Good-bye London. Watch out Europe...SFLRs on the loose!

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

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.

Friday morning...

 

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?

We met up with her family after dessert at Tower Bridge to take some pictures for them.  While we were waiting for the sun to set so they could have a picture with the bridge lit up, it started to rise to let a boat through! 

We’ve wanted to see that since the first time we saw it. We said our final good-bye to Brianne on the tube because she left Saturday morning.  It's so sad. 

 

 

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. 

We ended up waiting FOREVER because the goof forgot to put what his occupation was but said he was visiting his girlfriend, so he got grilled.  He finally got through though and I was so excited. 

We then made the trip home and had an easy day.  Hung around home, he unpacked and got settled, then Matt and I walked up to the grocery store to do a bit of shopping then walked home.  

 

Sunday Sam elected to stay home, so Matt and I headed into London to do some wandering. 

We got Matt an Oyster Card, then went up to Oxford Circus to get him a cheap phone and have lunch. 

After lunch we walked down through Soho so Matt could get a “good coffee”, through Piccadilly, through Green Park and saw Buckingham Palace before heading home. 

On our way Matt decided to get some wine and ended up with a juice box of Tesco wine.

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 33^rd floors of this place so we had a really cool view of the city.  The part we were sitting in on the 33^rd floor was really narrow so with the number of us that were there we had to move twice to try to fit in better.

The drinks were also crazy expensive so we basically had 1 each…I don’t think they liked us much. After we left there and headed to a pub just down the street for a second drink and a bit of food. I had a lovely hot chocolate. It was so sad to say good-bye to another one of our girls. Thursday was Matt’s birthday.  I got him some beers to try and made him a steak and baby potato dinner. 

 

 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.

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)