Category: lifestyle

What I learned from my Macmillan Jurassic Coast Mighty hike experience

Wow. I realised I haven’t written for 20 days. I can’t believe it.

It’s been busy and stressful, trying to sort everything out before I leave Southampton and it took me about a week to fully recover from the Macmillan Jurassic Coast Mighty Hike challenge, mainly mentally.

Although I’ve done my best I still feel terrible for only reaching mile 20 and not finishing it and I’d love to go back and try again.

I won’t get into details on what happened on the day, you can get a taste below (the whole story in the description) but I thought I’d share what I learnt to help future hikers who decide to take the challenge.

I wish I prepared better. Physically I was OK, the first half was tough but I managed, I’m not too unfit, I could have finished it but I wish I had done a walk as long as the hike just to test my shoes. Had I known my hiking boots would burn my feet when I hit the road and I’d been in pain for over two hours I would have either worn another pair or brought an extra pair of comfy trainers for the second half. I’ve changed socks once but didn’t seem to help.

I wish I’d had a look of the route beforehand. No need to explain much, but I had no idea how scary the first half would be with those steep hills.

I could have taken fewer snacks with me to reduce the weight of my backpack. It feels heavier and heavier the longer you walk.

I should have put blister pads on from the beginning and not wait until half way when me feet were already sore.

I wouldn’t have made it to 20 miles without my waterproof and walking poles. Especially the walking poles. I’d still be on the top of those hills, paralysed in fear.

Maybe if I stuck with others I would have gone further. Staying on my own, alone with my thoughts and in pain was probably the wrong decision. The only thought in my mind for those two hours I was in unbearable pain was how disappointed I was in myself I couldn’t take up this pain, when thousands of people suffering or who died from cancer, like my aunt, experience pain ten times worse every single day for months or years. ‘How lame, you are so weak, you can’t even walk 26 miles. You are quitting??Pathetic.’

As I’m writing this a lady going through chemo wearing a cold cap to save her hair comes up on the ITV news. She looks tired but so positive. I remember reading about this infamous cap and how horrible it is, giving you headaches, as if the chemo side effects are not bad enough and half of the time it doesn’t even work. My shame for not finishing it’s still there.

Finally I wish was prepared for the mental, emotional challenge, which was at times more overwhelming than the physical. I had no idea that everything would trigger me crying for three days after the hike.

Two days later on the Monday, my feet were still a bit sore and I got my period three days early, which didn’t help with the pain but I could have gone to work. I would have been sore but I could have gone. Mentally though, I wouldn’t manage.

Partially, it is a natural reaction, your body is not used to such a physical challenge and although self induced, you are exposing your self to trauma. You are in pain but is self-inflicted. The brain does not know how to handle it.

If you are struggling with anxiety and depression and you can feel everything more intense than the average person, after such a challenge, the intensity reaches new heights.

I wish I was honest about it, I wish I’d admitted the main reason I couldn’t go to work was that I couldn’t control my feelings. Instead I let people tease me I couldn’t handle the soreness. I’m ashamed I did not ticked ‘mental health’ when I filled in my sickness absence form.

So be prepared and take a day or two off afterwards.

But what it’s done, it’s done. I can’t change what happened. All I can do is learn from it and as Mark who is fighting cancer for the second time and did the hike said:

“…don’t feel ashamed, take it from me, this happens to us all the time, you hit a barrier and you fall down. You get back up and crack on, that’s what you must do.” 

Despite my disappointment, it’s been an amazing experience I shared with lovely friends, I met incredible humans and I feel blessed I was part of the Jurassic Coast Mighty Hike 2019 raising money for such an incredible cause, Macmillan Cancer Support, a day I’ll never forget.

If I’m around next September, I’ll definitely give it another go.

Eleni

The Guilty Feminist

Also, wondering if you’d like to go to this with me…https://www.facebook.com/events/1643765342395990/ I listen to the podcast and it’s really good and I thought it might be up your street. Lucy messaged.

I had a quick look and I was intrigued. I didn’t look it up beforehand. I wanted to see whether I’d enjoy it without knowing much about it.

