A different life


As I've said before, part of our trip was not just about travelling but changing our lives for the 
better, and I want to record and share some of that.  Over the last few months we've talked a lot about what aspects of our lives we liked and what we wanted to change or improve about ourselves.  It came down to just our family and friends, and our flat that we really liked.  And those are the things that we are really missing now and we wish we could pick up and move with us.


There were several areas that I wanted to examine and try to improve on in my life:


Work: 

I did really enjoy my first 2 years of teaching and I really landed on my feet, in most ways, starting out at OJS.  I met a lot of great people who were extremely supportive and will continue to be good friends and of course the kids were fantastic.  But and I knew after 2 years I wanted a change and that I wanted to go back to working in 'special education'.  This is where my heart is.  I am really interested and passionate about working with young people with Autism, in particular.  Now I am in Vancouver this is the area of work I am pursuing.  I have now added another page, about getting back in to this line of work, my experiences of working with young people with Autism and also anything I've read or watched about this area that I think might be interesting to people!

I also decided that when I go back to being a teacher I need to find a way to have a better work/life balance.  I'd lost who I was apart from being a teacher!

Fitness:


In the year or so before I left the UK, I finally discovered a sport that I enjoyed doing - Pole Dancing.  In fact I became a bit obsessed with it.  So I have added a page to track my progress, when I can finally afford to go classes again that is!  But so far I have added pictures of some pole that I did while travelling and also a video of a pro!  Watch this if you still have a 'sleazy, lap-dance club' image of pole dancing!

Diet and Cooking:


Now, I've always felt that I ate a reasonably healthy diet - 'everything in moderation' being my motto. But I was aware that we could eat more fruit and veg and that some foods didn't agree with me! I knew that my repertoire of recipes was very limited and based on convenience.  So my quest now is to experiment more with cooking, buy more organic food and increase my awareness and understanding of how different foods and minerals can effect our bodies.

I've created a page to add any info I find out about diet and any recipes I think other people might like!

Creativity:


Before I started on the long road (well it was longer for me than most!) to teaching Fine Art was my passion and it consumed all of my time as a teenager.  Unfortunately, this is an area of my life that has almost completely disappeared, especially since teaching.  So I have vowed to spend more time being creative, therefor one of the first things I have done is ordered some wool to make felt!  I plan to make the most of the time I have free while I'm waiting to start work!  I have also been working hard at doing some basic photo-editing of all our thousands of pictures I have taken over our travels and I'm trying to learn how to be more creative with Photoshop.

I've created a new page to show off some of my projects!

Artifacts.

So...we have been in Vancouver a month now and it continues to be really exciting and promising! I'm really chuffed with how well we've done in such little time and what we have done in the last 6 months with such little money. It's been a real adventure.

We are now settled in to our flat and are really enjoying living with Ami and Michael. It's really great to be living with such positive and open-minded people who are always looking at their own lives and striving to improve themselves and achieve their goals. I think it's going to be a really positive experience for us. Throughout our travels we have done a lot more reflecting about what it was we wanted to change about our lives and it's helpful to be around people who live very different but fulfilling lives that we can take inspiration from!

Having said that, sometimes it feels very lonely and frustrating to feel like we're starting again. And also because we're not properly earning again, money is tight. I'm actually really missing all my belongings and clothes, jewellery etc. All those things that make me feel like I'm home and like 'me'. I've been feeling guilty and ungrateful for feeling a bit down that I don't have all my belongings and such a limited and cheap (!) wardrobe. Martin and I had been talking about this being a chance to reinvent ourselves and that we could create whole new identities for ourselves. But the reality is we don't have the money to do that and actually I don't want to reinvent myself - I quite like who I am!

At home I often feel guilty (see a theme?!) for buying clothes, accessories or something for the house that isn't absolutely essential. I feel it's gluttonous and that I don't deserve to when other people don't have any disposable income and can barely feed themselves. I've been thinking about why I want particular clothes or jewellery or a new haircut and for me I think it is to individualise myself, show some of my personality. Although I suppose other people have different reasons - to display wealth, to fit in, to stand out, to attract the attention of the opposite sex etc, etc.

Last weekend, I went to the Museum of Anthropology here in Vancouver and I spent a good few hours admiring all the beautiful objects and artifacts from aboriginal cultures from all over the world. Many of these objects were colourfully and intricately decorated. Some of the objects were purely decorative and others had some function, lots of a spiritual or religious nature.



I was trying to decide why these objects seemed less frivilous and acceptable to me. Because they were displayed in a museum?...

I decided it was because all of these objects had been hand-made. Each one was individual. Time and love and been invested in these objects. They represented a moment in that person and family's history. There was something inherently spiritual about these objects regardless of their purpose. And there is something special about that. I know that the few belongings I have of my grandparents are very special to me and are treasured, because they are representations of their memory and how important they were to me. It is the same for these objects in the museum, a lot would have been past down through generations. They were a record of history, the story of a culture.

I don't think we have that any more in the developed world, or very rarely. How often do we buy something handmade or even make something ourselves. Most things that we buy and own are mass-produced. There is also this attitude that everything is disposable. We buy things so cheaply that we think we can wear a dress once and then throw it away. We are so distanced from the process involved in making these things and we can get things so easily. Most things we buy are easily replaceable - we could buy the exact same object again. We haven't seen it being made or know who made it, in fact it's often made by a machine, so there is nothing of ourselves invested in that object.

After the visit to the museum I decided that I want to create 'artifacts' for my family and have some kind of skill/craft that I can pass down to my children, that becomes part of our heritage. I thought about all the happy times I spent as a child 'creating' something with my mum and sister (usually a mess) and the happy afternoons I've spent with friends or family crafting. I think of the wonderful homemade gifts and cards I've been given and how treasured they are.

The visit to the museum also made me realise that every culture throughout history has sought to decorate and identify themselves and their homes. It is a 'human' thing to want to do. So does that allow me to buy a new wardrobe?;)