Blog here, blog there

Everywhere a blog, blog.

So my blog looks a bit different… I thought I’d try something new for the new year. I love the blackboard style of it, so fitting for a teacher’s blog, but the font might drive me to change again in the near future.

As you can guess by the steady stream of blogging, I haven’t started work yet. Calls are starting to come in for different schools though so I don’t think it will be long. I’ll keep you posted. For now, a post about another London weekend done on the cheap. Well mostly.

Friday night I got to finally have a girls night and catch up with my good friend and future roommate. She also introduced me to two girls I hadn’t met before. One woman from Romania who works in a corporate setting, the nature of which I couldn’t quite gather, and another woman from Italian, doing one of her doctoral residency years abroad in England. Very interesting girls! We went to this awesome sushi place where the tables were very low. We hung out in Camden for the evening and chatted for hours.

Saturday, my future roomie Katrina and I went to the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Hindu temple in North London at Neasden station. So epic and something I’d completely missed last year. She has the photos we took so I’ll add them into this post when I get them from her. It was incredibly beautiful. The main temple is all white marble and every surface is carved with beautiful patterns or figures. The evening was spent cuddled on her bed watching hilarious clips of things and eating terrible, cheap, and delicious London take away.

Sunday I spent with Dan. We walked from London Bridge to Waterloo station enjoying the festival of the Thames, though there wasn’t much to see. I do always love walking along the Thames and they even unlocked the gates so you could walk down where the tide normally covers.

After that we went to the museum of London, ANOTHER thing I had never done last year. Honestly it didn’t sound like much but it is a beautiful museum. Very well put together and I learned so much about the city. It covers the whole history of the city right from the Roman beginnings and what it would have looked like before them. Very cool. And there special exhibition was all about bikes…. We saw a professional bmx cyclist doing some amazing tricks outside the museum.

Finally, we saw a life sized Dalek, nothing gets much cooler than that.

Sunday night we watched “Jonathan Creek”, and old murder mystery Dan is trying to get me into…. I’ll keep you posted on that too.

These blue trees are also something we saw walking around this weekend. They are to raise awareness about the importance of trees in the city. Very cool looking, so vibrant even on a cloudy day.

The things I forgot

There are definitely something’s I forgot about living in London. There are some great things and some annoying things. So here are my top 5 treasure and troubles of living in London which escaped my memory.

Treasures

5. When the sun is out, the parks are flooded with happy people. They really know how to enjoy the sunshine.
4. There is chocolate everywhere, so hard to resist.
3. Public transport is pretty darn good.
2. So many free museums
1. Cell phone bills are like 20$ a month and have unlimited data.

Troubles

5. It’s insanely expensive, twice as much as the rest of the country
4. Crowds, people everywhere… Can’t breath, so many people
3. Many places oddly have two taps in the bathroom, one for hot and one for cold on opposite sides of the sink, so you have to turn them both on and sort of go back and forth between scalding and freezing your hands
2. The prevalent paranoia surrounding friendly people and their possible motives (I gotta stop thinking this way, so uncanadian)
1. Tourists, if the crowds weren’t annoying enough, the hordes of tourists will drive you mad.

Back to London

Well I’m back in London for another year of torture… I mean teaching… Damn that auto correct. Due to the demand of certain friends and family I’m going to start blogging again to keep everyone up to date on what’s happening and what I’m up to.

For the accommodation update, I’m still staying with a friend until the 21st of September and then I get my apartment with two friends, another Canadian teacher and an Australian accountant. Further updates on that to come 🙂

The teaching plan for the year is, spend one term (until Christmas) teaching in one school, probably starting around October, and another school for the remanding two terms. We will see what happens though. For now, I’ll just be supply teaching, and waiting for a really good opportunity to come along. I’m not going to settle this year and end up somewhere as bad as last year (hopefully).

As for my first weekend back, it was very fun, though done on the cheap side and with severe jet lag. On Saturday we went and explored Greenwich market, my old stomping ground, and then took the tube to what will be my new stomping ground. I didn’t get to see inside my new apartment yet but we checked out the neighbourhood and walked from there to whitechapel. It was nice out and so great to see my new area. It put me and my friend Dan at ease to see that it’s a pretty nice area.

After that we went back to Greenwich to go up to the observatory to see the prime meridian. Even though I lived so close to it last year we never ended up going. We made the time this weekend though, it was fun. We saw the prime meridian (or the most widely accepted 0 degrees longitude- though some people use other ones). We learned a lot about how difficult it was to tell time on ships and how so much money and effort was put into developing an accurate way to tell time aboard ships. We even got to see a planetarium show, one of my favourite things! Finally, we went to covent garden and leicester square just to walk around and see what was on. After that, it was quickly home and in bed… I fell asleep so early each night this weekend.

