Keep Calm and Carry On.. Our First Weekend in London

First off I'd like to say that I didn't bring the cord to connect my camera to my computer.. so until I get one, I'll be borrowing photos from my friends!

Last weekend started  with a short trip to a small town near us called Brandon.  We went to this little Italian restaurant called Jean Paul's. It was probably the cutest place ever, built right next to a little canal. Sometimes I wonder if the people that live around here realize how beautiful everything is! The women were so kind to us and the food was amazing. There was an apple tree outside, but the girls wouldn't let me pick/eat any apples, probably a good idea. We ventured to the convenient store to get a new kind of English candy, which is one of our new hobbies..in moderation of course.

After our adventures in Brandon, we went home and got some sleep to prepare for our early morning off to London! After about an hour long car ride, we finally arrived at the tube. It reminded me a lot of the L in Chicago. It took us around 45 minutes and then we finally got off in London.  Our first sight when we walked outside was...

The London Eye!

I think we were all in awe. It finally hit us that we were actually here, in London, England. After standing there, taking a bunch of pictures, looking like the typical tourists, we began the search to find our hostel.  Our hostel was called "The London Eye Hostel," so we figured it had to be somewhere close.  It was, but we kind of took the "we don't really know where we're going" route, so it seemed pretty far.  Once we got there, we couldn't check in, but we could at least store our backpacks while we walked around London.  After we ate some lunch, we checked in. It turned out to be a pretty nice hostel! 

15 Beds in One Room

We got tickets to the Big Red Bus Tour, which is a double decker bus that takes you to all of the historical  landmarks in London.  It is unbelievable how rich in history London is. Everywhere you look, there is a building, park, monument, etc. with some kind of amazing story behind it.  I thought it was funny to see some people using monuments as places to lounge, I'm sure they were in a lot of pictures!  Here are some pictures from the day..

Big Ben.. the minute hand is 14 ft long!

Eid is the Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan,
there was a festival going on, it was so neat!

St. Peter's Basilica.. well, part of it.

London Bridge. No Dad, it wasn't falling down.

The Tower of London

Our cute little "family" on the bus..minus Michele!

At the end of the day, we decided to go on the London Eye. This is basically a giant ferris wheel, although, I might offend people from London if they heard me say that.  Kirsten and Mom, you guys definitely wouldn't like this, it goes pretty high. On our way to the Eye, there were food vendors and a bunch of street performers.  These ranged from a group of African men dancing to a parson sitting under a table with a basket on top of it.  He/she would occasionally stick their head out of the basket and had makeup on looking like a cat and meowing. I think we all laughed for a good ten minutes over this one.  When we finally got on the Eye, this is what we saw..

London at Sunset!

We were so excited!

After touring London for the day, we headed to a local pub where I had my first official meal of fish and chips! It was delicious.  There was a futbol game going on and all of the yelling reminded me of American football. I pulled my first American move when I tried to pay our waiter 6 pence for my meal instead of 6 dollars.  This is comparable to me trying to pay a waiter in the U.S. 6 cents instead of 6 dollars...again, we had a good laugh over that one!  We headed back to the hostel to get ready to go out! We went to another pub and made some British friends and then we went to a club called Ministry of Sound. 

Flat Stanley got ready with us!

After dancing the night away, we went home and got a tiny bit of sleep for the next day.  We got back on the Big Red Bus and went to Buckingham Palace, which we were so anxious to see.

Stanley needed a picture!

This one is getting framed!

Just hanging out.

Lounging in Hyde Park

We were blessed with beautiful weather all weekend!

I was so excited about this!

We walked around and found Harrod's, which is a huge department store, but by the time we got there, we didn't really want to walk anymore, so we went to our final destination.. The (First) Hard Rock Cafe! We were excited, but very hungry, and had to wait a long time.  Unfortunately, this is the only picture of us..

We were happy, I promise!

Well, that's all I've got for now.  School is going well and tomorrow we head to "Dinosaur Land" for a field trip..don't worry, I'll have pictures of it in my next blog.

Up next...Cambridge on Saturday and a hunt for a pumpkin patch on Sunday.  It's almost October (my favorite month)! 

Days til Graduation: 72

The First Days of School

Where did this week go? It's already almost Friday and I feel like it was just Sunday.  On Monday, I had my first day of student teaching in the second grade.  I was greeted by the principal who is very friendly and I got to surprise my second graders during their community circle.  The first news I was given is that we are going on a field trip next Friday to Dinosaur Land! I was super excited for that and was told that I'd be paired with a child who has special needs.

I wasn't sure what special needs this child had, but I was more than willing to help out and was even excited.  I soon found out that this child has very bad aggression problems. I realized this when he yelled out "I hate this school!" and then broke his pencil in half.  This child has been a challenge the entire week, but instead of letting him make me angry, I decided that he is going to be my "project" this semester. As challenging as it's already been, I want to help him learn to control his anger. We've been trying breathing techniques and talking about decisions he makes.. I think we can have some success, it will just take a lot of work!

