Yesterday was our final day in Scotland. We were up bright and early to go on a tour (we were finally able to book one!) to Loch Ness, Glencoe and the highlands. Our first stop was Loch Lomond. It was just a 15 min photo stop, but it was a different part of Loch Lomond than Matt and I explored earlier so it was nice to see from a new vantage point.
We went through the highlands, through Rannoch Moor and the Black Mount to reach Glencoe- the site of the massacre of the MacDonald clan. Our tour guide told us the history involving the history of the clans, wars going on, what happened and why. He was a fantastic tour guide- spoke very clearly and didn't hesitate. It was obvious his stories weren't just from a script. He knew what he was talking about and was able to tell his stories in an interesting way with some humour.
We stopped in Fort William for lunch, which was funny because this was the 3rd time Matt and I had been in Fort William for lunch in the same plaza. Luckily it was a nice cafe with good food.
We continued on our way passing the Great Glen, Britain's highest mountain Ben Nevis (although with the fog we couldn't see it... The tour guide said "Damn! They moved it again!"), the Caledonian canal, Fort Augustus and then Loch Ness- home of the sea monster! We saw Urqhart Castle at Loch Ness and went to the visitors center. I learned that I am a descendant from the MacClean clan and picked up a small book with information about my family history. Urqhart castle was really cool too, Matt and I literally ran through it, up all the wet and rainy stairs so we could see as much as we could before catching our river cruise across Loch Ness. That cruise was only half hour. Matt and I stayed on the top of the deck rather than inside so we could see everything. We were the only people who stayed up there the entire way because of the rain, so we had the entire boat top to ourselves and an awesome view! On the other site, we wandered the souvenir shop breifly and were on the bus again.
The bus went to Inverness, the capital of the Highlands, and then started its return home. We crossed the Grampian Mountains, Perthshire and did one last stop for a brief food and washroom break in Pitlochre -ran to an ATM, ate some poutine in the snow while walking back to the bus... Poutine wasn't actually on the menu, Matt and I asked for chips with cheese and gravy. It was funny because they put the gravy on and then the cheese on top. During the ride, the tourguide (who was also the bus driver) told us a lot more history and statistic and put on some traditional Scottish songs for us to listen to, also explaining the meaning of the songs and the circumstances that caused them to be written.
After the tour, we went to the hotel to grab our luggage which the person behind the desk looked after for us for the day. He offered us a cup of coffee before we went to the bus station. We had a couple hours to kill and I wanted to find somewhere to charge my phone. After a lot of walking in the rain, we never did find a place but we did find icecream :)
The bus ride was scheduled for 11pm. We got there about 10 and were hanging out waiting around. We ended up on an earlier bus, but this one was more cramped and the toilet was broken and smelly. Thankfully we weren't sitting right in front of it this time. This bus did make stops (unlike the one to Glasgow) and got to London 2 hours early at 6am.
Matt and I went to sleep from about 7-12 because we didn't sleep much on the bus but at the same time, wanted to be able to sleep tonight and not be too awake. We got up, did our laundry, showered and I did a bit of cleaning. Now I'm going to upload pictures, we are going to get some grocery shopping again and find a New Years Party to crash :)
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Flying Through Skye
This morning we decided to get up a little bit later- 8:30. We had a fantastic breakfast of sausage, eggs, bacon, beans and toast that Chris (The owner of the bed and breakfast) prepared for us. We got ready, sorted our tours and tickets and were close to on our way. Chris saw us out the door and gave us a huge bag of prawns that he caught so we had something to snack on while we explored the island. Leaving the bed and breakfast was strange- it didn't feel like leaving a hotel, it felt like leaving the home of a close family member that lives far away. He told us that all of the island was like that- people did everything they could for one another. It was a small community where everyone helped and supported everyone. He told us he never locked his door and that if anyone were drunk at the bar, instead of taking their wallet, people of Skye would ask where they're staying and drive them home.
Since there were not many tours this time of year, the tours available were expensive or sold out. Buses only ran on the island 3 times a day so we knew we couldn't really get far. The first bus would take us somewhere, the 3rd bus would take us back to Glasgow, so we really only had the option of whether or not to be on the 2nd bus or not. We decided to take the first bus to the capital: Portree and to spend the day exploring there. The ride there was great - amazing scenery as we passed by mountains, waterfalls, sheep and a bull. It was raining and windy again which was awesome because we were able to watch the wind blow the raindrops around from inside the bus. It looked really neat, little vertical waving lines of raindrops kept together by breezes of wind. It's really hard to explain, as it was like nothing I had seen before.
Even though it was the capital, it was still very small! There were a few gift shops, a couple cafes, a couple restaurants, a harbour and some homes. We checked out all the gift shops and a cafe recommended to us by someone in the hostel yesterday (we had popped in to inquire about the hostels tour bus and they recommended Ariba cafe and hitchhiking to see as much of the island as we could due to the limited bus schedule. We only took their advice about the cafe). Portree was nice and we had just enough time to explore before it was 3:30 and the last bus of the day going to Glasgow departed.
The bus ride home got in around 10:10, but it didn't feel as dreadful as the bus ride to Glasgow when we arrived (although this one was 2 hours shorter). This bus was just a city bus, but it stopped for a dinner break and another break for us to stretch, use a proper toilet and get moving again. I wish the bus company from England did the same! Matt spent a lot of the bus ride playing games on his phone. I spent the time listening to music and sleeping from brief portions of time. We are now in the hotel in Glasgow again. An oddity of the trip- we actually managed to get tickets for a tour tomorrow!!! So we will once again be up bright and early to take a walk, meet the tour bus and explore some more of Glasgow and surrounding areas such as Loch Ness- home of the sea monster :)
Since there were not many tours this time of year, the tours available were expensive or sold out. Buses only ran on the island 3 times a day so we knew we couldn't really get far. The first bus would take us somewhere, the 3rd bus would take us back to Glasgow, so we really only had the option of whether or not to be on the 2nd bus or not. We decided to take the first bus to the capital: Portree and to spend the day exploring there. The ride there was great - amazing scenery as we passed by mountains, waterfalls, sheep and a bull. It was raining and windy again which was awesome because we were able to watch the wind blow the raindrops around from inside the bus. It looked really neat, little vertical waving lines of raindrops kept together by breezes of wind. It's really hard to explain, as it was like nothing I had seen before.
Even though it was the capital, it was still very small! There were a few gift shops, a couple cafes, a couple restaurants, a harbour and some homes. We checked out all the gift shops and a cafe recommended to us by someone in the hostel yesterday (we had popped in to inquire about the hostels tour bus and they recommended Ariba cafe and hitchhiking to see as much of the island as we could due to the limited bus schedule. We only took their advice about the cafe). Portree was nice and we had just enough time to explore before it was 3:30 and the last bus of the day going to Glasgow departed.
The bus ride home got in around 10:10, but it didn't feel as dreadful as the bus ride to Glasgow when we arrived (although this one was 2 hours shorter). This bus was just a city bus, but it stopped for a dinner break and another break for us to stretch, use a proper toilet and get moving again. I wish the bus company from England did the same! Matt spent a lot of the bus ride playing games on his phone. I spent the time listening to music and sleeping from brief portions of time. We are now in the hotel in Glasgow again. An oddity of the trip- we actually managed to get tickets for a tour tomorrow!!! So we will once again be up bright and early to take a walk, meet the tour bus and explore some more of Glasgow and surrounding areas such as Loch Ness- home of the sea monster :)
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
On the Road Again
Today was the day of our trip to Isle of Skye. We had gone on Gumtree (Uk Kijiji) and requested a rideshare to get to Skye and sure enough- someone had responded and offered to take us there for a small fuel money contribution. We met Mick at 6am at the bus station. He yelled and waved out his car windsor "Matt!!! Tracey!!!" and that was the beginning of our journey.
The first couple hours were alright, chatting with Mick, enjoying the scenery, laughing at the wind and rain blowing everything all over the place. At one point, we got out of the car in order to "listen to the silence" which really meant listen to the wind and get drenched in rain :) It was hilarious. Back in the car we went and travelled on.
The next stop was a grocery store and cafe. Matt and I stopped to eat pie while Mick did a bit of shopping. Then it was back to the road again. Mick offered to show us a nicer route so we could jump out and take a look at a couple of castles. We accepted and got to the extremely old ruins of one of the castles. It was so windy that the heavy rain felt like freezing cold hail against the face but we loved it. It was such an adventure trekking through the trails of the mountains and seeing what once was a magnificent castle. We went on for a bit and then Mick brought us to another castle, this one being the one where "Highlander" was filmed. It was closed due to renovation of the roof so we didn't get past the gateway, but it was still impressive!
Once we got to Kyle of Lochalsh, Mick's destination, he offered to drive us across the bridge right to Isle of Skye- and to make sure we arrived at a hotel alright before he left. He brought us to Kyleakin, Isle of Skye, showed us around to the different restaurants (an Indian restaurant and a pub), the bus stop and afterwards to some inexpensive bed and breakfasts. He didn't accept us buying him lunch of giving him any extra money for his trouble and told us that if we got stuck and needed anything, to give him a call and he'd come back across the bridge.
We didn't need anything really because the people in the local area were so wonderful. Our bed and breakfast is someones home as well as a guesthouse with a very cute sheepdog and one other person staying tonight. He made us lunch at no extra charge and we sat with him at the fireplace listening to him tell us some things about life in Scotland and fishing. When it came to be time for dinner, we wandered over to the pub and everyone in the area must have been in the pub- it was packed!! We understood why as we looked online for another place to eat. The only other place was an Indian restaurant a longer distance away.
We wandered to the Indian place, still with the high winds and rain slowing us down. On the way there we saw signs that the bridge was closed due to heavy winds. The ferries were never open today for that exact same reason. Still the food was delicious, the staff were very friendly and we enjoyed ourselves.
We are just preparing for tomorrow now, deciding where we will go and how (Buses only run 3 times a day and we need to catch the 3rd one back to Glasgow). We will probably catch a bus to the capital city- Portree- and from there choose one other place to see on the 2nd bus of the day. Then catch the 3rd one back provided high winds don't keep us longer than planned.
I really admire the life of the people around here, going out to explore the highlands despite the weather conditions (we saw a couple mountain climbers on the way), giving incredible hospitality for very little and really making the best of life and enjoying every moment. Matt and I love Scotland and have decided that we may decide to return again to see the things we won't have a chance to this time and to just enjoy the atmosphere.
The first couple hours were alright, chatting with Mick, enjoying the scenery, laughing at the wind and rain blowing everything all over the place. At one point, we got out of the car in order to "listen to the silence" which really meant listen to the wind and get drenched in rain :) It was hilarious. Back in the car we went and travelled on.
The next stop was a grocery store and cafe. Matt and I stopped to eat pie while Mick did a bit of shopping. Then it was back to the road again. Mick offered to show us a nicer route so we could jump out and take a look at a couple of castles. We accepted and got to the extremely old ruins of one of the castles. It was so windy that the heavy rain felt like freezing cold hail against the face but we loved it. It was such an adventure trekking through the trails of the mountains and seeing what once was a magnificent castle. We went on for a bit and then Mick brought us to another castle, this one being the one where "Highlander" was filmed. It was closed due to renovation of the roof so we didn't get past the gateway, but it was still impressive!
Once we got to Kyle of Lochalsh, Mick's destination, he offered to drive us across the bridge right to Isle of Skye- and to make sure we arrived at a hotel alright before he left. He brought us to Kyleakin, Isle of Skye, showed us around to the different restaurants (an Indian restaurant and a pub), the bus stop and afterwards to some inexpensive bed and breakfasts. He didn't accept us buying him lunch of giving him any extra money for his trouble and told us that if we got stuck and needed anything, to give him a call and he'd come back across the bridge.
We didn't need anything really because the people in the local area were so wonderful. Our bed and breakfast is someones home as well as a guesthouse with a very cute sheepdog and one other person staying tonight. He made us lunch at no extra charge and we sat with him at the fireplace listening to him tell us some things about life in Scotland and fishing. When it came to be time for dinner, we wandered over to the pub and everyone in the area must have been in the pub- it was packed!! We understood why as we looked online for another place to eat. The only other place was an Indian restaurant a longer distance away.
