Do you know where our hotel is?…

… on my trip to Croatia for the October half-term break the answer to this question was most often ‘no’. However, people were surprisingly helpful, often calling people on their mobiles to find out where the hotels were. When travelling I’ve learned to always have addresses printed out for places I’m staying. Sometimes the hotels/hostels are kind enough to give directions from the airport or bus/train station, or even a map of the area. This trip, that was not the case. Adventure was imminent!

My friend, Jenn, and I departed London on Monday, flying on Croatian Airlines. I have to say it was incredible flying on a real airline, as compared with discount airlines like Ryanair. They even fed us during out two hour flight. Impressive. On arrival in Zadar, we got on a sketchy looking bus that took us into the centre of town. Here we ran into our first instance of trying to find our hostel. We asked someone sitting at a cafe, and he passed us on to a group sitting at the next outdoor cafe. They didn’t know where the street was, but they knew the main square it was supposed to be near. When we got to the main square, we started showing shop keepers the street name, but no one seemed to know. Even a lady working at a shop that was two doors down from the street in question didn’t recognize the street name. We soon found it on our own.

In Zadar we checked out the sights. The old city of Zadar, where our hostel was located, was founded by the Romans and surrounded by 16th century stone walls. One of the coolest things around the old city was the Sea Organ. On our second day in Zadar we took a trip to Dugi Otok (Long Island). This was a last minute decision, as our first choice to visit the Plitvice National Park was out due to a good chance of snow that day. It was an hour and a half trip on the Jadrolinija ferry to get to the island. It was a rainy day, and we took the local bus to a little place called Bozava. Everyone else who got off at that stop went to their houses. We were left out in the cold, wandering around the beautiful waterfront village. To get out of the rain, we found a little restaurant where the owners were eating lunch. While we had some coffee, the owner told us about the island with a population of 2000 in the off-season.

After Zadar, the next stop was Split. The weather in Split was much warmer and sunnier, so we spent as much time outside and by the waterfront as we could. Again, we were sent on a wild hunt for our hostel. No one seemed to know where the street was, but many well-meaning people tried their best to send us in the right direction. Because it was the off-season and no one else was staying at the hostel, we were upgraded to an apartment, which was so great. I only wish our time in Split could have been longer.

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog. I suppose I should briefly say something about the last year in London. This is beginning of my third teaching year here in London. As with my first and second years teaching here, I find that I'm evolving as a teacher and continually learning from the classes I teach.
 
Aside from work during the last year, I have taken every opportunity to travel. Since I last wrote here I have seen bits a pieces of Croatia, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Northern Ireland, Germany, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Holland, Norway, Monaco, and Turkey. One of the most surprising and memorable places I’ve visited was Krakow, Poland. Seeing the Auschwitz sight was an eye-opening experience, and the salt mines outside Krakow were incredible.

It's been a wild ride! I'll sign of now and leave you with a smattering of pictures from my journeys of the past year. Enjoy!

Travel 2009/10 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

A bit of this and that

Well, this will be a post with a little bit of everything. Since I haven’t written in quite a while there is a lot to catch up on.

Just after my last post I enjoyed a visit from my parents and brother over the May half term break. My parents and I took a trip up to Scotland and saw Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the Isle of Skye. We went on an organized tour through Haggis Tours (would definitely recommend them if you’re headed for Scotland) for our first three days in Scotland and it was a blast! Our tour guides, Colin and Kenny, were absolutely amazing, and the scenery on Skye and through the Highlands was breathtaking. After our tour we headed back towards London, stopping for a night in Windermere. The weather was amazing the whole time we were away, and it hasn’t really gone downhill since then. It’s been really hot here in London lately, with record breaking temperatures in the +30°C range for days on end. I can’t exactly complain about the occasional day without work when I get to hang out in the sunshine all day!

In terms of work, there have been some changes since my last post, but I’m getting fairly consistent work, so I can’t complain. As can be the nature of supply teaching, my time at the SEN school ended in mid June. I’m back to daily supply for the rest of the school year, but recently I’ve been teaching one of my off-sight students from the SEN school a couple days each week. It’s hard to believe that there are only a couple weeks left of the school year here!

My plans for the summer include a trip to Croatia with my brother for a week in August, sailing through the islands. Then I’m hoping to swing over to Italy for a few days on my way back to London after Croatia. After that I’ll be back in Canada for the last bit of August and the first part of September.

In some ways I can’t believe that this school year is almost over. Time seems to have flown by since I’ve been here, but at the same time I feel like I’ve fit so much into this year. Sometimes I can’t believe the places I’ve travelled to and the sights I’ve seen. I’ve also met some great people, and continue to meet new friends here in London. I can’t wait to do it all again next year!

There have been some great events here in London throughout the spring and summer. London is such a busy city, there is always something going on! In general, just spending time down by Leicester Square or Trafalgar Square on a weekend, you are sure to come across something fun and interesting. Here are some pictures of this and that from spring and summer 2009. Enjoy!

