It is August 5th 2017 and my four weeks in London is officially over!
I’m writing this blog post from Gatwick airport, as I sip on
some (well deserved) Prosecco and wait for my flight home.
I had planned on writing at least one blog post a week with
updates on how I was getting on and what I was doing, but blogspot was
unfortunately blocked on the WiFi access I had in the school. As it turns out,
I wouldn’t have had any time to post a blog post! I was busy pretty much 24/7!
For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been working in a
language summer camp just outside London for almost a month now. It was such an
amazing experience and I am so sad to see it end.
I arrived on what was probably the hottest day ever,
travelling on a sweaty train to Newbury with six other people I met for the
first time at the airport. We reached at the school at seven o'clock and
registered with the camp. We even received some very snazzy name tags, which
acted as our key passes for the four week which let us get into the different
buildings. V professional.
The school grounds were amazing! They reminded me of the
holiday camp in Dirty Dancing.
And yet, it's a boarding school! If I went to school there, I'd never want to
leave!
We
spent the first two days getting to know each other and having some training.
Everyone I worked with was so lovely and we all clicked immediately! The
training helped us understand what was going to happen once students arrived,
but it wasn’t until we got stuck into the work we really understood how things
worked!
I was working in the KIDS department,
which I am forever grateful for! These little kiddies were aged 7 all the way
up to 10 years old, and they were just too cute! I had a great time working as
their house parent (their mammy for the four weeks!). So much so, I found it
very difficult to leave them this morning!
I got to experience things I never would
have done if I hadn’t been offered this job. I went to so many animal parks I declared
myself a master farm animal feeder! I got to visit a child’s science museum,
which was just as fun for us adults. I discovered how relaxing painting
(especially ceramic plates) can be. But the most exciting thing I got to do was
go to see two of my all-time favourite West End musicals – ‘The Lion King’ and
‘Aladdin’! Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Disney and musicals.
Combining the two? Well, you can only imagine my reaction! Of course, I cried
during the two opening songs of both (Circle
of Life, I understand crying through. But Arabian Nights from ‘Aladdin’? Why? Just why did I cry?).
Definitely one (well, two) of my highlights of the four weeks!
As I said, this was definitely one of the
best things I could have ever done for myself.
I was worried coming over that I would
get home sick and anxious (like I did when I was in the Gaeltacht for two
weeks, which was a four hour drive away from home) but I didn’t! I was kept
busy and didn’t have time to think about being away from home and my family, or
anxiety in any form at all. I cried for the first time in four weeks last
night, all because I said to my mam that in 24 hours I would be on Irish soil.
It was the build up of emotions I didn’t have time to let out for a month, and
honestly, it felt great. They weren’t sad tears (except for the ones that had to do with leaving), but happy tears. It was an amazing four weeks that I
got to spend with amazing people!
Until next time.
Fifs xo
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