Decisions.... Decisions


I’m sitting on the porch over-looking the Hay River in Denmark, Western Australia. A rainbows’ just come out and my dog Willow is sat with hopeful eyes by my side, I imagine wishing I was able to type one handed while patting her with the other hand.
Man I’m going to miss this view. It’s been a peaceful two years since moving back to WA from Melbourne, reconnecting with nature, my family, taking a bit of time away from the corporate world, considering my next five year plan…

Years ago while travelling in the UK someone mentioned i-to-I to me, and I thought that sounded like a fantastic thing for someone other than me to do. I was aiming at marrying my long-term boyfriend at the time, moving to New Zealand and babying up the planet. Given you’re reading this you can see these plans didn’t come to fruition, and between you and me – THANK GOODNESS!

Now, I am once again selling my bits and bobs, packing up Monkey and James (puppet monkey and teddy bear respectively) and stepping out on a new adventure!

Needless to say I’ve had those dreams as the imminent date grows ever closer of being in China but having forgotten my rucksack so I have no clothes… or worse, a military coup occurring just as I start teaching my first class (fortunately I had a Gerard Butler moment and was able to save all the children with one chilling stare)!

But then… ahhh then… the butterflies that dance about in my belly at the thought of being sky-high again (even though I’m actually afraid of flying…), knowing I’m going to see incredible new things, engulf myself in a different culture, have a nightmare trying to locate a public toilet, end up eating something that I thought was something else and immediately regret said consumption, and in all likelihood, accidently walk the wrong way through the Forgotten City and end up in Mongolia.

What fun!

So, notice handed in at work (three months in advance… yes, I was a little over zealous once I received my TEFL certificate!) I’ve now been removed from my office and sent down the back of the building… which, in other situations I might complain about, in this… well it just gives me more time to write list after list after list of what needs to be packed / cancelled / considered for China, move figures around on my budget endlessly because every week I seem to over spend (ie I definitely needed that new Kathmandu laptop holder with images of camera’s on it… and I can’t possibly teach English without an elephant finger puppet) and pop onto YouTube to watch “Lets Learn Mandarin” videos!

I think the hardest bit in all of this will be saying goodbye. It’s been some time since I lived so close to my family and it’s been… well sometimes I may have preferred to still be 3000 kilometres away (but that’s family isn’t it!) but mostly it’s been incredible to build so many new, ridiculous, heart-warming, encouraging, hilarious, outrageous, peaceful and peculiar memories.

Fortunately, the memory box fits perfectly between Imagination and Lateral Thinking due to my lack of Logic, so I get to take the lot away with me. I always knew my lack of logic would going to come in handy.

So, here we are three weeks out, eyes wide with enthusiasm, heart strings tugging on what will soon be nostalgia, sadness to say goodbye to my dog… oh, and family and friends! Calculating how to fit my next couple of years into a 20kg rucksack and certainty that I need new sneakers as the ones currently on my feet are wet and have holes in them.

All I can say now is… Bring On China


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