Surprises

Surprisingly, Taiwan (more specifically Kaohsiung and Kenting) is a nice and interesting place - breath-taking scenery, good temperate weather, palatable food, colourful history and people, with still another interesting chapter in their history yet to unfold. The language barrier wasn't that bad, thanks to many fan yi yuan (translator) parents and grandparents. Unfortunately just about EVERYTHING was in Chinese, otherwise I'd have enjoyed the trip more.

Something I found quite humorous was how they found it surprising that we Malaysians could speak Chinese quite well! And when some Chinese-speaking person says that to me (and my sister), of all people, that's quite a compliment indeed!

And then, just hours after I enter Malaysian airspace and after I set foot into my own house, I get two more surprises.

One is a call-to-arms: a call to join the "venerated" teaching force. I was supposed to start teaching only in May, as replacement for a teacher soon to be on maternity leave, but a slot was made available for me to start TOMORROW! So I am, and will be teaching Form 3 English. I can't actually remember how my Form 3 English classes went like, and furthermore, they were advanced English classes (at least more advanced than the average national school English class) so this will be a new experience for me. Hopefully the lesson I'm taking won't be their very first lesson of the day!

Another is a call to present: an email accepting my abstract submission to a cardiology conference in KL. This means a trip to KL and a presentation to be gotten ready, rehearsed, and made in front of a very knowledgeable audience, much more knowledgeable than me. I'll have to read up all the articles and studies related to my topic, and at least own that, even if I don't even know how to read an ECG properly.

Both experiences will be coloured by excitement and uncertainty, and of the two, I don't know which is the more daunting, because both are new and very different experiences. But I guess that I won't have it any other way, however much I detest the uncertainty. As someone once said, do your best and God will do the rest!

So, the next time I wake up, I'll be putting on the role of teacher. Who knows, I might even love it!