Well... it's that time of year again. The time where it ends. Out goes 2009, in comes 2010.
I, however, live with the school-year. For me, my year basically started in September. If this is Frank's #yearotf, then basically my year is always near my birthday, since I'm mid-August.
So far, this year has been great. By that, I mean THIS school year.
2009? Well. 2009 rather stunk, although I'll mix it up with 2008's ending.
My 2008/2009 year: AKA the last year at York University:
- break up with Luke just before the year starts
- York goes on strike for 3 months
- I can barely afford groceries due to said strike as I was laid off for its duration
- Luke and I completely stop talking
- lose touch with more than one rather close friend
- Uni life was very stressful
- crazy drama revolving around my younger brother
+ spent the majority of 3 months with my nieces
+ graduated! I'm now the owner of a Specialized Honours BA, majoring in English. I am also the (much less proud) owner of a Bachelor of Education, specializing in Junior/Intermediate English
+ despite all terror, applied and went through all the red tape to come teach in England!
My 2009/2010 year so far:
+ moved to London England!
+ realized I actually LOVE living in London!
+ wrote 70,000 words in the month of November for Nanowrimo!
+ met some wonderful people through Nano
+ actually enjoyed supply-teaching!
+ got hired for a Year 5 class starting Jan 2010!
+ learned to let myself spend money when it comes to doing what I want
- as such, I'm not QUITE saving as much as I want to be
- worried that some of my friends back in Canada are going to forget about me or just not bother trying to keep in touch
- miss my friends and that back in Canadaland
As you can see, 2009/2010 year is starting off quite wonderfully. I've never been happier.
I don't do New Years Resolutions, but these are my near-future (how close the near-future is is debatable and up for change) goals:
* finish my novel
* save up money and find my own flat (this I think is quite ambitious living in London!)
* pay Siggy back
* keep on top of my student loan
* get the rest of the 2009/2010 year PLANNED thoroughly
* travel somewhere outside of England
* get a new lens for my camera
They won't be done in that order, but those are the goals. Well. The new lens IS the last on the list, but nonetheless, it is a goal that I have in the back of my head.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Christmas in London
This will be my first Christmas post-university, and although it won't be the first Christmas I've spent by myself, this will be the first Christmas where I've planned and looking forward to spending Christmas all on my own.
A lot of people have seemed to think it's a sad thing, but you know what? Honestly, I'm quite excited for it. I haven't been this much in "the Christmas spirit" for absolutely years. I think being at York might have affected it - was always so busy and stressed out in November and the beginning of December, that by the time Christmas came all I wanted to do was sleep and play video games. Not a bad way to spend the holidays, but for the most part I really had no excitement about the holidays and only thought "thank gawd, no more essays"
This year? For the last few days now I've been listening to Christmas radio when on the computer. That's right. Christmas radio.
I've also bought and set up the most Charlie Brown of Christmas trees. I am working on a small budget so that's alright with me. It looks cute when it's dark, but during the day it's a little sad to look at! Poor thing. I really dislike putting the lights and garland on the tree though. You can sort of tell by looking at it. Dismantling this tree is certainly going to be a challenge!
I've also went through the process of somewhat buying myself Christmas presents (aka, some things I would have bought myself anyway, plus some knick knacks that I wouldn't have, plus the various chocolates that I only ever have at Christmas). Now.... the nerdy and embarassing part: I had no presents to wrap in this country, and after decorating the tree my next favourite thing is wrapping presents. So I wrapped my own presents, because what else was there to wrap! It made me happy, but once they were all wrapped I really felt quite silly for it. I believe I will feel utterly embarassed unwrapping them, but I really just wanted to wrap something.
I started off my Christmas celebrating by going out with some of the #nanolondon crew (Mel, Jay, Claire, Jen, Ben, Chloe and Sarah plus a few of their friends). We went to a traditional German Christmas Market down at Southbank, right where we've been writing for the past month for nano! It was a great evening, which mostly consisted of food. We had mulled wine (Gluwein) and for most of us, it was our first time having it. I thought it was absolutely delicious. Mel and I also bought roasted chestnuts! I've wanted to try roasted chestnuts since I was a little child, so I was quite excited to finally get to! I was not disappointed at all, as I loved them, which was good since the rest of the nano-crew really didn't seem to like them!
It was a lovely evening with them, and felt very Christmasy to me.
In other news, completely unrelated but is basically an awesome Christmas present for me: I've been hired! It's with a year 5 class who are quite lovely children, in a small and really lovely school. I really like how it feels there. I only found out last Thursday (the 10th) so I'm really very excited! The school is willing to get me my QTS which is possibly the best part, as that's at the top of my priority list!
It's really setting up to have 2009 end on a really good foot, which is the exact opposite of how the year started. Last January was not a good time! I've got a lot on the calendar for now though - dinner with Melissa before she heads back to Canada for Christmas, dinner with my flatmates before they head off, Christmas and Birthday drinks for Frank and the nanolondon crew. Cookie baking at Claire and Jen's, kareokee at some point for Claire's and possibly Sarah's birthdays, New Years at Claire and Jen's, a trip to visit Mel and go to Windsor Castle just after New Years... somewhere in there will likely hang out with Tony, and at some point Jay is going to come over for movies in Wanstead... Plus whatever I end up deciding to do all on my own! So I've got lots more to go.
