Happy 1 Month Since We Arrived In London!

Hello :)

Well, time sure does fly.  It has officially been a month since we arrived in London.

A quick YAY about the Seahawks winning the SuperBowl...no they don't know about it here.

This week was a pretty good but busy week.  Quick summary of our work weeks:

Sam started her week off with a trip to the train station to wait for her call...Year 6. The rest of the week she was in a Year 1 class. Being in the same class for more that 1 day was nice...got to know the kids (and their names) and the TAs which really makes a difference.  She had an awesome TA that helped our majorly in the class.  She even got to take them to their work share assembly with parents and siblings.  Basically a 45 minute time where the year 1 classes get to share the work they've done in a creative way and sing a song.  It was a great experience.

 My week started off with a pre-booking...Primary PE cover! I was so excited.  I got to wear my PE clothing (Lulus, Canada t-shirt, and runners) and teach PE to elementary school kids all day.  It was awesome!  Also, because I was already wearing my runners and feeling active I went to the gym on my way home...ran a 5 k, did a work out.  I can't even put into words how badly I needed that. Tuesday I only had a half day in Year 2, but at a school I've been to and really like. Wednesday was High School Drama...definitely NOT my scene. Thursday I was at my favourite school that I've been to and spent the morning with my favourite class so far (Year 6), and then the afternoon with a crazy year 5 class.  And Friday I had a 2.5 hour journey out to a school near Heathrow for a morning with a crazy year 3 class and an afternoon with a wonderful year 4 class.  Lots on really long days for me this week, but had some great days.

A couple big differences that we've noticed between home and here so far:
1) Phonics: the kids learn phonics from an early age and get split up in to level/ability groups between the whole year.  This happens every day, usually up to year 3 or 4.  It's a weird concept for us having never done phonics before (or not to this extreme).
2) The level expected out of children here is intense!  Year 1s (Kindergarten at home) do paragraph writing, telling time (clocks in math)...it is all very structured and there isn't much/any play (centers, games, etc).  By year 2 (grade 1) they are learning times tables.  The writing levels expected are crazy. 
3) PE all ages change for Primary school (year 1-6)...in the classroom, with everyone else, and you supervise. Let me tell you, the first time this happened, was a MAJOR shock.  Not only is it really awkward with the older kids especially, but the little ones take forever!  You have a 45 minute gym block? 15 minutes on either side is changing time, so really it's only 15 minutes.

Also, THEY DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE OLYMPICS HERE!!!  We both wore our Canada shirts Friday and were super excited about it starting Friday night and asked the kids about it and not one knew that it was happening.  Brits don't really seem too into the Winter Olympics here so far.

When we got home from work Friday we made dinner while we watched the opening ceremonies, then we skyped with my practicum class again (always feel so special when we call them...they get so excited) then my godparents.

We got up Saturday morning and watched the Slopestyle Snowboarding...Congrats Mark McMorris for getting Canada's first medal (Bronze) in the 2014 Olympics! And to Justine Dufour-Lapointe and her sister Chloe for the first Gold and Silver in the freestyle moguls.  An awesome first day!
Medal Count:
Gold: 1
Silver:1
Bronze: 1

We were getting ready to leave when another of London's wonderful 10 minute crazy storms happened...wind, rain, some hail.  We got woken up at 7 this morning by one, and another happened.

Yup...that's hail.

But then cleared right up.

After that we got Canada'd out for a trip into the city. 

We went up to Piccadilly Circus and got a picture at the Piccadilly Circus tube station.

Then Oxford Circus for a bit. 

We bought ourselves London mugs (which we've been wanting since before we left home)

We got our first phone booth pictures (although we plan to get more)

We also checked out costs to go to a musical here...we're thinking The Lion King during our February week break.
Just as we were leaving a store to head for the train we got hit with another rain storm...and as we rode the train out of the city towards home we went into nice sunny weather and a great rainbow :)

Also, we got ourselves home! No phone maps or anything...just figured it out ourselves. Bam!  "Crushed it!"

When we got home we set up our Gas and Electricity (we set up our water and council taxes during the week sometime) and figured out our money...then we booked our flight to Paris!!! 

We have a week off February 15-23 for mid-term, so we figured why not head to Paris. We are going for 3 and a bit days...going to see as much of Paris as we can and go to Disneyland Paris. When we get back we're going to see more of London.

Also...we have these really funny little machines that kind of look like calculators that generate a new password for your debit card every time you do online banking.  It's really weird/cool and we don't understand how they work.  Just thought you should know.

 Today was a really good day.  We both work up fairly early but after pretty good sleeps.  We got ourselves up and had breakfast then headed to the pool for a swim.  We swam for about an hour then went to the grocery store to get our groceries for the start of the week.
The store opens at 10:30 and we're a bit early so we go across the street to a drugstore just to see some prices to compare.  When we saw the doors open we headed back across the street and into the grocery store...to a very dimly lit inside.  We thought it was a bit strange but there were lots of people in there so figured that maybe it was the energy saving bulbs or something that just took a bit to come on fully.  Well we were wrong...a couple minutes after we went in an announcement came on the PA system saying that the store was only open for browsing until 11:00 when the tills would open for purchasing. 

Weirdest thing ever.  So we did our shopping then when 11 hit, got in line to buy our stuff.  Made no sense, but oh well.
Also, we were walking around and saw this...

Yes...those are milkshakes in flavours like Mars, Snickers, Rolo, and Skittles.  So very weird.

After we got our groceries we headed home to clean up a bit, made some lunch (UK bacon and flatbread)...bacon here is not the same as home. We found some that looked as close to our bacon as we could, but the smell is just totally different.

We also had Tim Tam Slams with our new mugs, then played a game of Qwirkle while we waited for Andrea to make the trek down for a visit from the NE.  When she got here we had a bit of a visit, ate some chips, then headed out for a walk around central Croydon. We walked over there then went into a few shops, ended up buying a few things (tried to buy this really cool shirt but didn't fit)

then heading home for dinner.  We had salmon, baby potatoes, and green beans tonight.  Visited a bit more, watched a bit of the Olympics, then walked Andrea to the bus to head home. 

Olympic count for the weekend:
Gold: 1
Silver: 2
Bronze: 1

Fourth place so far.

Britain also got its first medal of the Olympics today...a bronze.  Apparently the first ever to be won in a snow event.  Kinda cool...and in the women's snowboard slopestyle too. 

Anyways, all around a pretty good weekend! 1 more week of work and then it's our mid-term break!
Starting it off with a girls' night Valentine's Day party :)

Thanks for reading.

We out.

Lisa and Sam :)