It's always nice to have a DAY OFF... :-)
So here I am, actually sitting at home today because there is no teaching for me. Surprised but in a way grateful that I get a break in the middle of the week. I have started a new teaching placement in Bexhill as of yesterday and that has turned out to be very interesting.
Bexhill High School reminds me of home a bit in certain ways but is it ever HUGE!!!! The high school was built in 2010 and because it is brand new, there are so many opportunities for students throughout the school. They have many "radical" ways of teaching here which I'm not used to but it's good to do something different - have a nice change of pace. There are notebooks (computers) for every student in every classroom and keep in mind their class sizes are anywhere from 75 - 100 students per class. As I discovered yesterday, the classes are so big because there are 3 classes of 30+ in one classroom at a time so it almost looks like a lecture hall in a huge room. There are students everywhere and now I understand why there is so much "team teaching". If there weren't a teacher per class in the classroom at once, it would be uncontrollable. But what a difference from Tideway (school I was at the last 2 weeks) -- the students at Bexhill are SO well behaved and they do NOT put up with ANY nonsense or behavioural instances. These students are so focused and they really participate (depending on the class of course). MUCH MUCH different than the other 2 schools that I have been at but it's refreshing to not have to be trying to control or yell at the students to get them to be quiet.
I am teaching English so I have met quite a few teachers already and surprisingly enough, I am not actually teaching, I'm pretty much just supervising certain sections of the classes for now at least. I did ask eventually if they need me to teach and they said probably not so it would be nice to have the opportunity to do so but we'll see. Oh, and the technology at this school is phenomenal. Like I said, each student has pretty much a small notebook to use if they need to, the teachers use a SmartBoard (interactive whiteboard), touchscreen tv screens and so many other things. There are so many possibilities for the teachers as well as the students to really expand their thinking and comprehend things on a level that they understand. That in itself, makes me excited to be at this school so let's hope they give me the opportunity of helping out with English or even Music as they have a pretty large program. We'll see what comes out of this school.
The rest of the week, I have work and believe it or not, I am teaching from 11:30am - 5pm tomorrow so it's going to be a long day. The good thing is that I've already met a teacher who has been willing to pick up/drop off me and another teacher to the train station as it's a 30 minute walk to the school from the train station. So that was definitely much more comforting to know. Never hurts to ask...
Anthony is at school today and I'm sure he's having an interesting day so it should be interesting to hear his adventures and stories once he gets home. I've been trying not to sit around all day doing nothing as I get bored (that's not a big surprise for those of you who know me)...LOL...but I managed to go into Brighton to get some things done and hit up Poundland again (dollar store) to kill some time. I had to wake up early this morning and get ready as though I had school this morning because you never know if they will call you to quickly go in somewhere. When I got back from town, the house was still rocking and the fog has rolled in so it's not even like I could sit outside to enjoy the 12 degree weather...but I managed to find something to do and vacuumed, did the dishes, cleaned the bathroom, washed the floors, windexed everything, moved around some furniture, reorganized the closet, and now write this blog. I would consider that a pretty productive day! But it's still only 3:00pm so Anthony should be home within the next hour or so.
We do have plans for tonight though - we got an email from one of the pastor's at St. Peter's and they are starting their hubs tonight so we've been invited to go. It's like a small group at home so it's nice to finally be involved in something again. I think it's really important that both Anthony and I get to know some people from the church and get involved in some way so we'll see where this takes us. It's all so new to us but the hubs only meet fortnightly so that will be nice. Tonight we don't even have to make dinner -- Anthony will be happy! LOL...
Recommendations:
If you haven't already you should see LIFE OF PI and LINCOLN -- fantastic movies!!!
More words learned to date:
Crisps = chips
Muffins = muffins (that doesn't make much sense does it since english muffins are called muffins too)
Oatmeal = porridge or muesli
Sweets = candy/treats
More things learned to date:
Biscuits (cookies) are not charged taxes because they're not an expensive dessert but cakes are charged taxes because they're a delicacy...so weird!
"You doing alright?" means "how are you?" -- still not used to that yet
"Oh blimy!" means "oh wow seriously?" or "oh my goodness, really?"
Thinking about everyone at home and missing you all...please feel free to keep sharing our blog!!
Till next time... xoxo
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Teaching at it's Finest
What a crazy busy last 2 weeks it has been and apparently a WEEK since my last blog. What a SLACKER!!! School is just consuming every second and every minute of my day and even though I get home by 3:15 - 3:30PM, I am so tired -- teaching is so exhausting. I now know why some teachers go to be really early because the kids just suck the energy right out of you!
On Friday, we were both at school and to our surprise it started snowing outside. The kids were SO distracted all day peering out the window to see the snow fall so it was difficult to teach any lesson but we got through it. Eventually, you won't believe this....they cancelled all the schools and sent everyone home for a SNOW DAY with 1 inch of snow on the ground. What a joke!!!!!!! As Canadians, you can see why this would be so ridiculous because we don't cancel school for snow....EVER! It turned into some big snow/wind storm and by the time I got home, I was soaked, freezing and sitting in a house rocking back and forth because the water was so choppy!
This week has been interesting and the students have been pretty testy to say the least. Anthony and I have come across a few situations that we've had to deal with but it's all about the experience and if we can handle kids here in England, they'll be angels back in Canada. WOW is all I have to say! The kids here have no idea what it's like to seriously respect anyone including their classmates. However, I've whipped a few into shape already so slowly it's starting to turn around and depending on where we are both put next (if a different school), it may change and we may not have this much difficulty. Hormones are flying high and if I hear the phrase "I Love You" coming from anyone else but Anthony, I'm going to lose my mind!! I'm gonna start having to give kids detention because it's just getting bad now. All in a days work...you DEFINITELY have to have a tough skin to work here!
There was a piece of good news this weekend so that was really nice to experience compared to our crazy, whirlwind days - weeks of teaching. We went church hunting this weekend and decided that we would check out St. Peter's Church in Brighton. We had a take a couple of different buses to get there but we managed in the snowstorm....hahaha.....yes the snowstorm! It was so nice to hear the bells ringing as we walked up to the church - that is a sound that you don't hear of much anymore and it's so beautiful! Once we walked inside, I had an immediate overwhelming feeling of 'home'. It's hard to explain but I just felt as though this was the place we were supposed to be. I almost got emotional thinking about home and church and friends and it just caught me off guard a bit but I think in that moment, I realized that I actually missed home for the first time. Pushing back the tears, we were welcomed with open arms and there just in time for the service to begin. We sat down thinking that the church looked really empty, but to our surprise, the church instead had a nice time of refreshment and fellowship. It was such a nice change from what we normally do and the service then started 30 minutes later. We had SO many people people coming up and introducing themselves and they were so loving and kind to invite us to many things and welcome us to the service. It was so nice to meet people of all ages and groups and really start to get a feel for the church.