We wandered to the Indian place, still with the high winds and rain slowing us down. On the way there we saw signs that the bridge was closed due to heavy winds. The ferries were never open today for that exact same reason. Still the food was delicious, the staff were very friendly and we enjoyed ourselves.
We are just preparing for tomorrow now, deciding where we will go and how (Buses only run 3 times a day and we need to catch the 3rd one back to Glasgow). We will probably catch a bus to the capital city- Portree- and from there choose one other place to see on the 2nd bus of the day. Then catch the 3rd one back provided high winds don't keep us longer than planned.
I really admire the life of the people around here, going out to explore the highlands despite the weather conditions (we saw a couple mountain climbers on the way), giving incredible hospitality for very little and really making the best of life and enjoying every moment. Matt and I love Scotland and have decided that we may decide to return again to see the things we won't have a chance to this time and to just enjoy the atmosphere.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
The Matt and Tracey Tours
Aloha,
Matt and I are still here in Glasgow, loving the scenery, people, traveling... everything. Yesterday we wanted to go on a tour to Loch Lomond, but they had all been booked. This did not stop us from touring Loch Lomond. We mapped out the area, hopped on a city bus, and under an hour later we were there. The way things turned out, our bus stop was along a random highway and the driver pointed *that way* to where we wanted to be. It wasn't too complicated to get there. We went down a steep slope that I decided to run down... and then couldn't stop myself from running until the ground had flattened out a bit. It was pretty funny. We spent the day hiking trails, walking along the loch, checking out various shops and seen absolutely everything we could have seen in the area. It was a great day and many great photos will be posted. The one unfortunate experience though was that Matt and I both did something to our right foot. It is still bothering both of us now. Myself a bit more as I try to limp my way to all the new sites and keep up with Matt.
Today was the same deal: tours booked, expensive, or just not that interesting. So we decided it was castle touring day. We went back to the bus station, got an explorer pass (good for traveling all of Scotland for 3 days) and started hopping on and off buses again. First we went to Stirling castle after briefly stopping at a store called "Matt". We had a guided tour of by a hilarious man who pointed and shouted at Matt, using him as a character in the story he was telling. There will of course be pictures of the castle as well. Next we went to Dune castle - the castle where Monty Python was filmed. Unfortunately the castle was closed for the day so we only wandered around outside of it and in the forested area behind it. I'll leave Matt to talk about the castles if he feels like it later because he is more knowledgeable of them.
Tomorrow we are carpooling with a guy from Glasgow in order to reach Isle of Skye - A 5 1/2 hour trip to the place some of my ancestors were from. He wants to pick us up at the bus station at 6am so it will be a bright and early morning. We have a hotel near the bus station in mind so we can bus back home the next day- however this time we didn't book in advance because we decided to see if there is anything cheaper in the area that is not posted online (there usually is a cheaper place we pass on the way to the place we booked). Aside from that, there were no sold out days for the hotel we looked at and I know of about 4 more reasonably priced ones in the area if that one doesn't work out as planned. Our driver is a hilarious person who is always joking so I'm really looking forward to the journey. He also wants to leave sooner than the buses are running which means more time to explore the island. In Skye, we will either book a tour- or more likely- hop on buses again to see anything of interest we find in the brochures.We will also book a tour for Glasgow and surrounding areas for the 30th when we are back in Glasgow since our bus to London doesn't come until 11pm.
Anyhow, I'm off to throw the last pieces of luggage together in order to be ready to travel tomorrow. Bye for now!
Matt and I are still here in Glasgow, loving the scenery, people, traveling... everything. Yesterday we wanted to go on a tour to Loch Lomond, but they had all been booked. This did not stop us from touring Loch Lomond. We mapped out the area, hopped on a city bus, and under an hour later we were there. The way things turned out, our bus stop was along a random highway and the driver pointed *that way* to where we wanted to be. It wasn't too complicated to get there. We went down a steep slope that I decided to run down... and then couldn't stop myself from running until the ground had flattened out a bit. It was pretty funny. We spent the day hiking trails, walking along the loch, checking out various shops and seen absolutely everything we could have seen in the area. It was a great day and many great photos will be posted. The one unfortunate experience though was that Matt and I both did something to our right foot. It is still bothering both of us now. Myself a bit more as I try to limp my way to all the new sites and keep up with Matt.
Today was the same deal: tours booked, expensive, or just not that interesting. So we decided it was castle touring day. We went back to the bus station, got an explorer pass (good for traveling all of Scotland for 3 days) and started hopping on and off buses again. First we went to Stirling castle after briefly stopping at a store called "Matt". We had a guided tour of by a hilarious man who pointed and shouted at Matt, using him as a character in the story he was telling. There will of course be pictures of the castle as well. Next we went to Dune castle - the castle where Monty Python was filmed. Unfortunately the castle was closed for the day so we only wandered around outside of it and in the forested area behind it. I'll leave Matt to talk about the castles if he feels like it later because he is more knowledgeable of them.
Tomorrow we are carpooling with a guy from Glasgow in order to reach Isle of Skye - A 5 1/2 hour trip to the place some of my ancestors were from. He wants to pick us up at the bus station at 6am so it will be a bright and early morning. We have a hotel near the bus station in mind so we can bus back home the next day- however this time we didn't book in advance because we decided to see if there is anything cheaper in the area that is not posted online (there usually is a cheaper place we pass on the way to the place we booked). Aside from that, there were no sold out days for the hotel we looked at and I know of about 4 more reasonably priced ones in the area if that one doesn't work out as planned. Our driver is a hilarious person who is always joking so I'm really looking forward to the journey. He also wants to leave sooner than the buses are running which means more time to explore the island. In Skye, we will either book a tour- or more likely- hop on buses again to see anything of interest we find in the brochures.We will also book a tour for Glasgow and surrounding areas for the 30th when we are back in Glasgow since our bus to London doesn't come until 11pm.
Anyhow, I'm off to throw the last pieces of luggage together in order to be ready to travel tomorrow. Bye for now!
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Greetings from Glasgow!
Hello everyone. Hope your Christmas is well. Ours is very happy :) We are at our hotel in Glasgow planning for the next few days, but before I get to that I will rewind and fill you in on the updates from the past couple days.
Friday was particularly interesting. We were going through the usual websites to see what interesting things were going on. What we had to choose between was a free movie in the cinema, a Christmas market, an anti-societal ukulele punk band and... something else. I forget. Anyways we decided to rush out in order to have time for both the Christmas market and the punk band which we decided sounded hilarious.
The market was great. It was pouring cold rain, which was perfect because it kept the number of people down and gave us more space to explore all the shops without everyone being in the way. We wandered through the shops curious as to what people were selling and treated ourselves to some crepes. I got a lemon sugar-crepe, which was what I bought all the time last time I was in Europe and Matt got apple cinnamon. They were the best! When we get home I want to try to make our own :)
After rushing home for dinner, planning tours while waiting for it to cook and running out the door once again, we got to Croydon, the place the band was playing. It wasn't a particularly nice area, but I suppose anti-societal ukulele bands don't play at upscale places. We got there about half hour late and saw band members on stage shuffling things around and figured they were just setting up. As it turns out, we missed the ukulele thing and were in the midst of this huge punk-fest thing going on. We got a drink and waited for the next band which called themselves the 3 Kings or something. They were dressed up and had plastic crowns on. The place was packed and the female singers started growling and screeching and screaming. Matt was standing next to me nodding along to the music so I figured he thought it was alright. After about 3 songs, we shoved our way out and both agreed it was dreadful. It was a good laugh though and a visit to somewhere we'd never been before.
Friday (Christmas eve) was spent on a Megabus to Glasgow. It was a 9 hour ride in little seats at the back of the bus near the smelly bathroom. We hadn't had a chance to have lunch before the bus left and figured we'd grab something at a rest stop. As it turned out, there was no rest stop and the bus just kept on going for 9 hours with the exception of picking up and dropping off people at stations along the way. I was bored, tired, hungry and thirsty and decided to sleep through part of the way, passed out on Matt. By the time we got here at 12:30am we were very hungry and thirsty and went to the hotel to look at places to order from. Most were closed but one was open and in walking distance so we wandered over to get some Chinese food. It was delicious! After that was home and soon after (after taking care of some emails) to sleep.
This morning we got up and went downstairs bright and early for breakfast. We got to try some haggis with our eggs, bacon, beans and normal stuff. It was better than we thought it would be, but still not something I would want large portions of. One of the fruits, I have no idea what it was, was awful. Extremely awful.... So I did the only logical thing - offered some to Matt :) He agreed about the awfulness and would likely appreciate if I didn't offer him anymore items with that sort of flavour.
We have been searching for tours online a lot of the morning and decided that it's a lot more expensive to get on tours and they don't really go exactly where we want to go. The ones that did are sold out. We decided to do the Matt and Tracey tour - hop on a city bus and go where we want to. Tomorrow will be Loch Lomond and a medieval castle. I'm super excited!!! For now we are off to grab some lunch, explore Glasgow a bit (although just the local area as the buses aren't running) and figure out what we would like to do for a nice Christmas dinner.
Friday was particularly interesting. We were going through the usual websites to see what interesting things were going on. What we had to choose between was a free movie in the cinema, a Christmas market, an anti-societal ukulele punk band and... something else. I forget. Anyways we decided to rush out in order to have time for both the Christmas market and the punk band which we decided sounded hilarious.
The market was great. It was pouring cold rain, which was perfect because it kept the number of people down and gave us more space to explore all the shops without everyone being in the way. We wandered through the shops curious as to what people were selling and treated ourselves to some crepes. I got a lemon sugar-crepe, which was what I bought all the time last time I was in Europe and Matt got apple cinnamon. They were the best! When we get home I want to try to make our own :)
After rushing home for dinner, planning tours while waiting for it to cook and running out the door once again, we got to Croydon, the place the band was playing. It wasn't a particularly nice area, but I suppose anti-societal ukulele bands don't play at upscale places. We got there about half hour late and saw band members on stage shuffling things around and figured they were just setting up. As it turns out, we missed the ukulele thing and were in the midst of this huge punk-fest thing going on. We got a drink and waited for the next band which called themselves the 3 Kings or something. They were dressed up and had plastic crowns on. The place was packed and the female singers started growling and screeching and screaming. Matt was standing next to me nodding along to the music so I figured he thought it was alright. After about 3 songs, we shoved our way out and both agreed it was dreadful. It was a good laugh though and a visit to somewhere we'd never been before.
Friday (Christmas eve) was spent on a Megabus to Glasgow. It was a 9 hour ride in little seats at the back of the bus near the smelly bathroom. We hadn't had a chance to have lunch before the bus left and figured we'd grab something at a rest stop. As it turned out, there was no rest stop and the bus just kept on going for 9 hours with the exception of picking up and dropping off people at stations along the way. I was bored, tired, hungry and thirsty and decided to sleep through part of the way, passed out on Matt. By the time we got here at 12:30am we were very hungry and thirsty and went to the hotel to look at places to order from. Most were closed but one was open and in walking distance so we wandered over to get some Chinese food. It was delicious! After that was home and soon after (after taking care of some emails) to sleep.
This morning we got up and went downstairs bright and early for breakfast. We got to try some haggis with our eggs, bacon, beans and normal stuff. It was better than we thought it would be, but still not something I would want large portions of. One of the fruits, I have no idea what it was, was awful. Extremely awful.... So I did the only logical thing - offered some to Matt :) He agreed about the awfulness and would likely appreciate if I didn't offer him anymore items with that sort of flavour.
We have been searching for tours online a lot of the morning and decided that it's a lot more expensive to get on tours and they don't really go exactly where we want to go. The ones that did are sold out. We decided to do the Matt and Tracey tour - hop on a city bus and go where we want to. Tomorrow will be Loch Lomond and a medieval castle. I'm super excited!!! For now we are off to grab some lunch, explore Glasgow a bit (although just the local area as the buses aren't running) and figure out what we would like to do for a nice Christmas dinner.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Hello everyone!!!
