Ole Larsen - Introductory Entry

Below is the first post from Ole Larsen, our newest contributor. As you will learn in his post, he is just about to start his TEFL training in Manuel Antonio:

It's nearly three thirty in the morning on the date of departure and I can't sleep. Not because I've the nerves, but because I've been going to bed at around four-five AM the last week or so. My flatmate just finished taking sexual advantage of her ex in the other room (they were less noisy than usual, thank God for small mercies). It's now approximately eight hours till I yet again leave Norway for a strange, far-away place.

I'm staring morosely at my latest enemy over the screen of my battered laptop. My suitcase. I'm almost there - 49 pounds when it needs to be 45-46ish. I don't know what more to leave behind, though. My giant teddy clown is going with me, come hell or high water. Even if I have to carry him. He was with me to South Africa, and just contemplating leaving him behind hurts a place deep in my soul. When all else fails, he is there, staring at me with those (literally) starry eyes and an eternal smile. As he sat smiling on the top of my book shelf in Cape Town, so will he sit somewhere in whatever lodging I end up with in Quepos. Or Manuel Antonio. I'm actually not sure where I'll be, because the TEFL information I have says Manuel Antonio, but the map they gave me shows Quepos and the building seemingly a short walk away from the village. Ah well, I'll find out soon enough, I guess.

There is little doubt that it takes a certain kind of courage for a young Norwegian fellow to start a career as an English teacher. The same kind of courage displayed by lemmings at the top of a long drop. To be honest, excepting the research I did on TEFL in general and TEFL International (the theoretical hosts of the Quepos/MA course), I did very little in the way of preparation. I chose a TEFL course provider and went to their web page. I saw Costa Rica and decided on it without further ado. I sent the application form and ordered the tickets soon after - three weeks before the start of the course. My clown sat smiling down at me as my fingers raced across the keyboard and the lemmings queued to be first off the cliff.

/Ole