![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/IMG_2955-e1339776624299.jpg\" "\\"IMG_2955\\"")
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So today was the last day of school in Georgia, with all of the craziness that that entails. \u00a0It was kind of sad to say goodbye, even though I’ll probably be coming back to the same school in September. \u00a0In the meantime, I’m going to miss being a rockstar to all the 7-12 year olds and giving them high fives after class and in the hallways.<\/p>\n
I haven’t posted much about my teaching experience, but it’s generally been positive, though not without its ups and downs. \u00a0I’ve met a lot of great people, taught a lot of great kids, and lived in a culture very different from my own. \u00a0I’m not sure how I’ve grown yet, or what I’ve learned from the experience, but it isn’t over–I’ll be back after the summer, for a least one more semester.<\/p>\n
I asked to be placed in the same school again, though I’ll be changing homestay families. \u00a0If they can’t find another family in this district, I asked to be placed in a village near Kutaisi. \u00a0It’s impossible at this point to say what will happen, though, and things in this country tend to change without notice.<\/p>\n
When I came to Georgia, my goals were to find out if I could balance teaching English with my writing career, to get some useful teaching experience, and to gain some cultural exposure that would enhance my writing. \u00a0On all three counts, I think I’ve had success.<\/p>\n
My writing productivity has gone down \u00a0slightly since coming out here, but I think that has more to do with the homestay and finding a good, quiet place to write. \u00a0I’m still writing every day, just 1.5k words instead of 2.5k. \u00a0Teaching English isn’t the problem–in fact, it’s probably one of the best careers for aspiring writers, just so long as you know your creative process and have a modicum of self-discipline. \u00a0I’ll probably do another post on that later.<\/p>\n
As far as teaching experience, I don’t know how much my time here in Georgia is going to help my resume, but it has helped me to have a bit more confidence when it comes to teaching. \u00a0I still feel like there’s a lot of room for professional improvement, though, and it’s going to be difficult to get that here. \u00a0I like Georgia, though, so I’ll be happy to come back. \u00a0If anything, I figure one year looks better on a resume than six months.<\/p>\n
And as for cultural exposure, coming out here was definitely a good move. \u00a0Living in a developing country changes your perspective in a lot of interesting ways, and Georgia is so different from America that I’m sure I’ll be talking about it for years to come. \u00a0How all of this will affect my writing, I don’t exactly know, but I’m sure it will only enhance it.<\/p>\n
So yeah, that’s been my experience so far. \u00a0The last day of school was kind of bittersweet, but I’m definitely looking forward to coming back!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So today was the last day of school in Georgia, with all of the craziness that that entails. \u00a0It was kind of sad to say goodbye, even though I’ll probably be coming back to the same school in September. \u00a0In the meantime, I’m going to miss being a rockstar to all the 7-12 year olds… Continue reading Last day of school<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[698,705,30,697,495,599,312],"class_list":["post-7419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cultural-experiences","tag-georgia","tag-life-decisions","tag-teach-and-learn-in-georgia","tag-teaching-english-abroad","tag-thoughts-reflections","tag-work","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-1VF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7419"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7423,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7419\/revisions\/7423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}