The worship began the service and immediately I was blown away by the talent and professionalism of the team. They were absolutely incredible and the girl who was singing had such a pure voice it was so amazing! I again immediately had the thought of singing at church and how much I missed it so to say the least, this was a hard first service to attend. The best way to describe the worship was "it sounded like a CD" - it was so good it wasn't distracting believe it or not. They were so good at what they were doing and they honestly sounded like "Hillsong" - it was such an unbelievable time of worship that both Anthony and I enjoyed. It was without distraction and the entire church was so FREE to worship - what a difference than what we're used to but it was SO refreshing. You could definitely feel the presence of God coming into the church. We were told before/after the service that the congregation feels as though there is something happening in this church and I'm starting to believe that's true. It's almost as if there is a mini revival of some sort just waiting to come to light. It's so exciting and it just draws you in...what an amazing feeling!
As the service went on, the preaching was fantastic and then there were altar calls and prayer flooding through the church. There were so many people ready to commit their lives to Christ or renew their faith in Him and it was so neat to see. As we were not used to the service structure, we assumed that it was a quiet lead off so that people could continue praying and focusing on God, but then the worship started coming back in and it got louder and louder and louder and just exploded with sound!! Everyone was on their feet and praising God and they were SO into the worship, I have never seen a whole church like that before and it was so invigorating and somewhat infectious! LOL...it just made you want to stand up and jump or lift your hands....so so so cool!!
After the service finally ended, we again had all these people coming up to us and introducing themselves and when we got talking to this couple, it was interesting to see the conversation bloom. We ended up finding out that the husband was a landlord that rented out to Christian singles/couples that were Canadian teachers!! We thought that was a riot and further into the conversation, we started telling them a little bit about our life and why we ended up in Europe. We came to the conclusion that we were called by God to come here and teach - whatever else he has planned for us we're still figuring out but the wife went on to share this verse with us:
Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
I got goosebumps as she was sharing this verse with us because in that second, I remembered that that exact verse was shared with us in our church before we left. In that moment, I realized that God was reaffirming our place here and through his grace, he will continue to bless us through work and provide us with everything we need as we continue to serve Him.
Looking forward to many more Sundays at St. Peter's Church.
Steph & Anthony xoxo
(keep in mind the inside of St Peters Church now has regular black chairs instead of pews as they were taken out recently but the rest is pretty much the same (except for a HUGE stage set up for worship at the front)
What a crazy busy last 2 weeks it has been and apparently a WEEK since my last blog. What a SLACKER!!! School is just consuming every second and every minute of my day and even though I get home by 3:15 - 3:30PM, I am so tired -- teaching is so exhausting. I now know why some teachers go to be really early because the kids just suck the energy right out of you!
On Friday, we were both at school and to our surprise it started snowing outside. The kids were SO distracted all day peering out the window to see the snow fall so it was difficult to teach any lesson but we got through it. Eventually, you won't believe this....they cancelled all the schools and sent everyone home for a SNOW DAY with 1 inch of snow on the ground. What a joke!!!!!!! As Canadians, you can see why this would be so ridiculous because we don't cancel school for snow....EVER! It turned into some big snow/wind storm and by the time I got home, I was soaked, freezing and sitting in a house rocking back and forth because the water was so choppy!
This week has been interesting and the students have been pretty testy to say the least. Anthony and I have come across a few situations that we've had to deal with but it's all about the experience and if we can handle kids here in England, they'll be angels back in Canada. WOW is all I have to say! The kids here have no idea what it's like to seriously respect anyone including their classmates. However, I've whipped a few into shape already so slowly it's starting to turn around and depending on where we are both put next (if a different school), it may change and we may not have this much difficulty. Hormones are flying high and if I hear the phrase "I Love You" coming from anyone else but Anthony, I'm going to lose my mind!! I'm gonna start having to give kids detention because it's just getting bad now. All in a days work...you DEFINITELY have to have a tough skin to work here!
There was a piece of good news this weekend so that was really nice to experience compared to our crazy, whirlwind days - weeks of teaching. We went church hunting this weekend and decided that we would check out St. Peter's Church in Brighton. We had a take a couple of different buses to get there but we managed in the snowstorm....hahaha.....yes the snowstorm! It was so nice to hear the bells ringing as we walked up to the church - that is a sound that you don't hear of much anymore and it's so beautiful! Once we walked inside, I had an immediate overwhelming feeling of 'home'. It's hard to explain but I just felt as though this was the place we were supposed to be. I almost got emotional thinking about home and church and friends and it just caught me off guard a bit but I think in that moment, I realized that I actually missed home for the first time. Pushing back the tears, we were welcomed with open arms and there just in time for the service to begin. We sat down thinking that the church looked really empty, but to our surprise, the church instead had a nice time of refreshment and fellowship. It was such a nice change from what we normally do and the service then started 30 minutes later. We had SO many people people coming up and introducing themselves and they were so loving and kind to invite us to many things and welcome us to the service. It was so nice to meet people of all ages and groups and really start to get a feel for the church.
The worship began the service and immediately I was blown away by the talent and professionalism of the team. They were absolutely incredible and the girl who was singing had such a pure voice it was so amazing! I again immediately had the thought of singing at church and how much I missed it so to say the least, this was a hard first service to attend. The best way to describe the worship was "it sounded like a CD" - it was so good it wasn't distracting believe it or not. They were so good at what they were doing and they honestly sounded like "Hillsong" - it was such an unbelievable time of worship that both Anthony and I enjoyed. It was without distraction and the entire church was so FREE to worship - what a difference than what we're used to but it was SO refreshing. You could definitely feel the presence of God coming into the church. We were told before/after the service that the congregation feels as though there is something happening in this church and I'm starting to believe that's true. It's almost as if there is a mini revival of some sort just waiting to come to light. It's so exciting and it just draws you in...what an amazing feeling!
As the service went on, the preaching was fantastic and then there were altar calls and prayer flooding through the church. There were so many people ready to commit their lives to Christ or renew their faith in Him and it was so neat to see. As we were not used to the service structure, we assumed that it was a quiet lead off so that people could continue praying and focusing on God, but then the worship started coming back in and it got louder and louder and louder and just exploded with sound!! Everyone was on their feet and praising God and they were SO into the worship, I have never seen a whole church like that before and it was so invigorating and somewhat infectious! LOL...it just made you want to stand up and jump or lift your hands....so so so cool!!
