First month at Wellington Girls' and final blog post

 It is kind of crazy to realise I've been working at Wellington Girls' for a whole month now. It has been extremely full on as well as trying to get settled in a new flat. School has been really wonderful though. Staff are super friendly and helpful and I really appreciate that those higher up have made it really clear my priority is just to settle in. It has been nice to go from 10 classes in the UK that I saw only twice or three times a week, to 5 classes who I see three or four times a week. There are far fewer names to remember and my students are a lot more forgiving about helping me remember them! I have found it hard to get used to only 45 or 50 minute lessons when my ones in the UK had gone up to 90 minutes with covid. My classes are going really well with me feeling like I can actually relax in them and I can truly joke around with senior classes too. Behaviour really isn't much of a thing, I've had to get my "teacher voice" out only a couple of times and mostly I can just get on and teach. Most girls make a point of saying thank you at the end of a class and it is just such a nice change to be teaching motivated students. Not saying it doesn't come with challenges - I've had upset and crying students because of getting 8/10 on a vocab test or stressed they aren't going to get Excellence on an internal. But I finally feel like I may have found somewhere I can see myself staying for the foreseeable future. Praise God that it has all gone smoothly and I am yet to have a bad day at work!

My new house is going pretty well too and we are getting used to how each of us works. It is strange not having everyone around all the time but it is kind of nice to be going back to more of a normal routine. I think it really hit me when I had actual real weekend plans last week! I was going rock climbing with my brother Matt and his partner, I could go to church in person, and then go out to lunch with friends! Things really are pretty normal here - I have finally stopped flinching anytime anyone gets too close as well which is nice. Our house also has a kitten who was called Misty but has had a name change to Darcy since the vet informed us "she" is actually a "he"! He provides plenty of entertainment and cuddles and scratches and currently, fleas, though that will hopefully be dealt with soon!

So all in all things are going pretty well and I am looking forward to finding a church, building a community, and really starting to put down roots here. Thanks everyone for the prayers and for thinking of me during this big move! I am going to finish keeping this blog here as it was only ever intended to stay in touch with you all while I lived in England. I hope we can all stay in touch through more conventional means and I have really appreciated everyone's support through this crazy journey!