Here are some brief updates since Saturday when I last updated this. I know I always say brief and then ramble, but if you are curious enough to read these and find out what I am up to I'm sure it's alright.
Sunday Matt and I went to the Museum of Childhood, which is really just a showcase of toys. Wandering through we saw things like barbies, etch-a-sketches, bead and chemistry kits, toys from different TV shows, etc. Matt and I were talking about what toys we owned and funny stories associated with them. I was amazed walking through at just how many of the toys from the museum that I owned as a child and yet I remember always asking for more and more. I didn't really need that 150th stuffed animal, I was lucky to have what I did!
Monday we were debating what to do. We were debating the zoo or museum of zoology and ended up at the museum because it was a wet and cold day. On the journey there, we were laughing about how we were debating whether to look at living or dead animals and decided on the dead ones because it was free and indoors. It was actually really cool, there were preserved creatures from the past, bones, skulls belonging to the monkeys, humans and everything in between, and best of all- information cards explaining the creatures, their significance and sometimes funny puns :)
On Tuesday we had a visit from one of our new friends. I invited him to come hang out and play Wii or we could go wherever. We ended up here talking and telling stories all weekend and having a few drinks. He is the entrepreneurial type of person with a business idea for everything! Also, he reminded me of Jeff a little bit.
Wednesday we spent most of the day playing on the computers because we randomly decided to go somewhere for Christmas. We were looking at Paris, Sweden, Ireland... Anywhere really. There were flights, busses, trains and carpools going everywhere. We debated showing up at the airport, asking which flights still had seats and jumping on one with a good discount. We went grocery shopping and decided we would figure it out in the morning.
Today was that morning. We were flipping through the online pages and were about to choose a trip to Paris. Just before going through with the travel arrangements, I found a bus trip to Glasgow online for a really good price and that's what we ended up choosing. We leave in 2 days- Christmas eve to spend our Christmas in Scotland :) We already booked a hotel and have an idea which of the tours we will be doing. Scotland is great because the cost of living is lower and therefore we can live there quite comfortably for a few days without going broke.
Now the rest of the day... We will be getting ready soon enough, showering, having some dinner and then going to see an acted show at the theater- Howl's Moving Castle! The movie was funny so I'm really looking forward to it! Christmas holidays are the best!
Sunday Matt and I went to the Museum of Childhood, which is really just a showcase of toys. Wandering through we saw things like barbies, etch-a-sketches, bead and chemistry kits, toys from different TV shows, etc. Matt and I were talking about what toys we owned and funny stories associated with them. I was amazed walking through at just how many of the toys from the museum that I owned as a child and yet I remember always asking for more and more. I didn't really need that 150th stuffed animal, I was lucky to have what I did!
Monday we were debating what to do. We were debating the zoo or museum of zoology and ended up at the museum because it was a wet and cold day. On the journey there, we were laughing about how we were debating whether to look at living or dead animals and decided on the dead ones because it was free and indoors. It was actually really cool, there were preserved creatures from the past, bones, skulls belonging to the monkeys, humans and everything in between, and best of all- information cards explaining the creatures, their significance and sometimes funny puns :)
On Tuesday we had a visit from one of our new friends. I invited him to come hang out and play Wii or we could go wherever. We ended up here talking and telling stories all weekend and having a few drinks. He is the entrepreneurial type of person with a business idea for everything! Also, he reminded me of Jeff a little bit.
Wednesday we spent most of the day playing on the computers because we randomly decided to go somewhere for Christmas. We were looking at Paris, Sweden, Ireland... Anywhere really. There were flights, busses, trains and carpools going everywhere. We debated showing up at the airport, asking which flights still had seats and jumping on one with a good discount. We went grocery shopping and decided we would figure it out in the morning.
Today was that morning. We were flipping through the online pages and were about to choose a trip to Paris. Just before going through with the travel arrangements, I found a bus trip to Glasgow online for a really good price and that's what we ended up choosing. We leave in 2 days- Christmas eve to spend our Christmas in Scotland :) We already booked a hotel and have an idea which of the tours we will be doing. Scotland is great because the cost of living is lower and therefore we can live there quite comfortably for a few days without going broke.
Now the rest of the day... We will be getting ready soon enough, showering, having some dinner and then going to see an acted show at the theater- Howl's Moving Castle! The movie was funny so I'm really looking forward to it! Christmas holidays are the best!
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Holiday Break Time!!
Yesterday was the last day of work before the Christmas Holidays so now we are officially free for the Christmas Holidays!!!
The last week was good. I was doing my TA job in year 5 which was great. It was fun and there was something interesting going on almost every day because of Christmas coming up. On Friday there was a supply teacher who let me fill our spare hour doing different literacy games with the class. When the teacher walked in to check on the class, it was me teaching rather than the supply teacher. She seemed to like the game.
We went to a Board Game night on Monday and met some new people while playing a letter game (coming up with words in certain categories beginning with a letter on your card). That was a ton of fun and we spent most of the night laughing. We kept contact with a couple of the people there, and on Tuesday went to the Theater with them as one of them had access to free tickets. The show was amazing and we got to hang out at the pub afterwards where the guy we were hanging out with had a VIP card for 2 for 1 drinks. We learned a lot about these new friends, their lives, friends, people they had a crush on... They were really cool people and we plan to meet up with them again for a Christmas party and just to hang out.
I'm sure a few of you were wondering how the interview went. It went really well, however the headteacher wanted me to sign a 5 Year contract. My Visa is only good for 2 and I didn't want to commit to that length of time, so it ended rather short with me heading back home to do more applications. As for the other 2 places that called (plus few more by the end of the day) it turned out that they were recruitment agencies that called rather than schools. They all wanted me to register with them in order to apply for jobs. I will be registering with 1 more company Monday, however I don't want to work for too many companies because that would get confusing with TimeSheets.
Also, TimePlan may be setting up another interview for me next week (depending on how their conversation goes with the school). That position is for a year 2 teacher, about an hour away from home. Interviews are next week if I get one.
I got a job as a tutor as well. I am a tutor for a year 6 boy in math as well as a bit of science, English, history and whatever else. This boy attends a private school and his mother has very high expectations. I was at their house this morning and it went very well. I taught him a few new strategies and he has been able to do a few of the sections of the last test that he struggled with before.
Matt and I bought ourselves/each other a Christmas gift. We got an old TV off gumtree (England's Kijiji). That's not the exciting part. The reason we got it was so we could use the actual gift- the Wii! Matt is currently working on setting it up.
The last week was good. I was doing my TA job in year 5 which was great. It was fun and there was something interesting going on almost every day because of Christmas coming up. On Friday there was a supply teacher who let me fill our spare hour doing different literacy games with the class. When the teacher walked in to check on the class, it was me teaching rather than the supply teacher. She seemed to like the game.
We went to a Board Game night on Monday and met some new people while playing a letter game (coming up with words in certain categories beginning with a letter on your card). That was a ton of fun and we spent most of the night laughing. We kept contact with a couple of the people there, and on Tuesday went to the Theater with them as one of them had access to free tickets. The show was amazing and we got to hang out at the pub afterwards where the guy we were hanging out with had a VIP card for 2 for 1 drinks. We learned a lot about these new friends, their lives, friends, people they had a crush on... They were really cool people and we plan to meet up with them again for a Christmas party and just to hang out.
I'm sure a few of you were wondering how the interview went. It went really well, however the headteacher wanted me to sign a 5 Year contract. My Visa is only good for 2 and I didn't want to commit to that length of time, so it ended rather short with me heading back home to do more applications. As for the other 2 places that called (plus few more by the end of the day) it turned out that they were recruitment agencies that called rather than schools. They all wanted me to register with them in order to apply for jobs. I will be registering with 1 more company Monday, however I don't want to work for too many companies because that would get confusing with TimeSheets.
Also, TimePlan may be setting up another interview for me next week (depending on how their conversation goes with the school). That position is for a year 2 teacher, about an hour away from home. Interviews are next week if I get one.
I got a job as a tutor as well. I am a tutor for a year 6 boy in math as well as a bit of science, English, history and whatever else. This boy attends a private school and his mother has very high expectations. I was at their house this morning and it went very well. I taught him a few new strategies and he has been able to do a few of the sections of the last test that he struggled with before.
Matt and I bought ourselves/each other a Christmas gift. We got an old TV off gumtree (England's Kijiji). That's not the exciting part. The reason we got it was so we could use the actual gift- the Wii! Matt is currently working on setting it up.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Finally some updates!
I believe it's been over 2 weeks since I last updated this. Sorry about that.
2 Weeks ago was not anything with big news. We worked most days, spent the evenings together, watched some movies and that sort of thing. We spent Sunday waiting for the landlord to come in for a black mold issue but he never ended up showing up.
One of the days during the following week, Matt and I were watching a movie when out of the corner of his eye, Matt spotted a mouse! I missed it and thought to myself "Was he seeing things or was there really a mouse? Matt never sees things. We have a mouse". The next day he picked up traps to set in the house. Since he knew I hated killing things - even spiders and bugs - Matt picked up a non-threatening trap after work. It was a really cool plastic rectangular prism. When the mouse enters, a wall falls down behind it and prevents it from leaving until you release it later. We set up the trap and the next morning, (conveniently a Saturday) we in fact had a mouse. This is going to sound strange, but the mouse was incredibly cute! It was tiny and white and running around trying to chew it's way out. I was tempted to keep it as a pet (as I already named it at this point - Cheddar) but Matt reminded me of the diseases mice can carry so we went for a walk to release it.
For the rest of the day we had planned on going to Winter Wonderland, but when we got to the station, an announcement told us they were not letting anyone into the park until at least 7pm due to overcrowding. Instead, we got out grocery shopping done and decided to go the next day.
Sunday's adventure to Winter Wonderland was amazing!! There were people all over the place, a singing tree that told jokes, bands and singers, a circus, rides, ducks and swans. The ducks and swans got right out of the water and walked surprisingly close to everyone around. We really enjoyed walking around, taking photos and in the end, buying a bottle of delicious raspberry mead which we had a glass with dinner a couple times during the week.
The week was routine - taking a subway to a random place each morning, coming home, having dinner, talking, playing on the computer, watching TV and movies, laundry, that sort of thing. Yesterday I spent the majority of the evening applying for jobs online. I must have spent about 4 hours online and applied for about 40 teaching jobs.
This paid off because today I got 3 phonecalls about interviews. One of them is set up for Tuesday for a year 2 teaching position very close by. The other 2, I had missed the calls and the contacts I need to speak with had left the office by the time I called them back on lunch break. They will *hopefully* be calling back on Monday. One of those positions is for a Primary teacher and the other a Special Education teacher :) I am incredibly excited. Wish me luck!!
Anyways, I better get going for now. Chef Matt has prepared dinner again. (he cooks everything perfectly!!!)
Hope all is well in Windsor or wherever you are reading this from and keep me updated on how you are doing when you get the chance!!
2 Weeks ago was not anything with big news. We worked most days, spent the evenings together, watched some movies and that sort of thing. We spent Sunday waiting for the landlord to come in for a black mold issue but he never ended up showing up.
One of the days during the following week, Matt and I were watching a movie when out of the corner of his eye, Matt spotted a mouse! I missed it and thought to myself "Was he seeing things or was there really a mouse? Matt never sees things. We have a mouse". The next day he picked up traps to set in the house. Since he knew I hated killing things - even spiders and bugs - Matt picked up a non-threatening trap after work. It was a really cool plastic rectangular prism. When the mouse enters, a wall falls down behind it and prevents it from leaving until you release it later. We set up the trap and the next morning, (conveniently a Saturday) we in fact had a mouse. This is going to sound strange, but the mouse was incredibly cute! It was tiny and white and running around trying to chew it's way out. I was tempted to keep it as a pet (as I already named it at this point - Cheddar) but Matt reminded me of the diseases mice can carry so we went for a walk to release it.
For the rest of the day we had planned on going to Winter Wonderland, but when we got to the station, an announcement told us they were not letting anyone into the park until at least 7pm due to overcrowding. Instead, we got out grocery shopping done and decided to go the next day.