After the service finally ended, we again had all these people coming up to us and introducing themselves and when we got talking to this couple, it was interesting to see the conversation bloom. We ended up finding out that the husband was a landlord that rented out to Christian singles/couples that were Canadian teachers!! We thought that was a riot and further into the conversation, we started telling them a little bit about our life and why we ended up in Europe. We came to the conclusion that we were called by God to come here and teach - whatever else he has planned for us we're still figuring out but the wife went on to share this verse with us:
Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
I got goosebumps as she was sharing this verse with us because in that second, I remembered that that exact verse was shared with us in our church before we left. In that moment, I realized that God was reaffirming our place here and through his grace, he will continue to bless us through work and provide us with everything we need as we continue to serve Him.
Looking forward to many more Sundays at St. Peter's Church.
Steph & Anthony xoxo
(the outside of St Peter's Church on a Sunny day...it's much bigger than the picture portrays)
Wednesday, 16 January 2013
Can't seem to keep up...
WOW I can't believe that it's been almost a week since the last blog!! I am really starting to fall behind here. Everything is starting to consume me and by the time I get home I'm pretty exhausted after dealing with kids all day. LOL...
I have to apologize to everyone in advance for not updating my blog as I'm pretty sure I've had dinner every night after school and then fallen to sleep. I used to think that 10-11PM was early!! HA....that's funny because now it's like, ..."wow it's 10PM it's so late!!" However, that's because we have to leave the house before 7AM every morning. Welcome to the REAL working world! hahahaha...
The past week has been super busy and full of surprises that's for sure! Anthony and I have both been put into short term positions at the moment so it's nice to have that consistency of being in the same school every day and not having to wait for a phone call every morning. Anthony is loving the school that he's in and believe it or not, there are only about 30 kids in the whole school. He is definitely proud of the fact that he is teaching PE and rightfully so. The school is quite small but it is a behavioural school so the kids are quite challenging at times (to say the least). Anthony is definitely bent this way and has a very good system of dealing with kids that are "challenging." He is currently taking over for a teacher that has since quit teaching PE at the school and they are looking for a replacement. Anthony is hoping to earn the spot of replacement for PE teacher at this school so only time will tell. He would be perfect for the job but has found it difficult to create a plan/lessons for daily classes as the previous teacher was only there for 1 week and there isn't much to go by. Ah the life of a supply teacher....hectic as usual!
I however, have been spoiled when it comes to lesson plans and work left for me to do to teach my students. I am currently covering for a teacher who is off sick for a week or two. I am just about done my first full week and am pretty proud of the progress that I and the students have made. I am mostly teaching History if you can believe it or not, and for those of you who know me, I do no.t do well in History. Now, it is relatively easier to teach once you have the work but it's hard not being able to come up with your own lesson plans and instead flying by the seat of your pants. I have had the luxury of having a student teacher be part of most of my History classes and he teaches the students through lectures so the beauty is, I don't have to lecture them/teach them any History lessons as I just pick up the work that I'm supposed to do every morning. It's more like a surprise when I get in each morning :)
I did actually have a change of pace today and had to teach English!! Hahahaha...mind you I had 2 TA's and they were amazing because they knew the work already and they helped the students complete their tasks. We then got the joy of watching a movie the next period so easy for me, I didn't really have to teach 2 periods, I merely supervised! In certain classes, the kids have definitely given me a run for my money and they are so crazy but I hope everything will start to iron out smoothly as time goes on because as far as I know, I'll be with these kids a little while longer. The school is great and I am in a very needy area of Newhaven so the students are challenging but there are some behavioural lessons that need to be addressed. So I am always busy trying to watch/deal with daily issues/behaviour.
But luckily, it's the end of the day, I'm already home and sitting out on the patio watching the sunset. Every time I get off the bus and walk home I look over the marina and realize that I am so lucky to be living in such an amazing place right now and so thankful that I have someone to share it with. Hopefully work keeps on steady and you never know where we'll be next...
Until next time... <3
WOW I can't believe that it's been almost a week since the last blog!! I am really starting to fall behind here. Everything is starting to consume me and by the time I get home I'm pretty exhausted after dealing with kids all day. LOL...
I have to apologize to everyone in advance for not updating my blog as I'm pretty sure I've had dinner every night after school and then fallen to sleep. I used to think that 10-11PM was early!! HA....that's funny because now it's like, ..."wow it's 10PM it's so late!!" However, that's because we have to leave the house before 7AM every morning. Welcome to the REAL working world! hahahaha...
The past week has been super busy and full of surprises that's for sure! Anthony and I have both been put into short term positions at the moment so it's nice to have that consistency of being in the same school every day and not having to wait for a phone call every morning. Anthony is loving the school that he's in and believe it or not, there are only about 30 kids in the whole school. He is definitely proud of the fact that he is teaching PE and rightfully so. The school is quite small but it is a behavioural school so the kids are quite challenging at times (to say the least). Anthony is definitely bent this way and has a very good system of dealing with kids that are "challenging." He is currently taking over for a teacher that has since quit teaching PE at the school and they are looking for a replacement. Anthony is hoping to earn the spot of replacement for PE teacher at this school so only time will tell. He would be perfect for the job but has found it difficult to create a plan/lessons for daily classes as the previous teacher was only there for 1 week and there isn't much to go by. Ah the life of a supply teacher....hectic as usual!
I however, have been spoiled when it comes to lesson plans and work left for me to do to teach my students. I am currently covering for a teacher who is off sick for a week or two. I am just about done my first full week and am pretty proud of the progress that I and the students have made. I am mostly teaching History if you can believe it or not, and for those of you who know me, I do no.t do well in History. Now, it is relatively easier to teach once you have the work but it's hard not being able to come up with your own lesson plans and instead flying by the seat of your pants. I have had the luxury of having a student teacher be part of most of my History classes and he teaches the students through lectures so the beauty is, I don't have to lecture them/teach them any History lessons as I just pick up the work that I'm supposed to do every morning. It's more like a surprise when I get in each morning :)
I did actually have a change of pace today and had to teach English!! Hahahaha...mind you I had 2 TA's and they were amazing because they knew the work already and they helped the students complete their tasks. We then got the joy of watching a movie the next period so easy for me, I didn't really have to teach 2 periods, I merely supervised! In certain classes, the kids have definitely given me a run for my money and they are so crazy but I hope everything will start to iron out smoothly as time goes on because as far as I know, I'll be with these kids a little while longer. The school is great and I am in a very needy area of Newhaven so the students are challenging but there are some behavioural lessons that need to be addressed. So I am always busy trying to watch/deal with daily issues/behaviour.
