Nearly There....

So, as I sit in my room, surrounded by bunches of flowers stuck into pint glasses, wine bottles, plastic jugs and oasis, I am thinking that it's perhaps time to get a vase or two. I'm also wondering about the pile of scarves I've been given. This being, apparantly, a fairly traditional goodbye gift. Then there's all the cookies and cakes, the bowl, the cards and letters from the kids, the photos in the frame, the offer of free Japanese lessons from a Japanese teacher... and the beautifully wrapped gum guard.



Three leaving days down, one to go. And the day after tomorrow I start the new job. How do I feel? Excited. Very very excited. And nervous. Bloody nervous. But mainly excited. And I still can't quite get over how lucky I feel to have been handed this opportunity. I really hope I can live up to what's being expected of me. I think I'll be able to pull this off, but I've never done anything like it before.


Not to belittle what I've been doing for the last three years, as I've been on a slow but steady learning curve and have felt my teaching slowly getting better, but I feel that what I'm about to do is going to BE real teaching. Much of what I've been doing for the last three years has been, if I'm going to be totally honest, about entertaining, babysitting, fueling a hobby, helping people pass the time, giving people something to do.

Don't get me wrong: I have loved most of the teaching I've been doing, but it's not really been brain surgery and hasn't been really pushing me as far as I've wanted to be pushed.

So far everything (apart from the early mornings and rush hour trains) just feels so right about the new position. I just hope I'm right about this!

Oh and I nearly started crying when my five 4-year olds each solemnly walked up to me after the lesson and presented me with an identical pink flower and a note each..... But then I spend half of 'X-Factor' crying. Just call me pathetic.

Oh, oh and I got hit with a horrible cold a couple of days ago but have fought viciously against it, dreading the thought of starting the new job on Friday feeling like cack and snuffling. I think I've won! Must have been all that vitamin c from the fresh grapefruite I drank tonight (with shochu naturally).