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Thursday 22 July 2010

Peace and quiet at Rye

I've just returned from an extremely nice evening out with G. and Daz. We went to the pub that no one knows about and had dinner and now we're all enjoying the peace and quiet of our new home since the kids are in London for Mamma Mia and won't return till about midnight. Tomorrow night we're all on duty, so the cool trio's gonna be in charge of the casino night and we get all glammed up for that.

We're still very busy, so I don't get much done apart from my planning and the lessons and the activities and this feels like a 24/7 job, but it's lovely. Next week is the last week for this bunch of kids and then we start all over with new arrivals. I hope I don't have to dress up as a man again!

TaTa

Wednesday 21 July 2010

Hawaiian disco, pubs and boys vs. girls night

I’m getting very settled in over here and I’m starting to think that I will hate leaving. For one I’ve had very good feedback from my superiors and I get along with the students, so my work is not that difficult. After lessons us, teachers, usually stay on for another shift and help out with the afternoon activities and this week that included the Hawaiian disco, where students and staff had to dress up Hawaiian style, and yesterday we had boys vs. girls disco, which included cross-dressing, so boys dressed up as girls and girls as boys and I must say some made a real effort and it took me a long time to remove the nail varnish from boys’ fingers.


On Monday night I went to a local pub with a co-teacher and our boss and we ended up having a fantastic time. The pub was in the old part of Headington and the area really gave us the feeling of being in the Cotswolds. It was really pretty and the pub even had a gorgeous beer garden, so we stayed for quite a bit, talked about work and other things. I love the fact that the team of teachers gets on like a house on fire (with some exceptions to the rule, of course). Yesterday I spent quite some time with the boss transferring things between our computers, so I’m now well-equipped with additional materials and books and so is he and today I’ve had co-teachers coming to my room for a chat all the time, so we’ve really become a small family.

Tomorrow I’ve quite an easy day as the kids are off to London in the afternoon, so I might end up at the gym again (congratulations to myself for dragging my bottom back to the gym!!!).

Off to bed now. Good night!

Sunday 18 July 2010

Day off and a bundle of wet clothes

This is going to be a rather short blog entry since I'm not in the writing mood. I'm in the middle of preparing a project for tomorrow's class and it's all about Cadbury's as they're going on a trip to Birmingham on Tuesday.

As I did my laundry yesterday and since it hasn't really dried till this afternoon, I decided I'll put everything in the dryer anyway. And after having done it three times today I must admit I neither see nor feel any difference in the dryness of my clothes. After the first hour in the stupid machine they were still really moist, so I put them in again. I came back an hour later and... no difference. I thought that third time lucky might apply in this situation... well, it doesn't as my tracksuit bottoms and T-shirts are still wet. I really do NOT understand it! After all it is a very simple machine to operate.

Apart from the dryer wars all's fine. I actually dragged myself to the gym (as we have free gym access) and worked out for an hour. I almost died on the treadmill (where are the days when I was able to run for 60mins without stopping?!) and I shouldn't even mention my non-existing willpower when it comes to weight training. I used to be able to do a few repetitions, but now I just think "Ouch, that hurts." and stop. Ah well, at least I did something! And it's a start. And you should never overdo it at the gym! And ... I hope I get back in shape in time.

Back to my chocolate lesson plan now :-)

Saturday 17 July 2010

Challenge: Let's do the laundry!

It’s lesson preparation time (well, basically it is my time off, but over here that means that this is your time in which to prepare for the lessons, which I still don’t really understand as the activity organisers have time off as well and in that time they’re just off), so I have time to update my blog.

I’m feeling more and more at home (despite the food and the room), but at the moment I’m actually having a cup of coffee in my room and that is a first. Of course I had to buy a flask in Starbucks (where else ;-)) but it at least means I don’t have to be in the office if I want coffee as that means that you get pulled into working (don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind working, but when I’ve been on duty from 7am to 5pm, I really want some time off). Another good thing is that my clothes are in the washing machine and will be all fresh and clean in 25 minutes (I hope, because the machine looks a little bit dodgy and I bought some gorgeously smelling detergent only to realize that the machine uses its own (?) which again I don’t understand, so I hope my clothes smell of my stuff and not the suspicious pinkish liquid from the plastic tank next to the washing machine. It is quite typical that I only discovered the pinkish liquid after I had pressed start.)

