Lessons I learned from the Freedom Writers

After hanging out with N yesterday she gave me a book to read. When I arrived at her house her cheeks were pufy and her eyes red and she told me that she has wept and wept while reading 'Lessons I learned from the Freedom Writers' by Erin Gruwell. This is a story that has been made into a film staring Hilary Swank and is about a teacher who works in one of the toughest classrooms in California.

The patience and committment that this woman has is nothing short of inspirational. I have to admit that it is all a little bit 'Oprah' for me, but the fact is that I picked up the book at 9.00 this morning and finished it a couple of minutes ago. It did make me cry, but is made me think so much about my own choices as an educator. Sometimes you do wonder how much actual impact you have on childrens lives.

It was just a brilliant book and an amazing story. There is nothing I wanted to do more than lose a few hours reading a book cover to cover while the grey clouds outside float over my head. Whether you are involved in teaching or not, this gives us all something to think about when it comes to how much we put into what we do.

One enchanted evening

After school yesterday I was knackered. It has seemed like a long week, but we had made plans to go for Thai food as it is N's 40th birthday next week. What T, R and L didn't tell me was that we were going to eat at the home of a friend of T's who is actually Thai herself and caters for home dinner parties. The food was exquisite, as was the company. Having not worked at the school for three years while I was abroad, I forgot just how much I enjoyed the company of my co-workers.

The evening took me by surprise really. We laughed and I ate so much that I am still full now, the morning after. We talked about all sorts of stuff and it was one of those enchanted evenings when the time just flew by. I have not enjoyed a night out so much in a long time. Maybe we will all go again before I leave to go to Budapest, any excuse to eat A's amazing Thai food,(deep fried quails eggs anyone?).

There are some pictures of the evening to follow, but for now I am content to feel settled and happy that a simple evening with colleagues and friends can turn into something so relaxed and warm.

Something on the inside

I have not been at work today, I have been elsewhere. I have begun to realise that there is something on the inside that makes me love travel. At a basic level, cars, buses, trains and planes, I adore that sense of movement. It doesn't have to be travel for hundreds of miles. I drove for about 40 minutes today and still ended up with a lightness to my breathing and weight released from my shoulders. I know it would be easy to get addicted to being away from home, to constant movement.

I ordered my books from amazon and today I recieved Hungarian language books, maps and guidebooks so that me M and J can plan next summers grown up version of backpacking. Croatia, Slovak Republic, Romania, I am going to try and sneak Transylvania onto the itinerary too. I wonder if this is a part of my personality that I was born with, this desire to live a life less ordinary without ever having realised what ordinary is.

A new sort of waiting space

Now that the job has been accepted I find myself in a different sort of waiting space. It is only three months before I plan on being on a plane and off to Budapest but three months now seems like a long time to wait. I will be working most of that time, but once you get yourself into a mindset that everything is going to change, your attitude alters long before your location does.

It is Monday morning and the start of another week, already I feel strange. Only now is the reality of having found what I was looking for sinking in. I looked around my room this morning and started to think about suitcases and shoes, imagining how may pairs of jeans I can fit into my bag. I have found a new sort of waiting space, this one feels more urgent, more strange, more exciting.

Blog silence

In rememberance of the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings

Blur

In the end it all happened very quickly and I interviewed, was offered and accedpted the job within 24 hours. A couple of weeks ago there were two jobs that I could really see myself enjoying and being good at and I was happy that I got the one that I wanted in the end. I have been to Budapest once, which is once more than I had been to Warsaw before I moved there so I am already on familiar ground. I went with J one summer when we were on our train travels around Europe and we both thought that it was an amazing city.

I feel at home in Eastern Europe, I looked at some Hungarian language stuff last night and already found a few words that are very similar to Polish so I can look forward to learning a new language again. I always say this when I move somewhere new, but I really should get sorted and have some lessons this time. I love Hungarian food and am excited about reading local papers and finding out about news and politics in this place.

Above all I feel relief, the job sounds amazing and the city full of secrets to be discovered and I know that I will be very happy there. This was a job worth waiting for, and I am very happy that I didn't take the first place that offered me a job, glad that I waited for the one that I wanted.

Got it?