Sunday's adventure to Winter Wonderland was amazing!! There were people all over the place, a singing tree that told jokes, bands and singers, a circus, rides, ducks and swans. The ducks and swans got right out of the water and walked surprisingly close to everyone around. We really enjoyed walking around, taking photos and in the end, buying a bottle of delicious raspberry mead which we had a glass with dinner a couple times during the week.
The week was routine - taking a subway to a random place each morning, coming home, having dinner, talking, playing on the computer, watching TV and movies, laundry, that sort of thing. Yesterday I spent the majority of the evening applying for jobs online. I must have spent about 4 hours online and applied for about 40 teaching jobs.
This paid off because today I got 3 phonecalls about interviews. One of them is set up for Tuesday for a year 2 teaching position very close by. The other 2, I had missed the calls and the contacts I need to speak with had left the office by the time I called them back on lunch break. They will *hopefully* be calling back on Monday. One of those positions is for a Primary teacher and the other a Special Education teacher :) I am incredibly excited. Wish me luck!!
Anyways, I better get going for now. Chef Matt has prepared dinner again. (he cooks everything perfectly!!!)
Hope all is well in Windsor or wherever you are reading this from and keep me updated on how you are doing when you get the chance!!
Sunday, November 20, 2011
The completion of another week
Alrighty, where to start...
Last week was a fun one. I spent the majority of the week at a school in Hackney working with an Autistic child. He was incredibly sweet, smiley and pleasant to be around but did not speak at all. I sat with him in his own section of the room doing puzzles with him, matching activities, and that sort of thing. I was told to come up with some of my own ideas to see what he was and was not able to do. That was great, I got to pull out my own resources to see if he could write or draw anything, use scissors, recognize colours... I was amazed when I asked him to find the blue fish and he did! The next day he could find the red and green. The classroom teacher had no idea he knew his colours or could understand when people talked to him at all. That was absolutely amazing and I hope I enjoy all my work as much as I did in that school.
Friday I was told I was doing an observation at a school to see what the nursery is like and determine whether or not I want to apply at that school. I got there and found out that rather than observing- I was being observed. That scared me at first but then I decided it would be fine, went over the lessons and went with it. There were 2 fantastic TA's helping me as well. During the class I was being observed, I had no clue how long of a lesson to teach or what exactly it was supposed to be. My instructions were: role play Goldilocks. There were 2 different Goldilocks books and I wasn't sure what to focus on for the role play. I chose one and had student volunteers come up to do exactly what happened during the story- a different group each page. At the end I had them recreate the story as a whole. I had props pulled from the classroom to use for the entire thing. At the end of the day, I talked to the HeadTeacher and found out that the lead of the Early Years loved my lesson. I have another observation on Monday and if it goes well- a job offer and meeting the students parents in late December for a January start. It's a great school with amazing staff that is not very far away.
I'm not entirely sure what to do as of now. The nursery is nice but the students are 3 and 4 and still have accidents. My ultimate goal is to work as a special needs teacher and students are not recognized as having an exceptionality until generally year 1 or 2 at earliest. Therefore my experience would not necessarily match the age group or type of students I want to be working with later.
Another possibility is working as a teaching assistant with a child with Autism. The other teaching agency mentioned an opening that I can do a trial for. That is exactly the type of experience I am looking for- except the pay is half as much and I will not gain teaching experience, only teaching assistant experience.
Alternatively, I could continue to supply, apply for jobs in years 1 and 2, apply to a separate company dealing with working with special needs students... I'm just not sure which job will put me on the right path for the future. I'm hoping to talk to one of the agencies tomorrow before I get to the school. If anyone with knowledge of this sort of thing has some advice- I'd love to hear it.
Aside from the work week, Matt and I went grocery shopping the majority of Saturday and watched a movie in the evening. Today we went to the mall to browse and grab a few more things we needed. I got a watch for using at the grade schools and a pair of new dress shoes (mine have a hole in the top that is getting more and more noticeable). We had dinner afterwards and are about to shower, possibly watch a short show and get some sleep.
Last week was a fun one. I spent the majority of the week at a school in Hackney working with an Autistic child. He was incredibly sweet, smiley and pleasant to be around but did not speak at all. I sat with him in his own section of the room doing puzzles with him, matching activities, and that sort of thing. I was told to come up with some of my own ideas to see what he was and was not able to do. That was great, I got to pull out my own resources to see if he could write or draw anything, use scissors, recognize colours... I was amazed when I asked him to find the blue fish and he did! The next day he could find the red and green. The classroom teacher had no idea he knew his colours or could understand when people talked to him at all. That was absolutely amazing and I hope I enjoy all my work as much as I did in that school.
Friday I was told I was doing an observation at a school to see what the nursery is like and determine whether or not I want to apply at that school. I got there and found out that rather than observing- I was being observed. That scared me at first but then I decided it would be fine, went over the lessons and went with it. There were 2 fantastic TA's helping me as well. During the class I was being observed, I had no clue how long of a lesson to teach or what exactly it was supposed to be. My instructions were: role play Goldilocks. There were 2 different Goldilocks books and I wasn't sure what to focus on for the role play. I chose one and had student volunteers come up to do exactly what happened during the story- a different group each page. At the end I had them recreate the story as a whole. I had props pulled from the classroom to use for the entire thing. At the end of the day, I talked to the HeadTeacher and found out that the lead of the Early Years loved my lesson. I have another observation on Monday and if it goes well- a job offer and meeting the students parents in late December for a January start. It's a great school with amazing staff that is not very far away.
I'm not entirely sure what to do as of now. The nursery is nice but the students are 3 and 4 and still have accidents. My ultimate goal is to work as a special needs teacher and students are not recognized as having an exceptionality until generally year 1 or 2 at earliest. Therefore my experience would not necessarily match the age group or type of students I want to be working with later.
Another possibility is working as a teaching assistant with a child with Autism. The other teaching agency mentioned an opening that I can do a trial for. That is exactly the type of experience I am looking for- except the pay is half as much and I will not gain teaching experience, only teaching assistant experience.
Alternatively, I could continue to supply, apply for jobs in years 1 and 2, apply to a separate company dealing with working with special needs students... I'm just not sure which job will put me on the right path for the future. I'm hoping to talk to one of the agencies tomorrow before I get to the school. If anyone with knowledge of this sort of thing has some advice- I'd love to hear it.
Aside from the work week, Matt and I went grocery shopping the majority of Saturday and watched a movie in the evening. Today we went to the mall to browse and grab a few more things we needed. I got a watch for using at the grade schools and a pair of new dress shoes (mine have a hole in the top that is getting more and more noticeable). We had dinner afterwards and are about to shower, possibly watch a short show and get some sleep.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
I'm kind of slacking, this blog took over a week
Alrighty, since we are here now, settled in, into somewhat of a routine and busy with maintaining our house and work life, the blogs from this point will be less frequent but I will still try to log in about weekly to give some updates and let everyone know how things are going.
The past week has been good. Matt has been working consistently at the highschool each day. I've been working wherever the companies send me. One of the days I worked half a day in the same classroom I was a TA in before. That was awesome because I already knew the kids and the routines so teaching there was fantastic. The teacher was there in the morning, explained the lessons and headed out to a meeting. One of the days there was no work. I ended up spending the day in an online Tetris competition with my friend Tommy from highschool. Thursday and Friday I was called to work in Hackney working as a TA for an autistic boy. Unfortunately he was absent both days and I never got to meet him. I did still work and helped the teacher with marking sheets, organizing lessons and helping the students with their work. That was really nice to do. I loved the teacher, students and classroom in general. Fortunately, they called me back to work in the same room Mon-Wed so I should still have an opportunity to meet the boy I was called in to assist.
For the weekend, we spent yesterday at the Science Museum again, exploring the exhibits, doing a 3d flight simulation and watching a Imax film about the Hubble Telescope. It was an awesome day. Today we went to a market in central London and browsed some of the shops with Bonnie, a teacher at Matt's school. She was great to hang out with, very nice and friendly. Her roomates were also along for our journey. After our market browsing, we did more grocery shopping at a couple stores and returned home. We are currently making Spaghetti Carbonara and chicken fillets for dinner to have with a glass of wine, and then it will be movie night here at home. Better get going to tend to dinner! :)
The past week has been good. Matt has been working consistently at the highschool each day. I've been working wherever the companies send me. One of the days I worked half a day in the same classroom I was a TA in before. That was awesome because I already knew the kids and the routines so teaching there was fantastic. The teacher was there in the morning, explained the lessons and headed out to a meeting. One of the days there was no work. I ended up spending the day in an online Tetris competition with my friend Tommy from highschool. Thursday and Friday I was called to work in Hackney working as a TA for an autistic boy. Unfortunately he was absent both days and I never got to meet him. I did still work and helped the teacher with marking sheets, organizing lessons and helping the students with their work. That was really nice to do. I loved the teacher, students and classroom in general. Fortunately, they called me back to work in the same room Mon-Wed so I should still have an opportunity to meet the boy I was called in to assist.
For the weekend, we spent yesterday at the Science Museum again, exploring the exhibits, doing a 3d flight simulation and watching a Imax film about the Hubble Telescope. It was an awesome day. Today we went to a market in central London and browsed some of the shops with Bonnie, a teacher at Matt's school. She was great to hang out with, very nice and friendly. Her roomates were also along for our journey. After our market browsing, we did more grocery shopping at a couple stores and returned home. We are currently making Spaghetti Carbonara and chicken fillets for dinner to have with a glass of wine, and then it will be movie night here at home. Better get going to tend to dinner! :)
Saturday, November 5, 2011
It's the weekend again!
Alrighty, updates, updates. It seems when I don't title the previous blog a weekday, I lose track of the last day I've written anything. Now that I've figured out what I've last said...
I did that teaching assistant job again that second day and of course loved it again. Great class, great job description... well with the exception of taking down the bulletin board at the end of the day. The bulletin board was really just a wall outside the classroom with stuff stapled through it. I had to remove the display using a knife and scissors because there was no staple remover. That was a pain in the butt! I made sure to run out an buy a staple remover so that can't happen again.
The Thursday, the school wanted me back again because the TA was sick but I couldn't go because I had a meeting with Career Teachers- a 2nd recruitment agency. I did my interview and afterwards- my paper work to sign up. After that, they mentioned a job I might have interest in: A TA position in primary school, going back and forth to different classrooms to support children with special needs. They pay isn't as good, but I would love that job. They faxed my resume to the school and I'm waiting for someone at the school to take a look at it and get back to the company so they can get back to me.
The next day I was at a nursery in a class of 3-4 year olds. That was INSANE. Children all over the place, always someone crying, missing their mommy, snot hanging down their faces... It was kind of a long day. The new agency called back about positions available for potential long terms, but all they mentioned were nursery jobs. I'm still waiting to hear back about the TA one.
Now is Saturday. Matt and I went to pick up hangers earlier and went for a walk in Killburn looking for various things we need for the house still with limited success. He is still not feeling at his best so we will likely spend the evening in and possibly find a movie to watch.
Last item of the day, there was a rumour that this blog needs more pictures and cowbell. Here my my solution:
I did that teaching assistant job again that second day and of course loved it again. Great class, great job description... well with the exception of taking down the bulletin board at the end of the day. The bulletin board was really just a wall outside the classroom with stuff stapled through it. I had to remove the display using a knife and scissors because there was no staple remover. That was a pain in the butt! I made sure to run out an buy a staple remover so that can't happen again.
The Thursday, the school wanted me back again because the TA was sick but I couldn't go because I had a meeting with Career Teachers- a 2nd recruitment agency. I did my interview and afterwards- my paper work to sign up. After that, they mentioned a job I might have interest in: A TA position in primary school, going back and forth to different classrooms to support children with special needs. They pay isn't as good, but I would love that job. They faxed my resume to the school and I'm waiting for someone at the school to take a look at it and get back to the company so they can get back to me.
The next day I was at a nursery in a class of 3-4 year olds. That was INSANE. Children all over the place, always someone crying, missing their mommy, snot hanging down their faces... It was kind of a long day. The new agency called back about positions available for potential long terms, but all they mentioned were nursery jobs. I'm still waiting to hear back about the TA one.
