Christmas Vacation

What a wonderful holiday planned completely by my wonderful sister! She planned a lovely holiday and I enjoyed every place!

First stop was Madrid.. we spent four nights here, including Christmas eve!  Madrid was very busy and we had a hostal right in the middle of all the action- it was perfect! We explored the palace, drank lots of Sangria, went on a Christmas light tour of Madrid, went ice skating and ate churros! It was a great start to the trip!! Christmas didn't feel like Christmas at all but it was neat to explore a new city, one that is so famous!

YUM

On top of the Church

SO HAPPY

On Christmas morning, we took a 2.5 hour train to Seville, also in Spain. Seville was still extremely busy but had a nicer feel to it! Seville was my favourite place in Spain. We spent two nights here, ate lots of cheese, drank lots of Sangria, shopped, went skating again, went to see a traditional Flamenco show and wandered around through the big square. I loved Seville. 

The best Christmas lunch ever.

Skating with palm trees

So pretty

At the flamenco show.

After Seville, we took a 4 hour bus ride to Albufeira, my favourite place of the whole trip! We spent two nights here. It is in Portugal and right on the beach and I was very happy. It is more of a resort town but since it was off season it was fairly quiet around town. We stayed in a lovely hotel, not a traditional European hotel. I felt very comfortable and was so happy to spend one full day relaxing by the ocean. We drank pina coladas, walked along the beach, explored town, read our books and wrote postcards on rocks looking over the ocean. It was so nice to have a bit of down time as the rest of the trip had been more sightseeing.

So peaceful.

Our last stop on our trip was Lisbon, where we spent three nights! It was about a three hour train ride to get there and is the capital of Portugal. We spent one day exploring the sights of London, one night celebrating my sisters birthday and one day in the town of Sintra which was my second favourite day of the whole trip- we hiked for a LONG way completely uphill but the views were worth it. We celebrated New years in the biggest square in Europe which Portuguese singers and fireworks! Our plane back home left at 8 am the next morning so we didn't really sleep at all. We left the hotel around 4 to try and catch a cab... next to impossible... We waited in a line about 50 people long that wasn't moving, all people trying to get home from the big party. We started to panic a bit and decided to start walking in the direction of the airport anyways even though it was a 6 km + walk and we had no idea really where it was. AND our bags were very heavy. We managed to only walk about 10 minutes and saw a free cab coming back into the city and we caught that to the airport. It was a stressful situation to deal with on no sleep but we made it! 

Lisbon

Sintra, we climbed to the top of the castle.

See that castle in the far far far distance... we hiked that. 

new years wouldn't be complete without ears and a wand.

Happy New Year from Portugal. 

This completes our trip- it was so much fun to see new places and spend time with my sister! I was happy to be back in Camberley and anxious to get ready for the start of term and see my friends here but I really enjoyed the break from teaching life.

Loooooong over due

Wow I didn't realize it had been since middle of November since I had posted! Things just became so so so so busy over here that it completely slipped my mind.

December was an extremely busy month. My mom came to visit which was wonderful and we spent a day  in London and relaxing around Camberley and doing lots of shopping for my house! My school had their Christmas production of Hosanna Rock  which consisted of all afternoon rehearsals and four performances. The year 3 girls were the animals in the manger and the boys were the shepherds. They did so well and I was so proud of them :)
I went into London with Ben and Josh to do some sightseeing and then met up with Jess at Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland.. so many people but so magical!

We had a wonderful last week of Christmas activities and then the term was over! I have finished my first term as a teacher.. it felt so amazing!!

My sister also arrived to Camberley the last week of school just in time to help me start to get my new classroom set up (pictures will follow later this week) and wrap all my kids presents! We went out for a few dinners in Camberley and she spent a few days in London while I was working! On the Sunday after school ended we left on our Christmas vacay, blog to follow!

My Christmas Tree :)

Tube adventures

British sista and I at Hyde Park

Zebra and Murder Mysteries ....

I know it has been a long time since I posted last! Things became very busy at school (as always) and this slipped my mind!

I have been back at school for two weeks since half-term break and it has been non stop! We have started practicing for our Christmas production and busy learning about plants, division, fractions, grammar and much more! Last Monday I was asked by my headteacher to come with him into London to help him recruit teachers through iDay (the event I was hired through). It was fun to sit on the other side of the table and experience something new! I must admit though I did miss my class and wonder how they were doing!! The upcoming week at school is busy as Year 3 prepares for our fabulous finish; an Alice in Wonderland Tea party where we have invited the Year 2 children from the two feeder schools. It will be a busy week as we make decorations and cakes!

