Laura Carr's TEFLing in Taiwan is coming to an end with her future plans still unclear. If only some wise person could lead her like a young cat – like her cat, in fact. Where's all this leading? So, last week I finally got a response from Northumbria University that I'd been accepted onto the Masters course (Social Justice and Society). Now, I'm torturing myself about whether I should accept or not.
I know that I’d enjoy the course, but it’s all a matter of finances. I’m not sure whether it will be worth getting into even more debt for such a non-vocational course that might not lead to a better job at the end of it. I’m wondering whether I’d be better off just coming back and applying for any job that sounds vaguely interesting to me, then seeing where that takes me. Anyway, I’ve asked for advice from my sister’s friend who did a Masters and now works in social development for the European Union and is knowledgeable on these types of things, so I should have a better idea within the next few days. Alternatively...Meanwhile, in my fantasy world, I’m concocting the Laura-as-translator daydream. It all started when I was out with my friend who’s a freelance translator – she translates things from English and Spanish into French and she’s here in Taiwan to add Mandarin to her list of languages. Within the space of about an hour, she’d used her English to talk to me, her French to talk to someone, well, French, and her Spanish to talk to an American who uses her as his Spanish-practice person. We got talking about the benefits of speaking other languages and about her freelance work, and by the time I went home I’d pretty much decided that I’m actually destined to be a freelance translator. Sadly for me, my vocational epiphany has come about eight years too late. But in my daydream I speak French, Spanish and Portuguese and I’m studying Italian. I work from home in England but when the English weather gets too much for me I head off to my farmhouse in the south of France for a couple of months. Alas, my GCSE French and tiny spattering of Chinese is all I have to build upon, so I may as well nip that plan in the bud right now. Not long to go Back in the real world, I got through the school parent’s evening in one piece, as did my kids. They did a skit and a song about friendship which went well. Somehow they managed to pull the whole thing off to make it seem cute and tongue-in-cheek so we bypassed the nausea. I was most impressed with them, and so were their parents. Most of the major events of the school year are over now, just one more parents’ day and the Graduation Ceremony to go.
Also in the (sur)real world, I’m beginning to prepare my cat Charlie for the trip back to the UK. I’ve bought the cat carrier she’ll travel back in, and I’m trying to encourage her to think of it as a cosy little bed, which isn’t working as she already has a cosy little bed on my knee. I’ve also been preparing her for the outside world (she lives in our apartment at the moment) by training her on a harness. This is no easy feat, as she’s very much a free spirit (or maybe a spoilt brat), and she wasn’t at all happy about me putting on her Walking Jacket at first - I have the scratches to prove it. But she’s figured out that if she wears it, she can leave the flat. So far she has explored the hallway outside my door and I’ve taken her one floor up to sniff the upstairs neighbours’ shoes, which she finds very interesting. It won’t be long before I’ll be taking her for walks in the park! Speaking of which, Charlie is looking a little bored, so I’m off to do some more hallway exploring… See Laura's previous recent job logs
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