Now is Saturday. Matt and I went to pick up hangers earlier and went for a walk in Killburn looking for various things we need for the house still with limited success. He is still not feeling at his best so we will likely spend the evening in and possibly find a movie to watch.
Last item of the day, there was a rumour that this blog needs more pictures and cowbell. Here my my solution:
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Breaking the mold and not titling the blog the name of any weekdays
Alrighty, updates again. I wonder how many people actually read these. I wonder if while reading them some people wonder to themselves why they bother reading them.
Yesterday I had work in the afternoon as an ICT support teacher, which as it turns out meant computer lab teacher as I was hoping. I understand IT is information technology, but I do wonder where that C came from. I suppose I could Google that at some point. Anyways the afternoon went by pretty alright. The first class was a bit chaotic because half the class forgot their usernames/passwords and it took forever and 3 teachers to find them. Not a whole lot got accomplished there. 2nd Class was easier because they remembered theirs. Also y the 2nd class I had found the marker to the whiteboard and was able to clearly write the directions on the board so the students couldn't have the opportunity to forget them all. By then I also figured out their computer software and was able to get them to the proper URL's. All in all, successful afternoon. Then was just the usual dinner making, Matt tried to work on the oven a little bit and we went to sleep.
Today I got a call in for a teaching assistant role. I was incredibly excited although the pay is not as good. I was in year 1. The teacher gave me directions as to exactly what to do so this time I was not lost or confused. I was able to help a couple other teachers- 1 with creating a pictorial system for a student with special needs, another with her lesson that wasn't really thought out before teaching it. I grabbed some of her resources and invented games to keep the kids busy while she figured it out. It turned out she liked my games better and let me do those for the lesson. With one of the students I was working with during the day, I found out at the very end that she had been going to the school for 5 weeks, barely spoke English and hadn't said a word to the teacher at all. She had been asking me questions all day. I felt pretty good about what I had accomplished with her, as well as with the other 4 students who required the 1 on 1 support.I really love the teaching assistant position. It gives me the opportunity to do the job I really wanted to do in the first place: Work with students who require additional support rather than try to teach and manage the full class. The school requested that I go back to the same room tomorrow, which I excitedly agreed to.
After work: Matt dealt with the oven some more, we went to the post office to deal with some expensive forms, we got some pizza and relaxed a bit online. It's crazy how quickly the evening goes by, especially when bedtime needs to be so early in order to work in the morning.
Yesterday I had work in the afternoon as an ICT support teacher, which as it turns out meant computer lab teacher as I was hoping. I understand IT is information technology, but I do wonder where that C came from. I suppose I could Google that at some point. Anyways the afternoon went by pretty alright. The first class was a bit chaotic because half the class forgot their usernames/passwords and it took forever and 3 teachers to find them. Not a whole lot got accomplished there. 2nd Class was easier because they remembered theirs. Also y the 2nd class I had found the marker to the whiteboard and was able to clearly write the directions on the board so the students couldn't have the opportunity to forget them all. By then I also figured out their computer software and was able to get them to the proper URL's. All in all, successful afternoon. Then was just the usual dinner making, Matt tried to work on the oven a little bit and we went to sleep.
Today I got a call in for a teaching assistant role. I was incredibly excited although the pay is not as good. I was in year 1. The teacher gave me directions as to exactly what to do so this time I was not lost or confused. I was able to help a couple other teachers- 1 with creating a pictorial system for a student with special needs, another with her lesson that wasn't really thought out before teaching it. I grabbed some of her resources and invented games to keep the kids busy while she figured it out. It turned out she liked my games better and let me do those for the lesson. With one of the students I was working with during the day, I found out at the very end that she had been going to the school for 5 weeks, barely spoke English and hadn't said a word to the teacher at all. She had been asking me questions all day. I felt pretty good about what I had accomplished with her, as well as with the other 4 students who required the 1 on 1 support.I really love the teaching assistant position. It gives me the opportunity to do the job I really wanted to do in the first place: Work with students who require additional support rather than try to teach and manage the full class. The school requested that I go back to the same room tomorrow, which I excitedly agreed to.
After work: Matt dealt with the oven some more, we went to the post office to deal with some expensive forms, we got some pizza and relaxed a bit online. It's crazy how quickly the evening goes by, especially when bedtime needs to be so early in order to work in the morning.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Fri - Sun. Almost Halloween!
Alrighty where to start where to start... When I miss a day blogging it always gets so confusing as to what is relevant and how much detail to put into these things.
Anyhow Friday... What did we do Friday again? Ah yes, Matt has just reminded me. We went shopping in Kilurn to get a few more household items including a white chocolate toblerone!! Yum!! Spell check wants me to tell you I had a white chocolate cobblestone hehe. We also picked up Halloween costumes and then went home to make dinner. After dinner we ended up taking the underground back to Kilburn to attend the Halloween bar party we saw advertised earlier. There was a live band playing and horror movies playing behind the band via projector. No one else showed up in costume except 2 little lion men that weren't wearing their masks. We still had a great time and loved the music!
Saturday we decided to go out and check out all the touristy stuff. We went to get tickets for the Riverboat Cruise and London Eye, but it was horribly crowded and the lines looked like they would take hours. I suggested going to Tienamen Square until things got less crowded and then realized that that was in China and I was actually talking about Trafalgar Square. We instead wandered over to Trafalgar Square and saw all the statues and people and different things going on in the area. Mostly statues. Matt took my picture with a lion. I'll post those on Facebook, but let me tell you, it was not easy to get up there! After Trafalgar, we went back for the cruise and Eye and things were indeed less crowded! They were also very enjoyable and scenic, and the riveboat cruise announcer had a great sense of humour and explained the historical significance of what we passed. The Eye was amazing, we were on a giant Fairiswheel taller than Big Ben!! Afterwards, we went through a haunted house, which was fantastic!! The cashier was even an actor, dressed as a zombie, reaching towards our faces and trying to figure out why we were there and what we wanted. Upon entering, we were guided by a crazy "doctor" in "area 51" who was running around all panicked while telling us not to panic. He asked one of the guys entering the house if he had the key and the guy said no. The doctor freaked out, yelling at the guy for losing the key- after pulling one of his shirts off looking for it. He also freaked out because Matt said everyone was present yet had no idea how many people were there at the start :) The acting was fantastic, the zombies and ghouls that jumped out were sufficiently creepy and had me screaming and running.
Today was slightly lazier. We took our time getting ready, made some waffles, which we realized we accidentally bought waffle fries rather than pancake waffles... Why doesn't England have Eggos or breakfast waffles? Or poptarts? Or... those other ... Toaster Strudels! We've been looking all over the place and can't find the things I love for breakfast. Anyways, where was that thought originally going... Ah yes, we had our breakfast, did some grocery shopping, made some dinner and are back home with pictures organized that I will be posting soon. We will also be watching the rest of Star Trek since I was too tired and was passing out during it yesterday.
I must say, Matt and I have the funniest conversations here. For example:
Matt - "I'm good with conversation... Unless I have to pick a topic on the spot. Owls? Plates?"
Me - "Oh! I can seriously talk about plates!! See there was this book I was reading... (rambling continues on for a while while Matt laughs)
Life is good here. Everything has been fun and there has been so much laughter every day. We are still planning on learning Klingon and I still want to read that book about the toaster and find out why the song London Bridge is Falling Down was written. Must have been some sort of structural damage that was repaired at some point...
Anyways, hope those of you in Windsor and elsewhere are having as much fun! More rambling to come... eventually.
Anyhow Friday... What did we do Friday again? Ah yes, Matt has just reminded me. We went shopping in Kilurn to get a few more household items including a white chocolate toblerone!! Yum!! Spell check wants me to tell you I had a white chocolate cobblestone hehe. We also picked up Halloween costumes and then went home to make dinner. After dinner we ended up taking the underground back to Kilburn to attend the Halloween bar party we saw advertised earlier. There was a live band playing and horror movies playing behind the band via projector. No one else showed up in costume except 2 little lion men that weren't wearing their masks. We still had a great time and loved the music!
Saturday we decided to go out and check out all the touristy stuff. We went to get tickets for the Riverboat Cruise and London Eye, but it was horribly crowded and the lines looked like they would take hours. I suggested going to Tienamen Square until things got less crowded and then realized that that was in China and I was actually talking about Trafalgar Square. We instead wandered over to Trafalgar Square and saw all the statues and people and different things going on in the area. Mostly statues. Matt took my picture with a lion. I'll post those on Facebook, but let me tell you, it was not easy to get up there! After Trafalgar, we went back for the cruise and Eye and things were indeed less crowded! They were also very enjoyable and scenic, and the riveboat cruise announcer had a great sense of humour and explained the historical significance of what we passed. The Eye was amazing, we were on a giant Fairiswheel taller than Big Ben!! Afterwards, we went through a haunted house, which was fantastic!! The cashier was even an actor, dressed as a zombie, reaching towards our faces and trying to figure out why we were there and what we wanted. Upon entering, we were guided by a crazy "doctor" in "area 51" who was running around all panicked while telling us not to panic. He asked one of the guys entering the house if he had the key and the guy said no. The doctor freaked out, yelling at the guy for losing the key- after pulling one of his shirts off looking for it. He also freaked out because Matt said everyone was present yet had no idea how many people were there at the start :) The acting was fantastic, the zombies and ghouls that jumped out were sufficiently creepy and had me screaming and running.
Today was slightly lazier. We took our time getting ready, made some waffles, which we realized we accidentally bought waffle fries rather than pancake waffles... Why doesn't England have Eggos or breakfast waffles? Or poptarts? Or... those other ... Toaster Strudels! We've been looking all over the place and can't find the things I love for breakfast. Anyways, where was that thought originally going... Ah yes, we had our breakfast, did some grocery shopping, made some dinner and are back home with pictures organized that I will be posting soon. We will also be watching the rest of Star Trek since I was too tired and was passing out during it yesterday.
I must say, Matt and I have the funniest conversations here. For example:
Matt - "I'm good with conversation... Unless I have to pick a topic on the spot. Owls? Plates?"
Me - "Oh! I can seriously talk about plates!! See there was this book I was reading... (rambling continues on for a while while Matt laughs)
Life is good here. Everything has been fun and there has been so much laughter every day. We are still planning on learning Klingon and I still want to read that book about the toaster and find out why the song London Bridge is Falling Down was written. Must have been some sort of structural damage that was repaired at some point...
Anyways, hope those of you in Windsor and elsewhere are having as much fun! More rambling to come... eventually.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Updates Tuesday- Thursday
Tuesday was another home and sick day. I went to my doctor in the morning and she prescribed medication that treated the symptoms of my illness but not the cause. They did not really work, and one of them tasted dreadful. I tried to make it better by first diluting it in water, then adding teaspoons of sugar to the mixture. It still tasted awful. Matt was determined that I drink the entire thing, so I kept trying, while complaining. The thing that ended up making it tolerable... I said to Matt "This is so awful, I bet if I dropped a ticktack in here it would be eaten away by the substance in seconds". I dropped a ticktack in to test my theory. Ticktack survived, mixture tasted better. The majority of the rest of the day was spent home again, under the weather.
Wed morning I was still sick and decided to try out another clinic. The man there told me to stop taking the medications I had and to take new ones that did the opposite. I wasn't a fan of this idea and decided to just put all the medications in the cabinet (not having purchased the new ones at all). The afternoon was spent at home, mostly in bed but getting a bit of house work done when I could. Evening became a bit better. Matt and I decided to check out the science center. We went through the astronomy section and modern world section, stopping part way through the astronomy to get a small snack. The place was huge and fantastic! So much to read about so many interesting things, for example, the toaster project: A man who decided to make a toaster from scratch, up to and including making all the wires he intended to use. The book looks hilarious from the first couple pages and might be worth investing in. After that was back to the flat for some leftovers and rice before bed.