Mom and I on Westminster Bridge


Family picture in Scotland. Foggy Day 1 on Haggis tour.


Pingu at West End Live in Leicester Square


Stormtroopers at Leicester Square


Pub night for Alexandra and my birthdays


Trafalgar Square: Impromptu gathering for Michael Jackson


Trafalgar Square: London Pride celebration; cast of Priscilla performing

The New School

This week was my first full week in my new full-time position at an SEN school here in London. I had a great week and I think I'm going to enjoy working at this school. I'm working one on one, or sometimes two on one, with students who for various reasons can't be educated at present in the mainstream school system. I think the part I like the most about this position, compared with the supply work I'd been doing previously, is that I actually get to know the students I'm working with. My first week has been filled with interesting challenges of putting together lessons that will work for the individuals I'm working with. It's nice to be using more of the skills I learned in university and teaching practica in the planning I'm doing now.

In other news, there is only one more week of work left until the half-term break! This half-term is particularly exciting, as my parents and brother are coming to London to see me and do some traveling together. I can't wait to get out of London and do some more exploring!

Here are some pictures of places I've seen recently:

Canterbury Cathedral

Leeds Castle

Springtime in London (Regent's Park)

Six month mark

It’s official: as of Thursday I passed the six month mark of living here in London. And I am looking forward to the next six, and however many more there may be. It’s funny to think that at this point of my Bolivia experience I was heading back to Canada, and feeling fairly ready to be going home. I can’t say I’m feeling that way about London yet.

Looking back on my time in London so far I can say that it started out a bit rough, but the city has really grown on me. I think the biggest adjustment at first was learning to live downtown in a big city. Coming from my small neighbourhood in Victoria, Central London is a busy and fast-paced place and I live right in the middle of this. It was overwhelming at first, but the more I got to know the city I was able to find places outside of the central core where I could enjoy the city without quite so much of the noise of downtown. I have to say, though, that I wouldn’t trade where I live at this point. Being so central is a real bonus when it comes to getting around for work, and for enjoying the night life on the weekends.

I suppose there was a certain novelty at first to being able to say that I live in London, England, and still is to some extent. Living in any foreign and exotic locale is exciting. However, for the most part my life here has been just that, real life. Of course, weekend trips to Paris or Ireland and Christmas in Spain are definite perks to living in the UK. Most of the time, though, I spend my week working and my weekends relaxing and enjoying the city. Real life in London.

Well, here’s to the next six months!

Land of the Shamrocks

This week marks the first week back from the Easter break. I'm back at work now, but I thought I would share my travels from the break. During the first week of my holiday I spontaneously booked a trip to Ireland. I went on a three day tour of the south coast of Ireland with Shamrocker Tours (for anyone who is thinking about going to Ireland, I would definitely recommend Shamrocker). The tour covered Dubin, Killarney, Doolin and everything in between. I was somewhat sleep deprived for most of the trip, as I chose to travel to and from Dublin overnight on the train and ferry. It only took about ten hours getting up there, but it took over twelve hours getting back to London because of waiting times for connecting trains.

The weather was grey and cloudy when we started our tour last Friday morning, but by the afternoon the clouds were gone and we had sunny skies and warm weather for the rest of the weekend. I even got a sunburn while wandering around on the second day of the tour! Amazing weather for this part of the world!

On day one we started in Dublin and drove to the Rock of Cashel. The weather was still cloudy at this point, but we walked around and took some pictures of the castle. We then went to Blarney Castle, which you will see a picture of below, and kissed the Blarney Stone. They have quite a system set up to hang you upside-down so you can kiss the stone properly! It was an experience, for sure. Next, we went spelunking at the Mitchelstown Caves. The caves were huge and very impressive, but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. By supper time we were moving on to Killarney to check into our hostel. A few of us bought food at a convenience store and had a picnic dinner in Killarney National Park. The weather was perfect for a picnic, but as the sun started to go down, the bugs started to come out. So we left and headed back to the hostel. Later that evening, our tour guide had arranged for us to see a local storyteller at a nearby pub. The storyteller was an interesting guy with a talent for drinking and talking. I think he downed about four pints of Guinness and two whiskeys during the hour long show. At the pub I had my first pint of Guinness in Ireland. I had tried Guinness at home before and wasn't entirely impressed, but I have to say it tasted a lot better in Ireland. I seemed to be the only beer drinker of the female variety on the tour, so I ended up finishing a few of the other girls' half pints as well. After the storyteller we went to a local disco where a live band was playing, before heading back to the hostel for the night.

