Last Updated:15/11/08
Hi there! Cavegirl here. So...this website...why? how? when?
Caveman Tom started
his first website while he was at high school and in
May 2003 I finally succumbed to 'taking an interest'.
Well, I thought it was time my Cavegirl voice was heard. As you can see,
my website has now out-grown his, and my voice is resounding loud and clear!
The main reason to start this site was The Adventure - our post-uni
travels. We were planning on spending a year travelling round the world
after finishing our degrees. Things didn't quite go according to plan,
however...and The Adventure has turned into:
The Big Adventure
Phase 1: The Japan Experience (July 2003 - July 2005)
Phase 2: The Long Route Home (July 2005 - September 2005)
Phase 3: Wanderlust! (February 2006 - May 2006)
Phase 4: Travels from Base Camp (May 2006~)
Anyway, I guess if you're here, you might actually want to know a bit of background info about me (it might help put a few things in context, at any rate)
Who is Cavegirl? (and Caveman Tom for that matter...)
Well, my name is Adele Mariette and I've been with my partner, Tom
Westley (aka Caveman Tom), since October 1999. We're now both in our
mid late-20s. If you knew me in the pre-Tom days: Trust me, I'm as
shocked as you that we've been together for so long! (It must be his
easy-going nature...)
I'm originally from the rock, better known as Jersey (the largest of the Channel Islands), and Tom hails from Belbroughton - a small village in the West Midlands (or "in Worcestershire" if he's feeling posh!) .
Tom and I were both on the same course at uni (in fact we met in the registration queue in the first year), and in 2003 - after four years of seriously hard study - we both graduated with a 2:1 Masters in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Bristol. Whoever said the life of a student was easy?! Getting drunk and partying all night? Never going to lectures? Long lie-ins? You've got to be bloody joking! Yes, we had to work damn hard (in hind-sight, I think I took the wrong degree... ;) ). Not that I'm bitter.
So, as freshly qualified engineers, what did we do?
We moved to Japan. Great!
To teach
English. ...oh
(Yes, I know engineers are not renowned for their skill with the English language. That's why we had to move to Japan to teach it!)
Japan and the JET Programme
In our final year at uni we were allowed to take one open unit option...which could be in a non-engineering subject (although the choice was very limited). I was determined to get a break from the hard work, and remembering how fabulous I was at languages while at school (note irony) I decided Japanese would be a good option. (Actually, the choice of open-unit options was really limited, so Tom ended up doing Japanese too!)
And that's how it all began.
We found that due to our (by now) ingrained habit of long hours of study, that we did very well! As the year progressed our interest in Japan and the Japanese language grew. Our sensei introduced us to the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Programme, and it all went on from there. We attended a talk about JET and decided to apply. We applied as partners (as JET allow you to do), and were both called to the Embassy of Japan in London.
For some reason I will never understand, I got short-listed and Tom didn't.
Luckily we had a Plan B.
I moved to Japan in July 2003, and took up my position with JET as an ALT (assistant language teacher) in a technical high school in Harue - a small town in Fukui Prefecture, Central Honshu. The apartment itself was in Fukui City.
Back in England, Tom was frantically saving up money for his ticket over (no mean feat when you've been at uni for 4 years...). We knew once he got to Japan we could both live off my salary until he got a job. By mid-October 2003 he'd saved enough, and came out to join me. JET, the local Board of Education, the landlord and my school all knew Tom would be coming out to join me (it was all on the original application form). Everyone was so helpful to us, and their kindnesses have not been forgotten.
By December Tom had found himself a job with the Echizen English Centre (EEC), but had to wait until all the paperwork was sorted before he could officially start work.
My contract expired the following July, but we weren't yet ready to leave Japan. Even thinking about the winter and all that damn snow didn't put us off staying for another year...So we both recontracted (me in July 2004 and Tom in January 2005). As my contract came up for renewal a second time, we both knew that we were ready to move on.
During our time in Japan, we made the most of every opportunity that opened itself up to us, and we both had a truly incredibly time. Neither of us would have missed this experience, and all it brought with it, for the world!
Be sure to check out the archive of Phase 1: The Japan Experience!
However, throughout our time in Japan, we never stopped talking about our world travels, and as the time for us to leave drew ever nearer, we realised we wanted a fitting end to our time here - not just to wave goodbye, get on a plane and in around 12 hours land at Heathrow airport. Somehow that would have felt like a let-down.
After Japan
And so the plans for Phase 2: The Long Route Home slowly materialised. Final travels in Japan (including 8 days in Okinawa), a two-day boat trip to China, and three weeks later embarking on the ultimate train journey: the Trans-Siberian from Beijing, through Mongolia and Siberia to Moscow (with a few stops for exploration purposes...). From Moscow up to St Petersberg, and from there to Estonia to catch a flight back to the UK.
But after that, we were still talking about the round-the-world travels... Phase 3: Wanderlust! After earning some cash back in Britain to top up the funds from Japan, we set of on four months of exploration and general globe-trotting. We started off in the Middle East (Jordan & Egypt), went back to SE Asia (to Cambodia, Thailand and Hong Kong), on to South America (Easter Island (Chile), Bolivia (and the Amazon rainforest), Peru, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands), finally ending up visiting friends from Japan and Uni in the States and Canada.
On returning to the UK after all that travelling, it was time to find a base. Within two weeks we'd found a fab little apartment, moved in, and emptied everything out of storage (we'd originally only planned to be away for a year after graduating - 3 years later we were finally unpacking the boxes!). It's brilliant to be back in the UK and to have our feet in one place for a while, although I have to admit it took a while to recover from reverse culture shock!
Finding a base marked the start of Phase 4: Travels from Base Camp, and the travels haven't really stopped. Since being "settled", we've been on quite a few trips (not least of all to Gambia), and are currently in the process of planning the Next Big Trip (ok, so it's only for 6 1/2 weeks, but that's not bad when you're in full-time employment!!).
any queries or suggestions, or do you just want to say 'hi'?
feel free to send me an e-mail and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.