Well for one, I had to say goodbye to my best friend here, Heather. Remember her? The fiery Scottish gal who wanted to beat up the cop who stole my ID? Well, she took off traveling with her super cute Australian boyfriend (I really can’t decide who’s accent I like more….) and I don’t know if I will ever see her again. This has been my least favorite part of travel: the constant goodbyes. But hopefully I can go visit her or vice versa someday. We shared all our miseries here together (yes we were pitifully woeful for a while) and ate lots of cake, had back-picking parties, ant-squishing escapades, clothe-drying (my washer broke) ice-cream eating shenanigans, you know, the important things in life.
Job-wise…Well I have not been working for a school for some months now, besides the occasional lesson here or there. I have mostly built up a private clientele of folks wanting one-on-one English lessons. I made myself a profile on Teacher Creature, and I swear I must be covered in sugar, because they swarm like wasps to a soda can on hot summers’ day. I was actually buzzing crazily for a while, meeting at coffee shops, peoples homes, parks, cafe’s, all to have some funny conversations in English and then get paid for it.
You could say it’s a swell job…It’s also been challenging as hell in moments. I don’t think teaching English is the hard part—it’s learning how to deal with people from all walks of life and stages of maturity with patience and profressionality (is that a word? It needs to be). I’ve been hit on, slapped, ignored, stood up, not paid, pushed into sketch situations, taken advantage of…basically what happens to anybody by anybody else at any given point in their lives. Nothing special. BUT. It’s been an amazing opportunity for growth, learning how to handle these situations better and better each time.
Just last night, one of my favorite literature-loving students took me to the fanciest restaurant I have EVER been to. I don’t even know why either, she just wanted to. She likes “good things” she says, and it shows. She wears quality clothes, reads’ literature and history like its gong out of style, drives (two) nice cars, and talks about the finer points of life. But more importantly (and luckily for me) she loves to share…we meet for 3 hours every week in her home, and she cooks me wonderful meals, always offers coffee, wants to talk about poetry and music and sometimes drink cocktails…She is just a beautiful human being inside and out. And so different than anyone else in my life, so it’s been an absolute privilege getting to know her.
I don’t have many students I meet with now. Because of holidays, time, and schedules, several of my students eventually drifted out of my calendar. And because I am leaving for home in just 33 days, I haven’t been able to accept new job offers. Even though NOW is the best time to get hired here, all the schools are going mad looking for teachers. But I’ll remember that for next time…
Another thing that happened this month is I can now legally drink alcohol. Yeah you guessed it, Im 21! I feel like my age is finally catching up with me ;) Honestly, I didn’t do much on my birthday…I had a couple lessons, dealt with a cockroach problem (our flat is cursed) and took a nap. But I tell you what…it was probably one of my favorite birthdays ever.
I think I know where home is.
Anyways, it’s a Friday night, and I have a friend flying in from Ireland right now to see me. Your might remember her—Waleska—the first girl I met after getting off the plane?! What are the chances? She started this trip and now she comes to wrap it up with me.
So over all, I am so happy right now. I spend a RIDICULOUS amount of time listening to music; some people watch movies, I just sit and listen to music. If your wondering what I’m doing over here it’s speaking English and learning songs haha. I’m happy to be here, happy to be going home soon, happy for the future, happy to have the content feeling finally washing over me. And that’s where I will leave this…
Until next time,
Kayla