London, England

I still can't believe that we spent the day in London yesterday and saw SOOO many things (even though there was still so much more to see).  For those of you who already saw pictures on Facebook, this will be a repeat but there will be lots of pictures in this blog :-)

Itinerary for the Day
(Tuesday, February 19 2013)

10AM - Left for London via Express Train and it only took about 1 hour and went to London Bridge Station

11:30AM - Delayed Train but arrived safely in London

12:00PM - We went to Buckingham Palace and saw the changing of the guard and heard the band play with TONS of people surrounding the square just to catch a glimpse of the whole spectacle but no Queen and no tea dates...too bad!! LOL

First glimpse of Buckingham Palace after taking the tube which by the way, was so crazy.  Their "subway" system in London is unreal compared to Toronto and you almost have to crawl into them just to get in for a ride - they are so small, not good for tall people ...ie. Anthony LOL - cool experience though!

For us short people, we had a hard time trying to see over everybody but I managed to snag a few shots of the guards doing their thing!

One of the gates going into the square where Buckingham Palace is but totally encased in gold - so ridiculous! It's no wonder because the Queen is loaded!! 

Gold and black statues with stone and marble all around the square - you can see how crammed it was with all the people flooding into one space but it was definitely neat to see the changing of the guards. 

Guards coming in from the square escorted by Policemen on horses (left of the picture which I didn't get obviously) but very cool they were doing their "fancy march" with massive guns HAHA

Closeup of the guards and their tall hats -- good thing too because most of them were REALLY short!

12:45PM - Made it to Parliament Square where all the Parliament buildings were, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Trafalgar Square were, not to mention just down the road was the Thames River and the London Eye

First glimpse of Big Ben - it was so awesome to see and got better as we got closer!

I thought since we were in London that I would try and call home from the phone booth HAHAHA...needless to say it didn't exactly work :)

1:00PM - Finally got to Westminster Abbey - this was the one place that I was dead set on coming to see while in London but unfortunately there was the stupid rule of not taking any pictures while inside the church (I got around that) hahahahahaha...

This is the outside and front pathway into the Abbey and it was absolutely huge up close!

Side exit of the Abbey and the tall towers are where the bells rang when we came out of the tour.  It was so beautiful to hear!! (I will try and post the video of it in a different blog because it might not fit in this one)...

One of the courtyards of the Abbey which also had beautiful gardens throughout the entire area.

The ONLY shot I had of the Abbey from the inside - this was the first thing I saw when I walked in - absolutely breathtaking...then I figured out I wasn't allowed to take pictures...LOL SUCKERS I just did!! (I also managed to do this in Rome too in the Sistene Chapel mwahahahaha)

The pure amazement of the architecture of this building overall - it was so tall!!

1:45PM - We started to make our way past Big Ben, Trafalgar Square and carry on to the London Eye across the Thames River

Cool shot of Big Ben with the sun shining behind - there was not a cloud in the sky but it was so bright when walking through London ...yes I know, no rain, it was pretty unbelievable.

Proof that I was in London in front of Big Ben and there's even a double decker bus behind me :)

What a great shot of Big Ben up close...that was really amazing!

2:00PM - After getting tickets for the London Eye, we waited in line for about 15 minutes and took the 20-30 minute ride on the Eye.  What a great view of London!

Walking across one of the bridges over the Thames River to get to the London Eye.

London Eye - instead a bird's point of view, this is what we saw standing right underneath it LOL

One view from the East showing the bridge to Grand Central station and all the boats were going around with all guided tours - so many people!

Anthony wanted a picture with Big Ben...hahaha...so I figured why not?  He hates pictures so it's good when he wants to be in one :)

We were about halfway up at this point but it was cool seeing all the other pods going around really slowly.  At one point closer to the top, it started to shake and sway back and forth because it was windy, a little un-nerving but we made it safely back to the ground...phew!

What an amazing view, the ride was totally worth it!

Pretty sure this was the bridge to Grand Central Station.

2:30PM - We were STARVING and decided that we would be stupid and walk into THE BUSIEST McDonald's in the world to get some lunch - it was not worth it until we made it out alive and finally stuffed the food down our throats! LOL...it was delicious but you couldn't pay me to go back in there ever again :-P

3:00PM - Walked down to the Sea Life Aquarium right on the waterfront of the Thames just down the walkway from the London Eye.  It was sooooooooooooooo amazing - I have this thing with Aquariums they honestly are so fascinating, I LOVE them, that was totally worth seeing!!

We walked along a glass floor with all the fish and sharks and stingrays and whatever else was in there underneath of us.  It was so cool and felt like we were just swimming above them - AMAZING!

Cool looking jellyfish that seemed to move quite slowly actually and changed colour too :)

I found Nemo...

...and Dory :) :) :)

Some stingrays - there was one part where you could actually touch them ...they feel weird!

Sharks are soooooooooooooooooo cool...and these ones were huge!!!

More sharks...they look so peaceful on the other side of the glass LOL

Anybody for a swim?? This shark was at least my height if not Anthony's...maybe more..dun dun dun!!

4:00PM - Started to make our way through the tube system again to the Tower of London and to see London Bridge.

The Tower of London - we didn't get a chance to go inside since it was later in the day and I'm pretty sure that the crown jewels are inside so next time gadget!!

