Nikita in Nepal

In the seven weeks of term one at Kathmandu International Study Centre I have learnt unbelievable amounts about myself, the children under my care, how to run my class effectively and how to live in a foreign culture without becoming utterly overwhelmed... it's sad to say the first term is over, but realising that it was the shortest term of the four, I'm so happy there's many more weeks to come in this beautiful country with this amazing role! We ended the term with a 'Splash Day' for the kids, but I was loving life, flying down soapy slides and tipping buckets of freezing cold water on my colleagues; most of them reciprocating simultaneously! The kids had so much fun and it was a great end of term bonding experience! Throughout the term, I had to face the challenges of every new teacher... parents night was one of these and I'm so glad my teaching assistant, Amelia was there to help! I also had to face taking an Assembly, for the first time in my teaching ca...

For the first time since my A-Levels I can honestly say that my brain has reached it's saturation point! Beginning any new job generally feels like you're embarking on a big adventure, never knowing what to expect, taking one day at a time, always expecting the unexpected... I can safely say I never expected the degree of anticipation which I had on the day of my first EVER staff development meeting! Arriving like an excitable puppy was probably a shock to anybody who has sat through more than one of these meetings in their lifetime but what can I say, I enjoy all things new - dressing professionally, meeting all the new staff in one place, becoming part of an amazing community and network of all different types of people, actually feeling like a valued member of a functioning team! In previous restaurant jobs, the management expect new employees to get on with the task in hand but here at KISC, there is an abundance of people practically queuing to help you! I have been...

After having such an intense summer month of experiencing the culture in Kenya, teaching art in a rural orphanage, I thought nothing more could shock me... honestly, I thought I'd seen it all, from dodgy drivers to dodgy practices, that is until my Turkish airlines flight buzzed over the hills of Nepal; that's right, the locals refer to the mighty Himalayas, the roof of the world, as: 'hilly'! I was in the row of four seats in the middle of the airplane and was innerly frustrated and quite unsubtly getting agitated with the fact that window seat customers had their noses pressed up against the 3mm thick Perspex indulging their senses from every angle at 15,000ft... blocking my view of my soon to be homeland! I decided to hold tight and await my first view as I stepped off the A330 aircraft. As I gathered my own mountain of bags (which were just about let on as hand luggage after some frantic correspondence at the airport in Istanbul) the Himalayan air hit me like a sp...