Melting

Hi all,

So first of all I'm melting. This train is ridiculous! Never again will I complain when Metro air condition the train at home to the point that I have to put a cardigan on. Would kill for that about now...!

Today was a pretty good day. Started off finishing the painting with the year 2s. Then I went and helped out in the other year 2 class. Their brains weren't turned on due to the heat and none of them were listening, very frustrating. It's going to be a tough three days for me as of tmro! The hot stuffy classroom makes it so hard for them (and the teacher!) to concentrate. 

Spent the middle and afternoon sessions in year 3 helping out and helping mark work. One of the boys started talking and something about his voice made me happy. I said "question - are you Australian?" and it turns out he is! He and his family moved here from Sydney. I haven't heard an Aussie kid since I left. He had a really strong Aussie accent and it was nice to chat to one of the kids at school about home for a bit!!

Things I'm learning about English schools dealing with summer:

1) it's not compulsory to wear hats in the playground like at home. The old "no hat no play sit down all day" does not apply here!

2) there's not much shade in the playground, at home we have designated shady areas

3) there aren't many drink taps so kids have to queue for a while to get a drink!

It's just not hot like this very often so when it is they don't have the plans in place like we do at home I suppose. We need them a lot more often!!

Tonight I'm going to try and head to bed early and hopefully get up for a run. I've tried to do this four times now and every time I hit snooze for ages. By posting on here maybe I'll get up or else you'll all judge me haha!! Let's hope the cool breeze starts early. That's the thing here - at least it drops to like 16 at night. Not like at home when it's 25+ overnight sometimes!!

At the moment I'm sweating my way home on the train. Shower come at me!!! And no end in sight for this heat wave - forecast attached!! Anyone wanna bring me a slurpee please?!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox 

Painting

Hey everyone!

So yesterday I had a bit of a lie in. The new blinds Jamie gave me are amazing - my room is so dark!!

Got some things done then headed to Stratford to meet Jamie and we got the train to Debden. Here we had lunch with one of his friends from Uni and her boyfriend. They were really nice and it's always good to explore new areas of London! They had a backyard - first one of those I've seen in a while!!

Spent the evening eating ice cream, drinking wine on the balcony with Jamie's housemates and just chilling out. The moon was shining so bright over Westfield Stratford! Got home and my room was quite warm so I had trouble sleeping. I'll attach the weather forecast for this week - I am NOT excited about it at all! Today was bad enough and it'll only get worse. No air con anywhere...

Today I spent part of the day helping in Alisha's class, part painting and part in year 4. We painted seascapes that they will write poems over tmro. I did this with various kids for a few hours and amazingly only one of them got paint on their clothes and we only had one spill (which they quickly helped me clean up!) - win!!

Spent the arvo in year 4 helping with an art project. They all said "do you work in year 2?" There you go - I've been around the school so long they recognise me when I've never taught them!! Some of them had siblings in the classes I teach and I found it funny how easily I could recognise who did just by their appearance! They're on the top floor of the school and boy was it stuffy. Never again will I ever take air con at home in summer for granted. Could use it at the moment!!

After school I had a meeting. I'm covering Alisha's class Wednesday - Friday while she's on a course this week and there are two teach first candidates coming. They're basically doing a teaching round and they have various tasks to do. Will be a good experience having them in the class!! I'm gaining so much experience here across so many different areas!!

Now I'm melting on the train home. Tonight I'm having dinner in Shoreditch with a friend I met on Topdeck last year in Norway who's from Perth. He's over here for a little bit so we are catching up!!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox

Canterbury

Hi all!

Had a chilled out night at Jamie's last night and then this morning set out to King's Cross station for a spontaneous daytrip adventure with Jess from school!!

We had a bit of a crappy day Friday and had been saying we needed to get out of the city so we got the train for an hour to Canterbury, Kent. 

Canterbury is very famous for its beautiful cathedral, the martyrdom of Thomas Becket (more on that soon) and also for being the site of pilgrimage in 'The Canterbury Tales' poems by Geoffrey Chaucer. 

We had a really great day chatting and enjoying the tranquility of somewhere that wasn't London! Don't get me wrong - I love London and I'm enjoying living there. But it's so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle, the constant sirens, bus fumes, rubbish everywhere and people always in a hurry. It was nice to come somewhere quiet where we could stroll around leisurely and chill out. 

It was 24 degrees and sunny today, the weather was fantastic! So naturally I donned my jumpsuit (essentially shorts and a singlet joined together) and sandals and complained all day about how hot I was. I'm becoming a Londoner :P

First impressions - we were so excited to see trees in groups, houses not joined together and stand in an alleyway and hear literally nothing! Yay!

We saw cute canals, beautiful Tudor houses (so excited to tell the kids at school as we have been learning about these!) and lane ways filled with cute little shops. Had a look in a few of these and then headed to the cathedral. 

The Canterbury cathedral was first built in 597 AD. In 1170, archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in the cathedral. King Henry II had appointed him archbishop in 1162 and apparently Becket took the role too seriously and started to disagree with everything the king said, so the king decided to have him killed (how very religious of him hey!!!). Soon after, miracles were said to take place here so it became a famous pilgrimage site. We paid the £10 entrance free and spent just over an hour looking around the crypt, nave, chapter house (with beautiful stained glass windows from  1176 of Jesus' ancestors!) and the gardens. It was really nice, and the sun continued to stay out!!