A couple of months later, 22nd of May, 2019

After delicious dinner at Soleto’s, which was mainly occupied (except our friend Dan and the chef) by women who were about to watch the show, we headed to the theatre, again mainly women. It felt surprisingly, unexpectedly empowering to be amongst so many women.

Three hours later, we left the theatre with a smile on our face, happy, re-enacting some of the funny moments whilst pondering on what true feminism is and how still to the day there’s so much discrimination, even in small, little things we barely notice.

Deborah Frances-White, comedian and hostess of the show and her guests for the evening Bridget Christie, Desiree Burch, Sophie Duker and Grace Petrie were amazing. I couldn’t stop laughing with Bridget, Desiree and Sophie’s comedy on dating in your 40s, bi-sexuality, racism and many other hot topics that women get grief on.

I loved Grace Petrie’s political folk songs and what an excellent idea of Deborah’s to introduce two local charities who spoke to us about the incredible work they do, Yellowdoor supporting and preventing domestic and sexual abuse and Chrysalis supporting transgender people and their significant others.

I’m now already a big fan of Deborah. Funny, witty, intelligent, charismatic (someone I met recently called me charismatic and I burst out laughing, I never thought of myself as charismatic). The following day I watched her Tedx talk from a few years ago and that blew my mind.

I already started listening to her podcast (you can listen here or look up Guilty Feminist on Spotify, it’s Deborah with guests discussing feminism in the modern world and of course it’s thought-provoking, inspiring and hilarious) and bought her book.

If only there were more women like Deborah. No wait, there are. Everywhere. You and me and many others say no to what (mainly male dominated) society dictates every day by not getting married or having children just for the sake of it, we refuse to get into an unhappy, unfulfilling relationship because if you are single it means ‘something is wrong with you’, we follow our dreams even if that means being the only female colleague in that engineering company, we do what we think is right for us, we have sex for fun and not just to please someone else, we don’t need make up and toned bodies to make us feel good about ourselves but we wear or not wear make up and exercise or not for ourselves.

Feminism is not about not shaving (unless that’s what you genuinely like) or being a lesbian or not letting a man help you put together a coffee table or feeling guilty you love face creams and rom-coms. It’s about all of the things I mentioned above, not conforming to man-made society norms, be whoever you want to be without stupid gender restrictions and many more, like not letting an unwanted dick pic or a wolf whistle or groping become socially acceptable.

Start your own business, do what you love for a living without feeling guilty for not just being a parent or wife or partner or daughter or sister . You can be all of these but above all you need to be yourself, love yourself, look after you.

A Facebook friend, ex- colleague who I rarely chat with (we all have a few of those on our friends list) recently messaged me to say that he loves my feminist social media. I thanked him, though I never considered my opinions as feminist, until I went to Deborah’s show. Then I understood what he meant.

So here’s to all inspiring women, our mums, sisters, friends, strangers who we admire, ourselves and those in the limelight, all of the feminist advocates.

Thank you Lucy for introducing me to this great community. I’ll miss you!

Eleni

Sisters on Tour- 32 hours in Belgium

It’s here, it’s finally here. The best video I put together so far, I think.

Sightseeing, plenty of food and chocolate and endless laughter whilst wandering around Bruges and Brussels. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

So here’s all the places we’ve been if you fancy checking them out.

Bruges

–The Markt. The central square in Bruges, made famous by the well-known film In Bruges. Gorgeous architecture, endless restaurants and chocolate shops, horses passing by, breathtaking.

–Le Panier d’Or: The restaurant we had early dinner at. The decor is a bit dated but the food was delicious. Also one of the least expensive restaurants on the square.

Brussels

-Manneken Pis. The infamous bronze sculpture depicting a little boy urinating into a fountain’s basin. We were lucky as we were there on the International Francophonie day, a celebration of the French language and Francophone culture across the world, so not only the statue had a costume on as it does in major events but there was a brass band playing music by it for most of the day!

-Choco-story. A chocolate museum situated very close to Manneken Pis (it has recently moved there). Chocolate through time, exhibits, chocolate to taste (the Peru dark one was my favourite by far) and a chocolatier making chocolate right in front of you!

-Grand Place. The central square in Brussels. Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. The architecture is ma-gni-fi-que.