I went into town today with another teacher and we had a really nice morning/afternoon and even managed to grab some delicious pub food from one of the pubs in Oxford I actually know and I had Pimms for the first time in 2 years :-) So, you can understand how happy I am at the moment. Plus the kids aren’t here, which means it’s really nice and quiet. Swindon Oasis day is the reason why the only people left on campus are the teachers.

As for Oxford... It is packed!!! There are so many people here that it’s difficult to walk on the pavement and it’s sales time, so it’s not only tourists who crowd the streets. But I love this town! It’s got history and magnificent buildings and I love the atmosphere.

And work? I can honestly say that I expected to be teaching according to a program and would not spend too much time on the activities. But it turned out that besides not having a program to follow I keep being on duty in the afternoon or evening, so I tend to stay up late or get up early to finish lesson planning which is also more complicated than the usual mainstream school. Not having a program and a coursebook to follow everything is pretty much left to me so each lesson requires more time to plan. The students also have no own books which means I need to photocopy materials and that takes ages. I do love teaching and I got a very positive feedback from our DoS who observed my lesson on Thursday, but at the end of the day I feel drained. And I haven’t done any sport in months now, so I’m not only being tired most of the time but I’m also gaining weight and it’s driving me insane. ARGH!!! And on top of everything I was really in a hurry going to work in the evening yesterday and I managed to break the buckle on my favourite high-heeled sandals. Which almost made me cry. Hawaiian disco was a success though and I did look extremely elegant in my try-not-to-breathe dress :-) After the disco we put the kids to sleep and gathered in the office for wine and cheese. I loved it! It’s great how all the staff gets together and the atmosphere changes - it almost felt like being home on the couch, your feet up and a glass of white wine in your hand. It’s a wonderful bonding opportunity and the newest clever idea is that all schools should put sofas in the staff room :-)

Now, my clothes have been washed and they don’t smell of my lovely detergent but of some mixture of my detergent and I assume the pinkish liquid used for washing masses of campus sheets and stuff. :-( The new challenge is to dry them as most of them should not be put in the dryer. Now I have wet clothes hanging in my wardrobe and I hope they will eventually dry. The sooner the better.
Cheerio!

Friday 16 July 2010

High-heels? How to get out of wearing them....

This is getting ridiculous! Now that I’m paying a small fortune to have my own, private, unrestricted Internet access, I do NOT have the time to use it. And on top of that my USB hub that I got from WH Smith (cos all the other shops like Curry’s, Argos, Sonny, etc. have run out of them) is acting weird and keeps disconnecting from my computer so I’m getting really worried my brand new computer is going to crash! Yikes!

I only have 20 minutes before I’m on duty and it’s Hawaiian disco tonight, so I’m wearing my tight dress as it is the only piece of clothing with big flowers in my wardrobe. I’m thinking if I try not to breathe or sit down between 7pm and 11pm, I should be fine. And I have to be wearing heels, so somebody shoot me now, please! I usually don’t mind high-heels, but I’ve been standing up all day today and my feet are already requiring (no, they are screaming for) a bit of a break, so if you have any ideas how to join the tight dress (in which I cannot sit down) and high-heels (which are only good for sitting down), let me know asap, please.

I don’t even remember if I have written about my job here, but as I gotta run now, it’ll just have to wait till the next time!

Take care y’all!

Wednesday 14 July 2010

Teaching and working at a boarding school

My writings have become irregular and I really hope I’m not repeating myself cos I keep forgetting what I’ve already written and what not. Today’s supposed to be my day off, but I need to plan the lessons as I have absolutely no idea what I want to do in classes.

As for the teaching bit... The summer courses over here include a lot of (and when I write a lot of I mean seriously a lot of) excursions and activities, so it sometimes feels like English classes are just a secondary activity and us teachers are sometimes treated like that as well. For example, today we had a fire drill (yes, it was my day off and my only chance to sleep in since beginning of July and no, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t have to participate in the fire drill) but none of the teachers was told what to do, so I asked our CD what my duties are and she told me and then this morning a AO gave me completely different instructions, so who do I listen?! Most teachers believe that we’re not informed enough, especially cos it’s our first summer here. Ah well, I guess we’ll all survive.

