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