Last weekend on Saturday I went into London for Jess's birthday! It was such a nice day and so refreshing to hang out with some girlfriends!! It was Jess, her roommate Robyn and I and we adventured London! We met up at about 11 and bought our tickets for an afternoon show of Stomp! Then we went to Gordons Wine Bar (our favourite) at about noon. We shared 2 bottles of wine and had some delicious cheese and laughed a lot !! I wasn't sure what to expect from Stomp but I was pleasantly surprised! The sounds they could make from ordinary objects was amazing!! After stomp we went to this restaurant where you eat in the pitch black and all the servers are blind. You also don't know what you are eating! I chose the seafood menu, Jess chose the surprise menu and Robyn the meat. I ended up eating squid, scallops, skate wing and sea bass and for the most part it was good! Jess had zebra!!! After dinner we went to The Maple Leaf to meet up with my friends Kayla and Sam who I went to Paris with. To my surprise there was about 7 lovely ladies that were on the same iDay as me randomly at the bar as well! Such a nice surprise reunion. Sadly I had to leave as I needed to catch the last train but it was such a nice day in London with wonderful friends.

Outside Gordons Wine Bar

Christmas is everywhere!

This weekend I stayed in Camberley. On Saturday Marina was hosting a Murder Mystery Party. It was so much fun!! It was a Halloween themed one and I was playing the part of the skeleton "Dee Composed". There was lots of food wine and good memories! I did not end up being the murderer... it was the ghost "Flo Ting". Today I just spent lesson planning and marking (as usual) and getting ready for the week ahead... even though as much time you spend preparing you never truly feel ready for the week!

Belgium.....beer, chocolate and waffles. :)

I am back from my half term break in Belgium! It was such a fun trip and I took tons of pictures!!!

On Monday, I met up with Jess at the airport around 11 am! One of the LSAs from my school was kind enough to drive me to Heathrow and it only took about 25 minutes. We went through security and had time to have a few drinks before our flight to Brussels! We flew British Airways and it is probably the best airline ever. They actually serve you food and booze.... for free!!! Since we were on holiday we decided to have a drink and get caught up after having not seen each other for about a month! The flight was only 55 minutes and then we were in Brussels.

I was surprised at the amount of people who didn't speak English. I also had no idea that the two national languages were French and Dutch. Anyways, we made it to Brussels Central by train and then wandered around trying to find our hostel.... eventually we did!!! We checked in and had to make our own beds. At first I was skeptical about the whole hostel thing but by the end of the week I felt completely comfortable!

Our room!

We wandered up an adorable little street and found a place for dinner and beer! We had some yummy food and tried a whole range of beers.... mainly because we couldn't read Dutch or French and had no idea what anything meant... the whole trip was a kind of surprise! We did find our favourites though.... Hoegaarden!

Tuesday we spend exploring Brussels... which involved a lot of shopping! We went to the Grand Place and went in to a museam and wandering around the city central and shopping on "Monopoly Street" basically just a long street full with our favourite shops. For lunch we stopped and had our first Belgian Waffle... mine with chocolate and Jess got strawberry. We also stopped in a chocolate store and bought a lot of expensive chocolate and stroopwafels! We also went to Laduree... the macaroon shop I went to in Paris and bought some macaroons. We spent more on sweets than we did on our hostel Jess pointed out!!! We were all shopped out and had seen a lot of Brussels and then went back for dinner at the cutest place by our Hostel called Sol! We were pretty tired after dinner so we went to a little shop and bought some beer and relaxed at our hostel and had an early night for our big day in Brugge.

cutest little chocolate shop.

The Grand Place.

SO GOOD.

Wednesday we spent the day in Brugge... the cutest little town/city! It was on a canal and absolutely gorgeous. Except for the fact in POURED all day... but that didn't stop us. We wandered around and went into many little shops and then stopped for a lunch of... waffles! It was so good, I had one with Speculoos on it... a delicious Belgium caramel/peanut butter type paste! We then decided to take a canal tour of Brugge and we learnt a lot and saw another view of Brugge. We took tons of pictures. Then around 3 we decided to settle down in a cafe and have a bottle of wine and cheese. Then we went to another bar and relaxed there as well! We ended up not making it back to the train station until 10 pm and we had left Brussels at 10 am! We made a friend on the train who told us some more interesting bits of Belgium. Now for picture overload.

Morning walk.

it was magical!

Good night Brugge.

The final day was spent in Ghent. Ghent was before Brugge on the train line and only took us about 30 minutes to get there, as opposed to Brugge which took about 1 hour. Ghent was a mixture between Brussels and Brugge we thought... it was right on a canal and had the cute Belgium buildings but was a pretty big city. We walked around, ate lunch right on the canal and took a horse tour around the city! This was a nice way to see Ghent as we were so tired and exhausted from the day before. We didn't spend all day in Ghent, we stayed till around 3 pm.

More canals!!

On top of a castle we went in!

On our horse tour.

That is our Belgium trip summed up into a blog post! It was a nice getaway and much needed. All the hard work at school was worth it to get away for a week!!! Overall, my favourite day was the day we went into Brugge. It was hard to pick though because each day was very different.

HALF TERM!

Finally the day has come!!! We are on half term break and I feel so relaxed already! I have already had such a wonderful break so far and its only been the weekend!

