Journeying

Guess who got to fly first class to Ghana? Correct. I did! Though I should probably start this one at the beginning...

We left from England at around 4pm Wednesday afternoon after a busy morning of last-minute packing. At first I was feeling quite anxious to be leaving as two weeks is a long time to be away from my family and I really don't fly well. I often find the experience quite stressful especially as you are in a strange, confined atmosphere with lots of strangers and there's no way to leave if I need to. However, I was certain that this was the right time to maybe not get over my fear of flying but work towards it. We boarded the plane and took off exactly to schedule with no issues which put my mind at ease a little bit. 

Four hours later, we arrived safely in Istanbul where we spent the night in a very posh looking hotel. I woke up well rested in the morning and enjoyed a fantastic smoothie for breakfast before sightseeing in Istanbul Old Town. Obviously this was an opportunity to take photos so I'll try to upload some of those later.

At 1pm we returned to the airport to board for our second flight; Istanbul to Accara. After a small lunch at the airport we boarded the plane but as we were boarding, my friend Amber and I were taken to first class by an air steward as there wasn't enough room for everyone's hand luggage in economy class. We also took one of our teachers with us who managed to bring the other but we left Rob behind. I felt so bad! It was a great experience though. There seemed to be a constant supply of food which became a little bit annoying but having four times as much leg room was brilliant! Also, we each had our own TV that came out of an arm rest! It was a fantastic experience. 

We arrived at Accara quite late and spent over an hour at passport control followed by a similar amount of time discussing lost baggage but then travelled around ten minutes to a house where we would be staying the night. From the minute my head hit the pillow I was asleep; travelling tires you out a lot! We woke up quite early and bought digestive biscuits for breakfast (healthy, of course) then got onto a coach for a five hour ride to the house where we will be staying for two weeks.

We arrived at around 2:30pm all very excited for our two weeks of volunteering!

Keep smiling

Kathryn x

(P.s. I hope you didn't find this post too boring, just wanted to keep you all up to date with the things I'm doing over summer)

What do you want to do in the future?

So this is going to be a different sort of blog post today. I haven't posted for a while and wanted to write but didn't have anything in particular to write about so I decided to just let my pen take control and see where it went. 

Since I've just finished my exams and my first year at college (year 12) and applying for university starts in September, I've been asked a lot about what it is I want to do in the future and I guess it's made me realise that I don't actually know, but that's okay! Sometimes it really is okay to be unsure of things. It just means that you're taking your time to consider things so that you don't rush into something that you don't really want to do.

For a while I've had a couple of options and one of those is to do medicine at university and then become a doctor. I have quite a lot of experience of the life changing things that doctors do and thought it would be absolutely fantastic to be able to help people like that. However, I've done quite a lot of voluntary work in hospitals and realised that often, the reality of the job isn't quite the same as you think. It is still something that I'm considering but I'd have to find a specialism with the minimal amount of paperwork possible as the main reason I'm interested in this is for the patient contact time. Which I guess could seem odd to some people who know me well as I can get quite anxious in social situations but, from my own experience, I'm not too bad in small groups for example when I'm teaching at swimming or in a classroom. So, I'm not by any means doubting the excellent work that medical professionals do. I'm just wondering whether or not the current system is something that I'd be happy working with because I believe that you never really work a day if you're doing something that you enjoy! 

One more thing that I've thought about is a career in teaching. I think it would give me plenty of opportunity to work with different types of people and the work experience I have done in schools has been really fun. I don't think I'd ever be able to teach in a primary school (the children are all way too small) but I quite enjoy maths and think I wouldn't be too much of a bad secondary school maths teacher. Again, because maths is something I enjoy, I think doing a degree in maths then a PGCE would be quite a good career choice for me but I'm not too sure. I may enjoy the degree so much that I choose a different career in maths. I know that by September I really need to have decided what I'm going to do and it may be one of these or I could choose something completely different but for the time being I'm not going to worry too much about it and just enjoy my summer. As long as I end up in a career that I enjoy, it doesn't matter too much to me and its probably what's here right now that I should be focusing on. Whatever happens, happens and you have to trust that you'll make the right decisions as they come along.

So in short, I'm not too bothered about what I do as a career or anything. I just want to have a job where I am happy and I'm in a position where I can make other people happy! But I do want to hear from you. What do you want to do in the future?

Keep smiling,

Kathryn x

Looking For Alaska: book review

Having now finished reading John Greene's novel 'Looking for Alaska's, I am back, as promised, with a quick review for you to (hopefully) enjoy. I have no intentions of spoiling it in any way but just in case you're currently reading it or about to read it, you may choose not to read any further for now and that's fine!

Looking For Alaska is quite clearly aimed at a young adult audience although it could easily be enjoyed by people of other ages and I wouldn't let the target audience put anyone off giving John Green's novels a try.

The novel tells the story of Miles, the protagonist, who leaves his school in Florida (where he is far from popular) to join a boarding school in Alabama. When he arrives he meets his roommate, The Colonel, who provides him with the nickname Pudge and introduces him to Alaska. Alaska is quite a complex character whose respect for the rules is lacking in many areas, and it is the relationships between the three characters that are expected throughout the novel. 

I found the way that the novel was written extremely interesting. The first chapter is called 'One hundred and thirty-six days before' which leaves you pretty convinced that it is a countdown to a huge event but even knowing this doesn't quite leave you emotionally prepared. Without giving too much away, the final day leaves the characters separated and the days after take you on Miles' journey to discover the full events of that night. In some ways I found the final few pages a little bit predictable but I don't think it would be enough for me to dissuade anyone from reading it. 

Another thing I really loved about this book was the way two different, possibly clashing, personalities were brought together. Miles and the Colonel are from completely contrasting backgrounds but form a remarkable friendship which is tested to an extreme level.

There's not too much more that I can say without giving everything away but I can certainly say that I would recommend giving Looking For Alaska a read! Feel free to leave your views on the novel down below and if you have any book recommendations for me, please leave them too! 

Keep smiling,
Kathryn x