Yesterday I bought Dongle at the 3G shop, so now I have expensive Internet access in my room. Lucky me! And it’s not restricted. I got so frustrated with the restricted Internet at this school that I now totally understand why some girls lose it when they leave a Catholic school! Sport web-pages are restricted (it seems like a good Catholic girl is not into sports) and so is “The News of the World” (apparently it has low quality content) and that’s far from all the other restricted or simply put BLOCKED web-pages. In today’s day and age that’s an utterly and completely insane if you ask me! I understand some schools blocking Facebook as it can be dangerous since children add people they don’t know as their friends, but news and sports and even teaching resources web-pages?!

The school itself is nothing special. I have always imagined British boarding schools in almost a romantic way, but working at one has opened my eyes. The rooms have no bathrooms, so you share (I really hate the fact that I am sharing a bathroom and toilet with students!!!), a lot of rooms have no desks or chairs, so you write on your knees (which I am sure is very good for your back and general health) and students’ rooms do NOT lock (which I guess would make it easy for valuables to disappear). As for the classrooms - they are in different buildings and whereas most of them are equipped with an IWB (which have been taken off, so we cannot use them) the rest of the equipment and furnishings would make most of the teachers I know back home cry (and those wouldn’t be tears of joy). But we’ll manage! Teachers are the toughest breed I know!

Here are some photos of my room, so you get a taster (keep in mind that my room used to be an office and it is much bigger than your normal single room!).




And I still haven’t planned the lessons....

Tuesday 13 July 2010

No Internet?! You must be joking!

“This is going to be tough,” was the first thing that went through my mind when I heard that I (or any other member of the staff) won’t have Internet access while working here. The second thought was “Why?” The school has WiFi, but they don’t give us the password which in today’s day and age is like forbidding a person to breathe. Internet is almost a basic human right, isn’t is? I’m still recuperating from the shock that news caused. I depend on being able to keep in touch with people, who aren’t here, and now I feel like 2 months of my life will rush by while I’ll be cut off from the world. I almost feel like Robinson Crusoe.

Apart from that my one day in Oxford was lovely. I didn’t sleep in as I keep waking up around 6am, which is completely insane considering I love sleeping in. The B&B I was at Thursday night was absolutely fantastic and so was the breakfast. They had a normal continental breakfast and while you were nibbling on your croissant they offered a proper English breakfast, so once you got out of the dining room, you were nicely full. After breakfast I had to pack (for the third time in five days) and then I left for the city centre. The bus ride to town sets you back around 1.90 GB and the return one 2.90 GBP and the bus takes you to Magdalen street (sorry if I misspell anything). The first thing I did was buy a new watch, because I have a feeling I might need it, and then I set into my usual routine - glossy magazine, grande latte and an armchair at Starbucks. My feet and my back were hurting quite badly, but you would understand what I mean if you saw all my luggage (or what has become of it after two days of shopping sprees. At around 1 o’clock I had to be at school’s premises for lunch, so I took the bus back and went for lunch. The first impression: a lot of people know each other from previous years and it seems like this is going to be a nice place to work. The food was actually quite good, I really cannot complain - four choices for the main course and veggies, potatoes, buns, etc. for sides. After lunch there was induction, dinner and an hour worth of a break which we spent at the pub. In the evening we moved to the course site and to finish the day we had crisps and wine. For the first time ever I managed to eat salt and vinegar crisps - I tried and tried before, but it always grossed me out, so I don’t know what’s different this time.

The evening and most of the night over, I returned to my room. Remember my rambling about hotels? Then you probably understand that I’m not exactly jumping of joy at the sight of my room. It’s big enough, with a bed and a wardrobe. Thats’s all some of you might ask. Yes. There is no desk! And that was even more of a shock than the lack of Internet access (argh..... we live in the 21st century and I cannot get online?!) How am I supposed to get any work done if I don’t even have a desk?! Whereas it is OK to force everyone go into the staff room so people are forced to mingle, it isn’t OK to deprive people who can concentrate much better when they are in a quiet environment and not disturbed. I can manage sitting on the bed and working for a short time, but it’s not comfortable or very efficient.

On the bright side, the people I work with are a good bunch and there ‘s a swimming pool on the site. There are also loads of excursions around England and we get fed a lot :-) I hope I get to go to a few shops soon to get some essentials and explore this area a bit.

Thursday 8 July 2010

Shopping and torturing my feet

I survived a night in the shoe-box :-) And it was a restless one as (yes, I am probably one of the luckiest people alive) my room overlooks a power plant and the spoiled little me says the bed is lumpy. But being tired hasn’t stopped me from aimlessly wandering around London.

