It's official.... things are changing ;)

Well I have had a pretty eventful Easter holidays really. I went to up north in the second week of the holidays, seeing various friends and family up there. It was pretty nice to have this time off and see everyone, forgetting about the work waiting for me back in London. At the end of the first week I had an interview at the British School of Guangzhou, in the South of China. Even though I wasn't too confident afterwards, they offered me a position on the following Monday. As you can imagine, that made me feel pretty excited and the decision to accept was actually quite a simple one. The school seems excellent, the package offered was pretty sweet to say the least, and the location is very good for me. I will be back close to Jessica, and also in easy reach of lots of nice holidays :) The school holidays are the same as what I would get in England, so I will have plenty of chances to explore Asia!! I know that Guangzhou is not a very fashionable or well known destination, and it will probably be pretty "crazy" at times. However, I know that I can handle this; in fact it should only be slightly worse than what I was used to in Taipei (I lived there for 3 years), so I am more excited than daunted. I am looking forward to cheap Chinese food, and having a chance to practice Chinese again. On the subject of Chinese, I think mine is pretty poor and will try to improve this during my second stint in Asia!!

Well, when I originally returned to the UK I had planned to stay for 3 years. This was mainly because I thought I would need 2 years teaching experience in the UK to work in international schools. Clearly I was wrong, and my 3 year plan has turned into a 2 year one. I feel that leaving Taiwan was the best thing I could have done at the time; it would have been a very easy and comfortable option to stay in the same job in Taiwan, but I decided to opt for short term pain for long term gain. I have taken the pain, so bring on the gain :)

Picture problems!!

I have noticed a problem with my current online picture provider, in that some of you cant look at the pictures on your computers. I have switched across to a new provider, and will update the link (MY PICTURES on the right hand side of the page)when all my pictures have been changed across. I will also have some new ones on there from Easter (although they aren't that exciting!!). I think the problem was something to do with the fact that the old provider was based in Taiwan, but I am still not entirely sure.

Old School Adverts

I found this really sweet website that has streams of old British adverts that I can remember from when I was a kid. Such classics as the Kia-Ora advert are included; it brings all those 80's memories flooding back :)

Easter Holidays

My Easter holidays started last Friday, and (like many of my colleagues) I feel very happy in the knowledge that I have 2 weeks of doing things at my pace. As a teacher you have so much work to do that you never feel that you get to the end; I very rarely think "oh, I don't have anything I could be doing now...". So it is very nice to have this time to relax and eventually forget about work!! I say eventually, as I do have work to do in the first week. I reckon that I will work on Monday and Tuesday, and try and get most of the stuff for school sorted. Then, because I have an interview on Thursday, I will spend some of Wednesday preparing myself for that. Then on Friday I will drive up North with my sister. So, the second week will be spend at home in Malton, and up in Newcastle. This is the time I really hope to relax and forget about school!! I know that before I know it I will be back at school, but such is life :)

For those of you who don't know, my interview is for the British International School in GuangZhou, China. I am quite interested to see what the interview is like, as it will be my first for an international school. I am not thinking about it too much now, but if they offer me a job I will have to consider it carefully. It will depend on what salary and age group they offer me, as well as how I feel about the school.

Anyway, I hope everyone else has a good Easter....