Today I woke up without any pain or sickness. It was 11:30 and we had both slept from just after midnight. It was awesome, there wasn't even any hammering and drilling going on in the flat above us. We went to the grocery store and then made some lunch. We ended up doing some laundry and house chores and lounging about until around 8 when we decided to make some dinner. We did tacos and rice and it was delicious!! Matt and I are becoming able to cook pretty decently. Afterwards, we decided to go for a ride on the tube for the sole purpose of taking a picture of Big Ben. As it turns out, that was only 20 min away. It was absolutely magnificent!! We went for a walk to the Eye to see if the fairiswheel was still running (excuse the spelling on that one as I have no idea). Turns out it wasn't, but it was next to an arcade which we enjoyed for the next while, testing the machines with the claw, plus Deal or No Deal.
Now we are back home, it is 1:20 in the morning. I have just showered, Matt is finishing up his and we will be getting some sleep again before tomorrows adventures which have yet to be determined.
Wed morning I was still sick and decided to try out another clinic. The man there told me to stop taking the medications I had and to take new ones that did the opposite. I wasn't a fan of this idea and decided to just put all the medications in the cabinet (not having purchased the new ones at all). The afternoon was spent at home, mostly in bed but getting a bit of house work done when I could. Evening became a bit better. Matt and I decided to check out the science center. We went through the astronomy section and modern world section, stopping part way through the astronomy to get a small snack. The place was huge and fantastic! So much to read about so many interesting things, for example, the toaster project: A man who decided to make a toaster from scratch, up to and including making all the wires he intended to use. The book looks hilarious from the first couple pages and might be worth investing in. After that was back to the flat for some leftovers and rice before bed.
Today I woke up without any pain or sickness. It was 11:30 and we had both slept from just after midnight. It was awesome, there wasn't even any hammering and drilling going on in the flat above us. We went to the grocery store and then made some lunch. We ended up doing some laundry and house chores and lounging about until around 8 when we decided to make some dinner. We did tacos and rice and it was delicious!! Matt and I are becoming able to cook pretty decently. Afterwards, we decided to go for a ride on the tube for the sole purpose of taking a picture of Big Ben. As it turns out, that was only 20 min away. It was absolutely magnificent!! We went for a walk to the Eye to see if the fairiswheel was still running (excuse the spelling on that one as I have no idea). Turns out it wasn't, but it was next to an arcade which we enjoyed for the next while, testing the machines with the claw, plus Deal or No Deal.
Now we are back home, it is 1:20 in the morning. I have just showered, Matt is finishing up his and we will be getting some sleep again before tomorrows adventures which have yet to be determined.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Sunday and Monday
Unfortunately, the blog for these 2 days won't be very interesting either. Yesterday I was still sick and unable to really leave the house, eat anything or do anything. Matt was still there with me all day, laying next to me and making me laugh. We watched a movie together in the evening- Across the Universe. It was really good, especially the soundtrack :)
It's a good thing we are both off this week for midterm break because I was up pretty much all night sick and this morning Matt was looking for a clinic in the area covered under my insurance. By the time he had found one and we left to check it out, I wasn't feel quite as horrible as yesterday or during the night. I decided to stick it out another day since it would be very expensive if the coverage didn't work for us (On the phone they said probably, but we would have had to pay out of pocket first and file a claim). We did find a local doctor and I registered with her secretary (although she didn't have any openings for this afternoon). Matt will register as well after some paper work is taken care of. I spent the majority of the afternoon and evening sleeping while Matt took care of paper work for both of us at TimePlan and at the bank. This evening I was able to eat nearly half a Shwarma (YAY!!) and we will be showering and getting more sleep.
It's a good thing we are both off this week for midterm break because I was up pretty much all night sick and this morning Matt was looking for a clinic in the area covered under my insurance. By the time he had found one and we left to check it out, I wasn't feel quite as horrible as yesterday or during the night. I decided to stick it out another day since it would be very expensive if the coverage didn't work for us (On the phone they said probably, but we would have had to pay out of pocket first and file a claim). We did find a local doctor and I registered with her secretary (although she didn't have any openings for this afternoon). Matt will register as well after some paper work is taken care of. I spent the majority of the afternoon and evening sleeping while Matt took care of paper work for both of us at TimePlan and at the bank. This evening I was able to eat nearly half a Shwarma (YAY!!) and we will be showering and getting more sleep.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Friday and Saturday Updates
On Friday, there are not a whole lot of interesting updates. I was sick so I didn't call the office to find out if there was any work for me. Instead, I spent the majority of the day laying down or sleeping. When Matt came home, we went to Kilburn. On our shopping list was a microwave, a safety pin, a phone, a handtowel and a hairdryer. Randomest list EVER. We completed our list minus the handtowel (realizing there was really nowhere to put one) and went out for dinner at this really nice yet inexpensive restaurant. Matt got fish and I got pizza and a glass of wine. The meals were only 5 pounds each, and my pizza was not just a personal pizza - it took up the entire giant plate! It was delicious! After that was home to prepare for sleep.
Yesterday was Saturday and my birthday :) We got up and had the best breakfast ever- Icecream with chocolate, smarties, nutella and peanut butter. It was fantastic! After lazing around a bit, we went to the Freud museum which was actually the house he lived in at the end of his life! We had little radios to listen to the life and meaning behind all of the things in the home. We got to see the famous couch that he treated his patients on! I was so excited!
After the Freud museum, we went back home to decide what to do next. At that point, I was still feeling rather ill from the day before and ended up falling asleep. When I woke up, things were not any better. I had a headache, stomach pains, congestion and could not breathe. It's a good thing I had Matt to take care of me. He literally ran to the pharmacy to get the medications needed to take care of me. He ordered Chinese in for us and prepared my plate for me while I was in bed. I am so lucky :)
After that was back to bed early again for the night.
Yesterday was Saturday and my birthday :) We got up and had the best breakfast ever- Icecream with chocolate, smarties, nutella and peanut butter. It was fantastic! After lazing around a bit, we went to the Freud museum which was actually the house he lived in at the end of his life! We had little radios to listen to the life and meaning behind all of the things in the home. We got to see the famous couch that he treated his patients on! I was so excited!
After the Freud museum, we went back home to decide what to do next. At that point, I was still feeling rather ill from the day before and ended up falling asleep. When I woke up, things were not any better. I had a headache, stomach pains, congestion and could not breathe. It's a good thing I had Matt to take care of me. He literally ran to the pharmacy to get the medications needed to take care of me. He ordered Chinese in for us and prepared my plate for me while I was in bed. I am so lucky :)
After that was back to bed early again for the night.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Recap of the last few days
I’m going to keep this blog relatively short because I’m quite tired, but here’s a recap of the last few days. I’ve been working with TimePlan, yesterday half a day and today the full day. Yesterdays half day was a bit chaotic due to the organizational structure of the school. I got there an hour early and wasn’t provided with the class I was teaching until 10 minutes before where instead of finding a lesson plan, I found a music note with a sticky note to teach a certain page. The lesson itself was fine but the students were chaotic and loud and I didn’t know the routines or methods of management used in the classroom. The students were trying to show me their reward and punishment system while I was trying to teach which caused even more chaos.
Today was a bit easier because my grade 5 classroom (which was only about half hour away :D ) had 2 teaching assistants there to help me. Between them and the other grade 5 teacher, they were able to help me come up with a lesson and transition the kids from one place to the next (since I had just got there and didn’t know where anything was- ex the computer lab). I’m not sure if it’s really that common here that no one ever has a lesson plan written out.
Aside from work, Matt and I have been trying to fix his phone, grocery shopping, gathering house supplies and attending to banking and moving paper work. We went out tonight for a very nice dinner of pasta and wine, a special going on at the 2nd subway station from us.
All is well, just very busy. I’m going to close this email up in order to get some sleep. Matt has already fallen asleep with his computer on top of him. Hehe. Anyways, night!
Today was a bit easier because my grade 5 classroom (which was only about half hour away :D ) had 2 teaching assistants there to help me. Between them and the other grade 5 teacher, they were able to help me come up with a lesson and transition the kids from one place to the next (since I had just got there and didn’t know where anything was- ex the computer lab). I’m not sure if it’s really that common here that no one ever has a lesson plan written out.
Aside from work, Matt and I have been trying to fix his phone, grocery shopping, gathering house supplies and attending to banking and moving paper work. We went out tonight for a very nice dinner of pasta and wine, a special going on at the 2nd subway station from us.
All is well, just very busy. I’m going to close this email up in order to get some sleep. Matt has already fallen asleep with his computer on top of him. Hehe. Anyways, night!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Just Another Manic Monday
I wished it were Sunday, cause that's my fun day. My I don't have to run day. Alright, I'll stop singing now.
Yesterday was the big day- moving day! We were up shortly after 6 as usual and Matt got ready and headed out to work. The hotel had moved us up to the 2nd floor the night before (3rd floor in Canadian) so it was my jobs to get all of the bags back down the stairs (England seems to have something against elevators- we rarely see them) and put them in the hotels storage until we were ready to move in. Thump thump thump thump thump, bang bang bang bang bank, deep breath, repeat process.
As soon as I got them downstairs and stored, I realized my appointment with the other teaching agency was at 11. It was already 8:30 so I looked up directions on Journey Planner and seen it was 1 hour 50 minutes to get there. I rushed out the door and onto the bus to the subway. Transferred subway lines and arrived at the train station, where I was supposed to jump on the train for 17 minutes and then catch 1 more bus and go for a walk. I couldn't get on the train with my Oyster Pass- It was too far out of our zone. The ticket cost 22.60 and the train ride wasn't 17 minutes- it was 2 hours. Since I never would have made it on time and still needed to go to the office, pay the rest of the deposit, get the keys and move all the luggage into the new place, I decided it was best to call and reschedule. I explained the situation and asked if it was possible. My appointment is now next Tuesday- and my phone is set to remind me 12 hours in advance. The only thing is if I get this other job, I will have to commute I'm guessing around 3 hours to get to work because they operate in South London and we live in the North. There were no doubts about the house because Matt is working full time at least until Christmas and I can always find more recruitment agencies or just stick with TimePlan if the distance is too much.
Anyways, I went back on the subways and busses to our new area, Willesden Green. I went to the office, paid off the rest of the rent and got the keys to the new place. I walked to our new place and the key didn't work, so I walked back to Estate's office again. They told me not to put the key all the way in, to push it up to the right and jiggle it. I went back to the property to try it, and on the way back got stopped by 3 people on the street who wanted to introduce themselves. One wanted my number but I told him I had a boyfriend. Still couldn't get in. I phoned Estate and they said they would come show me. 2 Women came out of the property (it has 2 rooms in the building), jumped on motorcycles and took off. If those are the neighbors, I like them already. 20 Minutes later, no Estate. A man on a motorcycle showed up and asked if I was moving in. I said yes, are you my neighbor? (just in case the motorcycle girls were visitors). He said he was the landlord and offered to help me get inside. As we got to the door, Estate finally showed up. The landlord waved them off since he was there to help. He opened the door just fine. He taught me to get it open, but still not easily. It takes me time.
The landlord originally wanted us to move in Tuesday, but I had asked if it were possible to get in a day early to avoid the hotel expense. The landlord complied and spent the entire day in our flat setting up a bed and getting a mattress in for us. I got keys copied for the landlord (I had 1 he didn't) and for Matt. Then it was back to the hotel to get the luggage. 2 Huge suitcases on 2 busses was a challenge, but I made it. I went back to the hotel because there were still 2 bags and a backpack. I got back to the hotel at 4 and Matt was supposed to meet me there at 4:30 to help with any bags that were still there (the hotel wanted them out as soon as we could). He got back at 5 and we took the last 2 bags and backpack to the new place.
We went in but couldn't get settled in too well. Since we moved in a day early, the inventory had not yet been done. That was planned for the day after. For the inventory, someone needs to come in to check the condition of the place and take pictures so they know we left the place in the same condition we got it. We unpacked only what we needed, went to the store to pick up a few household items and finally got something to eat, Shwarmas. Then it was back to the hotel to shower and sleep. Tuesday (Today) is the inventory, and someone will eventually call about coming in to clean the oven since our landlord said it would be done and cleaned professionally.
