Working as a teacher in Spain, after a year in Russia and another in Indonesia before that. Still using a cane from a recently broken ankle. Been robbed before even starting the job, needed to arrange a moneygram to set up an account.
No help finding a place to live apart from "The secretary will be back in 10 minutes, you can use her laptop." Premises was a hastily converted furniture shop which retained the open plan and glass walls.
Split shifts ending starting at 9 AM and ending at 10 PM. No staffroom, outdated books, and a boss who would arrange a meeting first thing in the morning, then always turn up at least can hour late, and do something else for another hour, keep me waiting 2 hours (minimum) for something which could have been discussed in a text or email. Pretty run of the mill stuff, but something that would be quite entertaining when retelling at Christmas, back in England with the family for the first time in 3 years. After all. that's why you take up a TEFL job in Europe or somewhere close to home, right?
Except we got Christmas day and New Years off, that was it until August, which wasn't a holiday so much as a lull between the contracts where the school closed and you were expected to make ends meet teaching private students.
The ad said "standard holiday package" every other place in Spain gave you a week off over Christmas, usually 2, plus a week over Easter, and between 4 and 6 weeks over summer. When I asked about the precise dates of the holiday I was invariably dismissed with "It was discussed in a meeting" ( which took place about a week before I'd arrived) or "It's in the contract" (20 pages of Spanish legalese) or "Ask So-and-so, she'll be here in an hour, by which time you'll be half way through your first lesson, and you won't have an opportunity to actually talk to here because she'll be gone the second the school shuts and you'll be teaching non stop until then". Only squeezed an answer from the secretary when I said "Last time I asked ******, he told me to ask you, and I need to know the precise dates so I can book my flight home". Put in my notice the next day.
TL; DR: shit hours, shit facilities, shit boss. Would have been OK if we got any holiday worth a damn.