I set foot in the UK on 7/3/2017 and it has been more than a month so far. So many new and interesting things after more than a month of experience in the country that I always dreamed of coming to! On the first day of coming to Fairthorne Manor, everything seemed to appear in front of my eyes magically, no different from paradise and the scenes in that romantic movie: the vast, green steppe, the beautiful old trees. dreams, flowers bloom brilliantly everywhere, all kinds of flowers… oh why is it so beautiful, birds chirping all day, strangely peaceful, there are rivers, streams, forests, flower gardens, there are savannas, there are swans, there are mallards, there are deer, there are horses… there is everything! I’ve been engrossed in enjoying the beautiful scenery, enjoying it for months now and still not getting bored!
Life feels like a dream! Oh my god you are so beautiful! The people here are friendly, enthusiastic and responsible. Working with everyone is so much fun! If you have any problems, you can go to the manager and clearly find a solution: from the broken washing machine, the heater in the room does not work, the room only has 3 wardrobes, the child making me uncomfortable…
About work, I’m currently in the first month of training, so everything is very light, nothing too hard, wake up in the morning, have breakfast, then go to school: all activities (kayaking, great challenge, jumping pillow, low ropes, high ropes, woodland walk, treasure hunt….) and various games. There is an hour for lunch or less than an hour, after eating and just sitting for a while, continue studying in the afternoon with a new series of lessons. After school, take a shower and have dinner at 5:30 pm, after eating, you can do whatever you like. Usually, there is a common room, after dinner, everyone gathers there to play games, chat, sing, watch movies, read books or use wifi… The weather here is very cold, even though it’s spring, it rains a lot and when it rains, it’s freezing cold! Training activities are mostly outdoors, so even if it’s sunny or rainy, it will still happen normally, unless it’s a storm with thunder. Last time, I had a training raft building, which meant taking big logs tied together to make a boat, then the whole group dropped it into the lake and rowed that boat, that day.. oh, it was pouring rain, it was so cold that I couldn’t feel it, so cold that I couldn’t speak because my mouth was stiff. I don’t have a nice waterproof shirt, wearing 5 6 layers, but in just over an hour the rain water soaked up layer after layer, shoes and socks, all wet!
Oh, the whole class froze, it seemed unbearable, making boats and jumping to keep warm! When he dropped the boat into the lake, he started doing game activities where it was easy to fall into the water, and then there were 3 of people fell into the cold water like that, one of them cried because it was too cold, and the result was that she was sick for 4 days lying flat. There are also times of kayaking or canoeing training, oh my god…it’s a horror for everyone. It was a lot colder than the winter with me with rain and wind, wearing dozens of layers of clothes but still shivering, the teacher made them all jump into the water to learn rescue, oh my god… it must be said that it was so cold that it hurt, it was cold. I can’t even care what my friend is like anymore. Then when I got up to the shore, I had to walk in the cold wind cutting my skin and wet clothes to go back to my room! After taking a hot bath, I knew I was still alive. I don’t know what the years are like, but I got that lesson on that cold, rainy day… Scary!!!
I was 1 week old when I started to get sick, I was sick for 10 days, I was very scared. But after that, it may also be due to gradually getting used to, although being soaked in rain and cold water, but still healthy. Then one day studying Stream exploration, all 30 people, both teachers and students, went to wade through the stream, why the stream is so long, I don’t know, it took more than an hour to finish, but what’s worth mentioning here is WATER… oh my god. , it’s COLD… crazy cold, as soon as you put your foot down, you quickly pull it up, yet everyone has to soak for more than an hour! Every few minutes, I have to lift my feet for a few seconds because it’s too cold, I can’t feel the rocks and twigs under my feet anymore even though I still wear shoes, cold as ice in the refrigerator to melt like that. While wading, whispering to yourself: I can do it, it’s not cold, I can do it! There are streams, the water is as high as your stomach, oh my god it’s crazy cold every time you have to wade through such deep sections!!!
Those are cold times, but there are also sunny days. Last week and next week are two weeks of Easter here, so all of us who have just finished training are “departed”. It all starts with the first day of work with students arriving at daycamp. Time is very tight, starting breakfast at 8am, then going to work until 5am or 6am, lunch takes exactly 30 minutes to eat (travel time to the kitchen and back to work also takes me 10 minutes). yes, there’s still about 15 20 minutes for lunch, so much so that as soon as the meal is over, I quickly grab a cake for dessert and a pear or apple, gnaw it while walking!!!), 5:30 or 6 pm for dinner, it takes 8 hours for all genres to finish showering…! The work is not too tiring or hard, just being the leader for student groups, organizing activities according to what has been trained, organizing games, taking care of that group all day, a lot of work varies according to the assignment schedule! But I’m tired of being in the sun all day, hanging around in groups all day, leaving my beloved bed from early morning until late at night to touch it! The sun here is so evil, making me black and ugly?
On the contrary, I have gained a lot of things from the past 1 month! Learned a lot of things, played with friends and the children and had a lot of fun, they told me a lot of interesting stories, they sat and sang to each other, played as Queens, then the other games. Play another! Every time I sit down, the children huddle together, some jump on my lap, some hug your legs, some hug your neck, some hug your head, some pull your arms! I love you so much hihi. When it’s time to go to school, I have to let go of them, some children even whisper: “Ms, I don’t want to go to the other group, I want to study in your group, I’ll miss you if you go! “. ? In addition, there are many activities organized for everyone here: picnics, teambuilding, parties, pub, club, bar, buffet… Really fun and meaningful, busy life. A day can do a lot of things, lots of different experiences! Realizing how children here can learn so many skills, it’s difficult for me to do skill activities, but when I led them, they saw that they were even better than me, but they only 8-10 years old! After a while, I found it very useful to come here if anyone knows how to dance, because every week I go to pubs and clubs, sometimes disco organizes on-sites for employees. Should prepare a few dresses for such events too!
? The food here is not bad, I have a hard time eating but I still live happily with that food. The food here is generally bland, without seasoning, so I ordered 3 bottles of Vietnamese fish sauce online and everything seems to have been resolved well! ? An indescribable joy is that in the evening, the girls often sit in front of the door chatting, jumping from this topic, crossing the other topic, laughing and talking indescribably, the boys also join when they hear the noise. Many accents are weird so misunderstandings happen often! ? Indescribably fun! Last night celebrated Easter, everyone ate barbecue in the rose garden, the music was vibrant, one by one sitting at the round wooden table in the garden, eating, talking, looking at flowers and listening to music! The wind is cold, the smell of barbecue spreads throughout the flower garden. In spring, the flowers bloom brilliantly: tulips, cherry blossoms, roses, ..and many other flowers that I don’t know the names of but only know. I feel very happy and satisfied! ?
There’s still a long way to go, I don’t really know how things will turn out, but right now I’m very satisfied with my life and work even though it’s a bit tiring at times! But I think there must be a challenge for the destination to be valuable, so stay optimistic and happy to accept the challenges here!!! <3