The day was an excellent one. I went to HSBC and opened a bank account - woohoo! I bought a new UK cell number (cos I stupidly left my old SIM card back home) and then I got another UK cell number with the bank account - hmmm.... So, now I’ve got 2 different numbers at my disposal. Then I went to Waterstones as life without books is no life at all and got 3 books since I can never resist a 3 for 2 offers and afterwards I spent some time reading at Starbucks, which kind of summarises my usual London routine. Throw in a visit to Banana Republic and Carnaby Street, a huge credit card bill, which will to my luck remain hidden from my eyes until September and you’ve got my perfect day out.

Having all day to my disposal and since it was sunny I walked around the streets I’ve never walked around thinking how clever I am to avoid the crowds of tourists. This resulted in some not-so-pleasant encounters with the smells of not-tourist-infested streets, which didn’t exactly make my day. But a visit to TGIF did. My boyfriend would be so proud! I’m turning into a Yankee :-/ I am in one of the most beautiful, vibrant, historical European cities with food I’ve been craving, think Indian, pies, pub lunches, etc. and I felt like I could kill for a Swirl (=frozen Margarita) and a proper American meal. How sad. So that’s what I had for lunch. And I loved it! I needed that Margarita and the food was delicious, just as I remember :-) Grilled chicken with cheesy mash and shrimps in sauce - yum! I am a food junkie!

By the end of the day I came up with an idea how to spend 50 pounds in one day on things you’ll forget about... Here it is: put 10 pounds on your Oyster card, so you can use the tube and buses if necessary, spend 20 pounds on a cocktail and meal, 8 pounds on coffee and antioxidant drink that will make you feel like you’ve done something good for your body, 12 pounds on a book you can read if you get bored or want to pretend you’re a local enjoying the sun. Then spend another 13 pounds on a cinema ticket which is basically over the 50 pounds, but I was never good at maths.

But let’s get back to my day. While walking towards Covent Garden and back to the rivers of tourists I’m pretty sure I saw the guy who plays the doctor on the Midsommer Murders. I’m convinced it was him, despite the fact that I wouldn’t recognise a celebrity if they crashed straight into me and spend 20 minutes apologising to me.

After all that hard work I went to Nero for my beloved Iced Chai Latte and I got an email from my employer saying that I should bring clothes for a black tie casino night, Hawaii disco and something I’m not overly emotionally attached to as it will probably get ruined. Hmmm.... Black tie is alright as I have a dress with me, but Hawaii?! I really wasn’t thinking of colourful garlands, shirts and sarongs when I was packing for England. Yikes. I guess that means I’ll do some more shopping tomorrow. Any excuse is a good excuse. Which reminds me... I want to buy an iPad as I am also an Apple junkie. And now my sensible self is saying no and my more spontaneous self is saying yes - which one should I listen?

Sorry I have no photos of this wild day, but I didn’t feel like carrying the camera with me.

Tomorrow it’s off to Oxford in the afternoon. And hopefully a bigger room overlooking a quiet garden :-)

Hello London!

I’m finally back in London! The trip was nothing out of the ordinary, except for the wait for the luggage. I think it has never taken me so long to get my suitcase (well packed and weighing no more than 15kg). My carry on luggage though was too heavy for me to carry, so I spent some extra time putting books and paperwork into the suitcase. Stansted Express was quite quick and so was the tube - surprisingly as my usual experience is that the line I’m using is closed for repair, the alternative route I take stops due to engine failure and it usually takes me way longer than this time. On my ride to Bayswater, where the hotel I’m staying at is, I sat opposite an American family and it almost made me cry seeing and hearing Yankees. And that wasn’t all! At Bayswater I was just getting ready to lug my suitcase up the stairs when a man came to me and offered to carry it for me, so I got talking to his wife and guess where they were from ;-) Yes, you’re right! They were American (no need to mention the fact that after the man said ‘No worries’ I assumed they were Ozzies - ooooopsssss!!!). They are an incredibly friendly nation. And yes, I am biased. But let’s stop my infatuation with the Americans and focus on my long term relationship with London. London and I have had an on and off love affair ever since I first caught a glimpse of it 9 years ago. Ever since then London has provided me with joy, quality free time, excellent shopping opportunities and of course COFFEE! London never fails me. I love the smell of it, the smell of the tube, the hot air that hits you while you’re waiting for the train, people who don’t stare at you and who you secretly observe, the sounds of London, rumbling of the tube, people chatting, a mixture of accents, dogs barking, cars, machines, buskers, etc. I could go on forever, London has it all!

