What with the whole ‘gap yah’ mocking, it’s actually quite difficult to talk about experiences like the one I’m doing at the moment without falling into mockable cliches, so it is with a certain amount of self-consciousness that I launch into this post about the ups and the downs of this whole year abroad of mine.
It is a very socially challenging thing being out here - I’m far far away from lots of things and people that I would really like to be near, and in this particular town there really isn’t that much social life to be had. I have found my English friends, without whom I would be fairly lost, and luckily my colleagues and students are wonderful, but the pivotal part of my life here is undoubtedly work. That is, after all, the reason I was sent to this particular place.
As I’ve said before, I’ve been very lucky to a) be placed in a lovely school and b) to actively enjoy my job. However, my overall happiness sort of depends on how things are going there - a bad week leads to me wondering what I’m doing all the way out here. I’ve never lost faith in what I’m doing, but sometimes have doubted my ability to do it. This week is turning out to be a cracker work-wise. Through equal measures of fluke and hard work, my classes have gone better than ever. I have felt, more than at any point of this year so far, that I’m really getting the hang of this job that I’m not trained to do and have intermittedly felt very out of my depth doing.
I’ve now been out here for nearly six months, so I’m starting to allow myself to see the big picture, with the odd fleeting thought about how I’ll look back at this year. I can’t say precisely how I’ll be thinking back on it, but I certainly want to remember the great times at work. This week has included: singing ‘Lemon Tree’ with (or maybe just at) my class of 14-year-olds, drilling the difference between ‘beach’ and ‘bitch’, asking my students if Modica was bigger or smaller than New York, and solving a murder mystery. For all of the low moments of the experience, weeks like this when I feel like I’m doing a good job and having fun doing it, actually do make me feel like this is the right thing to be doing in my life.
