matt says he’s the most unlikely person ever to leave his county in Minnesota and go down to Venezuela, you are the exact opposite. You are the pinnacle of travel.

Greg: How many countries have you been to so far?

Graydon: I think it’s either 133 or 134. I went to Panama just before the pandemic, and I think that made 133.

Greg: You’re Canadian, right?

Graydon: Yeah.

Greg: Where do you call home if you go back to Canada?

Graydon: That’s a tough question. My father lived in the house I grew up in until 2017 in Thunder Bay, Ontario. We used to look across Lake Superior toward Wisconsin. But my father passed away in 2017, and we sold the house.

Graydon: Now when I go to Canada, I visit my mom in Ottawa, but it doesn’t feel quite the same. It doesn’t have those emotional connections. She’s likely moving to Switzerland soon, so then it becomes the question—what is home?

Greg: I get that. I moved around a lot as an army kid—state to state, different bases, even overseas for a bit. I never really had that one place either. For me, it’s more about people. When I’m with my family, that feels like home.

Greg: Maybe it’s the same for you.

Graydon: I think so. It becomes less about a location and more about connections.

Greg: How did you get into international teaching in the first place?

Graydon: My mom actually got into international teaching later in life. She worked at a school in Egypt, then went to Mexico, Switzerland, and Morocco before retiring.

Graydon: She was really the one who got me thinking about it seriously. At the time, I was teaching ESL in Japan, and there’s only so many years you can do that before it starts to feel repetitive.

Graydon: I realized that if I became a high school teacher, I could teach subjects I actually cared about and do that all over the world, not just in one place. That’s the beauty of international teaching. There are English-language international schools almost everywhere in the world.

Greg: For a lot of people, international teaching isn’t just about travel. It’s about finding a good school and using that as a base to explore from.

Greg: But for you, it seems like you’ve built a lifestyle around both teaching and travel. How do you make that work?

Graydon: It’s a combination of things. One of the advantages of teaching internationally is that you typically get a couple of months off in the summer. That’s enough time for a long trip.

Graydon: For years, I would take big bicycle trips every summer—places like Mongolia, the Silk Road, Vietnam, Ethiopia. Then between contracts, I would take longer breaks—sometimes a year or more—to travel extensively.

Graydon: I don’t think I’ve ever done two contracts back-to-back. After Egypt, I took time off. After Myanmar, I took time off. After Switzerland, I took three years off and traveled.

Graydon: That’s one of the great things about international teaching. There’s not the same expectation that you stay in one job for 30 or 35 years. You can trade money for time. You give up a year of income, but you gain a year of experiences.

Greg: So your strategy is to teach for a contract or a bit longer, save money, then take extended time off to travel.

Graydon: Exactly. It’s worked really well for me. I love teaching, but I don’t necessarily want to do it every single year without a break. This way, I get the balance of working and doing something I enjoy, and then having the time to explore the world more deeply.

Greg: I tried something similar with diving. I thought I’d teach internationally and then use summers to work as a dive instructor. But once I got into it, I realized I didn’t enjoy teaching diving the same way. It felt too scripted, too rigid. I love diving, but I couldn’t do it as a job.

Graydon: Yeah, I can understand that. Sometimes when something becomes too structured, it takes the joy out of it.

Greg: What I like about your approach is that you’ve figured out a way to keep both the teaching and the travel enjoyable.

Graydon: I think that’s the key—finding a balance that works for you.

Greg: And as you get older, you probably shift how you travel a bit too, right?

Graydon: Yeah, definitely. When I was younger, I camped a lot and tried to spend as little money as possible. Now I’m more open to comfort. After a few days in the wilderness, I’m happy to check into a hotel, take a hot shower, and have a good meal.

Graydon: I’m not traveling five-star, but I’ve gone from no-star to maybe two-star on average.

Greg: I’ve done the same thing. From sleeping under bridges or in $2 hostels to occasionally spending a few hundred dollars on a hotel just to reset.

Greg: One of the things I like about international teaching is that wherever you land, you end up learning a lot about that country beyond what a short trip would give you.

Greg: You’ve taught in some really unique places. What stands out the most?

Graydon: Myanmar, without question. When I was there, it was still under military rule. It was politically repressive, and outside of school people had to be very careful about what they said.

Graydon: But inside the school, it felt like this oasis of freedom. The students knew how valuable their education was. They were incredibly motivated. You could tell they were going to be part of building a better future for their country.

Graydon: Seeing what’s happened there more recently has been heartbreaking because a lot of that progress has been reversed. But it was one of the most rewarding teaching experiences I’ve ever had.

Graydon: I’ve also taught in places like Georgia, in Tbilisi. The students there also understood they had opportunities to shape the future of their country.

Graydon: In contrast, in some other schools you might have more privileged students who aren’t as motivated. That can make teaching more challenging. If you’re not getting anything back from the students, it can feel draining.

Graydon: But when students are engaged, it makes all the difference.

Greg: I can relate. In Egypt, we had a very different student population—mostly host national students from the top one percent. Some classes were really difficult.

Greg: Years later, one of my former students reached out to apologize for how they behaved. That stuck with me. It shows how different each school experience can be.

Graydon: Exactly. What’s a great fit for one person might be terrible for someone else.

Greg: So how do you choose your schools now?

Graydon: I prefer non-profit schools over for-profit ones. Location matters—I want somewhere interesting. I also talk to current teachers and ask about atmosphere, administration, and lifestyle.

Graydon: I’ve worked at a boarding school before, and it was too intense for me. You’re basically living at work.

Greg: How do you find jobs now?

Graydon: Early on I went to job fairs, but now I apply directly. I teach math and physics, so there’s always demand. That gives me flexibility.

Greg: Let’s talk about your book.

Graydon: It’s about a long-distance cycling journey across Central Asia—Kyrgyzstan, western China, Tibet. It started as notes and blog entries, then became a full story about pushing yourself physically and mentally.

Graydon: It took a lot of editing, but it became a mix of adventure and reflection.

Greg: What was the hardest part?

Graydon: Altitude. Riding at high elevation is brutal. Everything is harder. There were also logistical challenges—food, breakdowns, language barriers.

Graydon: But that’s what makes it meaningful.

Greg: That seems to be your theme—leaning into challenge.

Graydon: That’s where growth happens.

Greg: Final advice?

Graydon: Start small, but start. Don’t wait for the perfect time. There’s always a reason not to go. At some point, you just have to decide.

Greg: All right, we’re going to wrap this up. Graydon, thanks for coming on.

Graydon: Thanks for having me.

Greg: This is Greg, the single guy, signing off from the International Teacher Podcast. We’ll see you next episode.