I love our landlord, he's kind and considerate. He let us move in a day early, got us a brand new bed and mattress and set it up himself, guided me through the key thing and let me try many times to make sure I would be able to get in... I'm going to have to give him a call sometime today to ask him how to turn on the heat and how to get the hot water in the sinks working (it works in the shower, just not in the 2 sinks).
Yesterday was the big day- moving day! We were up shortly after 6 as usual and Matt got ready and headed out to work. The hotel had moved us up to the 2nd floor the night before (3rd floor in Canadian) so it was my jobs to get all of the bags back down the stairs (England seems to have something against elevators- we rarely see them) and put them in the hotels storage until we were ready to move in. Thump thump thump thump thump, bang bang bang bang bank, deep breath, repeat process.
As soon as I got them downstairs and stored, I realized my appointment with the other teaching agency was at 11. It was already 8:30 so I looked up directions on Journey Planner and seen it was 1 hour 50 minutes to get there. I rushed out the door and onto the bus to the subway. Transferred subway lines and arrived at the train station, where I was supposed to jump on the train for 17 minutes and then catch 1 more bus and go for a walk. I couldn't get on the train with my Oyster Pass- It was too far out of our zone. The ticket cost 22.60 and the train ride wasn't 17 minutes- it was 2 hours. Since I never would have made it on time and still needed to go to the office, pay the rest of the deposit, get the keys and move all the luggage into the new place, I decided it was best to call and reschedule. I explained the situation and asked if it was possible. My appointment is now next Tuesday- and my phone is set to remind me 12 hours in advance. The only thing is if I get this other job, I will have to commute I'm guessing around 3 hours to get to work because they operate in South London and we live in the North. There were no doubts about the house because Matt is working full time at least until Christmas and I can always find more recruitment agencies or just stick with TimePlan if the distance is too much.
Anyways, I went back on the subways and busses to our new area, Willesden Green. I went to the office, paid off the rest of the rent and got the keys to the new place. I walked to our new place and the key didn't work, so I walked back to Estate's office again. They told me not to put the key all the way in, to push it up to the right and jiggle it. I went back to the property to try it, and on the way back got stopped by 3 people on the street who wanted to introduce themselves. One wanted my number but I told him I had a boyfriend. Still couldn't get in. I phoned Estate and they said they would come show me. 2 Women came out of the property (it has 2 rooms in the building), jumped on motorcycles and took off. If those are the neighbors, I like them already. 20 Minutes later, no Estate. A man on a motorcycle showed up and asked if I was moving in. I said yes, are you my neighbor? (just in case the motorcycle girls were visitors). He said he was the landlord and offered to help me get inside. As we got to the door, Estate finally showed up. The landlord waved them off since he was there to help. He opened the door just fine. He taught me to get it open, but still not easily. It takes me time.
The landlord originally wanted us to move in Tuesday, but I had asked if it were possible to get in a day early to avoid the hotel expense. The landlord complied and spent the entire day in our flat setting up a bed and getting a mattress in for us. I got keys copied for the landlord (I had 1 he didn't) and for Matt. Then it was back to the hotel to get the luggage. 2 Huge suitcases on 2 busses was a challenge, but I made it. I went back to the hotel because there were still 2 bags and a backpack. I got back to the hotel at 4 and Matt was supposed to meet me there at 4:30 to help with any bags that were still there (the hotel wanted them out as soon as we could). He got back at 5 and we took the last 2 bags and backpack to the new place.
We went in but couldn't get settled in too well. Since we moved in a day early, the inventory had not yet been done. That was planned for the day after. For the inventory, someone needs to come in to check the condition of the place and take pictures so they know we left the place in the same condition we got it. We unpacked only what we needed, went to the store to pick up a few household items and finally got something to eat, Shwarmas. Then it was back to the hotel to shower and sleep. Tuesday (Today) is the inventory, and someone will eventually call about coming in to clean the oven since our landlord said it would be done and cleaned professionally.
I love our landlord, he's kind and considerate. He let us move in a day early, got us a brand new bed and mattress and set it up himself, guided me through the key thing and let me try many times to make sure I would be able to get in... I'm going to have to give him a call sometime today to ask him how to turn on the heat and how to get the hot water in the sinks working (it works in the shower, just not in the 2 sinks).
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Cloudly Sunday
So today on our itinerary, we had intended to withdraw our money for our flat, pay the rental company, go shopping, do laundry and attend to emails. In the end we weren't able to accomplish much of that list, but we did complete what was crucial to be done today.
We were awoken again at 2am by the fire alarm when there was no fire. When our alarm went off in the actual morning, we heard dripping coming from the bathroom. Our ceiling was leaking right next to the light fixture - a lot. We were freezing cold because there was a draft coming in from the closed Window which was right next to our bed. We got our room switched and had to climb 3 flights of stairs with all of our luggage. The stair system is different here. We were told the 2nd floor, which in Canadian is the 3rd floor. Here they are labelled ground floor, first floor, second floor, etc.
It was an ATM fiasco. I'm not going to go into a crazy amount of detail, but the banks were closed and I needed to be on the phone with the credit card company for an hour and a half in order to get my cards up and running to withdraw some money.
We had subway for dinner back at the hotel, with a cheap cheesecake from the grocery store for desert. Was it ever delicious! We nearly ate the entire thing.
We were able to talk online and contact my mum on Skype and Kate and Jason on MSN. We also talked to the hotel, who arranged for us to leave our luggage in the room behind the back counter after checkout, until we are able to move into flat in the early evening tomorrow (hopefully!).
Now is the end of the evening and we can finally wind down, make our preparations for tomorrow and get some sleep.
~Tracey
We were awoken again at 2am by the fire alarm when there was no fire. When our alarm went off in the actual morning, we heard dripping coming from the bathroom. Our ceiling was leaking right next to the light fixture - a lot. We were freezing cold because there was a draft coming in from the closed Window which was right next to our bed. We got our room switched and had to climb 3 flights of stairs with all of our luggage. The stair system is different here. We were told the 2nd floor, which in Canadian is the 3rd floor. Here they are labelled ground floor, first floor, second floor, etc.
It was an ATM fiasco. I'm not going to go into a crazy amount of detail, but the banks were closed and I needed to be on the phone with the credit card company for an hour and a half in order to get my cards up and running to withdraw some money.
We had subway for dinner back at the hotel, with a cheap cheesecake from the grocery store for desert. Was it ever delicious! We nearly ate the entire thing.
We were able to talk online and contact my mum on Skype and Kate and Jason on MSN. We also talked to the hotel, who arranged for us to leave our luggage in the room behind the back counter after checkout, until we are able to move into flat in the early evening tomorrow (hopefully!).
Now is the end of the evening and we can finally wind down, make our preparations for tomorrow and get some sleep.
~Tracey
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Happy Saturday
Matt and I have this really cool habit of making every single Saturday we spend together amazing. Today was no exception :)
We were up early for breakfast and to get ready to head out to view a property. We had selected a new region beforehand, Willesdon, which was still in a nice location with a good safety rating, towards northern London and not exceptionally far from where Matt is currently working and where I went to work yesterday.
We got there by bus on time and took a look. The place was not so bad, it was a little small and dirty but the person from the rental company promised it would be cleaned and ready for us when we wanted to move in. We wandered out to ponder it, and happen to pass by a few more rental companies. Since we had the spare time, we wandered in.
The 2nd place was much nicer. It was furnished, had a little washing machine right in the room and was a little bit bigger. My only concern looking at it was climbing 2 flights of stairs when we arrived with our luggage, but we would only have to climb them once so we decided that wouldn't be so bad.
Another rental company brought us to our 3rd viewing. The place was absolutely huge, had 2 closets, tons of cupboards and storage spaces and was on the ground floor. The flat was only shared by one more person in the room next door. This place got our attention right away and the agent warned us he had other viewings for this same property on that exact day.
We wandered off to talk about it and stopped at a couple other places. No one else had anything comparable to look at and we didn't want to miss our opportunity, so we decided to take it. As soon as we get money here from Canada (which is a whole different challenge in itself), we will be able to move in.
We came back to review work documents and paper work and made ourselves some instant noodles, which we will now have before figuring out if there is anything else left to do before the end of the night.
~Tracey
We were up early for breakfast and to get ready to head out to view a property. We had selected a new region beforehand, Willesdon, which was still in a nice location with a good safety rating, towards northern London and not exceptionally far from where Matt is currently working and where I went to work yesterday.
We got there by bus on time and took a look. The place was not so bad, it was a little small and dirty but the person from the rental company promised it would be cleaned and ready for us when we wanted to move in. We wandered out to ponder it, and happen to pass by a few more rental companies. Since we had the spare time, we wandered in.
The 2nd place was much nicer. It was furnished, had a little washing machine right in the room and was a little bit bigger. My only concern looking at it was climbing 2 flights of stairs when we arrived with our luggage, but we would only have to climb them once so we decided that wouldn't be so bad.
Another rental company brought us to our 3rd viewing. The place was absolutely huge, had 2 closets, tons of cupboards and storage spaces and was on the ground floor. The flat was only shared by one more person in the room next door. This place got our attention right away and the agent warned us he had other viewings for this same property on that exact day.
We wandered off to talk about it and stopped at a couple other places. No one else had anything comparable to look at and we didn't want to miss our opportunity, so we decided to take it. As soon as we get money here from Canada (which is a whole different challenge in itself), we will be able to move in.
We came back to review work documents and paper work and made ourselves some instant noodles, which we will now have before figuring out if there is anything else left to do before the end of the night.
~Tracey
Friday, October 14, 2011
TGIF
Today was... interesting to say the least. We were in bed early last night to get proper sleep for work in the morning. We woke up to a very loud buzzing noise which at first I attributed to Matt's alarm but soon realized that was not the case, it was a fire alarm. We jumped out of bed, grabbed our money and phone and rushed out the door only to find the beeping had stopped. Interesting. We went back to sleep.
Upon proper morning, we got up and went on with our routines getting ready for Matt to work and me to phone and find out if I had work. Matt took off and I called. No work. I went online for a bit looking for some rental properties, intending to make some more viewing appointments, apply for a credit card, do some banking, check out the rates for the hotel down the street since tonight will be our last night here, etc. I put on my jeans and went down for breakfast. Had about 4 bites of my eggs when my cell phone rang. Adam from TimePlan asking me to leave for work, right that instant. I said no problem, ran into the room to put on dress clothes and ran out the door hoping I understood his instructions for directions. Fortunately, he text them to me as an added reminder. Off to the bus I went.
I got to the school about 10 minutes into the day. My class was at an assembly and I wasn't quite sure which one it was. About 4 teachers, plus the headmaster, pulled me out into the hall and told me they were giving me a year 6 class who happened to be the worst class in the school. Apparently the day before, the class was horrible to the supply teacher. They gave me this class instead of the one I was originally going to be in because I arrived before the other supply teacher and they wanted someone watching this class ASAP. Apparently about 20 minutes before I arrived, one of my students was on the roof of the school. Also, the teacher left me no notes so I had to make sense of the handouts on his desk and figure out how to teach them. Lucky me.
The rest of the day was, as I expected, a little bit rough. It went by somewhat alright although they were a bit noisy and didn't care to listen to their instructions all the way through. The end of the day was the biggest challenge. We were doing guided reading and I couldn't focus on my group because the rest of the class was talking so loudly. The last 20 minutes of the day was "Golden Time" where students had 20 minutes of free time outside, provided they didn't lose all of their minutes throughout the week. The class as a whole lost about 5 and individuals lost up to 8 more. We were late getting outside because I was waiting for quiet from the class, which didn't happen until 10 minutes in. When I asked them to come inside to prepare for the end of the day, they got very upset that they didn't have their full 20 minutes and started yelling and shouting at me and at one another. The Headmaster came in just as the bell rang and students were headed for the door. She apologized for the class and told me she hopes I'll be back sometime in a better classroom.
I went back to the hotel to find Matt who had lost his Oyster Pass (Underground and bus pass). We got that sorted with the store who had credit for losses and went for pizza. We had intended to go to the social near the opposite end of London to have a couple drinks and meet the other TimePlan employees, however we had things to sort regarding visitation of possible places to live tomorrow and headed back to the hotel, which is where I am blogging from now, having concluded the discussion.