Sunday was great too. After walking around Greenwich just a bit, we wondered to Hyde park. We walked through the park to the little man made lake and got on paddle boats. That was also very fun, though the water is not as clean or pretty as in Canada, that’s for sure. After exploring all of the park we could from the water, we grabbed lunch and went and ate by a fountain where we saw baby ducks up really close. After that we went to my favourite museum, the museum of natural history, and discovered a part I had never been to. I probably missed it a few times because its about geology and other earth sciences, but it was actually fascinating and so well put together. Since we went for the spirit collection tour, and they were done those for the day, we decided to see the butterfly exhibit which would be leaving soon instead. It was very pretty, though small. I believe after that we came back home, and I think I fell asleep at 9pm!

This week has been a lot of getting things together for work, meetings and signing things etc. I did a lot of walking to get around, even if it was more than an hour away, just because I wanted to enjoy London in the unexpected heat (It’s been so hot!).

Here for your viewing pleasure are a few pictures of my Sunday out. I’m excited to see what this year brings.

Weekend fun

Last weekend we got all dressed up in “fancy dress” for St. Patty’s. of course it wasn’t fancy, but gaudy green, orange and white , flashing, and sequined garb. Sadly, we actually had people asking us why were were dressed that way, and even for a Sunday afternoon and evening, the pubs were fairly empty. We should have gone to the parade. We had a fun housemates day out though, minus the green beer I’m so used to.

This weekend was a step up as we went out for my birthday. We dressed up very nicely and went to a bar called paramount. It was a very swanky bar and in one of the tallest buildings in London. The 360 view was incredible, and, compared to the expensive price tag of going up the shard, we saved, even paying a little extra for our drinks.

We sipped our drinks, a G&T for me of course, and lounged on the black leather sofa with a view spread out before us. I could barely keep still though and loved walking around to see the view (and show off my pretty dress).

It was just what I wanted in a party; 11 people from 4 different countries, all dressed to kill, chilling in the candle light of a very cool LondonNot bad for a new life I’ve only been building for 5.5 months.

What a great memory to have for my 25th birthday! (Though I’m choosing to forget, quickly, the night bus home).

Lazy weekend

I had such a miserable week I was too tired to do anything extravagant this weekend. So I thought I’d post about last weekend.

Friday night I went out for sushi at this really fancy hotel near London Bridge. It was cool because you could watch the chef preparing it. It was also the nicest sushi I’ve had, not hurt by the fact that I was enjoying it with a bottle of champagne. It was pretty awesome. After that I went to a bar in Brixton which is a pretty good weekend spot. I had one of my new favorite drinks. G&T… They are sweet though so I usually switch to gin and soda after one or two. It’s such a British drink 🙂

Saturday I was productive in the morning, I went to the gym and spent the morning marking. In the evening we had a housemates night and went bar hopping in Covent garden. I still don’t completely understand how to distinguish a bar from pub here though… I think we went to both.

Sunday morning I found myself back at the gym with my housemate Jenn. We are a good influence on each other except since we started going to the gym she has lost 4 pounds and I have a pesky extra 4 pounds that just keeps hanging around. (Not that I’ve changed my diet from chocolate and coffee that much). After the gym I met my other housemate Dan around Leicester square. We got lunch at a French bakery (trying to relive Paris) and we sat outside on a curb in Covent garden eating it. It was so sunny it was amazing.

So we didn’t waste the sun, we decided to spend the remainder of our afternoon wandering through Hyde park. Or is it high park. I always get confused about which one is here and which is in Toronto.

When I got home I skyped a friend and then watched my new fav program- Top Gear. I’m not a car person at all but that show is awesome.

All in all a great weekend. This weekend I’m fighting off a cold or something so I didn’t feel like going out too much. I saw the film Oz with my housemates and that was fun but other than that I’ve just been marking and at the gym. Boring but a well needed rest.

It’s been a homesick kind of week. I think I’m ready to come home soon. It’s just so hard to leave a few people behind and start over back in Canada.

Oh one other fun thing, the two empty rooms in my house got filled today. My house now consists of two Canadian girls (myself included), one british guy (Dan) and two Australians. Full house again! Let’s see how this goes.

It’s not easy to say goodbye

So after spending most of half term painfully homesick… And really trying to analyze why… I’ve come to the conclusion that nothing in my life feels terribly concrete right now.