But luckily, it's the end of the day, I'm already home and sitting out on the patio watching the sunset. Every time I get off the bus and walk home I look over the marina and realize that I am so lucky to be living in such an amazing place right now and so thankful that I have someone to share it with. Hopefully work keeps on steady and you never know where we'll be next...
Until next time... <3
Thursday, 10 January 2013
Teaching Begins
This must be some kind of record, I can't believe that I haven't blogged anything since Monday!!! I'm already falling behind and I've only taught one day hahahaha...
Not too much has happened over the past few days except for being able to actually teach on Wednesday for the first time ever in England so that's been pretty exciting. Anthony and I were both fortunate enough to receive some supply work at the same school and on the same day. We do have to check every morning if we have work and now that we finally have a pay-as-you-go phone, they will call us every morning to see if we want work. There are also pre-bookings which was what we had for our Wednesday teaching where the Supply Desk will email you ahead of time the details and how long the supply work will last.
At first, we were finding it extremely hard to get by without a phone since it is an instant line of communication and our Internet here is not very dependable at least for the time being. So we decided to go out today to find a cheap phone that will serve as a temporary basis until we figure out everything with our Canadian cell phones. We feel much better now knowing that we have a cell as communication for now and that it will no longer hinder our day to day work. This month is definitely going to be tight, but we just have to keep trusting in the fact that God will provide work for us - he already has and a week early!! He's the one who brought us in here in the first place so everything will work itself out.
I know all of you are wondering how our first day of school went and I'm glad to report that it went pretty well for a first day! My day was a little better than Anthony's...hahaha...but I'm sure the tables will turn eventually because I know they're not all good days. We were very lucky to be in quite a good school too. All the kids were in uniform and ranged from Grade 6-7 to Grade 11-12. It's strange having all of those age groups in one school but it seems to work here. The British do their school systems quite different than Canadians (specifically Ontario) so there are quite a few adjustments that we'll have to make. Their grades are called years and the age groups seem to be a year or two ahead of ours (for example - age 14-15 is year 10 where at home that would be Grade 9). Not too big of a deal but the classes are done more by age then year/grade.
It was so nice to actually have a full day's work yesterday! Every school is different in all areas of England so for us yesterday they were very strict about their time schedule. It was actually quite convenient because the kids were only in 1 hour periods with 1 break in the day and a later lunch. The day went by really quickly and the kids were really good even though some of them have short attention spans, but that's expected. I got to be in the same room all day and poor Anthony had to move around to different classrooms and even a different campus at one point (got lost on the way there). The school had me teaching Business Communications/IT (computer) classes all day. I managed to teach 4 periods but honestly, it was the easiest class. I pretty much babysat the kids for the most part until they started asking about my accent. MY ACCENT????
Anthony and I exchanged stories at the end of the day and were laughing because most of the classes were distracted all day trying to guess where we were from and once they heard about Canada they went crazy!! They love Canadians...honestly it felt like we were rockstars all day on the Red Carpet. These kids just could not get enough of us! They asked some good questions too like: "What's a famous food from Canada?" to which I replied Poutine - they had no idea what it was and when I explained that it was fries, cheese and gravy they all just looked at me like a deer caught in headlights. They didn't even know what fries were until they figured out they were called "chips" (English word for fries)..."Do you like Justin Bieber" to which we both replied, I hate Justin Bieber LOL..."Have you seen a moose/bear?" to which Anthony replied yes and I replied no to the moose and yes to the bear - the kids were so excited but I had to keep explaining to them that bears/moose are not exactly gentle creatures.
We heard a funny story yesterday from one of the other PE teachers that said the kids were mesmerized by snow. Apparently they were plastered up against the glass in their classroom and watched the snow fall in amazement for 8 minutes. Anthony and I were killing ourselves because we know there's about at least 1 foot of snow back at home so when we told the kids about snow in Canada they freaked out!!! We also told them it's probably at least -10 degrees to which they responded THAT'S FREEZING. LOL....they don't know what real winter is!!
The questions kept rolling in and more and more students started intently listening to what we had to say about Canada and they loved getting to know us as not just teachers but people as well. They are so curious about everything. One kid actually thought I was Irish...I couldn't help but laugh out loud because I have no Irish accent whatsoever but to them, it probably all sounds the same! It's hard to remember that WE have the accent, not the other way around. To top off the day, I had a proposal from one boy and then an "I love you" from another so all in all I guess it was a pretty good day for me!! LOL :) Anthony had a harder day than me - he taught PE and Science. He said that the kids had no hand-eye coordination at all and they had no idea how to play even Badminton. I felt bad but that's something that you encounter when you're supplying I guess. A lot of the kids don't know/care how to do something, it's just a class. Just like my IT classes, the kids were playing games half the time until we finally got into work mode. The last period for Anthony was a last minute switch to Science because he wasn't aware that he had to teach PE that day and work a shirt and tie with dress shoes. The head of PE mentioned that maybe it was a good idea that he switch classes with another supply teacher because he didn't want to mess up Anthony's pretty shoes. That class turned out to be a little bit of a disaster, but all in all, Anthony pushed through and managed to make it to the end of the day.
What a great first experience (for me at least)! Overall, everything has been moving along quite well and soon we will be on the road to success! We have successfully budgeted for everything now it's just a matter of gaining steady income and consistent work.
Here are some words/phrases learned in the last couple of days:
Frankfurters = hotdogs (who calls them that? hahahaha)
Muffins = English Muffins
Handset = cell phone
Fizzy drink = pop
Cover = supply (teach)
Chips = fries
Mate --> slang for buddy ie. "How's it going mate?"
"Just wait a tick and I'll be back..." ie. tick = second/minute
Strange things noticed/different from Canada:
- Chips are sold in bulk: each bag contains individual bags of chips instead of everything all in one bag --> don't like that one bit hahahaha
- STILL not used to people driving on the opposite side of the road/car --> SO weird!!! freaks me out hahahaha
More to come and hopefully not so many days lapse in between this was a lot of writing!! Missing all of you at home <3
Monday, 7 January 2013
New Place, New Rules
So it's been a couple of days since my last blog and we finally have some Internet working so that we can talk to everyone and find out when we can finally work!!
