Life in England is going well. I haven’t been doing much, since I can’t seem to get any work, but we’ll get there in a minute. I don’t know if it’s just that last year I wasn’t sure what to expect or if I was used to more blue skies during the winter, but it seemed like it was miserable and rainy all the time. I guess I’m slowly becoming English because this winter hasn’t seemed that bad. It’s still rainy, cold, and generally grey, but it hasn’t bothered me as much this year. It might also be that it hasn’t rained as much. Who knows, but suffice it to say, I still really like it here.
So, work. Well, when I got back from the States in October, I hit the job search hard. I applied to every history teaching job I could find, but to no avail. I also applied to be a supply teacher. (In America, we call it substitute teaching.) Here in England, they don’t have school districts, so there’s no way to get hired by a district and be sent out to schools by them. Instead, they have temp agencies that are dedicated to finding subs for schools. Anyway, I got hired by an agency in Oxfordshire, which is the county just north of where I live. Then I got hired by another agency that serves schools in the surrounding area. I was pretty excited, but there was some paper work, etc. that needed doing before I could start. Well, the paper work came through, but not in time for me to actually work before Christmas. BLEH! Anyway, since I’ve been back, I still haven’t had any work. I did find another agency based here in Reading. I met with them on Wednesday and they signed me. Unfortunately now the problem is that I don’t have my visa to prove that I have permission to work here. I had to apply for the new visa before the 31st of January and haven’t gotten it back yet. So there you go. Luckily I have faith that my decision to stay was the right one because there are plenty of reasons to doubt. I’m a little bit nervous to teach here, but also excited for the challenge. I’m sure there will be plenty of interesting experiences that will make it onto these pages. Stay tuned.
Other than that, life is good. I have amazing friends and my housemates are great. I feel blessed to have so many fabulous people in my life. I have made some life-long friends here and I can’t ever think about leaving them without getting a bit misty. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to make new friends and it has been a good experience for me to be here and have to step out of my comfort zone and meet new people. It also makes me feel pretty good about myself that I’ve made so many friends who think I’m cool. Yep, still got it. In all seriousness though, I love the people here and they are extremely good to me. I love that I’ll always have friends in England. I’ve also invited all of them to stay at Mom and Dad’s anytime they’re in town. Hope that’s okay.
