I haven't written in a while and I am definitely planning a comeback! One of my goals for this year has also been to write more in different outlets, and the blog is one of them (don't ask me why I made this one of my goals, it just felt like something I should work on and something I should do).
Life has been incredibly busy somehow in the past weeks. Which is weird, because it's school holiday here (yes, students have a huge holiday in this period - one month from 21st November to 4th January) and most people were telling me that this will be a slow period. Since children have holidays, they also tend not to want to come to extra English classes, so it did make sense that we would not have much to do. The thing is that even though attendance is lower, my students actually do show up! Plus we have extra holiday games for children, which makes it a busy time of the year!
Anyways, various things have happened since I last wrote.
For starters, I visited Thailand - Krabi to be precise. I laid on the beach for about 3 days, swam in the nice water while admiring the impressive scenery around me (and I don't mean just the huge rocks that are circling Tonsai Beach, but also the cool rock climbers that were doing really amazing stuff!), ate the awesome food, and relaxed completely. I also decided that I need to go there again and to do Thailand properly!! Unfortunately, Romanians get only a 15 day visa for that awesome country but I'll stick as much as possible in that time.
I am experimenting different teaching stuff. Since I don't want to move on with the grammar too much while I don't have the full class, I get to do lots of fun stuff instead! My awesome volunteer had the idea to basically put in real life one of the popular TV shows here. It's of course Korean (Korea is huge here!!), it's called Running Man and it's basically a mission game. The kids are split in groups and they need to achieve various rather silly missions, while running and "fighting" with each other. IT was super awesome and fun!
I also taught "Imagine" to my teenagers and adult class. I'll get over the fact that none of them had actually heard the song (I have many wow moments of this kind here)! But it was super interesting to discuss with the Muslim community about a song that says there should be "no heaven, no hell, no religion". My teenagers were awesome! It was obvious they had never thought about it before. They started asking questions and discussing the topics of heaven and hell and when I asked "But basically I will never go to heaven, no matter how good I am, because I am not Muslim"...there was utter silence, confusion on the faces and then a strong "No teacher, that cannot" :) I decided my mission was achieved when they told me that the song made them wonder whether they're heading the right way or not. (PArt of me still wonders if maybe I was a bit wrong to put the question in their head...sometimes ignorance is bliss).
I also got a new housemate and colleague! Her name is Laura, she is French and absolutely lovely! Very motivated, fun to be around and easy going! Very happy I am! It was also very surprising to see the type of questions my adult class asked her. It was straight away "Where you not afraid to come to a Muslim country after the Paris attack?", "What do you think about Islam?" and all that. I found it nice that they were not shy to open such a delicate topic...people here are soooooo shy!!! :)
I met an amazing Romanian girl that I connected with in ways that I haven't connected with someone in a long time. I must say that against all odds, the Romanians I met in Malaysia (all through completely random methods), are exceptional! Our country rocks! :)
I had money stolen from me in my own centre, where I teach and spend most of my time. I was outside playing with the children class and when I came back, money had been taken from the wallet in my bag. Now, although it was not a lot of money (especially not in European money), it felt like crap. It felt like treason actually. As if my confidence had been completely betrayed. I really wanted to run away. Obviously, an irrational thought since everywhere you will also have rotten apples but still...could not help the impulse.
Many musings have pased through my head these past weeks...they haven't been the easiest of times with a lot of "Why was I doing this again?" questions, and "Oh my God, what about next year?" and also "Will I make it for one year?". I find that while I am really enjoying the experiences here, I am missing family and friends more than I anticipated. Maybe I just got older and it's more difficult to cope with change from a point onwards. Or maybe I just am not the one to be so far away of people. Not sure yet - still pondering on that one.