I also yesterday went and spent the day at Jay's, and while he was worried that his flat would be messy, the only things I could possibly give him shit about where 1. he met me WITHOUT A COAT ON!! 2. he needs to get himself FOOD so he can eat and 3. there weren't any pictures of his girlfriend up! All of which are easily remedied, so silly stress-case had nothing to worry about. I had an absolutely lovely time just hanging out and playing games and watching Dr. Who. Seeing as games and watching tv are Christmas traditions for me (being the only time I really have to do either!) it felt a lot like holidays. Plus Jay just started his Christmas holidays a week early so it really IS holiday stuff). It was really nice to have a relaxing social day, since normally I keep myself running around ALL THE TIME.
Anyway!,I hope that everyone back in Canada is having a wonderful start to the Christmas season, and I really hope that 2010 will be wonderful for everyone.... everyone I know has worked so hard that you really deserve to have things going your way! As for me, I really think 2010 is going to be amazing (even if it does get stressful right at the start when I adjust to working full-time as a teacher!) and I am amazed at my luck at having everything go so wonderful already. Of course, I know that most of it has been due to my own hard work and determination and whatnot, but a lot of it has also been luck. For example - yes I made myself go out and do the write-ins for Nanowrimo. But the luck came in when it turned out that everyone at those write-ins was so awesome! What a fun group of friends to have ran into! It was definitely luck. But I'm rather lucky so I'm not all that surprised.
All the best Canada!
PS. Your snowstorms make me smile.
A lot of people have seemed to think it's a sad thing, but you know what? Honestly, I'm quite excited for it. I haven't been this much in "the Christmas spirit" for absolutely years. I think being at York might have affected it - was always so busy and stressed out in November and the beginning of December, that by the time Christmas came all I wanted to do was sleep and play video games. Not a bad way to spend the holidays, but for the most part I really had no excitement about the holidays and only thought "thank gawd, no more essays"
This year? For the last few days now I've been listening to Christmas radio when on the computer. That's right. Christmas radio.
I've also bought and set up the most Charlie Brown of Christmas trees. I am working on a small budget so that's alright with me. It looks cute when it's dark, but during the day it's a little sad to look at! Poor thing. I really dislike putting the lights and garland on the tree though. You can sort of tell by looking at it. Dismantling this tree is certainly going to be a challenge!
I've also went through the process of somewhat buying myself Christmas presents (aka, some things I would have bought myself anyway, plus some knick knacks that I wouldn't have, plus the various chocolates that I only ever have at Christmas). Now.... the nerdy and embarassing part: I had no presents to wrap in this country, and after decorating the tree my next favourite thing is wrapping presents. So I wrapped my own presents, because what else was there to wrap! It made me happy, but once they were all wrapped I really felt quite silly for it. I believe I will feel utterly embarassed unwrapping them, but I really just wanted to wrap something.
I started off my Christmas celebrating by going out with some of the #nanolondon crew (Mel, Jay, Claire, Jen, Ben, Chloe and Sarah plus a few of their friends). We went to a traditional German Christmas Market down at Southbank, right where we've been writing for the past month for nano! It was a great evening, which mostly consisted of food. We had mulled wine (Gluwein) and for most of us, it was our first time having it. I thought it was absolutely delicious. Mel and I also bought roasted chestnuts! I've wanted to try roasted chestnuts since I was a little child, so I was quite excited to finally get to! I was not disappointed at all, as I loved them, which was good since the rest of the nano-crew really didn't seem to like them!
It was a lovely evening with them, and felt very Christmasy to me.
In other news, completely unrelated but is basically an awesome Christmas present for me: I've been hired! It's with a year 5 class who are quite lovely children, in a small and really lovely school. I really like how it feels there. I only found out last Thursday (the 10th) so I'm really very excited! The school is willing to get me my QTS which is possibly the best part, as that's at the top of my priority list!
It's really setting up to have 2009 end on a really good foot, which is the exact opposite of how the year started. Last January was not a good time! I've got a lot on the calendar for now though - dinner with Melissa before she heads back to Canada for Christmas, dinner with my flatmates before they head off, Christmas and Birthday drinks for Frank and the nanolondon crew. Cookie baking at Claire and Jen's, kareokee at some point for Claire's and possibly Sarah's birthdays, New Years at Claire and Jen's, a trip to visit Mel and go to Windsor Castle just after New Years... somewhere in there will likely hang out with Tony, and at some point Jay is going to come over for movies in Wanstead... Plus whatever I end up deciding to do all on my own! So I've got lots more to go.
I also yesterday went and spent the day at Jay's, and while he was worried that his flat would be messy, the only things I could possibly give him shit about where 1. he met me WITHOUT A COAT ON!! 2. he needs to get himself FOOD so he can eat and 3. there weren't any pictures of his girlfriend up! All of which are easily remedied, so silly stress-case had nothing to worry about. I had an absolutely lovely time just hanging out and playing games and watching Dr. Who. Seeing as games and watching tv are Christmas traditions for me (being the only time I really have to do either!) it felt a lot like holidays. Plus Jay just started his Christmas holidays a week early so it really IS holiday stuff). It was really nice to have a relaxing social day, since normally I keep myself running around ALL THE TIME.
Anyway!,I hope that everyone back in Canada is having a wonderful start to the Christmas season, and I really hope that 2010 will be wonderful for everyone.... everyone I know has worked so hard that you really deserve to have things going your way! As for me, I really think 2010 is going to be amazing (even if it does get stressful right at the start when I adjust to working full-time as a teacher!) and I am amazed at my luck at having everything go so wonderful already. Of course, I know that most of it has been due to my own hard work and determination and whatnot, but a lot of it has also been luck. For example - yes I made myself go out and do the write-ins for Nanowrimo. But the luck came in when it turned out that everyone at those write-ins was so awesome! What a fun group of friends to have ran into! It was definitely luck. But I'm rather lucky so I'm not all that surprised.
All the best Canada!
PS. Your snowstorms make me smile.
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