Hi everyone. I'm applying to uni next year, but I'm already starting to think about how I want to spend my gap year.
What I really want to do is work abroad. I do want and need to be working (need to $$), and I'm considering several options. I'm just putting down a couple of options and would really like to hear about the pros and cons, and how to obtain one of these jobs/whether it's possible/whether anyone's done it. I'm in the US, so taking a gap year is a really foreign concept here, and I'm hoping some people have had experience with gap years working abroad.
I speak English and Spanish, and I'm opening to working pretty much everywhere in the world except English-speaking countries. I would really love to work in Turkey or Brazil, but honestly I'm open to anywhere. I would really like something long-term, I'd like to really get involved instead of just doing 4 eight-week gigs or something like that (plus I don't want to have expensive traveling-between-jobs costs).
Au pairing - pros are that getting a job seems fairly straight-forward, I don't mind kids, the host family would pay for my living costs. Cons are that it may be a bit difficult to find another job if I end up with a not-great family, and it may be difficult to have a lot of independence while living with a host family
Working in a hostel or something like that - I feel like this would be really awesome, but I don't know if it's really possible to get a hostel job abroad as an eighteen-year-old girl with no hospitality experience. I do speak English and Spanish so maybe I could get a job in a Spanish-speaking country. Pros are that I would have plenty of independence, and living costs paid for.
English teaching - I'm not quite as interested in this as the other two ideas. Is it possible to get an English teaching job abroad as an 18 year old? I have a bit of teaching experience. The pros are that I enjoy teaching, but the cons are that I would probably have to pay all of my own expenses and to be honest teaching is a bit exhausting.
Obviously, I can google any of these jobs and read about them, but I would really like to hear from someone who has managed to or considered doing any of these things during a gap year. What did you do, how did you find the job, and how was your experience?