I honestly feel like I’m living one good bye to the next. You’d think I’d cherish the time I do get to be reunited with friends but perhaps I’m not so positive as that. As soon as I go home for a visit, I’m thinking about having to say good bye again. It’s even worse in England because I have absolutely no intention of staying here permanently, or even that long, so all my relationships feel false. I’m scared to let people in, because I don’t want to be hurt by good byes.

I’m scared to go home too. I’m worried relationships and people will have changed. I know I’ve changed. Will my old friends still want me? Will they get annoyed when I say, “Let’s go to the cinema” the way some British people do when I say theatre? These things are not really big, life altering problems, but they are still uncomfortable.

I think that is where I’m at. Trying to shape my life when there is little directing it. Just measuring the time from one goodbye to the next, because what else is there really? The next goodbye is actually ages away, but even still, I can’t help being reminded every time I’m with my friends here… That it won’t last.

Anyway, Paris and now being very busy back at work has almost completely cured my immediate and aching homesickness (though I’ll always miss Canada a little). I’m going through a post homesickness episode phase though that I like to call ‘pride in the moment’. It’s when you listen to a lot of music that celebrates living recklessly in the moment, or sacrifices and goodbyes being worth it… and then also live like that.

Currently on repeat is “Save Tonight” by Eagle-eye cherry. Check it out- 90’s classic and something that describes a lot of moments I’ve had in the last year.

Other good ones:

Atlas hands- Benjamin Francis Leftwich
Against the grain – city and colour (Canadian)
Fake Empire- the national
Reminder – Mumford and Sons
Pelican – the Maccabees

I’ll stop there but there are tons. -Celebrating how I’m living my life… Something I’m going to start doing more of.

Sunday Funday

This photo is from the science museum where Google has sponsored this really cool exhibit. They have neat instruments that are controlled by people at home. This is a robot that takes your picture and then draws it in the sand. This isn’t me by the way.

So Sunday, the 17th of February was quite the day. It started off early in Southwark with an amazing Breakfast at the Table Cafe. Probably the most expensive breakfast I’ve ever eaten, although, I didn’t pay so does it still count? I had one if the best eggs Benedict I’ve ever had and good company. It is one of those restaurants where you sit communally with strangers. The couple we ended up sitting next to was a British primary school teacher and a Canadian man who was from Port Elgin. I think that’s how you spell it. It’s just about 2 hours from my home town in Canada. He asked were I was from and I said Canada. He asked more specifically, and I said Ontario…. Near Toronto… He said I was getting warmer so I took the chance and said Orangeville, as if it was a question. “Orangeville?” … “You probably haven’t heard of it, it’s small”… And he had of course. He told me all sorts of stories about Orangeville. The world seems so small some times. My poor date didn’t get too many words in after that lol.

After that we walked along the Thames towards central London and the sun was shining and there were loads of people out and about enjoying it. We sat in Trafalgar Square and soaked up some rays which was lovely. Finally we went to see the life of Pi in the theatre and that was a really beautiful movie. (Except for the scene with the jelly fish, that nearly killed me.)

The person I was with had to head home to get ready for a football game but I decided to hang around downtown since I was already there. The theatre was right by Piccadilly Circus. (Side note, the theatre is called the cinema, movies are films, and for the love of god, don’t say you are going to see a matinee.) I found out my housemate was downtown so I walked from Piccadilly Circus to Oxford street to meet him. We went to the science museum which was good fun and bought some delicious cookies from Ben’s… Our regular cookie spot in South Kensington.

I had a nice two hour Skype call with someone at home and then rounded the day off with a classic… Ducktales. Which I fell asleep during. Two busy days of walking around really took it out of me :).

General update

So it’s been busy since I got back from my holiday. I was definitely just going to let my blog fade into nothingness for lack of motivation. However, I am doing some fun things soon, and I’ve done a lot of fun stuff since I’ve been back so I suppose it would be worth trying to improve my discipline.

Since I’ve been back I started a new full time position that will probably take me until the end of the year. I’m working at another high school in kent but I really really like this one. The staff is very supportive and they treat me really well.

As far as things I’ve done and seen since I’ve been back… Let’s see if I can remember. I’ve been to the natural History museum and the V and A museum both with my housemate. I’ve been to Hyde park, regent park, and yesterday we went to Hamstead Heath park. We visited a graveyard yesterday that was very cool as well. The picture of the squirrel is from the park and all those graves crammed together is the graveyard. I’ve been to the Light show exhibit at Southbank which we nearly didn’t get into because it was sold out. It’s a pretty cool art exhibition focusing on art made with artificial light.