Day two started at 8:30am, leaving the hostel and heading out for a day of amazing scenery. In the morning we drove along the Dingle peninsula. We stopped at a beach and hiked down to the sand to enjoy the sun for a bit before moving on the most westerly point of Europe. It was incredible looking out over the Atlantic Ocean with nothing between us and North America except a whole bunch of water. And again, the weather was spectacular for our day of scenery. On day two we stopped for lunch in the down of Dingle, where I tried a deep fried Mars bar at one of the local pubs. So good! Mmm, nutritious lunch! (just joking, I went to the grocery store and got my real lunch after) In the afternoon we took a ferry ride across the River Shannon and drove to the Cliffs of Moher. These impressive cliffs were also used to film the Cliffs of Insanity for The Princess Bride. As day two drew nearer to its end, we drove into the little town of Doolin. And I do mean 'little'. Doolin has one main road; our hostel was at one end of it, and the pubs were in the middle of it. The group of us went to a little pub called McGann's for dinner and stayed to listen to an Irish music group who played in the evening. On our way to the pub we met a friend. As we were walking along the road a very friendly dog, named Penny as her collar suggested, came along and laid down right in the middle of the road in front of us. We thought this was kind of odd. After we had coaxed her out of the middle of the road, she followed us along to the pub. Penny was very cute and made me miss my own dog like crazy!

By day number three I think we were all a little tired. We spent part of the morning driving through the Burren, which is a desolate rocky landscape in County Clare. It was quite cold and cloudy in the early morning, which added to the feeling of this vast grey landscape. In the early afternoon we came to the Clonmacnoise monastery along the River Shannon. The sun had come out again and it was a beautiful afternoon to wander around the grounds and look at the remaining buildings and tombs. Our final stop of the tour was at Locke's whiskey distillery for a tour and whiskey tasting.

Altogether, I had an amazing time in Ireland and I hope to go back again for a tour of the rest of Ireland soon.

Blarney Castle: at the top is the Blarney Stone which I kissed... not too sure if I've got the gift of the gab now.

Me at the most westerly point of Europe, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean.

Me in front of the Cliffs of Moher (aka the Cliffs of Insanity from the Princess Bride).

This is Penny, a very friendly dog who followed us around Doolin on our way to the pub for dinner.

Looking up the road in Doolin. The building at the top of the hill is a church, which was built on the former site of the gallows in the town. It's no wonder Doolin is known as the most haunted town in Ireland.

At the Clonmacnoise monastery.

Ponderings and Pictures

I'm a little late with the Paris pictures, I know. Better late than never. Below are a selection of pictures from my trip to Paris in February during the half term break.
Now for the ponderings. I had a year 4 class for all of this last week. They were a fairly well behaved class compared with others I've had of that same year level. Still, one thing stuck out to me, and has in general about the older primary kids. They seem to be noticeably lacking in personal problem solving skills. Now, I'm not just picking on this class in particular, I have encountered this in other classes of the same age group. However, this week this phenomenon seemed a little more exaggerated than usual. Case in point: Early on in the week, I would be asking questions about the lesson we were working on and when I'd call on someone to answer, more often than not I would get some variation of, "Miss, s/he hit/poured water on/kicked/swore at/talked to/pushed me!" Kind of made me wonder if anyone was actually listening to the questions. It got to the point where when I called on someone to answer a question I would first ask, "Is this an answer to the question or are you going to complain about something?" A real time saver was simply starting off question time by asking for anyone who had their hand up to complain to put it down; generally, about half the hands went down.
With the girls there was also an interesting addition to the complaining. Again, during a lesson a hand would go up. Thinking it was a question about what we were actually working on I would call on them and get, "Miss, she said she's not my friend!" My thought: "Well, we're right in the middle of a lesson, but obviously your having some sort of pre-teen friendship crisis, so we should probably just drop everything and focus on that for now" (sorry if your computer screen is damp, that's just the sarcasm dripping through).
Overall, it was a good week, but I did feel slightly frustrated at times that we couldn't get through a whole lesson without the kids expecting me to solve some fairly simple problem. I don't seem to recall having these same kind of issues in Canada, and I'm still not entirely sure what the difference is. It seems to vary slightly from class to class here, so I would guess that the teachers, to varying degrees, enable this behaviour. Now, don't get me wrong, I definitely don't believe that kids shouldn't come to their teacher with legitimate issues, but I think kids need to be taught how to deal with these everyday kind of problems at some point before they get to year 4 and can't get through a whole lesson.
Well, that was the pondering, and now, the pictures. Enjoy:

Does it really need a caption?

View from the top

Glass pyramids at the Louvre

'Climbing' the pyramid (and stepping on some unfortunate person)

The National Opera House

Inside the opera house (pictures don't do it justice... stunning)

The Arc de Triumph

Inside Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Flying buttresses and all

Another photo update

So, I spent two days in Paris this week, but before I can post pictures of that trip I must fill in the gap between Spain and now. Here are some pictures of January and February in London:

Changing of the guards at Windsor Castle.

St. George's Cathedral at Windsor

Leah's birthday celebration

Snowday in London. January 2nd and 3rd

Fountain at Regent's Park