We then sat down for lunch in a cute little tearoom. Had a sandwich (cheddar and chutney) and soup (tomato and basil) special which was delicious! Then shared cream tea with scones, jam and clotted cream. Mmmmmm!!!

Had a look in some more shops and Jess bought some gorgeous sunflowers (some for me - so thoughtful!) and we made a quick stop at Primark (as you do!). Then we walked the 20 minutes to the Spitfire Ground in St Lawrence. Australia were playing Kent and we decided to take a quick look!! We didn't want to fork out the £25 each but instead got to poke our heads through the gate and have a look. We were 2/132! Bought an ice lolly (icy pole) and sat down to eat it. 

We then walked back to the station via the bustling shopping street and just missed a train by one minute. But we didn't mind!!

Got the train back to King's Cross and then walked home. Then last night I went to Clapham Junction to meet Jamie and some other people from the footy club for a drink. 

Today I am going to one of his friend's houses for lunch. 

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox

TGIF

Hey everyone!

The toilet saga continued last night. Got home and poor Mark had been trying all day to fix it with no luck. Rang the landlord and he said someone would be there soon, so we all crossed our legs and tried to distract ourselves hahaha. Finally it got fixed about 8pm. But Cecilie (the one who vomited!!) had left all the mess and not cleaned it. Mark had cleaned the toilet and I mopped. Honestly, I look after kids all day at school, it was the last thing I wanted to do but it made the house smell a lot better. All good now!

Too bad about the footy - the pies did so well but just got tired and made mistakes in the end. I felt a bit homesick last night to be honest. I guess that's expected occasionally and it hadn't really happened since Mum's birthday! But last night sitting in bed by myself watching the footy unable to cheer and realising all my lovely fam and friends were asleep I felt really alone! It'll pass. A part of moving overseas! I just miss talking footy and wish I could teleport to the G to see us take on the hawks next Friday. I reckon we will give it a real crack!!

Today went fairly well. As well as a Friday free dress day towards the end of term can go. The kids were pretty rowdy!!

Did some fairly good work and they got through everything they needed to. Actually now I'm typing this out I realise I did everything I could today and that's all I can do. They did all the work they needed to and we got through the day. I'm even starting to recognise their parents to send them home with after school!! One of the boys in the class who can be a bit challenging at times had the best day I've seen him have at school in the nearly 2 months I've been there. So I made a big deal about how amazing he had been and he got student of the day!!

Was going to go to staff drinks but I've just remembered we have a new housemate moving in today as Cecilie moved out yesterday. So I'm off home to welcome him, chill out a bit and then head to Jamie's. I'm in need of a hug and a chill out tonight, I got a bit stressed out today. I brought them all the way downstairs at 10.30 thinking it was break time when I realised break is at 10.45 so we had to go all the way back up :/ Oh dear. 

Looking forward to a great weekend starting with a day trip to Canterbury in Kent tomorrow with Jess from school!

PS: gonna be 31 next week. I'm currently melting on the train and today was 25. Not looking forward to it!!!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox

Urban Forest

Hey everyone!

Last night I headed straight from work to Hackney Wick to meet Ashlee for the Kopparberg Urban Forest. This is a small festival in the northeast of London that apparently happens every year. It was lots smaller than we expected it to be but we still had a good - but expensive - time! Had two ciders at £5 a pop and a Swedish meatball sandwich for £7.50. *cries* There were a few small stalls, live music and lots of cute decorations. 

Was so great to see Ashlee and I took a few photos to show what it was like. The area out there is a bit strange, it's a few types mashed into one. Lots if graffiti and industrial stuff, but then you turn the corner and you're in Stratford surrounded by lovely wetlands and walkways!

This morning I awoke to find the toilet full of vomit, and when I tried to flush it it blocked. Apparently Mark was fixing it today. Resulted in me sitting on the tube really badly crossing my legs on the way to school....house share life for you!! I'm gonna have so many stories by the time I'm home. You could make a show about our flat - never a dull moment!

Today I got lots more spelling tests done - even the two boys with learning difficulties worked really really well and got it all done for me :) So great to see students look so pleased with themselves when you tell them they've worked really well!

This afternoon I took Alisha's class and apart from one boy having a bad day they all did some really great work. We were doing art with drawing and sticking. Fun! ...but also messy. But we packed up ok!!

Now I'm on the train literally dripping with sweat (apologies for the mental image). It's 26 degrees today which for here is hot. But the worst part isn't even standing outside in it. The platform was quite alright with a nice breeze, but I got on the (mostly empty) train and it's like a sauna!!! Awful. 

I've gone all day without checking any form of social media in order to ensure I don't receive footy scores as we played Freo in Perth at 11.10am my time. Looking forward to sitting down, watching the footy and hopefully watching us win (or at least have a good crack at it!!!) GO PIES! It's driving me mad and I just want to know. I think we can win! It'll a hard task though. 

Love to all 

Claire

Xoxox