conversations

In Queensland: I was watching the movie Hanna and my friend sent me a quote from Kahlil Gibran: "Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror."

In China: I sat with friends in a courtyard, sipping cognac, in the cool of dusk, and we could hear the sound of children playing nearby. 

Somewhere in Hong Kong: I went to a Charismatic Christian conference with my friend, which terrified and traumatized me because I didn't believe or understand, even though I thought I was a Christian. I felt so deeply alone in the midst of a crowd. That evening we went to see Three Men and a Baby, and there was something really comforting and reassuring about watching a film - touching the real world. 

One of the things that drove me to teaching is the fear and confusion I felt about being a Christian....and also the fear and confusion I had known for my whole life. Education was something about which I could say, this is good. 

I was only meant to stay in Hong Kong for a month, but at the end of the month the opportunity arose to stay longer and I really wanted to. So, I deferred my studies for a year and lived in Hong Kong for 8 months. While there, I had my first experience of work - teaching English. 

I really enjoyed it. I had some jobs teaching classes of different levels, some tutoring individual students, and I had a job doing something called 'free talk club'. I think I had 2 shifts of this a week. The job was basically for me as the teacher/ native English speaker to engage in English conversation with a group of students. The students were mostly adults who worked during the day and did this in the evening. 

For some people, it would probably be a really cruisy job - just talking with people for 4 or 5 hours. For me, that was an absolute nightmare, especially because I had to lead the whole thing. I had no idea what to do. But I grew to enjoy it. I came to a new appreciation of just talking with people...conversation. I'd never really liked conversation, but there was something about this that really hit the spot.