2014: The good, the bad and the brave.

Okay, so I know this blog is supposed to be a record of my year abroad, but I quite fancied writing something about 2014 because it’s been a crazy year.

The good:

1) Realising that 22 isn’t too scary and that I’m not that old yet. I can still have naps and an empty fridge even if I have to clean my apartment and grade 300 exam papers. I also got to celebrate with lots of special people :)

2) Getting a new car. I love Polly the Picanto and can’t wait to be back driving her in July.

3) Managing to get to the front at the Beyonce concert with Demi! Seeing Queen B perform was incredible.

4) Going for a night out in Sheffield with work and accidentally going to a different venue. 

5) Attending Jenny and Craig's wedding at the White Hart Hotel.

6) Taking my mum to Mabloethorpe for her birthday in April. We rented a beach hut on a freezing cold day and after plenty of moaning she had a brilliant day. We played crazy golf, walked along the sand barefoot and had fish and chips on the beach. Her final treat was a go in a child's ride!

7) Going to the Army vs. Navy rugby game with my dad. I successfully navigated us around London and we all made it home in one piece. Two highlights: The Army won (of course!) and I managed to finally get a picture at platform 9 3/4!

8) Attending an open air concert in Newark with my mum and dad. My first concert sitting on a picnic blanket and it was brilliant. 

9) Graduating with a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from Bishop Grosseteste University. Seriously proud moment.

10) Living back in Lincoln. After moving around so much when I was younger it’s lovely to have a place to call home now.

11) My new phrase of these past few months has been....”because it’s China”. Living in a country where you cannot control anything has made me learn to relax and stop worrying about things that I cannot change. So when a trip to the bank takes 2 hours, a man on a moped stops on the side of the road to gawp at me or a man on the table next to me is vomiting his dinner up whilst I’m trying to get mine down, I take a deep breath, smile and say “because it’s China”.

The bad:

1) Having to start paying rent. I love my mum and dad dearly and I loved them even more for letting me live rent-free during my teacher training but July was when I graduated and when rent started being paid. Another reason why I moved to China = rent free living!

2) The difficulties from the PGCE. Anybody who says that their teacher training is easy isn’t doing it right. You should be working from 6am to 9pm Monday to Friday and then Friday evening, you lay on the sofa unable to string a sentence together whilst trying to stay awake for the programme on at 9pm. You should be waking up in cold sweats at 5am about the laminating that you haven’t done for Literacy in the morning and your makeup routine should definitely not exceed 3 minutes in order to have at least 6 hours of sleep. And then there’s the post–it notes and lists which have lists to make sure you know what is happening (or rather you think you know) and any time you optimistically have a rare evening off to be sociable, you’re either full of cold from one of the children or falling asleep.

The most difficult year of my life by far, and I cried a lot, ate far too many biscuits and questioned why I wanted to be a teacher almost every week but in May, something amazing happened. I was sat and all the children were silently reading books; my desk was organised, the photocopying for the next 6 lessons was done AND I’d had a full lunch break. I finally felt like a teacher that day and it was incredible.

3) The hangovers that last 2 days. Whyyyy?!

4) Having to say goodbye to my Maccys family. After 4 ½ years of working in a place and working my way up, meeting some friends for life on the way, I finally hung up my apron to come on my year abroad. #Imlovingit

Realising that Prom was 6 years ago and Freshers at Chester University was 4 years ago. Sayyyyyy what! Nothing like reminiscing to make you feel old.

The brave:

1) Deciding to go and work abroad for a year. I realised that I didn’t want a teaching job and really needed to get some travelling out of my system before launching my teaching career. I didn’t choose China, it chose me. I think the hardest thing about this decision is that some people around me weren’t supportive of this and that made it harder to accept the job. But, I followed my instincts and I’m so glad I did because it’s turning out to be a fantastic experience.

2) Agreeing to do an extra essay over the summer for Master’s credits. During my PGCE year, we had to do two compulsory essays and if you got a high enough mark, they could count as credits towards a Master’s. Amazingly, I managed to get high enough marks in both essays and then found myself agreeing to do a 5000 word essay during the summer holidays. The motivation to finish this essay was definitely at an all time low, because after working 50 hours in the week, I didn’t want to come home and write the essay. I wanted to go to Daisymade and sit in the sunshine at Hartsholme. I finished it within a month and submitted it feeling overly hopeful. A few weeks ago, I found out that I passed the essay! 2/3 Masters = done.

(Huge thanks to Beth Robinson for encouraging me to do the extra essay and my mum who kept me sane during times when the essay word count didn’t even total 100 for the day.)

The trips:

In January I went on a road trip to Manchester to see all the girls from uni and then went down to Wolverhampton to see Versha. I didn’t get lost once, even when my Satnav died! The trip involved too many drinks, lots of shopping and even more laughs.

July  - Went for a weekend away with the uni girls to Newcastle. I first stopped at Diane and Geordie’s for a night in Blythe and then met the girls the next day to have a messy night in the ‘Toon’. My two main memories of this night were dancing on a tiny stage in a random bar and getting bored of waiting for a taxi in the queue so bribing a taxi driver to take us first.

August – Prague with Schmoy! After getting an amazing deal with a gorgeous hotel, Doyle and I went to Prague for a long weekend. It is a beautiful city and thanks to my impressive map reading skills, we rarely got lost. This break involved being freezing cold in an ice bar, going to the largest nightclub in Europe, taking a river cruise in the rain and attempting to eat the huge portions of food in every restaurant.

September – Jamaica with the family. My lovely parents took Lozzy and I on a two week break to Jamaica (even if it is the last paid for holiday *sob*). It was fantastic, two weeks of relaxing with my favourite people, although if the weather was ridiculously hot. I think it’s the only holiday I’ve had where I wanted the thunderstorms to happen everyday, so that it cooled everywhere down! I drank far too many cocktails, climbed Dunn’s river falls in just a bikini, saw the sunset at Rick’s café whilst listening to a live Reggae Band and spent some much needed quality time with my mum, dad and sister.

What does 2015 hold for me?

• Finish my year abroad in China and move back to England

• Hopefully go and do something different in a new country

• Look forward to the people visiting me in China....only 30 days until my parents come over and about 3 months until I see Adele!

• Keep writing my blog until I finish my year abroad – I love hearing that people read it because it was only supposed to be for my mum and dad to track what I was doing and I’ve already for over 1500 page views!

• Stick to a good sleeping pattern – anybody who knows me well knows that my sleeping routine is awful but I’m doing exceptionally well at the moment so I don’t want it to slip.

• Stay in contact with all my friends. Knowing someone since Secondary School or even Primary School and still being really close to them is an amazing feeling.

• Finish my Masters – I hope!

• Learn some more Chinese so that I can be relatively understood

• Stop over planning my life – 2014 wasn’t planned at all and it worked out in the end.

- “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”

Happy New Year everyone 

xxx