All About England

A big "'ELLO!" out to all my peeps from here in jolly ole England!

So I finally made it! I'm here in England, I'm working, and I'm legal. It's amazing! :-)

I had a busy last weekend, packing up all my belongings (god I have too many clothes - yet still feel the need to shop) and spending time with as many friends as possible. We hit up Lucerna one last time, had both drinks and a brunch at Radost, went out to Banditos for Carolyn's b-day, and I said all my goodbyes to Prague.

I was feeling pretty down about leaving. Prague certainly hasn't been an easy experience overall and has thrown me in a lot of stressful situations, but I've survived them all and the city does have quite the magic spell. It's beautiful beyond words, and there's been many a moment where I've tried to stop and just 'soak it in' for a few seconds, to try and appreciate what a gorgeous place I live in. Living in Prague was a lifelong dream accomplished, and I feel so very lucky to have been there the last nine and a half months. My how time flies, eh? But, all good things must come to an end, and it's time to move on. So I do feel sad to leave, but it feels right. I feel confident in my decision to move on, even if I don't exactly know where I'm gonna be after the summer...

I've been having serious doubts about Barcelona lately. I have absolutely no doubt that I'd love the city and have a blast, but I'm just not so sure if it's the wisest decision financially. The city is quite expensive to live in, and it's near-impossible for non-EUers to get a work visa. You can work under the table, but you're not guaranteed anything then. If the main reason why I'm leaving Prague is because of financial struggles, then I gotta be sure that the next place I land isn't going to put me in a similarly tight situation. I haven't ruled the city out yet, but I gotta do some more research before I lock that city in as my target.

But hey, that's on the other side of summer, and these days I'm All About England. My new plan is actually to not plan at all. The last month or so I've been such a stresspuppy trying to map out my life, and plan my next 365 days in great detail. It's stupid as it's constantly changing and evolving and there's no need to stress myself out so much. Things always have a way of working out, and it's okay to not have all the answers right now. I'm just gonna enjoy my summer, and see where I'm at at the end of the program. I'll take stock of my options and feelings then (well maybe I'll suss out a few options over the summer, but nothing too serious) and just go from there. A few weeks ago I felt freaked out not knowing exactly where I was gonna be post-TASIS. Now it feels very free and liberating. So yeah I'm turning off that silly part of my brain and for the summer I'm just gonna enjoy "the now" and worry about tomorrow, well...tomorrow!

I'm writing this post from my cute little apartment here at TASIS in Thorpe, and I absolutely love it here. Laurie and I flew in Monday afternoon and were greeted at Heathrow by a member of staff. The school is only 20 minutes or so from the airport, but feels a world away from the hustle and bustle of London - and the world's busiest airport.

The TASIS campus is a clean, green beautiful place. It's a boarding school set among a lush campus comprised of old brick buildings, meandering pebble paths, enormous trees, huge green lawns, and ponds and flower gardens. There must be at least 2 dozen buildings that make up the campus, and it's located right in Thorpe Village - a tiny little place here in Surrey.

I was brought to my apartment and I love it. I've got my own little fully-equipped kitchen, private bathroom, (with a proper shower box with a showerhead high enough even I can stand under it,) a living room, and a tiny little bedroom. It's not a huge space, but I haven't had my *own* living quarters since I lived in Korea and I'm pretty excited about it. I live in Tudor Wing which is not far from the main building with the Dining Hall (it's good to be close to the food!) The apartment is attached to the dorm that I'll be supervising but I have my own entrance. This summer I'll have 7 boys that I'll be looking after, and they'll have their own rooms in the dorm just down the hall from me.

I'm really excited about this new job. I've met almost all of my new colleagues now, and everyone's super friendly. Most of the crew is from the States, but there's at least a half dozen or so of us from Canada. It seems that like 90% of the staff is new, so it's good to know that we're all in the same boat together. The trainers and directors have all been super nice and helpful. It's a very relaxed place, yet very professional. Besides providing me with my own living quarters for free, I'm also fed all my meals, and they even have laundry service for the staff. I've never felt so welcome at a new job. They really treat their teachers and counsellors well, and it's nice to feel really valued at a place of work. We had our first full day of training today, and even though there's been a lot of information thrown our way it doesn't seem all that overwhelming. Here's how my summer's gonna look:

I'll be teaching three blocks of classes each morning - 2 before lunch and 1 after. I don't know who my kids are yet, but I'll be teaching the Advanced Level Middleschoolers, so my kids will be near fluent and between the ages of 11 and 14. In the afternoons the kids all have sports and outdoor activities, and us teachers will help out with that too. Evenings are spent relaxing or playing games, and the weekends are for field trips. It's going to be a full week, every week, with pretty much the whole day filled up, but we do have Sundays free (for the most part) and the job actually seems fun (especially the travelling bits!) so I really don't mind that the school pretty much owns my ass for the next 8 weeks, haha! We have training all this week, and the kids start to arrive on Saturday. Monday's our first day of classes and I already get the feeling that this summer is gonna just fly on by! I don't think I'll have that much time to write in here, but I'll try to stay relatively updated (even though I'm still behind on my spring adventures in Prague!) I'll post up some pics soon too of the campus.

We had the full day free yesterday so 5 of us went into London for the day to hang out. Just up the road from TASIS is a train station where from there we can get into Central London (Waterloo) in just 40 minutes. I'm not so far from the city after all!

Yesterday was a gloriously sunny afternoon and we spent the whole day just wandering around. And, once again, I fell head over heels in love with the city. There's a magic to London that I've never felt elsewhere. There's a real pulse, an energy, and electric current that flows through that city from top to bottom. Whenever I'm in London I feel that I'm truly at the centre of civilization, like the whole world revolves around this one megacity. It's an urban centre of gravity that the whole planet is captivated by. You just have to stand and feel the spinning around you. It's thrilling and mesmerizing and intoxicating and liberating. Even as a teenager I felt a freedom in London that I never had before. London to me is never overwhelming. It may be ginormous and sometimes a bit confusing to navigate, but I never feel lost, never feel nervous. I always feel at home in London even though I've never actually lived here. I felt this enamouration when I first touched down in the British capital 11 years ago, and it's still there today. London will always have a very special place in my heart, no matter where I go, and I'm so excited to get to know this city even better over the next two months.

Yesterday's afternoon spent wandering around the busy streets of London, and today's relatively relaxed schedule, very much is the calm before the storm. From here on out my life gets crazy. Training goes into full force, the kids will be arriving from every corner of the globe in just 3 days, and soon enough we'll all be neck-deep in schedules that will fill our whole days. I'm going to enjoy this momentary calmness as I know it's very fleeting. I'm really happy to be here at TASIS, and England feels really, really good right now. This is the happiest I've been in quite a long time, and I'm looking forward to this whole new adventure. Chip chip cheerio, indeed!