Not very much has happened over the last couple of days. We finally left the hotel and moved to our new house!!! We had our first meal in our new studio and we were lucky enough to try and cook some homemade meatballs with what we had and spaghetti. I have to say, with the limited amount of ingredients we had, Anthony did a really good job. He'll have to start being more creative with his recipes because the spices around here are NOT the same as what we have at home. We are so excited to see that everything is working out and excited to start work hopefully sooner than later. Anthony and I actually just found out this afternoon that we have our first supply job starting on Wednesday in Seaford, UK which about an hour bus ride from the Marina where we are living. We were fortunate enough to know in advance and we're both teaching on that day at the same school. Couldn't have been planned any better than that!!! We are so excited to finally get working and making some money :) Lord knows we definitely need it!! No news for the rest of this week, but we'll just have to keep our chin up and wait to hear if we have any more work.
We are finding it really difficult to get decent Internet over here, but we have something temporary for the moment until we're able to hook up something else, but it may take some time. We are also trying to hook up a phone but that won't be in until the Internet is put in! Go figure...they really do move at a snail's pace over here...it's unbelievable!!
The great news is that we are all set up with a Bank Account finally which was proving to be much more difficult than it needed to be. We were actually quite lucky considering we're not even UK residents yet technically so they went way above and beyond for us which was fantastic!!
Laundry is also one of the surprises that we encountered when checking out the facilities. They're right underneath our studio at the bottom level of the pier however, they run on tokens. Now one would think, wow, the tokens are free and I don't have to pay for laundry.....WRONG! It's about 7.50 pounds to do laundry over here!!!!! That's like almost $13-$15 PER LOAD. Better hope we don't have that much laundry to do or that we do it more often...oh my goodness, that was definitely a shock but a reality check at the same time. Some things at the Marina are more expensive considering it is a tourist area so it makes sense, but that's just nonsense!! LOL
The bus is beginning to become much easier to ride day by day. We are starting to learn all of the bus routes but there are too many to memorize. Depending on where you're going, you have to take a certain bus. So knowing that we have work on Wednesday, we have already checked out where we are going and it's far but it's work so I will definitely not complain.
Tomorrow should be a pretty quiet day considering we have no work for tomorrow but will have to get set up for Wednesday. I think if I'm right, we have to be at the school by no later than 8:15AM which means we have to leave the house at 6:45AM...WHAT??!?!? I better start getting used to this. I think we've slept in every day since we've got here...ahahahahahhahaha should be an interesting week!!
Well that's all for now...but stay tuned as we venture out Wednesday for some official teaching. Wish us luck because we'll definitely need it!!! :)
<3 Steph & Anthony xoxo
So it's been a couple of days since my last blog and we finally have some Internet working so that we can talk to everyone and find out when we can finally work!!
Not very much has happened over the last couple of days. We finally left the hotel and moved to our new house!!! We had our first meal in our new studio and we were lucky enough to try and cook some homemade meatballs with what we had and spaghetti. I have to say, with the limited amount of ingredients we had, Anthony did a really good job. He'll have to start being more creative with his recipes because the spices around here are NOT the same as what we have at home. We are so excited to see that everything is working out and excited to start work hopefully sooner than later. Anthony and I actually just found out this afternoon that we have our first supply job starting on Wednesday in Seaford, UK which about an hour bus ride from the Marina where we are living. We were fortunate enough to know in advance and we're both teaching on that day at the same school. Couldn't have been planned any better than that!!! We are so excited to finally get working and making some money :) Lord knows we definitely need it!! No news for the rest of this week, but we'll just have to keep our chin up and wait to hear if we have any more work.
We are finding it really difficult to get decent Internet over here, but we have something temporary for the moment until we're able to hook up something else, but it may take some time. We are also trying to hook up a phone but that won't be in until the Internet is put in! Go figure...they really do move at a snail's pace over here...it's unbelievable!!
The great news is that we are all set up with a Bank Account finally which was proving to be much more difficult than it needed to be. We were actually quite lucky considering we're not even UK residents yet technically so they went way above and beyond for us which was fantastic!!
Laundry is also one of the surprises that we encountered when checking out the facilities. They're right underneath our studio at the bottom level of the pier however, they run on tokens. Now one would think, wow, the tokens are free and I don't have to pay for laundry.....WRONG! It's about 7.50 pounds to do laundry over here!!!!! That's like almost $13-$15 PER LOAD. Better hope we don't have that much laundry to do or that we do it more often...oh my goodness, that was definitely a shock but a reality check at the same time. Some things at the Marina are more expensive considering it is a tourist area so it makes sense, but that's just nonsense!! LOL
The bus is beginning to become much easier to ride day by day. We are starting to learn all of the bus routes but there are too many to memorize. Depending on where you're going, you have to take a certain bus. So knowing that we have work on Wednesday, we have already checked out where we are going and it's far but it's work so I will definitely not complain.
Tomorrow should be a pretty quiet day considering we have no work for tomorrow but will have to get set up for Wednesday. I think if I'm right, we have to be at the school by no later than 8:15AM which means we have to leave the house at 6:45AM...WHAT??!?!? I better start getting used to this. I think we've slept in every day since we've got here...ahahahahahhahaha should be an interesting week!!
Well that's all for now...but stay tuned as we venture out Wednesday for some official teaching. Wish us luck because we'll definitely need it!!! :)
Saturday, 5 January 2013
There's never enough time in one day...
So today has been the busiest day by far since we arrived in the UK. We have luckily had the opportunity to sleep in somewhat but we're still not used to the Greenwich time zone yet.
We finally got the keys to our new place today and the Real Estate agency was amazing!! After the lease was signed, we dropped off 2 extremely heavy bags that we lugged onto the bus and put them into the apartment. It was a good idea considering that we had 2 more bags to drop off later and then deal with the carryon's tomorrow.
After venturing into McDonald's for a quick lunch, we went over to the bank to get everything set up. That was an adventure in itself!! We had a few hurdles that we had to jump over when we got there but thankfully they were willing to work with us and jumped through some hoops to get us set up with a joint bank account. Considering we were in the country for less than a week, we were extremely fortunate. We were extremely grateful and so glad that HSBC went above and beyond for us.
We are still trying to figure out our internet situation because we've run into some issues but everything will work out. Thank goodness we have options :) You'll have to bear with us because we may be out of Internet for a couple of days.