As for my hotel.... Pictures online aren’t always to go by. Don’t get me wrong, the hotel is in a great area, it’s clean and I’m sure the twin/double rooms are decent size, however, my single room is definitely nothing to write home about. First of all it’s on the mezzanine level, so the lift doesn’t help much as you still need to carry your luggage down the stairs (or up - depending on which floor you get off). Then you somehow need to get through the 2 sets of doors and having your hands full, that’s quite an accomplishment, especially because the corridor is so narrow you cannot get past your suitcase in front of you. The room itself is the size of a shoe-box. There’s a chair in front of the wardrobe, so it’s impossible to open it. The room is also so tiny that I cannot even open my suitcase unless I put it on the bed and if I was any bigger, I wouldn’t be able to get into the bathroom, let alone into the shover.


Another thing that infuriated me was the WiFi that isn’t working as I am supposed to be able to use Internet at the hotel and now I am NOT!

Maybe I got spoiled by big and almost luxurious American hotels and traveling with an American who prefers to book a twin room with 2 king or at least queen size beds, just so we have room for suitcases :-) Yes, it is also important to care for the well-being of your suitcase. As your suitcase will always be grateful :-)

I have nothing more to write as today was consumed by traveling, but I’m waiting for my hair to dry, so I keep on rambling.

TA TA FOR NOW

Monday 5 July 2010

Departure day

The departure day is finally here. And I am ... tired and exhausted. I honestly hate packing. I can never decide what clothes to take or which shoes would be the most functional, so I usually end up with a random selection of clothes and an even weirder collection of shoes (most of which I never really wear). This time it's also a bit different as I'm not going on holidays, so casual clothes and flip-flops have been replaced by smart shirts, skirts, high-heels and and enormous amount of paperwork, which is making my duffel bag incredibly heavy, but I refuse to deal with and get stressed out by logistical problems as I am determined that I WILL manage to drag all of that to my hotel.

I still have pretty much an entire day before my take off and since this is the very first time that I'm packed and still have a lot of time to spare, I have no idea what I should do with myself. The usual scenario is nothing like today. Whenever I travel and I still have a couple of hours before I need to show up at the airport, I tend to suffer a minor breakdown as my clothes haven't dried yet, there is no way I can close my suitcase (even with my brother and me sitting on top of it), I forget to put in something and then unpack everything to shove this thing or the other into the case and/or bag. Then I show up at the airport with too many pieces of hand luggage and try to explain to the check-in lady that "Yes, everything I'm holding in my hands DOES fit and WILL go into one single piece of hand luggage." They usually let me pass with a look of desperation aimed at me, the-well-travelled-passenger, who is at the airport so often that she is almost on the first name basis with the entire staff and who apparently gets completely overwhelmed by such a simple act as packing a suitcase. I am absolutely positive that people who travel with one suitcase and one piece of hand luggage only fly to a destination for a day and then back, just so they can make us, the we-cannot-pack people, feeling even more incompetent. My boyfriend is one of those people. His suitcase is always professionally packed and he always has space left in it. I watched him pack and I still don't understand how he does it! The last time we were packing together, I think he got frustrated with me and told me to sit down and watch while he packed my suitcase. I watched, but I didn't learn.

I will now go and observe my suitcase. It still isn't closed though. Maybe if I stare at it kindly, it will close. Fingers crossed....



* suitcase image credit snarking.files.wordpress.com

Saturday 26 June 2010

Bank account headache

I'm still counting down to my departure and while being completely preoccupied with that I remembered that all those years ago I managed to close down my UK bank account (yes, feel free to laugh at my stupidity now!). And right at that moment of reminiscing my frustrations started. Those of you who know what happens when you add UK and a bank account can stop reading now and those of you who haven't yet had the privilege of trying to open one can indulge in what follows.