By the way, I know people are reading these things, why are there never any comments? :P
~Tracey
Upon proper morning, we got up and went on with our routines getting ready for Matt to work and me to phone and find out if I had work. Matt took off and I called. No work. I went online for a bit looking for some rental properties, intending to make some more viewing appointments, apply for a credit card, do some banking, check out the rates for the hotel down the street since tonight will be our last night here, etc. I put on my jeans and went down for breakfast. Had about 4 bites of my eggs when my cell phone rang. Adam from TimePlan asking me to leave for work, right that instant. I said no problem, ran into the room to put on dress clothes and ran out the door hoping I understood his instructions for directions. Fortunately, he text them to me as an added reminder. Off to the bus I went.
I got to the school about 10 minutes into the day. My class was at an assembly and I wasn't quite sure which one it was. About 4 teachers, plus the headmaster, pulled me out into the hall and told me they were giving me a year 6 class who happened to be the worst class in the school. Apparently the day before, the class was horrible to the supply teacher. They gave me this class instead of the one I was originally going to be in because I arrived before the other supply teacher and they wanted someone watching this class ASAP. Apparently about 20 minutes before I arrived, one of my students was on the roof of the school. Also, the teacher left me no notes so I had to make sense of the handouts on his desk and figure out how to teach them. Lucky me.
The rest of the day was, as I expected, a little bit rough. It went by somewhat alright although they were a bit noisy and didn't care to listen to their instructions all the way through. The end of the day was the biggest challenge. We were doing guided reading and I couldn't focus on my group because the rest of the class was talking so loudly. The last 20 minutes of the day was "Golden Time" where students had 20 minutes of free time outside, provided they didn't lose all of their minutes throughout the week. The class as a whole lost about 5 and individuals lost up to 8 more. We were late getting outside because I was waiting for quiet from the class, which didn't happen until 10 minutes in. When I asked them to come inside to prepare for the end of the day, they got very upset that they didn't have their full 20 minutes and started yelling and shouting at me and at one another. The Headmaster came in just as the bell rang and students were headed for the door. She apologized for the class and told me she hopes I'll be back sometime in a better classroom.
I went back to the hotel to find Matt who had lost his Oyster Pass (Underground and bus pass). We got that sorted with the store who had credit for losses and went for pizza. We had intended to go to the social near the opposite end of London to have a couple drinks and meet the other TimePlan employees, however we had things to sort regarding visitation of possible places to live tomorrow and headed back to the hotel, which is where I am blogging from now, having concluded the discussion.
By the way, I know people are reading these things, why are there never any comments? :P
~Tracey
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Thursday the 13th
Today was Matt's first day of the job, which he will blog about at a later time. We were up for 6:20 getting ready. I wanted to be dressed and ready too just in case TimePlan gave me a call. Result: not today.
While he was out, I went down for breakfast and then back to the room to start making some phonecalls for property viewings. The first number I tried to call, the phone told me I had no credit. I was supposed to have 300 so I went to the phone company who sent me to the place I bought a phone who told me the phone was fine- there was no credit because the credit had been converted into minutes and I did not have credit for additional charges required by some of the agents. This adventure took a little bit, but I navigated the subway and bus systems on my own for the first time and am now more confident to do it when I get called into work.
After that was back to the hotel to make more phonecalls. unfortunately, the majority of people didn't answer the phone or had already sold the property. I wandered the streets, stopping at every property rental place (there were about 6) and they all told me they had nothing in the area within budget. I got a paper and started looking through the ads and other areas did have properties, even under budget. Now we have some considerations...
Matt came back and we went out for Pizza and decided to check out what sort of thing was on TV. This is where we will spend the majority of the evening because we need to go to bed early for Matt's work and my potential work in the morning.
~Tracey
While he was out, I went down for breakfast and then back to the room to start making some phonecalls for property viewings. The first number I tried to call, the phone told me I had no credit. I was supposed to have 300 so I went to the phone company who sent me to the place I bought a phone who told me the phone was fine- there was no credit because the credit had been converted into minutes and I did not have credit for additional charges required by some of the agents. This adventure took a little bit, but I navigated the subway and bus systems on my own for the first time and am now more confident to do it when I get called into work.
After that was back to the hotel to make more phonecalls. unfortunately, the majority of people didn't answer the phone or had already sold the property. I wandered the streets, stopping at every property rental place (there were about 6) and they all told me they had nothing in the area within budget. I got a paper and started looking through the ads and other areas did have properties, even under budget. Now we have some considerations...
Matt came back and we went out for Pizza and decided to check out what sort of thing was on TV. This is where we will spend the majority of the evening because we need to go to bed early for Matt's work and my potential work in the morning.
~Tracey
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
October 12th being the 12th day of October
Greetings comrades in North America and abroad! Today's goal was to obtain a cell phone for Tracey and a bank account for the two of us. Not having a permanent address as mentioned before was a hurdle to overcome for both of these objectives. Solution; get a pay as you go cell or sim card and bank at Barclays Bank which requires only a Canadian Passport to get started.
On the cell front Tracey scored a pretty damn good android phone known as the Samsung Galaxy Europa. This phone was locked to the Three network so after a quick stop at a shop known as Phone City the phone was unlocked for use on other networks. That being said the phone came with 15 GBP credit on the SIM which permits a 30 day allowance of 300 minutes, 3000 texts and 500 GB of data! I am jealous as I will be unlocking my own phone but I had already gone online and paid for an unlock code but made the foolish mistake of paying via Paypal echeck with will take another two days I expect to clear. Blarg!
Not much to say on the bank front other than Barclays staff are quite helpful and opening an account was relatively painless.
Now on another front both Tracey and I were expecting to pursue work assignments after arranging housing. Instead I received an email about the possibility of beginning a long term work assignment at Hatch End High School in Harrow just a little NW of where we're intending to stay. After contacting the office via Tracey's new shiny phone I agreed to attend a trial session tomorrow at the school and we'll see how I fare and what the work environment is like. It is unfortunately just outside the transit zones we have currently paid for so we will not upgrade our transit passes until my impressions of the assignment tomorrow. That being said the potential of a long term assignment is extremely welcome and surprising considering our files were just completed yesterday. London apparently wastes no time.
Matt
On the cell front Tracey scored a pretty damn good android phone known as the Samsung Galaxy Europa. This phone was locked to the Three network so after a quick stop at a shop known as Phone City the phone was unlocked for use on other networks. That being said the phone came with 15 GBP credit on the SIM which permits a 30 day allowance of 300 minutes, 3000 texts and 500 GB of data! I am jealous as I will be unlocking my own phone but I had already gone online and paid for an unlock code but made the foolish mistake of paying via Paypal echeck with will take another two days I expect to clear. Blarg!
Not much to say on the bank front other than Barclays staff are quite helpful and opening an account was relatively painless.
Now on another front both Tracey and I were expecting to pursue work assignments after arranging housing. Instead I received an email about the possibility of beginning a long term work assignment at Hatch End High School in Harrow just a little NW of where we're intending to stay. After contacting the office via Tracey's new shiny phone I agreed to attend a trial session tomorrow at the school and we'll see how I fare and what the work environment is like. It is unfortunately just outside the transit zones we have currently paid for so we will not upgrade our transit passes until my impressions of the assignment tomorrow. That being said the potential of a long term assignment is extremely welcome and surprising considering our files were just completed yesterday. London apparently wastes no time.
Matt
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
October 11
Today was our first full day in London and it was definitely used very efficiently. We were up at 8:30 for breakfast and getting ready to visit TimePlan, our teaching company, for a meet-and-greet. We were up and ready on time and got ourselves a monthly pass for the subway and busses in nearby places. We headed to the underground and hopped onto the tube. A transfer and another ride later, we made our way to the office using a map that I drew off the computer. Before this concerns anyone, this actually worked and the map was not all backwards.
Our time at the office went well. We filled out the majority of the paper work and the rest we will complete once we have an address. They are looking over documentation and within a couple days, they will be ready for us to work. We can work once we have a phone and can receive their calls...
To get a phone, we need a bank account so they can run a credit check. To get a bank account, we need a permanent UK address. To get an address, we need a phone to call places to view property. We are stuck in a loop. Tomorrow we will break the loop by going to the 1 bank that will let us set up an account without an address and get a pay-as-you go phone that won't require an address.
We have become very good at London transportation. Not only have we been taking the subway everywhere, we jumped on a double decker bus after visiting the mall. It is 1 day into our journey and we have jobs, we decided where to bank, we know what phone company, phone and plan we will be using, we know which grocery store is best priced and we know how to use the subway and bus systems. Tomorrow we will set up the phone and bank accounts and arrange some property viewings. Couldn't ask for anything more!!
Our time at the office went well. We filled out the majority of the paper work and the rest we will complete once we have an address. They are looking over documentation and within a couple days, they will be ready for us to work. We can work once we have a phone and can receive their calls...
To get a phone, we need a bank account so they can run a credit check. To get a bank account, we need a permanent UK address. To get an address, we need a phone to call places to view property. We are stuck in a loop. Tomorrow we will break the loop by going to the 1 bank that will let us set up an account without an address and get a pay-as-you go phone that won't require an address.
We have become very good at London transportation. Not only have we been taking the subway everywhere, we jumped on a double decker bus after visiting the mall. It is 1 day into our journey and we have jobs, we decided where to bank, we know what phone company, phone and plan we will be using, we know which grocery store is best priced and we know how to use the subway and bus systems. Tomorrow we will set up the phone and bank accounts and arrange some property viewings. Couldn't ask for anything more!!
Monday, October 10, 2011
Day 1
Today was our arrival date in England. We left the house around 10:30 am, arrived at the airport by 2:30 and were on the plane last night by about 10pm and flew overnight via Iceland Air. The plane was relatively nice and very smooth riding with many movies to choose from. (I selected Ice age 3 and some alien movie).We got off the plane for a connection in Iceland. That was amazing because the sunset we got to see in Iceland on the plane and in the airport was absolutely fantastic. We jumped back on board for a few hours to get the rest of the way to London. Matt and I both spent a lot of that flight sleeping.
Finally we arrived at the London airport. When we arrived at luggage claim, we noted that both of my bags were very damaged. On one of them, the handle was completely ripped off and on the other it was ripped at the seams around the handle. Matt and I went to luggage services and explained the situation. They ended up giving me 2 new bags on the spot with minimal paper work. Much nicer bags than I left with.
We hopped onto the subway (because the train didn't go where we wanted it to go and the cab was expensive) and made our way to Golders Green area. This took 1 connection and a lot of stairs, which was very difficult with 2 50 pound bags and 1 carry-on each!! On the way to the hotel, we took a wrong turn and went a little out of our way. We eventually found it though, with sore hands and extreme tiredness.
We spent the remainder of the day exploring the streets of the area and grabbing something for dinner. We ended up at a Chinese and Thai buffet. It was not so bad but we both wished we would have picked Subway instead. Now we are back in the room. It is only 8:10 but we are both fairly tired and preparing what we need to meet with the teaching company tomorrow afternoon.
Finally we arrived at the London airport. When we arrived at luggage claim, we noted that both of my bags were very damaged. On one of them, the handle was completely ripped off and on the other it was ripped at the seams around the handle. Matt and I went to luggage services and explained the situation. They ended up giving me 2 new bags on the spot with minimal paper work. Much nicer bags than I left with.
We hopped onto the subway (because the train didn't go where we wanted it to go and the cab was expensive) and made our way to Golders Green area. This took 1 connection and a lot of stairs, which was very difficult with 2 50 pound bags and 1 carry-on each!! On the way to the hotel, we took a wrong turn and went a little out of our way. We eventually found it though, with sore hands and extreme tiredness.
We spent the remainder of the day exploring the streets of the area and grabbing something for dinner. We ended up at a Chinese and Thai buffet. It was not so bad but we both wished we would have picked Subway instead. Now we are back in the room. It is only 8:10 but we are both fairly tired and preparing what we need to meet with the teaching company tomorrow afternoon.
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