Tears and Teaching

So here I am sitting in my own bedroom. I am looking around and I can’t believe it. Three months sounds so long but I experienced three months abroad and it is such a short amount of time. It is long in a way because you can do a lot in three months, you can also learn a lot in three months. I can’t even start by explaining how I feel. So here is everything that popped up in my mind.

Newcastle
In all honesty, I wasn’t sure when I first went to New Castle. I was excited but again it felt weird because I had never been there before what if it was terrible? It could have been but luckily it wasn’t. I fell in love so much with the city. It’s so green and you can be in the middle of nowhere in no time or in the busy city or at the beach. It was so different but so much better than I ever expected it would be.

Geordies
Everyone and their mothers have heard of Geordie Shore and a lot of people think that that is how it really goes. That Geordies are very loud and obnoxious. I couldn’t imagine that people would really be like that like they are portrayed on television. Alright, so what did I think? I couldn’t have met nicer people. People from New Castle go above and beyond to make you feel happy and a part of something. If you meet people, they are so nice and they make you feel like you know them forever. They are super friendly to basically everyone and give people the benefit of the doubt. It is such a nice environment to live in.

Friends
Being always makes you notice rather quickly who your real friends are. I mean there I was sitting on the floor with my back against the bed and looking at my closet with my phone in front of me and no messages. Texting people and no reply is rather sad and could get a bit depressing so yes after a while I just didn’t care anymore and only texted the people who texted me and the people I wanted to text myself. Now I know a couple of people that I don’t see on the regular and don’t text on the regular but when we are around we have a laugh or have a fun night that is alright. I mean not everyone is your best friend and that is okay but I am talking about the people that always want to meet, always text you or text you back right away and there I was and yes sometimes especially in the beginning it was lonely. I just wanted to speak my own language and speak to someone from home who wasn’t my mum or any other family member.

I wanted to speak to my friends and I must say some people surprised me because this whole thing made me closer to some people which was absolutely amazing and I wouldn’t want to miss them for the world but some I just noticed that we were friends because I was around. I mean that is the same with high school, right? Once you graduate you lose contact with most people because the only reason you were friends is because you saw each other on a daily basis and when you don’t that’s it. That is in no way shape or form a problem, it’s good because when you are older the people you have left are people you can build on. people you can talk to about absolutely everything and nothing. My friends are the cutest because when I talked to them about finding out about my real friends and how interesting that was. It took time to accept that but I am glad about it as well. They asked me if they were one of those people and that they felt upset sometimes when they released they hadn’t talked to me for a bit. Which is so sweet, Real friendship isn’t hard to maintain. It doesn’t take that much effort, you don’t have to speak every day but when I talk to them our conversations continue where they last left off and it just feels right.

Health
It can be weird living with other people because they won’t only see you at your very best they will see you when you are tired, when you just woke up, when you are emotional. I mean I experienced it all. I had a cold, I was very happy and healthy, I got sick, I was very tired, I cried (sad movies and such). I was done and angry at everything and everyone, I was hurt. But you know what, it’s normal.  You can’t hide your feelings and you are a human. I didn’t try to stress about it and I tried to be extra nice to myself when I was under the weather.

Family
I have the most amazing family in the world. They kept emailing me or sending me texts they also sent me cards, bless them. It’s hard being away from your own family and living in a different home with different people but it will work. I’ve been very lucky that I lived with very sweet people. I am lucky that we have Skype and text so I could still see my family even though it was still hard it made it bearable.

Goodbye
Saying goodbye is hard it always is. I had a very hard time saying goodbye at my internship because even if I come back to the city I probably will never see those children again and that is so sad. I loved being an intern at the school and it made me fall in love with teaching all over again. So when it was time to say goodbye I cried, the children cried it was all very emotional. Saying goodbye to my host family was absolutely terrible. I am sure I will see them again but you live with someone for three months and then saying goodbye is hard.
Last but not least. I wouldn’t want to change this experience for the world and I would give everything to go back. I am still missing New Castle every single day and it’s hard to get used to normal life again but I will get there I know I will. I will take the lessons I learned with me though. It’s been an incredible journey. Thank you for reading my stories about it.

Lots of love,
Melissa