School

Things to come

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[Picture: my first view of the incredible beach we are lucky enough to camp on in Hong Kong – excuse the poor quality]

In two weeks I’ll be heading to Guangzhou airport, driven by Sam-the-man (our trusty driver guy), and I’ll be on my way to start my busy summer holiday…

(I so almost wrote vacation then, lord help me…)

I’ll be taking an early morning flight to Ho Chi Minh where my childhood best pal, Alice HD will be waiting for me in Hangout Hostel after embarking on a very long flight the previous day. So far, we have no plans. We’ve booked to stay at that hostel for 2 nights together (Al will have been there for 3), so we plan on spending that first day we’re together planning, organizing and getting SOME sort of idea together about all the places we want to definitely hit on our trip. We have roughly 4 weeks to make it from Ho Chi Minh to Bangkok. That’s a pretty solid length of time, especially as we don’t plan on doing Thailand itself. (Alice has never been there though, so we’re going to fit in a couple of days in Bangkok if we can!)

We were stuck for ages trying to decide whether to go North to South (the original idea), or South to North… in the end we decided to start in the wetter area of Vietnam (the south), and head for drier times and days at the end of our trip (the north). SO, after comparing flight prices, weather reports etc., we chose to start in the south (Ho Chi Minh) and head north to Hanoi before we have to make our way to Bangkok (either by crossing through Laos on land or flying over.)

My research for this trip has been minimal to say the least… I’ve skimmed over a few blog posts describing others routes and suggestions, I’ve stared at a Continue reading →

Is it enough?

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[ PHOTO: the view I had when leaving work the other week, sunset and flags over Country Garden]

I’ve been at a loss for words recently, blog wise anyway. Despite having gone through the festive period and New Year’s, I don’t feel like I’ve got much to report on. My last post was a pretty big and it talked in depth about a kind of ‘light bulb moment’, so I’ve not wanted to just tap away meaninglessly about my monotonous daily life as a teacher for its follow up.

I feel like people often expect my life to be so much more than it is. They expect each week, each day to be filled with crazy experiences and adventures that will produce even crazier stories; whereas in fact, it’s not that at all. I don’t even know if I’d want it to be that, it sounds tiring in all honesty. Yes I live away from home, but I’m not travelling, I’m not living on the road, I’m not exploring new places each day and meeting new people. I’m working… I’m living in a small cosy apartment. I have a small group of friends. I have a fridge I try and keep stocked. I have a bus commute to work. I have laundry to do, dishes to wash, bins to empty. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I’m thoroughly enjoying my life out here. But at times, it doesn’t really feel too “out there”. During the work week, when I barely have time to cook my own meals or get home before dark, I could be anywhere… I could be living in some remote town in England, Germany, America, Wales… anywhere that I don’t have family or childhood friends. Anywhere that I don’t know the backstreets or the roads like the ones I do in Abergele.

Speaking to family and friends over the last few weeks has been amazing… but also a little disheartening… People have been Continue reading →

Panic: Sept 24th Prompt

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[PHOTO: One of the exhibits at the Foshan Science Museum, where we went on a field trip on Thursday]

I haven’t done a blog post based on a Daily Prompt in a while. I’ve been so caught up on travel and my new start here in Country Garden that I’ve not had chance to sit and aimlessly blog. Well, it’s Sunday morning, I have a lot of school work to do today, but while I’m sat in my Chinese dressing-gown, cup of tea by my side (I finally have a kettle!!), with Kill Bill on the TV, I though… why not? I’ve got the whole day ahead of me to get work and cleaning done. So first, I’ll sit and type up a blog post for all 4 of my readers…

Panic – sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety, often causing wildly unthinking behaviour

I’ve chosen a Daily Prompt word to focus on today, because very vaguely, it links to something that happened on Friday night. So here we go…

Friday lunch time myself, Kim, Danielle and Kyle went for dumplings at a place between our homes and school. Another Kindergarten teacher joined us, and I must admit, it felt great to be part of a bigger and more sociable group than just the 3 of us, as it always is. I’d already mentioned to Kim and Danielle that I wanted to do something sociable this weekend, either Friday or Saturday night: food, drinks, chill, whatever. I just wanted to be with a group of people, chatting and hanging out. Not too much to ask for right? Danielle didn’t seem to keen, and Kim was eager for just a movie night at hers. So I wasn’t holding out much hope. After lunch, I tagged along with them all to their Kindergarten Staff Office, something we don’t have in Primary. This is a place that a couple of hours a day, all international Kindergarten teachers are allowed to seek refuge, chat with their co-workers and relax a little, oh, and maybe get some work done. In Primary, like I said, we don’t have this. In Primary each international teacher is assigned 2 classrooms, and we have a Continue reading →