My travel plans are coming into focus!
My adventures continue – and I’ve not even left home! Decisions have been made – that feels good. Admittedly, I am still far from having all the details but the trip is beginning to have some shape to it. Before I update you on where I am thinking of going I feel I should fill you in on a little detail as to how I got to this exciting place.
Last year I took some time out from my business coaching to take a CELTA course to learn how to teach English as a foreign language. My incentive for doing the course was to eventually to be able to teach refugees English, as from my time volunteering last year I realised how important it is for them to be able to communicate their needs, their pain and their hopes. Having graduated from the course, I then I got a job in Hove at Oxford International School. I loved the teaching. The school was incredibly supportive of the new teachers. And the students were wonderful. I really enjoyed hearing their stories about their home countries and their culture. But…sadly my health began to decline. I have to be honest and say although I loved the work, I found that planning the lessons was taking so much of my time, by the end of the week I was exhausted and I had very little downtime to recover. I know part of this is due to my perfectionist nature, so I’ll come back to this story in my next blog. The end result though was that chronic fatigue hit me in a big way and I decided to take time out to recuperate properly. And after a while I thought “what better way to recuperate than to go travelling”! And so the planning commenced.
So far my plans involve either visiting friends or travelling with friends. I am thinking about lots of me time too, but those plans will become more concrete once I have some dates for South America. I am starting my travels on 4 April heading off to San Francisco to visit my friends Richard and Zane. After 2 weeks with them, I’m then going on to visit Bob in Vancouver. Just typing that makes me feel uber excited. With a few days back in Blighty I am then going to Athens and Chania in Crete with my sister, Jacqui. And that trip will be followed by South America travelling with my friend Janet. Wow – and that’s just the first 3 -4 months!
Which brings us nicely back to the South America trip. So what have I achieved this week? Well Janet and i have mapped out the places we want to visit in Peru, Bolivia and Columbia. They are mighty big countries and it’s a mighty long list! So now we are pricing it all up. Part of me thinks that we are being a bit ambitious for my budget, but it’s hard to drop places when they all sound so mind-blowing. Some harsh decisions may have to be made and all by next week!
Then it will be time to refocus on me and my needs. I have found somewhere that I am hoping to go to for a 10 day silent meditation which I feel will be just the remedy after boisterous South America! But those plans will have to wait until I have the exact dates for Peru, Bolivia and Columbia. It feels like a magical dream that I am actually going to be going to all these amazing places – and so soon ?.
Finalise the dates for South America – where are we going and when are we going there?!
70 days to go – this time in exactly 10 weeks I’ll be on my way to San Francisco. Woo hoo!