13 days & Counting!!

Almost into single digits now--can't wait to get home! I'm more excited for the holiday break than my students, I think. It snowed--less than an inch, and now it's all melted, but I was still so happy to see it in the morning! I've had a good week and am able to cross some things of of my "Living in England" bucket list. This list consists of all kinds of things I want to do/see/experience while living in England or while traveling in Europe.

First experience: Marmite. A colleague of mine was having some Marmite spread on cracker-bread and I decided...well. It's a very English food, why not try it! She spread some out, it looked to have the consistency of molasses. The tip of my tongue touched the brown stuff and I almost gagged. Never. Again. Marmite is one of those foods that you either love or hate--no middle ground. I am firmly in the "hate" camp. I can't even really describe the taste aside from really, really salty. Gross.

Fortunately, yesterday, I had a better experience with traditional English food. I went to London again with Angela and stopped at a pub for lunch. I tried the steak and kidney pie and found it was really, really good. Not quite up to the standard of my steak & Guinness pie, but still great. I'm trying to pump myself up enough to try tripe...or black pudding. I'm not sure I have the nerve for that quite yet.

London yesterday was great--incredibly crowded, but great. Angela & I went to Madame Tussaud's wax museum and had so much fun (As most of you who are reading this--if anyone is reading this--you are probably on my Facebook and can find pictures there). Some of the statues were so lifelike, it was incredible! My favourites...Winston Churchill (of course), Barack Obama, Robin Williams, Jim Carey and Shakespeare. Oh, and Patrick Stewart...just for fond memories. After the wax museum we went along Oxford Street, which is decorated so beautifully for Christmas. There are lights strung everywhere, evergreen boughs covering the sides of buildings, big Christmas-y figurines everywhere...beautiful :). After was lunch in the aforementioned pub, then to Tower Hill (where I had actual hot chestnuts that were roasted on an open flame!!) and onto Camden Market after that. It's a great open-air market similar to the old Halifax market, with venues both inside and outside with lots of street entertainers.

On Thursday night, my school held an advent Christingle service in the chapel and I was able to go to that as well. It was really nice. We sang some carols and lit the Christingle--which I had no sweet clue what it was before going. A Christingle is an orange, with a red ribbon tied around it, a candle pushed in the top of it and 4 toothpicks shoved in it with dried fruit, sweets and nuts on it. There is symbolism to each part of the Christingle and apparently it's a tradition going back hundreds of years in Europe. After the service, I tried mulled wine for the first time (not sold on that either, but a definite step up from Marmite) and mince pie. All of this makes me excited for my Christmas Eve service at home.

To end this post, some interesting questions/quotes I have gotten from my students:

Student: "How do you say hello in Canadian?"
Me: "Hello...eh."
Student: "Oh. It's the same...ok, well, how do you say goodbye?"

Student, during the 20 minute fire alarm outside in the snow and below zero temperatures: "Miss, you must love this! You're Canadian...you like being cold," he said, noting that I had to leave the school without outdoor shoes, gloves, coat or anything to keep me warm.

Student: "Canada. The country of snow."