The Best Holiday Ever:)

Over the half term, Jess and I set off for Tenerife! Tenerife is one of the Canary Islands, which is technically part of Spain even though it is close to Africa.

This was one of the most amazing holidays I have had. It came at a perfect time and we both wanted to do the exact same things: Relax by the pool, tan, read and drink sangria. We did exactly that!! We left early on a Saturday morning.. I was leaving my house at 4:40! Thankfully Josh dropped me off :) We flew to Madrid and then another 2.5 hours to Tenerife.

We made it to the hotel and were upgraded to a suite!! It was such a clean and nice room and I was so impressed!! Night one.. drank some sangria and discovered we both knew how to play crib! Basically the rest of the week just involved playing crib! Our first day by the pool was windy but so nice.. the next few days we chose a better spot with less wind! We spent two mornings wandering the town and going to the harbour and had two of our dinners in town as well. One at a tapas restaurant and one at a Mexican restaurant!The weather was amazing for the rest of the days and we both came home with a tan.. and freckles!

It was the perfect relaxing holiday that we both needed and I was so happy to be sharing it with my best friend! So many memories were made and next year we are going to try a different island!

Heathrow Chilling

Mugs of Sangria

So so happy.

The hill above our hotel/pool

The Mountain

Pool Bar

Last day was a perfect day.

We bought matching bracelets

Dinner adventures.

Mexican food!

January and February

It is just so hard to remember to post on here! This post will cover all of January and February!

Our first weekend back at school, Jessica came to Camberley to visit me! It was a lot of fun and I showed her around the town I adore :) The next weekend I went to a wine tasting with two teachers from my school and it was nice to relax and not talk about work !

I saw a lot of Jessica this term which I am so so thankful for!! One weekend I went to Windsor... which I LOVE. We went to Windsor castle and shopping, obviously. We also went into London the next two weekends for some sightseeing, catching up with a friend from Winnipeg and shopping! I see something new every time I go into London. Ask me a year ago and I would have never thought that going into London would turn into a regular weekend outing for me.. but it does. Things have certainly changed!

If I am not in London or visiting Jess, I am just relaxing around Camberley with Ben and Josh and also working! I have also been seeing my new friend Demi, who is a brand new teacher as well from Australia! So nice to have a friend that is a girl close by... as I mostly just see Ben and Josh!

This is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life but I am growing as a teacher and a person because of it. My kids keep me going and I am so thankful to be the role model of 24 little ones.

Half term was spent in the lovely Canary Islands... but that deserves its own post! :)

Spoiled :)

WINDSOR WITH MY SISTA

It snowed :)

My Rainforest classroom!

As promised, here are pictures of my classroom! It makes coming to school everyday that much more enjoyable :)

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!