I’ve been to a few pubs, the cutty sark remaining my favorite because its beautiful, local, friendly, and the bar tenders are cute. We went to one club called Fabric that was really fun but expensive. I’ve also been to Gordon’s wine bar, as in Gordon Ramsay, and that was really nice.

What else? We’ve had a crazy snow storm that shut the transit down and stranded me in Kent. Though English people are really fun when it snows. They get so child like and fun. We’ve had a LOT of rain as well -.- though now it’s been warm and sunny for a few days.

I did have a bad fall… Well the fall really wasn’t all that bad, even ground, just a little slip. If you took a look at my legs now though you’d think I’d fallen down a flight of stairs. Rather embarrassing as it was in front of many of my students and I had to wash and dry my pants at school on the radiator while I stood there in my underwear. Sigh. I’m so clumsy.

Ok so, that’s the main update. My mom’s health is much better and I’m feeling pretty secure in my life right now so I think this is generally a positive update. I’ll try and update soon on my new job… I have a few stories already I could share and I definitely need to include a picture of my classroom – who paints a classroom lavender!?!? It’s half term now so I have a bit more time (between marking I need to catch up on and going to Paris). Hope this helps Trista 🙂 and anyone else keeping up 🙂

The journey home

8 am-Lying in bed: Journey Home starts now. Well it starts as soon as I get out of bed and finish packing. I have 2 hours to get ready and pack my last odds and ends and tidy up my room. I’m thinking I should probably get up now. Alright, hot shower, pot of coffee and a nice piece of soda bread, here I come. Next stop Heathrow.

1040. Standing outside my house: feeling very nervous and sad. Here I go. Off to Canada. It’s official.

1130: standing on the tube-
I’ve taken a bus to north Greenwich station, the jubilee line to Green park where I changed to the Piccadilly line. Currently I’m standing on a train headed to Heathrow. Not an eventful trip so far. I keep getting waves of excitement and then waves of dread. Not sure how I feel about all this yet.

1:06 sitting in a restaurant. Nothing like a good meal before a long flight. At least I hope that’s true. I’m all checked in and ready to go with an hour before boarding and 2 hours before take off. Better safe than sorry I suppose. Security was a breeze. Much less stressful than coming the other way, but maybe I’m just becoming a pro.

420. Sitting on the plane: take off was easy and thankfully, this time, on time. I’m currently watching the newest batman which I’ve never seen so that’s happy. I was less nervous than before flying so that’s also good. I’m pretty tired already though. And missing home, I expect that to get worse before it gets better.

630: well I do wish I was a little further on in my trip but that was a pretty good movie. Lights out now in the cabin but its still sunset out side. Best thing about flying west in the evening is that is has been sunset for about 2 hours now and still going strong 🙂

8pm- yeah, still on the plane- BUT I SEE LAND! Canadian land! And it’s STILL sunset. This trip is far, FAR better than my last one. But there is no stress just friends waiting on the other end. And it isn’t a red eye. … My legs are still sore as anything 🙂

1045 waiting for baggage: flight landed early! But how come I always feel like I’m the last one to have their luggage put out. Sigh. Waiting, waiting, waiting. My backpack is just so heavy and I’m so tired. *complain* one bright spot (pun intended) was that the sunset was beautiful for my entire trip believe it or not. That was great.

12 hospital: just got to the hospital because my mom is not well right now and I really wanted to see her right away obviously. Not much to say about that.

1:30am : Montana’s- Dad took me out for a steak dinner at a very North American restaurant which is really tasty. It is really nice to have father daughter time and catch up. Even if all I have to talk about is London; he puts up with it.

3:07am – Finally, head on pillow in Canada. I’m so tired I can barely keep my eyes open so this may be poorly proofread. Full apologies if its riddled with mistakes. 🙂

Total journey from door to door was about 13-14 hours not including dinner and hospital visits. For me today, I’ve been awake for almost 20 hours.

Local time, just 10:10. Time for bed 😉

The Winter Festival

My friends and I took a trip to south bank near Waterloo Station after work one night this week to check out the winter festival. It was actually quite good. The prices weren’t too bad and there was a lot of great food. We even tried roasted chestnuts. They were ok, a little bland. And I got my favorite, Churros!

Oh yes, we certainly did ride the carousel beneath the London Eye. That was good fun. It was actually a very nice night too, not too cold. I even met Santa 🙂