-L’Atelier En Ville. A cafe and clothes and furniture shop. Unique and quirky. Definitely recommend.

-Peck 47 Cafe. A small cafe in the city centre, serving huge, delicious sandwiches served with the creamiest soup I ever had.

I loved both Bruges and Brussels but I’d definitely like to return to Bruges since we only had a few hours and didn’t have time to explore more.

Any questions on anything on this post, comment below or send me an email!

Eleni

Adulting (-ish) at 33

Have you been doing much reflecting lately, now that’s your birthday? Donna asked.

No, not this year. I said and I smiled. I have done my reflecting earlier this year, when I was about to make huge life-changing decisions .

Though I have a vague plan and it just feels right, I’m still terrified, anxious and sometimes stay up at night, wondering whether I should do sometime more ‘sensible’. But let’s not talk about that right now. (*takes deep breath).

So hm hm (*clears throat) my thoughts on turning 33: I don’t feel any older than a year ago. I actually feel younger and I don’t feel I’m a ‘proper’ adult, or at least what the most imagine being an adult means.

Not that I care. I can’t wait to get out of the office and try and make living doing things I enjoy, with people I love. Because, really, that’s what life is about and honestly, every day passes by is one day less until I’m dead.

As my favourite Fleabag once said:

–What did Jesus do by the time he was 33?

–He died. That’s all he did.

So my Jesus year as I call it will be an adventure to say the least! Even if I die at the end of it, I’ll die happy.

I’m still non the wiser and most of the time I pretend I know how to navigate through life…

but for now, I’m spending most of my time having fun (and panicking) with my friends in Southampton I will dearly miss when I leave…

and indulging in delicious food.

If there’s anything I learnt from 33 years on this planet is that life is too short to spend in an office or worry about what others think or succumb to social pressures to be something you don’t wan’t to be or with someone you don’t want to be with. You don’t have to be an ‘adult’ the way society dictates, you can adult your own, special way.

Just be you, love and laugh, laugh until it hurts.

Eleni

My last Touch evening

Never would I ever imagined when I signed up to volunteer as an events assistant at Touch in April 2018 that a year later I’d be hosting a story telling evening, my last one in front of a buzzing, packed Coffeelab.

I still remember, vividly, the first ever Touch event I went to, at Talking Heads before it closed down. I remember I left feeling emotional and touched. What a great idea to inspire one another, by sharing our own stories about ill mental health, struggles we overcame and how we cope in this mad world. What a great shrine of hope in this sometimes dark world. https://elenisworld.org/2018/04/24/a-beautiful-evening-of-real-life-stories/

Since then every single event has been incredible.

From A foster carer, a former priest and other super humans…
https://elenisworld.org/2018/06/18/a-foster-carer-a-former-priest-and-other-super-humans-a-night-to-remember/

to an afternoon of songs and stories https://elenisworld.org/2018/09/11/an-afternoon-of-songs-and-stories/

a small, intimate evening in the cosy Jenny’s cafe in Hamble https://elenisworld.org/2018/11/01/tea-cake-and-life-stories-in-hamble/

to laughter and cry in Hythe https://elenisworld.org/2018/12/04/blogmas-day-3-tea-laughter-and-cry-in-hythe/

and one of the most amazing, magical evenings I had in my entire life:
https://elenisworld.org/2018/11/19/twas-the-night-of-superhumans/

I met incredible humans, standing in front of strangers sharing their most intimate, personal stories. It made me realise not only how many extraordinary people, everyday heroes live amongst us, but also how similar we all are, how we worry and struggle with the same things. We are not alone.

The founder, lovely Debs, the amazing Hannah and all the volunteers who joined since, are the nicest, kindest people I’ve ever met and they made my last storytelling event even more special.

Since I nervously stood in front of that crowd in BySea Cafe almost a year ago, the first event I ever hosted, I hosted many since, I absolutely love it, so when Debs asked me to host my last one, I said yes straight away (she also asked me to share one of my stories but I didn’t have time to prepare, I will do one day!).

It was another unforgettable evening with inspiring stories from Saire and Laura’s wonderful friendship, supporting each other throughout their ill mental health ups and downs, Claire’s epic journey with October Books, Chris’s incredible life story to Trago Lounge’s Matt and Reuben, two lovely men who run Trago Lounge as well as fundraising for Touch.

