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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Milestones

On Friday, I phoned my PGCE supervisor to see if he had our results in from Greenwich - and I've done it! Two years of hard work, and I'm finally properly qualified to teach here. It's slightly annoying that they only grade PGCEs on a pass/fail basis (I'm all about the external rewards) - but he did tell me that they were extremely impressed with the quality of my assignments, and that my subject specialist one was outstanding. To be fair, some of the other people on the course seemed pretty hopeless, so the competiton probably wasn't that stiff. But it's still nice to do well. Makes all those weekends of hard work worth it.

It seems very appropriate that I should have got my results on Friday, because Saturday was an anniversary - four years in the U.K.

The first while here was tough - finding a job for Bobby, finding schools for the children, finding a house ... it was all far more stressful than we'd anticipated. And then, for me, having to start over again in the world of work ... It's been a long, hard, slog.

No regrets, though. Our time in the USA was a really good experience for us as a family, and, now that we've overcome all those initial obstacles, we feel at home here. There are things we miss about South Africa, and there are things we miss about Florida, but on the whole we're happy to be right here, right now.

We celebrated both events tonight - appropriately enough, considering our hybrid identities, we ate out at our local Indian restaurant. I like the fact that Chicken Tikka Masala is the nation's favourite meal - I like the mingling of different cultures. (Chicken Tikka Masala originated as a sort of fusion British/Indian food - it's a milder, creamier version of a chicken curry...) We had a really nice family night out. The children are lovely to be with these days; they (and Bobby) are my favourite people in the world. I love them (obviously), but I realised recently that I would like them if we weren't related and we happened to meet up. I feel very lucky to have them.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! Wow, I can't believe it has been four years since you left the U.S. I remember it like it was yesterday. :)

zunzun said...

That's awesome! Those were all very difficult changes but I've always thought your family is amazing...so adaptive and that is probably one of the biggest gifts you two have given your children...they have seen what is like to live in different parts of the world and that will stay with them forever. Four years huh? Wow...times does fly.

Lisa said...

Congratulations! And it is very nice to realize you actually LIKE your family.

Lisa said...

Congratulations! And it is very nice to realize you actually LIKE your family.

Rummfor5 said...

This was wonderful to read!
Congratulations to you all. A happy, loving family and being where you love and feel you belong-- all tremendous blessings.

chris said...

I can't believe that it has been four years! Wow.

And a big congratulations to you!

Anonymous said...

I'm a ong time lurker, sorry, but just wanted to say Congratulations!

Annalise said...

Thanks for all the congrats! Looking forward to whatever the next few years bring...

Unknown said...

I visited your blog today specifically with this question in mind: are they happy there? Had do to a bit of reading to get the answer, but I'm really happy to hear that you are, indeed, happy there. (I feel the same way about living in Seattle.)

Unknown said...

Hah! Just realized how that might come across... To be sure, I'm glad to have read the other blog posts, as well. They didn't answer my question right away, but they were still worth reading. :-)