My second graders are absolutely adorable. After one day at school, one of the girls gave me a hug and told me she liked me and I walk her to her mom every day after school.  The children were excited to hear about Oklahoma and shared with me the different places they've been in the States. I am so excited to begin teaching them! The school is one of the friendliest places I've been.  Everybody has been so welcoming and willing to take me under their wing. I have already become part of the "Feltwell Family" and I've only been here for a week.

Last night was probably one of the funniest nights so far.. I walked into our kitchen to get dinner and I found a little mouse eating our food! That was definitely not funny.. in fact, I don't think I've ever heard myself scream so loud.  Everybody came into the kitchen and we found that our little friend had eaten through Cheez-its, chips and oatmeal boxes!  I wish I'd had a video camera to record Karl (the only guy of the group) trying to find the mouse and all of the girls running/screaming/climbing on counters.  It might not seem funny to you all, but I was laughing so hard, I was crying.

Lastly, the most exciting part of this week aside from meeting my class was booking trips!  We have already booked most weekends for the remainder of our semester.  This weekend we are going to London and I am very excited!

Countdown to graduation: 86 Days!

Pounds, Sheep and Apple Cider

We have now been in England for four days and it already feels like I got off that airplane weeks ago. The plane ride wasn't too bad, but we were told to sleep as much as we could and that was only about two hours for me.  Getting off the plane was when our adventure began.  Five college students lugging around two 50 pound suitcases each had to be a humorous sight to see, I know I was laughing the whole time.  From the airport, we arrived at RAF Lakenheath, which is the big base, and got our military IDs and some groceries at the commissary.  Then, we headed to our base (RAF Feltwell) which is a smaller base with an elementary school and middle school on it.  On our way here, we saw many beautiful fields and fields full of sheep! The students are pretty much the only people we see.  Ever. Besides the guards at the gate.  It is pretty deserted here, but it is beautiful and there is a lot of history behind it.  We each have two dorm rooms that connect, although one of my rooms is used for storage, so I only have one, but that's okay! 

On Friday, we went to all of the schools to visit with everyone's principals and mentor teachers.  I have to say, I have never met more friendly, welcoming people in my life.  We were told earlier this year that the DoDDs (Department of Defense) community is like one big family, and I definitely felt that after one day of meeting all of these people.  We had so many people offering to give us rides anytime, have us over for dinner, and even let us use their classrooms to watch OSU football games during the weekends! After we visited the schools, we did a big grocery shopping trip to the commissary and Dr. Buckner dropped us back off at our dorms while he went out to dinner.  We decided to take a little adventure to Feltwell village, which is a small town right next to our base, but takes about 45 minutes to walk to.  We went to a restaurant called "The Chequers," where we had our first experience of being fully submerged in the British culture.  We had some yummy food and paid with pounds for the first time.  We are still trying to figure out the currency here, but so far I know they use pounds and pints. Today, one pound is equal to $1.58. We went to the pub next to the restaurant and stuck out like a sore thumb (our new favorite phrase).  It was a local pub, so everyone new everyone, except us. 

Yesterday was probably the longest day and jet lag got to me.  We got up early and one of the principals took us to a small cafe called La Houge.  It was in the middle of a field of beautiful flowers and they had something comparable to a farmer's market going on around it.  The food was amazing.  Everything was made with fresh ingredients.  I had quiche and coleslaw, and I'm not a coleslaw lover, but this food was so delicious!  We then walked around tasting many different things such as wine, fudge, posh pop (carbonated juices), and apple cider.  The apple cider was organic, but we were warned that it was different than American apple cider..the difference was that it had 7.5% alcohol, it was strong! 

From there, we went back to RAF Lakenheath (the big base with everything on it) and left our professor and began the adventure of being on our own.  We decided to stay on this base all day and get a ride home from someone.  We took a tip to the exchange, which is like Dillards, Best Buy, and Walmart mixed in one.  There is also a food court and some little shops inside.  I actually met the mother of one of my students there and she offered to give us rides anywhere because she has a SUV and lives on our base.  When it got later, we headed to a place called the Liberty Club, which is a bar that had football games on! Unfortunately OSU started too late for us to see that game. It got really busy and we met lots of men in the Air Force and we ended up dancing the night away! It is great to have a "home away from home" on the base.  To end our night, we met some nice British military men, and of course we had to get our picture with them.

They look pretty fashionable, huh? The even have spurs on their boots!  When we asked them if we could take a picture, they responded "It's because of our trousers, isn't it?" Gotta love the British culture.

Sorry for the long post, hopefully I'll update more often so that my posts aren't this long!