Hi all,
We meant to write a big blog post about our last couple weeks living in London then forgot, so instead you get the quick note version before we head out on our adventure.
Teaching was crazy the last couple weeks. Everyone is tired and ready for summer. Both Sam and I took a day off in our last full week (me with a cold, Sam with laryngitis) and then we worked Monday-Wednesday last week so we would have 2 full days to pack and clean, and man did we need those. You can't even begin to imagine how much we accumulated in 6 months.
In the past couple weeks we got all our jumping pictures from around London, hung out with Ben and Laura (welcomed them to London), got to see Meghan and Marina's new digs, and Leah arrived just in time to see her before we left. Matt and I went and saw the musical Once on Wednesday. Thursday we packed all day and then Ben and Laura came for dinner and took a ton of our stuff to start them off here. Friday I went to a year 6 leaving ceremony and then we met up with friends at our pub on the Thames for a final hurrah. We spent Saturday in Brighton playing 2p arcade games and sitting on the pebble beach. Sunday we finished organizing our bags and then lugged them to Ben and Laura's where they are wonderfully storing them for us while we travel. Let me tell you, that was a trip and a half. Four 50+ lb bags and four 20+ lb carry-ons...not easy to maneuver onto and off a bus, onto and off a train, down to the tube (no elevator), onto and off the tube, then back up to street level (again no elevator, but a group of very nice young men).
We have now handed over our keys and are officially moved out of our London flat. It's really sad, but exciting at the same time.
We're headed up to have brunch with Meghan, Marina and Leah before we fly to Croatia.
2 weeks until our next blog post...Dubruvnik, Barcelona, Genoa, Cinque Terre, Florence, and a bit of Milan.
Ciao,
We out.
Lisa and Sam
Monday, 21 July 2014
Sunday, 6 July 2014
And Then There Were Three
Hello there friends and family…
We’ve had another busy couple of weeks.
Work weeks:
Sam 23-27
Monday: Y4-This is one of her top 3 best days since being
here. A wonderful class.
Tuesday:Y6-nothing special
Wednesday:Y6-It was at a school that the kids don’t wear
uniforms and was just a horrible day. It’s
at a school that I taught year 5/6 PE for a day and the year 6s at that school
are just so rude.
Thursday:Y1-It was a nice class.
Friday:Y3-This was another class from hell.
Lisa 23-27
Monday: Y5-They were not bad.
Tuesday-Friday: I taught the same year 6 class as last
Friday. I really like them. We mesh well; can have fun without losing
control. They invited me to their leaving ceremony. And they seem to genuinely like having me as
their teacher. They’ve seen me around
the school this past week and keep asking if I’ll be teaching them again before
school ends.
During the week we kept busy. Gym Tuesday and Wednesday, Primark Thursday,
and Friday we met up with Brianne in the London Bridge area for dessert and a
last goodbye. Where else would we have gone?
Saturday was very exciting for me…Matt arrived. After almost 6 months of being on opposite
sides of the world it was so nice to have him here. Sam and I made the trek out to Gatwick early
Saturday morning, signs in tow.
Sunday Sam elected to stay home, so Matt and I headed into
London to do some wandering.
Sam 30-4
Sam spent all week in a year 4 class. It was a really nice
group of kids; they listened, were well-behaved and funny. It was an all-around good week.
Lisa 30-4
I was back in the same school as last week, but was in
almost every class in the school. It’s a
great school. Lovely staff and the TAs are great. There is only 1 of each year group except
there are two year 5 classes, but the school itself is quite big, so each
classroom is like double the size of any classroom I’ve been in. I was in a horrible year 5 class Monday and a horrible year 1 class Tuesday, but a lovely
year 3 class Wednesday, a lovely year 5 class Thursday, and a pretty good year
4 class Friday. I’ve been in almost
every class in the school now. It’s
really nice to be in a school so much because the kids really get to know you. I walked into a couple of the classes and
kids came up and said “Good morning, Lisa” and they’ll wave in the halls. It just feels really nice. I get to go back 4 days next week as well.
This week we all met and went to the gym Monday after work.
Tuesday was Canada Day so we went up to Trafalgar Square and had dinner and
checked out the Maple Leaf before calling it a night.
Wednesday we had a going
away evening for our friend Jessica. We went for a drink at a place called the
Paramount near Tottenham Court. The
restaurant/bar part is on the 32nd and 33rd floors of this place so we
had a really cool view of the city. The
part we were sitting in on the 33rd floor was really narrow so with
the number of us that were there we had to move twice to try to fit in better.
We also had a new agent and her contractor
come by to look at our flat. The mould
is horrendous and they were both blown away at how we could live with it. She was really nice and ended up bringing us
a dehumidifier to help dry out our place.
Friday Matt made us a wonderful roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes
and gravy. MMMMM! It was so yummy and a
great way to finish off our work week.