Here are the two best moments of the day:
1. BINGO -- ALL elderly people got off at the Bingo Hall bus stop each way both times we rode the bus today. It was hard not to think of stereotypes but it was hilarious!!!! They were all so excited to go play Bingo and that was their big outing of the day. As one lady quoted to her friend "...it's nice to go out once in a while, you know, i don't drink, i don't smoke, so I need to have some form of entertainment in my life..." It was hard not to laugh at that moment but she was adorable! I kept telling Anthony, I shouldn't laugh because that will probably be me some day...LOL
2. ENGLISH MUFFINS -- I know you're all waiting to hear whether the English call English muffins English muffins or just plain ol' muffins...it's official...they're called MUFFINS!!!! Can you believe that? LOL Anthony and I were in the grocery store and couldn't stop laughing...good moment in the midst of chaos today
Well, that's it for tonight...we'll provide another update as soon as we have the Internet all figured out.
More words learned to date:
Quid = pounds (another way of saying it)
Laundrette = Laundromat
PS. We were talking with the security guys tonight, and they thought we had a twangy accent....we told them we were from Canada!!! :)
Cheers!
Steph & Anthony xoxo
So today has been the busiest day by far since we arrived in the UK. We have luckily had the opportunity to sleep in somewhat but we're still not used to the Greenwich time zone yet.
We finally got the keys to our new place today and the Real Estate agency was amazing!! After the lease was signed, we dropped off 2 extremely heavy bags that we lugged onto the bus and put them into the apartment. It was a good idea considering that we had 2 more bags to drop off later and then deal with the carryon's tomorrow.
After venturing into McDonald's for a quick lunch, we went over to the bank to get everything set up. That was an adventure in itself!! We had a few hurdles that we had to jump over when we got there but thankfully they were willing to work with us and jumped through some hoops to get us set up with a joint bank account. Considering we were in the country for less than a week, we were extremely fortunate. We were extremely grateful and so glad that HSBC went above and beyond for us.
We are still trying to figure out our internet situation because we've run into some issues but everything will work out. Thank goodness we have options :) You'll have to bear with us because we may be out of Internet for a couple of days.
Here are the two best moments of the day:
1. BINGO -- ALL elderly people got off at the Bingo Hall bus stop each way both times we rode the bus today. It was hard not to think of stereotypes but it was hilarious!!!! They were all so excited to go play Bingo and that was their big outing of the day. As one lady quoted to her friend "...it's nice to go out once in a while, you know, i don't drink, i don't smoke, so I need to have some form of entertainment in my life..." It was hard not to laugh at that moment but she was adorable! I kept telling Anthony, I shouldn't laugh because that will probably be me some day...LOL
2. ENGLISH MUFFINS -- I know you're all waiting to hear whether the English call English muffins English muffins or just plain ol' muffins...it's official...they're called MUFFINS!!!! Can you believe that? LOL Anthony and I were in the grocery store and couldn't stop laughing...good moment in the midst of chaos today
Well, that's it for tonight...we'll provide another update as soon as we have the Internet all figured out.
More words learned to date:
Quid = pounds (another way of saying it)
Laundrette = Laundromat
PS. We were talking with the security guys tonight, and they thought we had a twangy accent....we told them we were from Canada!!! :)
Cheers!
Steph & Anthony xoxo
Friday, 4 January 2013
So Much to Do...
So today was supposed to be one of those days that we were to get all of these really important things set up and instead it turned into an unprofitable one.
We tried to set up banking, but needed the rental lease in order to open an account. Then we tried to get home broadband (internet) set up for our new place and was told that we needed a home phone line which isn't already set up and that would take anywhere from 4-6 weeks to set up! So now is the time where we have to start thinking outside the box!! Instead, we will either have to unlock our phones and get an unlimited SIM card plan OR just purchase a pay-as-you-go internet "dogle" (rocket stick) that gives us internet for the time being (until they can set up the other internet/phone lines).
What to do...what do do...we will no doubt find a solution tomorrow and figure this little glitch out as everything so far has seemed to work out.
Other than that, today has been a pretty quiet day and we are trying to plan ahead for the next couple of days as we have to move all of our luggage by bus so I'm sure that will be interesting!! That means that we get to use our new grocery cart soon lol....so lame!! LOL
We also had the wonderful privilege of being kept up the past 2 nights because we found out there was a club right outside out hotel window. We were wondering why there was so much talking/yelling at ridiculous hours of the night...well it happened again last night! So needless to say, Anthony marched down to the front desk at 1AM to demand another room. They sent him back upstairs with earplugs and luckily this morning they moved us into a new room. We couldn't believe how much bigger this room was and the bed is actually a Queen size..it's fantastic!! So 2 sleepless nights = better room/bed/space! PERFECT!! :)
More words learned:
Dogle = rocket stick (portable internet)
So today was supposed to be one of those days that we were to get all of these really important things set up and instead it turned into an unprofitable one.
We tried to set up banking, but needed the rental lease in order to open an account. Then we tried to get home broadband (internet) set up for our new place and was told that we needed a home phone line which isn't already set up and that would take anywhere from 4-6 weeks to set up! So now is the time where we have to start thinking outside the box!! Instead, we will either have to unlock our phones and get an unlimited SIM card plan OR just purchase a pay-as-you-go internet "dogle" (rocket stick) that gives us internet for the time being (until they can set up the other internet/phone lines).
What to do...what do do...we will no doubt find a solution tomorrow and figure this little glitch out as everything so far has seemed to work out.
Other than that, today has been a pretty quiet day and we are trying to plan ahead for the next couple of days as we have to move all of our luggage by bus so I'm sure that will be interesting!! That means that we get to use our new grocery cart soon lol....so lame!! LOL
We also had the wonderful privilege of being kept up the past 2 nights because we found out there was a club right outside out hotel window. We were wondering why there was so much talking/yelling at ridiculous hours of the night...well it happened again last night! So needless to say, Anthony marched down to the front desk at 1AM to demand another room. They sent him back upstairs with earplugs and luckily this morning they moved us into a new room. We couldn't believe how much bigger this room was and the bed is actually a Queen size..it's fantastic!! So 2 sleepless nights = better room/bed/space! PERFECT!! :)
More words learned:
Dogle = rocket stick (portable internet)
Well, that's all for now, time to actually get a good nights sleep. Wish us luck...cheers!