At the end of the evening Debs and Rachel surprised me with a gorgeous bouquet of tulips and roses, my favourite.

Thank you to everyone at Touch for all the amazing memories, stories and inspiration, especially to Debs and Hannah, for all your love and support.

I’d encourage anyone to volunteer for Touch, they do amazing work on raising awareness and encouraging people to talk about mental health and if you ever come across a Touch poster, go in. You’ll come out refreshed and for a while believe in humanity again.

I learned a lot from volunteering for Touch but the biggest lesson was to never stop sharing and talking about mental health.

PS Debs, I’ll definitely try starting something similar in Cyprus if I have enough time before I leave again.

Eleni

My last One Sound

Last Saturday…

The curtains open. I’m ready to sing and dance my heart out. I feel rough but I couldn’t miss this even if I was dying. I’m standing next to the lovely Marie who’s wearing a beautiful bright yellow dress and gorgeous colourful earrings. It’s her first ever One Sound, I can’t stop thinking about my first One Sound and how excited I was and I’m so happy I can see her excitement too, I can only imagine how she must feel. I see Mike on the side of the stage, smile to him and I get into position.

I catch a glimpse of Dan, standing in the middle, ready to guide and keep us in tune and in time, reminding us to smile sometimes just by smiling himself. I can’t believe this is the last time I will perform at this amazing show, last time I’ll look for Dan’s smiling face every time I unsuccessfully try to remember the next line.

I can’t believe how something so simple like joining a workplace choir would lead to singing at the Mayflower, shopping centres, fairs, Christmas events to flashmobs at West Quay and Graduation, to sold out choir collaboration shows and making friends for life.

An ordinary Tuesday, November 2013

My colleague Lilian invited me to join her on the new ‘Lunchtime Glee’ sessions, an initiative to improve staff wellbeing. I thought why not. I wasn’t feeling my best at the time. I was in an unhappy relationship, I hated myself and work started to become a not so pleasant place to be. I desperately needed even just a little ray of sunshine in my dark, depressing life.

I walk in, I see Dan’s smiling face for the first time ever and after an hour of singing Mama Mia and having a laugh with colleagues, for the first time in years I felt happy, pure happiness. I completely forgot about anything else.

That was the best decision I ever made.

About a year and a half later we had our first performance, at the Hanger Farm Art Centre. I still remember the nerves, the excitement, we were buzzing for days after that. It’s hard to understand how from singing to a small audience we now perform on a huge stage with hundreds of other singers in front of a sold out Guildhall.

Since I joined Lunchtime Glee, my confidence slowly improved and I met my best friend, one of my soulmates, Sheba who was there for me since then, through all the changes, the dramas and together we made some of the most amazing memories I’ll never forget.

Because of Lunchtime Glee and Dan, I met Jack, Claire, Helena, Pat, Ray, Julie, Jo, Amy, Ann, Lucy, Christina, Sandi, Lesley, Rachel and so many others who for two years let me be part of the most loving, caring, singing family, Sing Now choir. That was exactly what I needed in my life at that point and I wouldn’t be where I am today without their love, support and encouragement.

Though I left Sing Now almost two years ago, every time I see these wonderful humans is like nothing changed. They always welcome me with a warm hug.

I’d recommend to every single one of you to join a choir. Don’t worry if you can’t sing, that’s not what is all about. Singing and having a laugh with other lovely humans, forgetting about your troubles for an hour or two and just enjoying yourself and feeling happy, that’s the best remedy for most of life’s problems.

I’ve written about it many times before… these are just some of the highlights:

https://elenisworld.org/2016/03/19/my-choir-family/

https://elenisworld.org/2016/04/11/what-a-week/

https://elenisworld.org/2017/04/30/one-sound-one-year-later/

https://elenisworld.org/2018/12/18/blogmas-day-18-the-last-2018-ssu-staff-choir-performance/

so I won’t go into all the amazing days I had with my choir families in more detail, I just want to thank Dan and Jack for their love, creativity and passion for what they do, their kindness and professionalism and genuine care about their choir members’ wellbeing. I’d recommend Singforce, Sing Now or any projects these two wonderful humans are involved with to anyone, with no hesitation.

