Greece in 2 weeks
Ireland in 6 weeks
Home in 175 days!
Best countdown--EVER.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Back To...
Back to work, back to routine. Back to convincing myself that it is a good idea to get out of my warm bed at godawfulearly o'clock in the morning to get showered and ready for work. Back to walking to work in the dark and walking home in the dark.
Dammit I'm ready for winter to be over. Or I'm ready for it to be proper winter so my cold-climate body can accept it and adjust to the fact. There is no snow on the ground, it's been above freezing (well above--I'm talking like 12 degrees above some days) since I came back from Canada and in my mind, that means spring. No snow? Spring. Warm temperatures? Spring. Mud on the road when I walk to work? Spring. Damn loud birds? Spring. It's the middle of January and, to me, it feels like it should be March or April. I'm not used to having only 2 seasons in England--summer..and not summer. I may be being a little patronizing here, which isn't really my intent. I think I'm just finding it hard to adjust back to the climate. Before I know it, 'spring' will be here and the days will be getting longer and the calendar will finally catch up to the weather here.
School has been going well, I'm (mostly) back into the routine of work. My year 10 class, upon receiving their latest piece of coursework (basically an end-of-unit test) have decided that I am a very tough teacher to impress and "you basically have to be perfect" to get a high grade in my class (their words). To that...so what? I have high expectations for them. They'll appreciate it someday. I love teaching them, I like challenging them and seeing their pride when they accomplish something to be proud of. There is a method in my madness...I swear.
I've also decided to start taking BSL (British Sign Language) classes at school. A support worker at school offered to teach staff members basic sign language and I signed up. It would be really helpful to be able to communicate with my hearing-impaired students...and a good skill to have, regardless of what field I work in. Here's to hoping I don't accidentally mix up some hand gestures and say something incredibly rude. ...knowing me, it would happen.
The count-down is on again...less than a month to go until half-term holidays. Destination? Yet to be determined. Stay tuned.
Dammit I'm ready for winter to be over. Or I'm ready for it to be proper winter so my cold-climate body can accept it and adjust to the fact. There is no snow on the ground, it's been above freezing (well above--I'm talking like 12 degrees above some days) since I came back from Canada and in my mind, that means spring. No snow? Spring. Warm temperatures? Spring. Mud on the road when I walk to work? Spring. Damn loud birds? Spring. It's the middle of January and, to me, it feels like it should be March or April. I'm not used to having only 2 seasons in England--summer..and not summer. I may be being a little patronizing here, which isn't really my intent. I think I'm just finding it hard to adjust back to the climate. Before I know it, 'spring' will be here and the days will be getting longer and the calendar will finally catch up to the weather here.
School has been going well, I'm (mostly) back into the routine of work. My year 10 class, upon receiving their latest piece of coursework (basically an end-of-unit test) have decided that I am a very tough teacher to impress and "you basically have to be perfect" to get a high grade in my class (their words). To that...so what? I have high expectations for them. They'll appreciate it someday. I love teaching them, I like challenging them and seeing their pride when they accomplish something to be proud of. There is a method in my madness...I swear.
I've also decided to start taking BSL (British Sign Language) classes at school. A support worker at school offered to teach staff members basic sign language and I signed up. It would be really helpful to be able to communicate with my hearing-impaired students...and a good skill to have, regardless of what field I work in. Here's to hoping I don't accidentally mix up some hand gestures and say something incredibly rude. ...knowing me, it would happen.
The count-down is on again...less than a month to go until half-term holidays. Destination? Yet to be determined. Stay tuned.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Long Road Home
So here I am, back in England, and it's been just less than a week since I've left home. I really miss home, I miss my friends and family, I miss the people that mean so much to me.
My first flight from Presque Isle took off from an icy runway and landed safely in Boston. Had just enough time for some Skype, last minute gifts and buy some supper before I boarded my connecting flight to Philadelphia. After boarding my flight to Philadelphia, the captain came over the speaker system to say that there would be a slight delay and he would update us when more information became available.
...3 hours later, bored and wondering what the hell was going on, the captain told us that there was a mechanical problem with one of the engines, a replacement part was in New York and by the time it arrived in Philly, the plane was fixed and we were on our way, the crew would have exceeded their legal amount of working hours. Long story short...flight was cancelled, get off the plane and come back tomorrow night. We were given hotel vouchers...which were cancelled by the hotels about 15 minutes later.
It's about 2 in the morning, and I'm dragging around a 50 pound suitcase that is half as tall as me. I'm tired, I'm cranky and I just want somewhere to sleep. I ended up getting a room in the hotel airport, sharing with the guy I had been sitting next to on the plane. It was about 10 minutes into this when I realized that having a strange man staying in the same room with me was definitely the stupidest idea I'd had so far into 2012. Woke up the next morning with all vital organs intact, which I was definitely happy about. Oskar (my Norwegian roommate for the night) left to go see his girlfriend and I spent the day passing the time until it was time to board my final flight.
Made it back to England, and arrived back in Northampton around 2 in the afternoon. I missed staff training on Tuesday, and have spent the last few days trying to catch up on sleep and get adjusted to the time...oh, and working somewhere in between there. It felt great to finally get some sleep this morning. Seems like it's back to normal here.
193 days to go.
My first flight from Presque Isle took off from an icy runway and landed safely in Boston. Had just enough time for some Skype, last minute gifts and buy some supper before I boarded my connecting flight to Philadelphia. After boarding my flight to Philadelphia, the captain came over the speaker system to say that there would be a slight delay and he would update us when more information became available.
...3 hours later, bored and wondering what the hell was going on, the captain told us that there was a mechanical problem with one of the engines, a replacement part was in New York and by the time it arrived in Philly, the plane was fixed and we were on our way, the crew would have exceeded their legal amount of working hours. Long story short...flight was cancelled, get off the plane and come back tomorrow night. We were given hotel vouchers...which were cancelled by the hotels about 15 minutes later.
It's about 2 in the morning, and I'm dragging around a 50 pound suitcase that is half as tall as me. I'm tired, I'm cranky and I just want somewhere to sleep. I ended up getting a room in the hotel airport, sharing with the guy I had been sitting next to on the plane. It was about 10 minutes into this when I realized that having a strange man staying in the same room with me was definitely the stupidest idea I'd had so far into 2012. Woke up the next morning with all vital organs intact, which I was definitely happy about. Oskar (my Norwegian roommate for the night) left to go see his girlfriend and I spent the day passing the time until it was time to board my final flight.
Made it back to England, and arrived back in Northampton around 2 in the afternoon. I missed staff training on Tuesday, and have spent the last few days trying to catch up on sleep and get adjusted to the time...oh, and working somewhere in between there. It felt great to finally get some sleep this morning. Seems like it's back to normal here.
193 days to go.
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