"And I took the road less travelled by" - Robert Frost. This line ended our 4 days of intense lessons, planning and forming friendships that Project Trust like to call 'Training'. This message hit home hard for me, I had finally finished training and only a year after I was originally supposed to. This time last year I was at my lowest point of this journey, I was watching all those I went on selection with finishing their training and starting their adventures aboard while I still sat in Scotland, in pain physically and mentally. However, there I sat, one year on, having completed my training and when listening to the final farewells, I couldn't help sit there with teary eyes and a huge smile ready to make China my new home.

I experienced my first culture shock of this journey while in Coll. Was it planning the lessons? The yellow water? Or the rural setting that caused this? No.

It was being surrounded by a group of teenagers. Because of my deferment, I am a year older than the other volunteers and thus I had already finished high school and so had not been in big groups with people my age for a year. It was overwhelming at first but by the time I had finished training, I had laughed harder than I had done in a long time and had started to create some truly great friendships. Being older was not as much as a hardship as I first imagined, I was called the 'grandma' of the group by one of the Malaysian volunteers which I felt was a bit too harsh. We settled on myself being the 'mum' of the group and I feel I have thoroughly embraced my role by making sure everyone had a enough biscuits during the stress that is lesson planning and ensuring that everyone got home safely.

Training cannot be described by one word or emotion, it's a mix of every thought and feeling you could have ever dreamed of and more. It can get overwhelming at times, after my partner and I had our talk about our project we were both feeling a bit emotional. We decided to walk up the big hill next to the centre and after a few minutes of tears while concerned and/or scared sheep looked on, the anxiousness we felt faded as we appreciated the beautiful views that surrounded us. Life is a journey with many different roads, you can take the straight and flat road that many try to persuade you to go down or you can take the road even the maps can't find and though it has it's ups and downs, the journey will be much more exciting. Sometimes you just need to climb a hill while crying to see the beauty around you. So now I sit at home surrounded by papers, plans and a whole lot of packing about to take the first steps on the road less travelled by.