A big thank you to all my wonderful choir friends for all the incredible memories I’ll cherish for ever. I love you all and I will miss you dearly. I will always think of you every Tuesday lunchtime and every time I see a choir.

Eleni

Sisters on tour- London

I won’t say much about our day in London, you can see it all on the vlog below but here’s information where we’ve been if you ‘d like to visit yourself:

  • Mercato Metropolitano– the first sustainable and inclusive community market with an Italian soul according to TripAdvisor. I’ve never heard of this incredible food hall until our Airbnb host recommended it. We loved it (Elephant & Castle).
  • Borough Market My absolute favourite. I rarely go to London without tasting something new and grabbing a snack from the market. The pastries, especially the doughnuts at Bread Head bakery are to die for.
  • Covent Garden. Another favourite London hot spot that never disappoints.
  • Iberica Victoria– A Spanish Tapas restaurant I discovered on TripAdvisor and I’m so happy I did. Finger licking dishes, each and every one of them.

Hope you enjoyed this. Next: Bruges and Brussels!

Eleni

Easter…the Cypriot way

Χριστός Ανέστη (Christos Anesti/Christ is risen) to all.

I’ve haven’t celebrated Easter back home for a long time and every year around this time nostalgia kicks in and I miss all the weird and wonderful traditions only happening in Cyprus (and some also in Greece).

Preparations for Easter start 10 weeks in advance. This is what I remember:

The first week is a normal one (fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, which are days of fasting all year around- you are not allowed to eat meat or dairy or anything with oil).

The second week, everything is allowed, (Apokreo week) even on Wednesdays and Fridays. On Thursday (“Tsiknopempti”) of that week a LOT of meat and other traditional dishes are consumed and most people celebrate the evening with friends and family. In Cyprus we make delicious, fluffy, sweet pourekia (fried dumplings) with anari (Cypriot cheese similar to ricotta), a local delicacy we make on different occasions, one of them is Tsiknopempti.

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Pourekia with anari

Also on this Sunday, the Cypriot Carnival takes place, with most of the celebrations in Limassol. A lot of dressing up parties going on during the week until the big parade on Sunday.

The following week no meat is allowed, but you can eat dairy products (Tirinis week).

The week after that the 40 days of strict fasting (no meat, dairies, chocolate, not even olive oil!) start from Green Monday.

Green Monday is a public holiday in Cyprus and Greece and most people spend it having a picnic in green fields and fly kites. The pic-nic usually consists of dips like hummus and taramas, olives, beetroot, halva, lots of different vegetables and fresh bread.

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Every Sunday for the following weeks celebrates a different religious event that leads up to Easter and Fridays are dedicated to Holy Mary (beautiful melodies on those Friday services are sang, called ‘Salutations to Mother Mary’).

Here is a sample sang by nuns.

Then we come to the Holy Week.  

The Saturday just before is dedicated to Lazarus resurrection and the dead, so we all remember our special ones on that day and light a candle in their memory.

Sunday marks Jesus arrival in Jerusalem where Jews welcomed him laying palm leaves on the street and chanting.

Holy Monday is dedicated to Jesus cursing a fig tree and also to Joseph, son of Jacob (of the Old Testiment).

Holy Tuesday is dedicated to the 10 Virgins parable.

Holy Wednesday is dedicated to a sinned woman who washed Jesus’s feet with her tears and the hymn of St Kassiani is sang.

Holy Thursday is dedicated to Last Supper, Jesus prayer at Gethsemane, his betrayal by Judas, his arrest and trial. On that night a re-enactment of the Crucifixion is performed in church (no humans involved). It’s also tradition to dye eggs red, which we use for ‘Egg battle’ on Easter Sunday.

In Cyprus, on Thursdays, most of families bake one of my favourite traditional Easter pastries, flaounes. My dad makes the best!

Holy Friday is dedicated to Jesus death, during which a wooden Epitaph symbolising Jesus tomb is carried around the church and later in the neigbourhood followed by everyone (priests, chanters etc) and the most beautiful eulogies are sang. Some churches have choirs performed them (I used to be in one when I was a child). Whilst eulogies are sang little girls dressed in white throw flowers around the ‘tomb’.