Thursday, 3 January 2013
Real Life Is Starting to Set In
So here we are again, another day in paradise...on the coast and RAINY!! LOL
I decided to give up the whole straight hair for a while until I figure out the straightener situation however, my hair seems to LOVE the rain and the fog so we may just stick with that for a while. It's not so bad since I've gone curly again but it's definitely different - something I'll have to get used to (it's a good thing that Anthony doesn't mind it...hehehehe)
We decided to take a little trip up the hill to the University of Sussex today to speak with the Supply Desk (England Supply Board) that is working with our agency to see all about our teaching starting up soon. We answered a few questions for them and then asked a few of our own and we are very satisfied with all the answers that we received today. We were very pleased to learn that we may not only be teaching our subjects, but general subjects as well if they really need a supply teacher for the day. We are just happy to receive any work at this point considering the amount of money it's taken for us to get over to England and stay here. As soon as start receiving some income everything will start to iron itself out. We also may have the opportunity to teach primary grades as well - anything that gets us work at this point is a blessing and we are definitely pleased to take any work that is offered to us.
The best news of the day...WE FOUND A PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are so happy to let everyone know that we will be moving to Brighton Marina, right on the water - literally! We are letting (renting) a little (keyword little) studio on a jetty and it's absolutely beautiful!! More pictures to be posted soon but there are a couple to view below (we're one of the white ones on the dock). It's very modern and recently upgraded PLUS we have a gorgeous back patio that we can sit out on everyday in the summer when it gets really warm. It's going to feel like a vacation -- just have to meet some new rich friends with sailboats and then maybe sail to France?? Wouldn't that be ideal!! ;-)
Well, that's all for our fairly boring day today but off to the bank tomorrow to set up a new account and get all the little details figured out for when we move into our new flat on Saturday!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!
Goodnight from Anthony and I...cheers!
So here we are again, another day in paradise...on the coast and RAINY!! LOL
I decided to give up the whole straight hair for a while until I figure out the straightener situation however, my hair seems to LOVE the rain and the fog so we may just stick with that for a while. It's not so bad since I've gone curly again but it's definitely different - something I'll have to get used to (it's a good thing that Anthony doesn't mind it...hehehehe)
We decided to take a little trip up the hill to the University of Sussex today to speak with the Supply Desk (England Supply Board) that is working with our agency to see all about our teaching starting up soon. We answered a few questions for them and then asked a few of our own and we are very satisfied with all the answers that we received today. We were very pleased to learn that we may not only be teaching our subjects, but general subjects as well if they really need a supply teacher for the day. We are just happy to receive any work at this point considering the amount of money it's taken for us to get over to England and stay here. As soon as start receiving some income everything will start to iron itself out. We also may have the opportunity to teach primary grades as well - anything that gets us work at this point is a blessing and we are definitely pleased to take any work that is offered to us.
The best news of the day...WE FOUND A PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are so happy to let everyone know that we will be moving to Brighton Marina, right on the water - literally! We are letting (renting) a little (keyword little) studio on a jetty and it's absolutely beautiful!! More pictures to be posted soon but there are a couple to view below (we're one of the white ones on the dock). It's very modern and recently upgraded PLUS we have a gorgeous back patio that we can sit out on everyday in the summer when it gets really warm. It's going to feel like a vacation -- just have to meet some new rich friends with sailboats and then maybe sail to France?? Wouldn't that be ideal!! ;-)
Well, that's all for our fairly boring day today but off to the bank tomorrow to set up a new account and get all the little details figured out for when we move into our new flat on Saturday!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!
Goodnight from Anthony and I...cheers!
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
House Hunting Adventure
The toothbrush investigation has finally come to a close! Last night we were ever so lucky to finally find the toothbrushes...after 2 days of searching and brushing our teeth with our fingers (not very resourceful), we finally found those stupid toothbrushes!! We got so excited that we decided to brush our teeth together - it was an epic event! LOL
The winter here is so nice and has been so warm so we've been pretty lucky, not to mention that there hasn't been much rain here lately. Good thing too since we had to walk quite a ways to get to our first viewing at Brighton Marina. It took about 30-40 minutes to walk down the seafront to take a look at the first studio which we discovered was right on the water! The studio was located on some sort of dock overlooking the marina and the sea. It was beautiful and definitely our first choice! So here's hoping... :)
The next few places that we looked were in Hove (just outside of Brighton) and Rottingdean. We were somewhat disappointed that the places were not in great condition and were pretty far from most amenities compared to the marina where everything was right there...including a superstore! Needless to say there are a lot more options at the Marina. It feels like a little rural town (like Georgetown used to be), nice and quaint and perfect for us! :)
We will keep everyone updated on the progress of this studio and hope that it all works out! Anthony and I really feel as though this is where God wants us to be and that this is the place that has been set out for us. We hope that we can make it work! Wish us luck!!
More words learned to date:
Letting = Renting
Rubbish = Garbage
Jetty = pier that stretches out on the water (big dock)
That's all for now...cheers!
Steph & Anthony
The toothbrush investigation has finally come to a close! Last night we were ever so lucky to finally find the toothbrushes...after 2 days of searching and brushing our teeth with our fingers (not very resourceful), we finally found those stupid toothbrushes!! We got so excited that we decided to brush our teeth together - it was an epic event! LOL
The winter here is so nice and has been so warm so we've been pretty lucky, not to mention that there hasn't been much rain here lately. Good thing too since we had to walk quite a ways to get to our first viewing at Brighton Marina. It took about 30-40 minutes to walk down the seafront to take a look at the first studio which we discovered was right on the water! The studio was located on some sort of dock overlooking the marina and the sea. It was beautiful and definitely our first choice! So here's hoping... :)
The next few places that we looked were in Hove (just outside of Brighton) and Rottingdean. We were somewhat disappointed that the places were not in great condition and were pretty far from most amenities compared to the marina where everything was right there...including a superstore! Needless to say there are a lot more options at the Marina. It feels like a little rural town (like Georgetown used to be), nice and quaint and perfect for us! :)
We will keep everyone updated on the progress of this studio and hope that it all works out! Anthony and I really feel as though this is where God wants us to be and that this is the place that has been set out for us. We hope that we can make it work! Wish us luck!!
More words learned to date:
Letting = Renting
Rubbish = Garbage
Jetty = pier that stretches out on the water (big dock)
That's all for now...cheers!
Steph & Anthony
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
Today is the start of a fresh New Year and many more changes for Anthony and I. We have now made it to Brighton officially! The train ride was great on the way here and we got to see a bit of central London on the way to the train station. Let me tell you, these bags are getting old...quick! I hope we find a place soon, I'm already sick of lugging everything around.
