6 months later!
on Tina's Journal (China), 17/Jul/2010 17:24, 34 days ago
Wow six months since my last blog entry. The old cliché 'time flies' gets truer as you get older, not that I feel old! In fact I was recently asked "How can you feel younger as you get older"? as I made this remark on my last birthday. It's a good question but quite simple to answer. Age is a state of mind, if you think you're young and still believethere's loads of life to live, appreciate and explore, then you'll feel young. In essence I still feel the same person I was when I was 5, 15, 25 and 35. The only difference, apart from obvious physical changes, is that over time my awareness of life has expanded and my mind continues to develop, but I'm still the same person inside. Today when I reflect on my time in China I feel a sense of pleasure that I was fortunate to have the experiences I had. Firstly, I realized one of my aspirations which was to work for VSO. China was not one of the places I thought I would end up, however when I was offered the Simao placement it somehow felt it was the right place to go. I had admired for a long time VSO's work in international development and I felt I wanted to somehow contribute to their mission. I feel a sense of achievement in finally getting to work with them yet this sense of achievement is greater than any sense of achievement I may feel about the work I did whilst I was there. Undoubtedly, we have an impact on people's lives wherever we go, but quite often we are not aware just how much we can affect someone's life both positively and negatively. On a more personal level, I canhonestly say that the whole experience in China for me was extremely rewarding. I feel I have a much greater understanding of Chinese culture and through this understanding I have become much more aware of my own cultural background. I am now living in Sardinia, Italy but until I was 16 I lived inthe UK. At that age I moved to Sardinia for two years with my parents and then returned to England for a few years, came back to Sardinia and then went back to the UK for 10 years and here I am back again. For the last 20 years I have lived mainly between these two countries so have quite an appreciation of both Italian and British culture and recognise that I am a mixture of the two. I often get asked if I feel more English or Italian. Honestly speaking I feel both a strong attachment to England and Sardinia so I often define myself as both English/Italian.So, I have been back here for 6 months. I live in the family home with my father and we let apartments that are part of our villa for the summer months. I work in a small private language school in Pula where I teach English to students of all ages; small children to adults. I occasionally teach Italian too to some of our English friends. I am also studying a linguistics course through the Open University. Will I do another placement with VSO or any voluntary organisation? I think there is every possibility that I will. I am happy to be here for now but I live my life open to many possibilities and who knows where life will continue to take me?I have attached some photos recently taken in Sardinia. Wild horses in Giara, a village in Central Sardina and a picture of our local beach at Nora. Sardinia has a lot to offer in natural beauty: visit our website for further  info on our apartmentswww.villaprimavera.bizI'll be coming back to update my blog on life in Sardinia or life in general!!