Coming abroad to work as an English teacher has been quite restricting on my schedule. Of course, I’m loving every second of it but actually having a job does mean that I can’t just skip a day or take a day off like my friends studying at university can, so I’ve really learnt how to Read more
Bonjour à tous et à toutes ! Today’s blog will cover the topic of Food & Drink. There are so many delicious specialities offered by French cuisine, it’s hard to choose between them! However, I will focus on some delicacies of the Rhône-Alpes (the region where I am currently studying). Food – La Nourriture La Read more
At long last, here is part three of my adventures in Yamagata. My apologies for the delay – it’s been a pretty busy week as usual. To pick up where I left off, we’d collected our new translator and then immediately after we visited a Japanese castle. We made a quick stop at a foot Read more
First of all, my apologies for the late post – this past week has been unbelievably busy and tiring, but very fun. We had a pretty full-on week of mostly sightseeing which made a nice break from all the work we had been doing in the fields. Even without the sightseeing, some interesting things happened Read more
The past week has proved busy but highly productive, not to mention enjoyable. Already it feels as if I have been in Yamagata forever, and I wouldn’t mind if that was the case. In terms of work we have been busy weeding rice paddies, weeding vegetable patches, weeding an athletics track, weeding a flower garden…yeah, Read more
Yesterday I arrived in Tokyo but was too tired to update after so much walking – my apologies for that. These past few days have been quite hectic but fun. I met three of the other volunteers in the airport and we all caught the dreaded 12 hour plane together. When we finally arrived in Hong Kong, Read more
So now that I’m coming to the end of my first month of work here in Marseille, I thought I’d take a minute to share some of my experiences and basically describe what an average working day looks like for me at the hostel. In a normal week, I tend to spend around 30 hours Read more
So I haven’t really had anything to write about on this blog for about a month now, as I was home over Christmas and assumed that my Christmas Day eating and sleeping habits (50:50 ratio if you’re interested) weren’t what this blog was meant to be used for. However, I’m now back on the mainland Read more
So I finally got to Barcelona Friday evening, after a long, long train ride all the way from home, but now I’m all settled in, I thought I’d update you on how my first proper day went and how my flat is. Or more accurately, how my first afternoon went, seeing as I slept most Read more
Today we went to the science fair at Ubon Ratchathani University. We left at around 9.30 and travelled on the school bus with some of my G.12 students. I don’t remember much of it, but my students have now seen how I look when I sleep on a bus. I was still a bit tired Read more
So today I had my G.10 class that I was dreading first thing at 8.30am. It sounds silly to say that I wasn’t looking forward to a class, but it’s true. They can be the least well-behaved out of the students I have, but they also have the most to learn and can be the Read more
So today was a difficult day, looking back I think it was mostly my doing though. I had three lessons today and I was still a bit tired from the weekend. This had affected my lesson planning as well, and because the lesson plans weren’t as well thought out, the lessons lagged too. I had Read more
So we thought we had until at least 8am to get ready to go to the waterfall. But would it really be Thailand without surprises? Instead Aum woke us up at 7am and said that we were leaving soon. So we went and got ready…only to be waiting for another hour. We found out later Read more
Today we had the day of school to hold a ceremony to celebrate mother’s day. If you’re confused about why mothers’ day is in August, it is because in Thailand mothers’ day is on the same day as the queen’s birthday. This is because the Thai people see the queen as the mother of their Read more
This was our one sleep-in today, and somehow my body woke me up at 8am. Which is a sleep-in compared to 6.30am, but still! I would have preferred to sleep a little longer. But it did mean that I could download some episodes of Ugly Duckling for the journey home. I also got to breakfast Read more
We woke up at 7am and got ready in half an hour. We left the hotel at 7.40am and walked to the bus station which was only a five-minute walk away. Just enough time for the coffee I made in the hotel to cool down. We soon found the queue for tickets to Khon Kaen, Read more
I was back to my normal classes today. As much as the younger years are adorable and it was really nice having a Thai speaker leading the lesson, I did slightly miss my own classes. I must have been quite excited to see them again because I woke up around 6am and decided to get Read more
Despite waking up ridiculously early the day before, my body clock decided that it was a great idea to wake me up at 5am again. As much as I was not happy about this arrangement, it did mean that I am now half way through my book (Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman Read more
I woke up at 5am this morning so I could shower and make sure I had packed everything. As much as it was a sensible idea, I really wish I had set the alarm half an hour later. We got to the bus station (thanks to Aum calling us a taxi) and waited until our Read more
Today we had a much appreciated lie in, and an endless supply of toast, which was even more appreciated. We also got to play with the dogs before breakfast. Needless say it was a great morning. After getting a taxi to Central Plaza, which Aum had called for us, we met up with Eleanor in Read more
Today I woke up to find the wifi was working again! It had mysteriously stopped working the night before. It didn’t interrupt anything important like Netflix, just talking to my Dad. For breakfast we had an endless supply of pancakes for breakfast – it was wonderful! I also had them with grapes and I can Read more
I woke up around 3am and couldn’t get back to sleep so I looked up various TEFL courses. Since being in Thailand the idea of teaching abroad after I graduate has become more of a possibility. By the time the others were moving, at 4am, I had looked at a couple of courses and narrowed Read more
We were all awake around 10am but it was too hot to move or do anything that productive just yet. Breakfast was at MeUB&B again, I had the banana and nutella sandwich stack and strawberry this time. It was great, even if they were a little skimpy with the nutella. Our transport for the zip Read more
This Saturday morning we woke up at 6.30am, not because we were going crazy after two weeks in Thailand, but because we were going rafting at 10 at Sirindhorn Dam. I had packed for rafting the night before and managed to put a few clothes aside for Chiang Mai. I managed to leave the room Read more
This morning was great. As much as we still had to get up ridiculously early, we did not have to dress for school. Why? Because we were going on a school trip! Today we were going with G.10-12 to plant rice in the principle’s fields. These trips happen often at the school in the upper Read more
Today we did not have any lessons as we were visiting another school. Another school in Muang Samsip was holding a singing and dancing competition and a small fair with market and food stalls. After sitting through the opening ceremony, where they held a signing for an educational act, we watched some traditional Thai dancers Read more
Pre-departure The best feeling was when I received an email congratulating me on my success in achieving a grant to study abroad. I had the option of choosing where to study as long as it was for at least a month and in a recognised institution. Salamanca seemed ideal for me as I had always Read more
Blas caught up with Chris Beynon, a final year Economics student who spent last summer volunteering in Burundi, a small country in central Africa with Tearfund as part of the International Citizen Service (ICS) scheme. Can you tell us about your placement and what it involved? ICS is a British government funded initiative that aims Read more
Wendy Maden, final year student on the BSc City and Regional Planning, reflects on her experience of studying abroad through the Erasmus programme Wendy, third from the right, pictured in Leuven with friends made while on the Erasmus programme. Wendy stated: “This photo summarises Erasmus quite well: Swedish, Italian, German, British, Israeli and Italian in Read more
After a 30 hour journey and several flight delays, we finally arrived in Hong Kong. The first shock occurred as we stepped out of the cool air conditioned airport, and into the hot and humid weather. The sweating had begun. Something you have to get used to in China. After our failed attempt to acclimatise, Read more
Travelling in China is always an experience and today’s trip to Gulangyu Island was no exception. If you’ve never travelled in a densely populated city before, you’re in for a surprise. In order to get to the island we had to get 2 buses and a ferry all of which were absolutely packed. Imagine a Read more
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