The train ride was SO great because we paid for First Class tickets, and then the train attendant told us that there was no first class, so he told us to get a refund (50% off). Life just gets better and better from this point on I'm sure. That is the second the time that we've got lucky on a train - first time was in Italy and we got moved to First Class. Ha!! What a great story...shouldn't expect this every time though, that would just be greedy :-P
Once we reached Brighton, we took another cab for a quick ride to our hotel and thank the LORD, literally that it was better than the one last night!! Our hotel is right on the water and I can see Brighton Pier from our room window. WOW!! I am so glad that this turned out because last night was an interesting one to say the least.
We got checked it right away and once we got up to our room, we were so happy that it is a normal sized room (we're so spoiled in Canada). The bed isn't much bigger but it works and it's much more comfortable than the one last night -- any bed would be! We decided to go out and walk around Brighton a little and grab a bite to eat. SO happy that we finally had our first Fish & Chips meal!! It was delicious!!! :) We will definitely coming back here for some more Fish & Chips.
We're calling it a night though and heading out to do some house hunting tomorrow, so wish us good luck and hopefully we find a flat tomorrow!! :) That would be lovely!!! :)
Cheers!
Steph & Anthony xoxo
The train ride was SO great because we paid for First Class tickets, and then the train attendant told us that there was no first class, so he told us to get a refund (50% off). Life just gets better and better from this point on I'm sure. That is the second the time that we've got lucky on a train - first time was in Italy and we got moved to First Class. Ha!! What a great story...shouldn't expect this every time though, that would just be greedy :-P
Once we reached Brighton, we took another cab for a quick ride to our hotel and thank the LORD, literally that it was better than the one last night!! Our hotel is right on the water and I can see Brighton Pier from our room window. WOW!! I am so glad that this turned out because last night was an interesting one to say the least.
We got checked it right away and once we got up to our room, we were so happy that it is a normal sized room (we're so spoiled in Canada). The bed isn't much bigger but it works and it's much more comfortable than the one last night -- any bed would be! We decided to go out and walk around Brighton a little and grab a bite to eat. SO happy that we finally had our first Fish & Chips meal!! It was delicious!!! :) We will definitely coming back here for some more Fish & Chips.
We're calling it a night though and heading out to do some house hunting tomorrow, so wish us good luck and hopefully we find a flat tomorrow!! :) That would be lovely!!! :)
Cheers!
Steph & Anthony xoxo
Hello Everyone!!
Well, today is finally here...the day that we leave Canada for at least the next year! Can you believe it? I honestly am still in shock to the fact that we are still moving to England to teach! We're so excited but so nervous. What if they don't let us into the country? What if we can't find a place to live? What if there isn't many teaching opportunities? What if we don't have the money to travel back home?
....and welcome to my new blogging website! Anthony and I thought it would be a great idea to keep everyone updated on all of our travels while we we're across the pond and wanted to record all of our experiences which later in life would be good to look back on.
Day #1 - December 31, 2012
Well, today is finally here...the day that we leave Canada for at least the next year! Can you believe it? I honestly am still in shock to the fact that we are still moving to England to teach! We're so excited but so nervous. What if they don't let us into the country? What if we can't find a place to live? What if there isn't many teaching opportunities? What if we don't have the money to travel back home?
So many questions, so little time and no answers yet, but we just have to trust in the fact that when God has a plan, he will provide. And did he ever!!!! All the packing and moving has been stressful, but it has all come to this. We made it to the airport and got all ready to go. Finally our boarding tickets got printed and we checked all of our luggage. A very nervous feeling when your whole life is literally packed into 6 bags! Crazy!! But we made it this far... once we said goodbye, tears were shed and emotions were flying high but we made it through security with no trouble and onto our flight.
We flew British Airways and their service was amazing! The flight attendants were so polite and very nice and they took care of us the entire flight. It went by pretty quickly, even though Anthony seemed to get food poisoning from dinner near the last couple hours of the flight. However, he turned out ok after a few trips to the washroom.
Once we arrived at London Heathrow airport, it seemed like we had been up all night, and pretty much had been. We had about 1-2 hours of sleep in total and the time change was a killer!! It was about 6:30AM when we landed and we were off to go through customs and collect our baggage. Customs was the only thing we were dreading this whole trip and it turned out to be the easiest thing. God is definitely good - he watched over us the entire time and this is just more proof that this whole trip/move was a leap of faith and a sign that we were being called to move halfway across the world. We finally received all of our luggage with no issues at all and we were on our way with 6 bags to take the train to Paddington Station where we took a cab to our hotel. This was an interesting feat that we managed to accomplish (barely) but I'm sure it was fun to watch.
Once we got to the hotel, we were very pleased until we learned that we weren't allowed to check in until 2PM!! We had been up all night and the last thing we wanted to do was stand around for a few hours waiting for a room. With no energy, we left our bags at the hotel and tried walking around the area. This proved to be more difficult not to mention that Anthony still wasn't feeling all that well. We decided to venture all the way to McDonalds!!!! LOL ...it was delicious and refreshing but once we left there, we were in the middle of a rain/wind storm. Quickly we headed back to the hotel to wait out the next 3-4 hours until our room was ready.
We found a lounge downstairs and set up a movie and you guessed it...we both feel asleep within the first few minutes of watching the movie and luckily enough, woke up around 1PM to check in early. With a little argumentative reasoning, we got checked into our room and to our lovely surprise, there was barely any room to walk. What were we thinking? Anthony blames this on me because I thought it looked cool and it did, but it wasn't exactly what we were hoping for. Nevertheless, we made it work and Anthony just had to shrink himself down everywhere he went. The bed was big enough for a 10 year old but we were so tired, that we both just crashed for a few hours to catch up on some zzzzzzzz... :)
After a lovely nap, we headed out to take in the New Years Eve Festivities! We were pretty excited to take in all the lovely fireworks and see how London celebrates the New Year. Well folks, it's not that glamorous. What we should have done, was take a cab into central London to watch the fireworks from the London Eye on the Thames River right next to Buckingham Palace and Big Ben, but instead, we walked around Hyde Park which turned out to be like Central Park at night...not exactly a comfortable place to be. We decided take out and fireworks on TV were just a sufficient so we opted for that.
It was so nice to call home too and be able to say Happy New Year to Mom/Dad 6 hours ahead of time!!! What a weird feeling but it was fun :)
Hopefully tomorrow will bring better news with our next hotel in Brighton so we're really looking forward to that. Oh and by the way, here are a few words that we've learned so far:
lift = elevator
pavement = sidewalk
love = dear/girl (I've been called this a lot since being here...haha)
Cheers!
Steph & Anthony xoxo
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