Liz's blog

Hi! I'm Liz and I'll be teaching the Advanced Emerald course this term. I've started this blog for the class. It's your chance to share information about yourself, to air your opinions, to write reviews, to write creatively and to respond to other students' postings. In the process you should improve your writing skills and, I hope, enjoy writing in English. I will give you feedback on all postings.
I'll start it off by telling you a bit about myself. I'm in "phase three" of my life. Phase one was childhood, phase two was marriage and bringing up my two children (I was widowed in 1985), and now phase three is doing my own thing. I retrained to teach English, having spent most of my working life teaching the clarinet, mainly because I wanted to travel (not apparently the right thing to say at a job interview!)So far I've spent two years in southern Italy and now I'm coming to the end of my two year contract in Sri Lanka (in October).
I found my first few months in Sri Lanka very difficult. I had been teaching in a small school with only two teachers in Italy, so the British Council here, with nearly fifty teachers, was a bit of a shock to the system. Furthermore, it was very hot. I was nervous haggling prices with three-wheeler drivers, and once in the three-wheeler I was gritting my teeth all down Galle Rd! I was afraid of stomach upsets, dengue fever and in fact, any illness at all. However, I'm happy to say, I've survived without any serious illness, and when I did have a back problem I found that the medical facilities were excellent. I no longer grit my teeth in the Colombo traffic. My family have all visited me and we've had wonderful holidays together in Sri Lanka, most especially in the Hill Country round Haputale. So, having spent the first months in tears because everything was so strange and difficult, now I find myself in tears because in a couple of months I'll be leaving!