Matt started his wanderings Monday morning early in Soho to
find a coffee shop, then walked through Hyde Park to the Science Museum and the
Museum of Natural History and finished his day at the Victoria and Albert Museum
before meeting me at Victoria station to head to the gym. Tuesday he took his
time in the morning then went to the Museum of London, walked around St. Paul’s
Cathedral, went across the Millennium Bridge, had a beer, and then bought a tie
at Primark before meeting us to go into Trafalgar Square. Wednesday he went into West Croydon to hit up
Primark and got some things. Thursday he went into Wimbledon and watched tennis
all day. He got to see some junior
games, doubles, and the Canadian woman play and win her semi-final match. Sam and I are very jealous. Friday he took it
easy, went grocery shopping and made us dinner.
It was great. Roast beef, mashed
potatoes, gravy, broccoli and cauliflower.
Saturday we had a market day. We started by going to Portabello Market in
Notting Hill, then headed to Camden Market, then down to Spitalfields
Market. It was a nice day, weather
wasn’t great but we got a bunch of souvenir type stuff that we’ve needed to get
for a while, and Matt got to see some different areas of London.
 |
| Fish ate my foot skin...felt so gross. |
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| We got our bags finally...thanks to our momma's |
Today we met up with Ben and Laura (my friend from home that
we skyped with) up at London Bridge and walked up the Thames to our spot for a
tea/hot chocolate/coffee and some fries, then continued up all the way to
Westminster to see Big Ben and then through St. James Park and past Buckingham
Palace, finishing our walk at Victoria station.
It was a lovely afternoon. It’s
fun for us to see how much we have learned living here. It’s great too because now we have someone
who will take all of our household stuff.
We're down to our last 8 days of work, a final weekend, and a lot of packing/cleaning in London. We've got a jam-packed 2 weeks ahead of us and can't believe that's it.
Thanks for reading.
We out.
Lisa and Sam
(and Matt)
Sunday, 22 June 2014
Living Life in London
Hello all.
It has been 3 weeks since we last posted...
Sorry for the lack of posts the last couple weeks. We’ve been super busy as our time in London is quickly coming to an end.
After our wonderful week off in Scotland, Sam and I went
back to work while the Park family toured our wonderful city of London.
It was Matt and my 1 year anniversary on the 1st,
so crazy to me that it’s been a year.
This past year has gone by so quickly and life has changed so much.
It was also my parents’ 25th Wedding anniversary
on the 2nd, so that’s pretty awesome too. I miss them like crazy and am so lucky to
have them.
Sam’s first week back she didn’t end up working Monday so
her and Mary (who also didn’t work) came back to our place so that we could
finally get a plumber in to fix the leak that has been causing all our mould. She was back at the all-boys high school
Tuesday. She turned down a day of high
school (not the all-boys) and ended up in a primary that we really like. Thursday she took off to spend some extra
time with her family. And Friday she was in primary again.
My first week back was pretty good. Monday and Tuesday were good days in
different primary schools. I got to spend a day as a 1-on-1 with a boy with
Autism one of the days which was a really interesting experience. I spent my
last 2 days in a year 4 class at a really nice school that I ended up back at
quite a bit in the following 2 weeks.
That week I met up with Tasha, a friend from home, for a
wander and dinner on Tuesday. The Parks and I went bowling on Wednesday (we
think Sharon may practice). Thursday, Sam and her family went on a 4D ride (not
so good), to dinner, and went to see Billy Elliott that night and said it was
fabulous and highly recommended it.
The Parks left early Saturday morning. We trooped out to the airport on the bus to
drop them off with all of their luggage plus a bag of each mine and Sam’s. It was so wonderful to have them here, I know that Sam absolutely loved being able to have them here for two weeks. Thanks so much to them for everything they did for us while they were here.
After they left Sam and I met Mary and Brianne
at London Bridge to go to Shakespeare’s Globe for A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream. We
had tickets for the standing section right in front of the stage so it’s just
fit in where there’s space. When we walked in we noticed that there were a lot
of people using sign language and were thinking that was pretty cool. Maybe a big group came together to watch. Then we noticed a sign that said “Deafinitely…”
and were thinking maybe there is someone on stage who would be translating to
sign language. Nope, the whole thing was
in sign language apparently. A few times
where characters would also say their lines, but for the most part we just had
to try to figure out what was going on.
We also missed a lot of good jokes because people around us were
laughing hysterically through most of it.
We ended up leaving at intermission because we were missing key parts
(we couldn’t really remember the play from reading it in high school, and Sam
had never read it so it made it really hard to follow). We ended up just
sitting outside the theatre in the sun and chatted and people watched. People
watching in London is amazing because there are always so many people and from
all over the world. You hear so many
different accents and see so many different outfits. It’s fun. This day blue plaid seemed to be the big
thing. After a bit we headed to The Real
Greek, which is a restaurant just a few doors down from the theater, for
dinner. We ended up eating and chatting
for about 3 hours and finally decided we should head out. Sam and I had been up since before 5 so we
were pretty wiped.
