Ups and downs...

This has been, for lack of a better word, an interesting week. I found out the conditions of my visa (working holiday) have been changed and where I had choices a couple of months ago, I now have only one option in relation to working here. Rather than choosing between working full time over twelve months broken up over two years and working part time over 24 months, I can now only work for twelve months, full stop. These twelve months can be full time or part time, it doesn't matter. I just don't have the option of working continuously part time over my allotted two years. Which sucks. It takes away some part of the security I thought I had and feeling secure is my security blanket.

I don't know why things changed or when it happened exactly, but there is a climate of anti-immigration here that I underestimated. Nottingham and England is deliciously multicultural, but some people are just not happy about it. It's a constant feature on the political agenda and in the newspapers, and with the recent tightening of Britain's borders coupled with the terrorist attacks here, things are getting ugly. Or maybe they always have been. I don't know. I've only been here for a couple of months. At this time, I'm not able to critique what I see as an issue of all wealthy countries; the push and pull of "us" vs. "them". All I know is how it's affecting me. The rules have changed and I'm in the mix.

But.

I've started to look at this whole thing differently. Rather than a pitfall, it can be an opportunity. An opportunity to actually travel, get as much experience working in different offices in the UK and to enjoy this "career break". I was pretty down about where I am in my life right now, but I have to look at things differently. I need to. So I will continue to taste the sugar with the salt and ride this thing like the kick ass cowgirl I can be.