A few years ago, when I was working in England, I managed (with a lot of help from my liaison officer and the bank manager) to somehow open a basic current account. Woohoo! And all was well and I thought I'd live happily ever after with my HSBC debit card until I decided to leave UK. My preparations for departure included closing my account, so I wouldn't have to worry about it. And that was a mistake. A big, huge, enormous mistake. Because closing down the account has caused me to start pulling out my hair, banging my head against the keyboard, viciously jabbing at random buttons on the previously mentioned keyboard and screaming at the top of my voice, which caused my neighbours, who were having a drink outside, to roll their eyes, stop talking and wonder what the weird noises coming through my open window were.

After hours and hours of googling, researching and drinking about 4 cups of coffee I found out what I already knew. You cannot open a UK bank account if you do not have a permanent address in the UK. Which is a teeny tiny problem in my case as the current plan is to stay in England for 8 weeks (maybe more if I feel like it) and I need the account so I can receive my paycheck. Now, I have the job and I can't get paid. I have a place to live, but none of my documents has that address on them and neither is my name on any of the bills. And since my employer requires my bank information NOW (and I'm outside UK at the moment) the situation is somewhat impossible. Or so I thought....

Another hour of research and I found various companies offering to open your bank account and get you settled in your new life on the island before you even leave the safe haven of your home. This should have been the perfect solution for me, but since I'm stubborn and think I need no help from no one, I refused to get lured into paying someone to do my dirty work for me :-) Another hour of research followed...

And I got back to HSBC and their Passport option. I think it's a decent solution for someone moving to the UK as it allows you to open a bank account without having a permanent UK address and you can even do it online from home. The nervous breakdown, which was threatening to make a memorable entrance, somehow missed its cue. After thinking about the 8 pounds I will have to pay every month for a whole year despite the fact that I will only use the account for 2 months, I decided to go through with it anyway as I don't want to be dealing with the banks when I arrive as it sometimes takes between 2 and 5 weeks before you can open an account and I need it asap. It will take 2 weeks for HSBC to process my application, so with any luck I should be in possession of my debit card on the day when I start work. Not perfect, but definitely better a bit late than never.

Thank God I already have the NI card :-) This is my happy thought at the moment! Yey, not having to go through the process of applying for that as well.

Till next time...

* baby image credit to 2flashgames.com

Sunday 20 June 2010

Travel fever

I always get so excited when I'm getting close to driving to the airport, checking-in and going through security. And not only that. I've become almost obsessed with checking my travel plans and details over and over again. I've booked the train tickets, hotels, and more tickets, checked the street view on Google maps, so I now know exactly how my route to the office looks like. A bit too much?

Have you ever felt like that? I'm so excited that I can't talk about anything else and I'm pretty sure I bore my friends out of their brain. Sorry for that guys! The funny thing is that this time I'm not jetting off to some unknown and exciting destination where I'll dare myself by tasting local delicacies such as ants, worms and similar. I'm only taking a short flight to England, which is a country I know better than I know my home town. Why such excitement then? Maybe I miss Starbucks (yes, I do fall for that, but I can't help it) and shops and sitting in parks until my behind hurts. And the endless supply of paperback novels which while and after reading them always make me wonder why things like those in books never happen to me. Why don't I meet a handsome stranger, who'll sweep me off my feet? Why do all the good things only happen in novels? Ah well, fingers crossed.

Saturday 19 June 2010

My first ever blog entry....

Oh my, here we go... I don't really know what got into me and what exactly I was thinking when I decided to try out blogging. I'm usually a rather private person and don't go public with things I do and don't do, so I must have got struck by a lightning or something. On top of that I'm an ordinary Jane. Do people actually care what a random Joe/Jane writes? Or what happens to them? Or what they think about life, world etc.? But nevertheless, trying has never hurt anybody, so I'm sure it won't do me any harm. And it will give me something to do during these summer storms that keep one locked up inside.

I've already done something that, well it doesn't exactly scare me, but it's a bit reckless, so if I had thought about it, I'm sure I would have talked myself out of it. I bought yet another plane ticket. To another country, obviously. To go there and work. The scary thing is that my position is not yet 100% secure, so considering that I'm (according to my boyfriend) a tad OCD, it's a humungous step for my wee self. I aways want to be 100% sure about everything. Which, if you think about it, is completely insane as you cannot be 100% sure about pretty much anything in life.

Now I've started the countdown. 16 more days before I take off. Before then I'll probably keep quiet as I don't want to bore anyone, who might read this, rigid. I'll keep you posted however when I do something else that scares me.