On Friday, all the teachers packed up fairly early! As opposed to the 6:30 that we usually leave school. Three of us went back to my place and cooked a good meal ! We also went to see Gone Girl, which was kind of creepy. It was nice to go to the movies!

This weekend I wanted to make sure to get some odds and ends done and finish my marking before going on holiday. I started to mark books on Saturday morning and cleaned my house. This was interrupted with better plans of going into town for lunch and shopping!! My partner teacher invited me over for dinner at her place Saturday with her and her husband. It was so nice and I feel so welcome! We had a lovely meal and wine and I spent the night. This morning she took me to Wisley Garden,  A Royal Horticulture Garden that was absolutely beautiful... I want to see it in the Spring! We had cappuccinos and carrot cake and then she dropped me back home. I feel really blessed to have met some amazing people.

Today has flown by, I've had so much to do! I needed to finish marking books, do laundry, skype with family and friends and pack for Belgium! Its so hard deciding what to bring but I am slowly working on it! I plan to have an early night tonight as I have a busy week ahead of me! I am meeting up with Jess at 11 at the airport and then we are off to Belgium!!!!! So excited to spend a week with one of my closest friends.... many adventures to be had! I hope the hostel we booked is decent and that its a good location! My next post will be filled with pictures and stories of Belgium I am sure!!!!

xoxoxo

Mini Weekend Vacay!

This was a nice weekend...as opposed to the last few. The past few weekends I worked all day, every day. It was a nice reward after the loooooong week I had.

It was parents evening at school this past week, Tuesday and Thursday night. I would say they were pretty successful, with parents saying how much progress their child has made and how happy they are to come to school now. I need to keep those positive thoughts in my head because that's really what it is all about. Work is extremely busy but only one more weekend left until break in BELGIUM!

This weekend I went to Brighton. Friday night I just relaxed in order to be ready for a 9 am train trip to Brighton. I went with Josh, another teacher from my school. Brighton is on the South coast and it was SO nice to be by the ocean. I want to live there next for sure. We got on the wrong train- I think... because it shouldn't have taken us 4 hours to get there but it did. I think because we missed the announcement saying to get off and bus the rest of the way. But we made it!! We had lunch, beer and wine at a little fish and chips shack right on the beach first. Then we walked down on the pier and through the mini amusement park on the pier. Surrounding the edge of the pier are blue and white striped deck chairs where you can just sit and relax. We must have sat there for an hour just relaxing, watching the ocean and chatting. It was so nice to get away from Camberley and not talk about school. As we were walking off the pier, we saw two people decide to jump.. not a smart idea. It is very high up with a strong current. Anyways, they made it back to shore but got in trouble!

We kept walking down the beach because I wanted to buy a cute picture of Brighton for my apartment... no luck but that's okay! I will just have to go back :) We then went to a bar on the beach and I discovered a new favourite British drink- Pimms. After a drink their we wandered away from shore to the Wetherspoons pub- the chain of pubs around England. We had a few more drinks and dinner and caught a 9 pm train back to Camberley. First we had to go on a double decker bus on the motorway which was kind of scary. And then three trains and finally back to Camberley at midnight. It was a long day but SO nice to explore and be by the sea.

So lovely

The Brighton Wheel.

Our view.

So pretty.

Bar on the beach. 

Two more weeks!!

Half term is ALMOST here! I am so excited for a much needed break!

The past two weeks at school have been insane. I arrive at school at 7, stay till 6:30 and then work some more. Last night I worked straight from 7 pm to 1 am and then all day again today and tomorrow! Assessment is due on Tuesday and we have parent teacher conferences this week! Lots to do and not enough time! Teaching is England is way more paperwork than in Canada. It is stressful, but seeing my class and friendly staff every day makes it worth it!

I have spent the past two weekends in Camberley and it has been so nice. I have been buying things for my house (microwave, freezer, etc.) and some clothes! I hope to go somewhere next weekend, or atleast have a night off with some of my work friends!

I am getting a new student this week... who doesn't speak any English! I am starting to feel more settled now that I have a permanent teaching partner until Christmas. It helps that we can plan our maths, English and topic work together! She is very experienced and is very kind.

Every day my class is becoming less and less shy! A big change from the first day where they were so quiet! Their personalities are starting to show and they keep me laughing all day... as well as frustrated! They mean well and are so eager to learn, I am very lucky!

Apparently when people say Canadians pronounce "about" "aboot" because every time I say about, comments are made! We also say "house" differently as well. Apparently I am getting better though and am starting to loose a bit of my Canadian accent. While face timing with my parents, one of my fellow teachers was over and said that when my mom said "about" was way stronger! I always thought people were exaggerating but I guess not! I am becoming immune to the accents mostly, especially after hearing my name being said a thousand times a day from my kiddos.

Not much else to report on... other than i'm basically a workaholic and loving it almost always!

The count down to Belgium with my best friend in on... can't wait!!