In the evening all saints icons are covered with black sheet as a sign of mourning.

On Saturday morning the news that Jesus resurrected break out and this happens at church: (Maybe not as enthusiastically as this priest).

In the evening, around 11pm, we all gather at church to ‘officially’ celebrate Jesus resurrection.

Lights go off at 12am, and a hymn called Χριστός Ανέστη (Jesus resurrected) is chanted multiple times. We all light a candle and wish each other Χριστός Ανέστη! The service finishes at 3am usually, but most leave just after 12am. It’s a tradition to eat Magiritsa (a traditional soup made for Easter) or avgolemoni (soup made with rice, eggs and lemon juice) on that night.

This is from last night’s service (thank you Anna for the wonderful photo).

Also on Saturday evening, it’s a Cypriot tradition to light a fire that represents burning Judas, as he betrayed Jesus.

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On Sunday noon, the Vespers of Love are on at church for about half an hour.

After that, families and friends are gathered for a LARGE meal, traditional games are played (egg and spoon and sack races amongst others) and we all clink our red eggs with each other, the one whose egg doesn’t break is the winner.

And that’s how we celebrate Easter.

Happy Easter!!! Christos Anesti! Χριστός Ανέστη, χρόνια πολλά!

PS. I do not own any images used, most I found online.. Thank you to my little sis for the cover photo and the church snap) x

Eleni

Teaching English abroad- Step 1: Getting qualified.

Ever since my big news a few weeks ago a couple of you asked me about the course I’m planning to do and how to get into teaching English abroad, so I thought I’d document my experience, every step of the way as I live it, to hopefully help others considering doing something similar. So this post is about…

Step 1: Getting a relevant qualification

You have a few options when it comes to getting a relevant TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) qualification.

a) Do I need one?

If you are a teacher or a native speaker you may be able to land a TEFL job with no qualification whatsoever, but opportunities would be more limited, and that also means (especially if you have no teaching experience) you might end up in a foreign country alone with no clue on how to even begin teaching English.

b) What about online courses?

There is a huge number of TEFL courses out there (and too much information, it can be very confusing). Online, classroom, combined, cheap, expensive e.g.
https://www.theteflacademy.com/course-location/southampton

A short online, relatively cheap course is a good option if you are only looking to refresh your Grammar knowledge, learn more about teaching in general as well as teaching English as a foreign language. Some of them are recognised by various regulatory bodies but some countries only accept one of the two classroom based, internationally recognised or equivalent qualifications, Cambridge CELTA and Trinity CertTESOL. With these two diplomas you will also be qualified to teach English for academic purposes (pre-sessional English courses) at UK universities.

c) CELTA or CertTESOL?

CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) is
provided by Cambridge English Language Assessment through authorised Cambridge English Teaching Qualification centres and CertTESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) is awarded by Trinity College London. When it comes to choosing between the two, I’m not sure myself whether one might be slightly better than the other, the content is very similar, but after some research I did, it seems CELTA is better known and that may open more doors for me (and if you decide to apply for funding, the Advanced Learner Loan covers the majority of the tuition fees charged for CELTA at most colleges but only partially for CertTESOL, more on that below).

Both CELTA and CertTESOL are level 5 qualifications, offered full-time, part-time and online but face-to-face assessed teaching as the practical element is what separates them from the rest. The full-time variant is a month long-9am-to-5:30pm-five days a week, intense course whereas the duration varies when it comes to part time options, from 3 months up to a year, depending on the training provider.

I opted for the month long, intense one. It’s a great challenge and you are done in four weeks. Though that will be your life for those four weeks. No time for anything else. You are pre-warned by EVERYONE who has already done it and the course trainer.

When deciding where to apply, make sure you check the training providers offering them are accredited (for CELTA you can check here and for CertTESOL here)

d) Any funding available?

For both CELTA and CertTESOL you can apply for an Advanced Learner Loan(ALL) at specific providers, which will cover your tuition fees up to £811 for CerTESOL, that may not cover the tuition fee and £1417 for CELTA which is what most providers charge for it (list here for CELTA and here for TESOL). Oh by the way, there is a long list of qualifications you can get an ALL for! All details about the loan, repayment terms etc here.

e) What’s the application process like?