Sunday we met a bunch of our teaching girls for brunch at
The Breakfast Club around Angel station which was awesome. It’s tucked away
down a little side street and has random tables outside then an assortment
inside (it’s really small). There was a big line up so we had lots of time to
chat and wait for Jess to get there. We
got to sit outside and the food was great.
When we finished we headed up to Camden Market because Jessica had never
been before. We wandered, some people bought stuff, and then we headed out.
We were exhausted, it was a busy couple of weeks and a busy,
exhausting weekend, but so fun.
The following week, work was steady…we both worked all week,
nothing too exciting.
Sam went to the all-boys high school for the last time on
Monday and Tuesday, then ended up at the school she did her first day at on
Wednesday. Thursday and Friday she taught primary at 2 new schools.
I taught Nursery at one of my favourite schools Monday, I
taught at a new school Tuesday and Wednesday half day in nursery and half day
in year 1 both days, and then Thursday and Friday I was back at the same school
as the previous week, Year 6 one day then year 1 the other. Only thing worth mentioning was a map that was put up in the year 1 class I was in...notice the missing parts of countries.
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| How is this ok to put up in a school?! |
And we continued being busy…
Monday we went to the gym after work.
Tuesday we went to a movie in the park with our Canadian
Teacher friends, and Andrea and her friend Linda joined us. It was going to be
the last time I could see her before she headed home. We had a great time. The movie was Mean Girls, how could we not
have fun? "You can't sit with us!"
Wednesday Mary and Brianne came for dinner. We made lettuce wraps and hung out for a bit.
Thursday we went to the gym after work.
Friday we had a night out with the teaching girls, and a
final hurrah with Mary at our favourite location on the Thames in the London
Bridge area. We had a fun time, but
because we had to have such an early morning Mary, Brianne, Sam and I headed
out earlier than the rest and ended our night with a photo shoot at Tower
Bridge.
Saturday we got up bright and early and took Mary out to the
airport with Brianne. We had a final
tea/breakfast out there before she left us.
We already miss her! "You girls are awesome... ly horrible. I hate you. Kill yourselves. Girl power! Sisters before misters!" <3
After leaving the airport we decided to head to Buckingham
Palace because we’d heard about something happening there called the Trooping
of the Colour (we had no idea what that was).
Got there in perfect time to get a good spot and to see the Royal Family
go by in carriages, then come back, then the Queen stood out in front of the
gates on her little platform, then all of them on the balcony for the fly
by.
It was amazing! We
all felt like we could go home happy because we’ve now seen the Royals.
We headed home after, we were all exhausted. Sam and I ended
up starting our laundry and watching a bunch of movies.
Sunday was a pretty lazy day. We did the rest of our laundry in the morning
and then Brianne met us at Primark for a shopping trip. We all got matching dresses :P Sam and I may have got a bunch of
fun stuff for summer weather teaching.
Then we came home and made dinner and watched The Sweetest
Thing. It was a lovely relaxing evening.
Brianne’s family came on Monday so we won’t get to see her
too much over the next couple weeks before she leaves.
It’s amazing meeting people in situations like these. You get so close so fast because you’re out
of your comfort zone. We have made 2 friends for life over here in our 6 months
together and we can’t wait for our Mexico reunion with them <3
I got to Skype with a friend and his girlfriend that are
moving to London in a couple weeks just about tips I had for moving here and
getting started. It is funny thinking
about it and seeing how much we’ve picked up being here. Sam and I are definitely going to write a
blog post just about things we’ve learned since being here, living, teaching,
phrases, everything.
And of course it was Father’s Day <3 We love and miss our
daddies.
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| My daddy, godfather, and Grandpa <3 |
 |
| Adventuring in London |
I was in the same school Monday-Wednesday as I was Thursday
and Friday and had a good time. Thursday I had nursery at a new school, and
Friday I was in a year 6 class and will be back in that class Tuesday-Friday
next week.
My friend Andrea went home on Tuesday which is so sad. Everyone
is leaving, it’s so crazy. Our time here
is going so fast. 2 of our friends have already left and 1 is leaving next weekend. There's 1 week until Matt gets
here, 4 weeks of teaching left/living in our flat, then time to travel and soon
after back home.
So crazy.
Yesterday we headed up into London for a picnic in the sun
at Hyde Park with Meghan. We ended up
just staying at Green Park though because we met up there and there was some
space. It was a great day. We spent a good few hours out in the sun just
relaxing and catching up, then played a bit of paddle ball. We finished off the
day heading down to our favourite pub on the Thames (the Founder’s Arm) for a
bit of a snack and a drink. It was great
to catch up. We hadn’t seen Meghan for
quite a while. Meghan, Marina and Cierra and Marina’s boyfriend Alex are moving
down to Clapham Common, which is down towards us, next weekend. It’ll be nice to have them closer even just
for a couple weeks.
Today we met up with Brianne for lunch at the burger place
we found on our first outing together in Oxford Circus. It was so nice to see her.
Matt gets here early next Saturday, so less than a week and
I’m really excited.
Thanks for reading.
We out.
Sam and Lisa
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