Another view of the Tower - really cool seeing a real life castle - I would totally live there!! LOL

And the beautiful London Bridge - so neat to see it all lit up at night - it's beautiful! :)


5:00PM - Back to the tube to make an impromptu visit to Harrods!!  It was a little bit out of the way and the tube ride was NUTS because we didn't realize it was rush hour traffic...hahaha...don't you just love the smell of BO and other disgusting bodily functions??  BAHAHAHAHA...what a crazy 30 minute ride hahahahahaha...I swear our faces were stuck together at one point there was no where to move...hiliarious looking back on it now!!! All to get to a Department store that I can't afford - it was all Jimmy Choo, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren, Kurt Geiger (for those of you who know him - British designer) etc.  If I only had 1000 pounds to spend on ONE pair of Jimmy Choo stillettos...some day *sigh* but until then, I will keep dreaming!

Of course, I was a little excited that we came all the way in rush hour smelly traffic to get here and I left feeling depressed as we passed things that were worth more than my life.  Not to mention we saw spy gear for sale, life size stuffed animals (the gorilla was scary), a gold/silver plated "football" table worth £ 13,000, tv's built into 7 foot tall mirrors, iPod/iPhone docks taller than myself, luxury jewellery and a food court that served caviar.  Oh yea, this place was serious and i felt like a bum walking in there! HAHAHAHAHA...what an experience!

All in all, our day was amazing and we loved all things that we got to experience yesterday.  We will definitely be going back to London again at some point to see those crown jewels and maybe visit Windsor Castle too.  I should just call up the Queen and ask her if I can have a proper tea date with her! LOL..yea right!!

Looking forward to writing the next blog!

<3 Steph & Anthony xoxo

Life is Ever Changing

...and so it continues.  Each day brings new things and we are actually starting to figure out how to travel around everywhere!!  It has been such a busy last week that I've almost started to forget about the blog all together and THAT would be awful!!  I have to to keep remembering that from the views on our page that people are depending on these blogs so don't worry we will keep them coming.

APOLOGIES about this blog, I did finish and post it last Sunday HOWEVER, it deleted itself so I've had to start all over again....BRUTAL...but please read on... :-)

It's so hard to even think back to what happened in the past couple of weeks because there has been so much!  It has been really nice out this week and for all of you that got snow, you can keep it!!  We've had sunshine and warm weather for most of the week so we've been very grateful for that...however, there is always rain somewhere and we are definitely getting the brunt of it today - it's pouring outside and the rain hasn't stopped not to mention we're of course rocking back and forth as per usual with all this wind!  But the best news of the week was dinner today - we actually had ROAST BEEF so we are trying to keep up the "Slessor Sunday" tradition.  We actually bought a crockpot yesterday and it was so amazing to actually use it considering that we don't have an oven.  We even had an abundance of meat left over so there was no need to ask mom and dad to send some by mail...LOL...

As for school this past week, I haven't done much teaching and Bexhill High School is pretty good even though I'm starting to get pretty sick of the commute.  I had the pleasure of sleeping in on Thursday and missing my alarm so needless to say I was late for school that day and I ended up taking the wrong bus once I got to Bexhill.  I ended up going all the way back to the station and walking 30 minutes all uphill just to get to the school that day - needless to say that was a BAD day.  I did however on Monday morning get the chance to go to Pathways (smaller part of the high school for kids that get expelled from the main site or are there full time because they can't function in a large classroom).  Keep in mind that the normal class sizes for Bexhill are anywhere from 75 - 90 students per class so it was interesting to have 3-4 kids in once class on Monday morning.  I met the lady (Amanda) in charge of Pathways and it was great getting to know the students on a more personal level.  They were asking questions about me and I about them, but I am only there for an hour every Monday morning (9 - 10AM).  It's a shame that I don't get to spend more time with these students because I wish I could be there all day but I will be helping teach them literacy while I am with them.  I'm pretty sure we're doing some boggle tomorrow morning -- good way to be able to find words so we'll see how that goes :) 

As far as Anthony's week, he's had a few interesting stories to tell.  It has been a challenging week but a good one - there is always something going on at his school.  Anthony had to split up a fight this week which was definitely different and between a guy and girl.  There is a student in his school who is continuously disruptive and decided that since he was in an argument and couldn't control his anger that he would raise a fist and punch the other student (girl) in the face.  Anthony quickly intervened and stepped in between both of them and since the guy didn't like that he threw an entire jug of juice all over the girl and the back of Anthony.  Needless to say, Anthony was furious and kicked sent the guy home for the day.  This is the same kid who thought it was a good idea to throw a book at another teachers head the previous day.  The student has now been put on another time schedule all together and will be in isolation for the future as he is incapable of working with other students.  Nothing short of entertainment in a day at Anthony's school.  Anthony also had the pleasure of dealing with a food fight in the cafeteria this past week.  Instead of the students making lunch and serving all the teachers, like the do daily, the food ended up everywhere except for Anthony's plate.  He was very hungry when he got home that day!  Ah, the life of a teacher...just thinking how the students at home compare to here and it is such a different atmosphere.

This week we are lucky enough to experience our first "half term break" (1 week off).  It has been soooooo nice not having to go to school this week Anthony and I definitely needed the break.  We are starting to get into routine with everything and are really starting to get to know our way around the area (and the UK funny enough).  We just got back yesterday from our trip to London which was amazing and will chat about in more detail in the next blog but it was so cool to experience something different and only have to travel an hour to get there!!!  There is never enough time in one day to do everything you want to do in such a large city.  

Here are some pictures we have that we've taken over the last few weeks in Brighton and here and there: 

View from Brighton Pier of Brighton Beach

Me on the Pier (notice the old pier in the background - the really small, rusty, rickety iron shell of a pier) LOL...

Another view of Brighton beach from the pier with the Marina at the far end :)

Keep you eyes peeled for the next blog about our Day in London yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Anthony & Steph xoxoxo