On My Growing Excitement About Going to England

I realize that I am posting twice in the same day, but I feel like the difference in topic of the two posts entitles them to their own space and title. If I had stuck with one post, it would have been exceedingly long, and you'd have been less pick up where you left off, if you stopped reading for the night. I'm just doing you a favour, darling!!

So, I thought it would be prudent of me to let you know that I have finally made my trip to England OFFICIAL. Obviously, it was official before, in that I had a job lined up, and was determined to go. However, I never had any of the nitty gritty stuff accomplished. Last week, I recieved my Working Holidaymaker Visa. This is the four hundred and change dollar Visa that I had applied to in June, that would allow me to work in England for a period of up to two years. I was excited to have gotten the Visa, because, as I mentioned in a previous post, I was afraid my money situation would hinder my application. Turns out it wasn't an issue at all, and it was approved within days of my appearing in person to submit it. I was overjoyed when I recieved it, and instantly started to plan for trip over.

I went online, shopped around for flights, and after a half hour of comparing, I booked a flight for August 22nd with Zoom. It leaves Toronto at around 8 at night, and arrives in London at 10 in the morning, London time (which means that the six hour leap ahead in time is factored into the arrival time). I am a tad nervous that I will effectively lose 6 hours of sleep, so I am planning to sleep for most of the plane ride there, if I can. I may take a gravol or two to aid in this plan, but we shall see. I want to avoid jet lag as much as possible.

I also went ahead and booked a hotel room for the night of August 23rd. I booked the room off of the Gatwick airport website, since that's the airport I am flying into. It's apparently a 4 star hotel, a five minute shuttle ride (free) from the airport. I plan to check in as soon as I can, drop my stuff off in the room, and then find a way to head out to view London on my own for the day. I want to stay up all day, and go to bed at around 10pm London time. I've been told that it's best to try as soon as possible to get into a normal sleep pattern, so I am going to try my hardest, right from the start. The following day, Sunday the 24th, I am going to find my way to a train station in London, and attempt to figure out how to get from London to Cambridge. I am told trains run that way, so this shouldn't be too hard. Once in Cambridge, I may just call a cab, and get it to take me to Swavesey, where I am arranging at the moment to stay in a bed and breakfast for a week. During that week, I plan to view flats and rooms to rent, for the rest of the year. I've already made three appointments, so things are moving along quite nicely.

I can only hope it all goes as planned. I am very nervous at the prospect of having to do this TOTALLY alone, and in a foreign country. However, the best I can do is plan a LOT before I go, and hope that nothing goes wrong. If it does, I will have to rely on the kindness of strangers, and try to use my Canadian charm to help myself out.

As the flight date approaches, I can't help but start to get more and more excited about it. This is going to be such an amazing opportunity for me...to get to live and work in England...I mean how many people can do that? Sure, lots of people go teach English as a second language in Korea....but that's not the same. I don't think that holds as much weight as teaching in England, where the curriculum is much more like the curriculum in Ontario. I feel that I will be much more qualified, when I return. It will be a much more real teaching experience, and one that I could use to help me progress as a teacher, both in England and in Canada.

I also would be lying if I didn't say I an harbouring fantasies about meeting someone in England. Someone really special. Maybe even THE someone. Maybe the reason I am having so much trouble over here is because HE'S not here...he's over there. I can't help but think that this is happening for a reason. I am going to England not just to teach, but maybe to find the life that was meant for me. I'm a hopeless romantic in that sense. However, my Mom keeps cautioning that if I go there looking for love, I won't find it, because we never find what we're looking for when we're openly seeking it; it has to find us when we least expect it. So, in that vein, I will try very hard not to have any expectations. In fact, once I get there I will probably be so busy with working and planning, I won't have time to look. So maybe it will hit me, after all!

Anyways, that's all I wanted to say on the matter, for now. I will keep trying to update you on the progress, as it comes.

Cheers!