Applying was a bit scary for me, since I haven’t applied for any course for a long, long time and my self-confidence levels are running a bit low lately, but it wasn’t half as bad as I thought it’d be.

I applied at Cambridge Regional College, so what I’ll describe is their application process but it’s very similar to most of other providers.

–Pre-Interview task. Part of the application (in addition to the usual personal and education information) is a pre-interview task mainly consisting of grammar, syntax questions and ways you’d teach various English language related items. See examples here. I was allowed to use books and the internet for my answers.

-The interview. I was very nervous on the day, I was terrified I’d be asked a million grammar questions on the spot, but it wasn’t that bad at all. Jonny, the course trainer and interviewer was very sweet and put me at ease straight away.

I was offered a Skype interview, it would have been a nightmare getting to Cambridge at 10am, so I spent a tenner to get a chair for the dining table (I could have sat on the sofa, but in my head it seemed unprofessional), an unhealthy amount of time deciding where to set the table, where to put the chair and so on (of course the overthinking took over).

I woke up early, had breakfast, did my make-up, put a nice semi-formal top on (I kept reminding myself this was not a job interview but it’s hard to get out of that mentality), got a cushion and my blanket to keep my feet warm and made a cuppa. All set!

After introducing ourselves and talking a bit about my background and the reasons I wanted to do the course, we then went over my pre-interview task answers, to make sure my level was English was adequate. There was also a short 15 minute interview exercise, with a couple of questions, similar to the ones on the pre-interview task.

He then told me more about what the course entails, the units we’ll cover, that teaching starts from day two and the fact I won’t have any social life for a month. What I got from what Jonny and some of my friends and colleagues who’ve done the course, as mentioned earlier, is that it will be intense, time and life consuming for four weeks but also rewarding.

‘It was tough, but so worth it!’ every single person who’s done it told me.

The main purpose of the interview is not to check your Grammar or vocabulary skills (the trainer has to check your level of English is satisfactory, but they don’t expect anyone to be an expert and know every single rule or exception). It’s for them to make sure you are applying for the right reasons and you are aware of the intensity of the course and for you to understand what’s about and whether you are prepared to take it on.

The interview concluded with Jonny offering me a place, explaining what the next steps will be and sending me a book recommendation list and a pre-course task, so I can start preparing.

That’s what I’m about to start now. Any questions or advice, comment below!

Eleni

Sisters on Tour- Southampton and the Forest

There are very few people I enjoy having a holiday with as much as my sisters. We don’t do too much planning, we get into the most unlikely situations end every single time my tummy hurts from laughing. So when the little one found and booked a cheap ticket to the UK, I couldn’t wait.

I was gutted my other sister Stella couldn’t make it, but I’m glad the little one did. I desperately needed this break and it did not disappoint. I tried filming as much as possible so I can practice my video editing skills as mentioned before. My skills are getting better but any advice is welcome!

So voila! Here’s my first ever travel, holiday vlog. Hope you laugh as much as we did on our little adventure.

And here’s all the places we’ve been or I mentioned (in order of appearance) in case you fancy checking any of them out. All highly recommended!

Popsis. A little, local, independent pizza place, at Bedford Place in Southampton. I’ve been a few times and their pizza is always delicious, fresh ingredients, nice and crispy.

John Hansard GalleryThe new-ish local gallery. The exhibition they had on when we went on was incredible.

Paperchase. My favourite chain stationery shop. One of my happy places when I need some cheering up.

Halladays. My all-time favourite cafe in Southampton. The best breakfast/brunch/lunch in town. And ever so pretty.

Rhinefield Ornamental Drive, New Forest. One of the many beautiful paths in the Forest.

Avon Beach, Christchurch. Right below the impressive Highcliffe Castle, lies the gorgeous, sandy Avon beach. Now I finally understand why this is Chris’s favourite place in the UK.

The Noisy Lobster Cafe, Avon Beach. A cute, nautical themed cafe by the water. The fish burger I had was superb!

That was it! Next vlog will be about our day in London (it’s mostly food, lots of food).

Eleni