Sing a-longs and Leprechauns

It took me an entire week (apparently) to recover enough from my trip to Ireland to post about my St Paddy's weekend. And what a weekend it was...

Friday night, I took a roundabout route down to London thanks to a jumper who disrupted the entire rail system during rush hour...yikes. I met up with Angela in King's Cross Station (really wanted/expected to see Harry Potter, no lie) to head to Kensington to watch Matt Andersen play a gig at a small club. Matt is an amazingly talented musician whose family lives about 15 minutes away from mine back in Canada. When there is such a taste of home so far away, I definitely have to indulge. Matt's set was awesome, and it was great to hear his voice.

At godawful early o'clock the next morning, Angela, Heather & I were on our way to Gatwick to catch our flight to Ireland! 3/4 of the way there, Angela realizes she forgot her passport. Oh dear. Heather & I caught our flight while Angela rebooked for a later flight and went home for her passport.

Land, bus ride into the city, walk through the already massive crowds and get some breakfast before checking into our hotel. Heather & I watched some of the parade, went back to the hotel and watched the rest from there to get out of the light rain. We got ready to head out while we waited for Angela, and when she showed up we were ready to take on Dublin.

Found our way to Murray's, a pub around the corner, to watch some rugby, enjoy some drinks and see how the Irish did Paddy's day. (Funny enough, it was mostly tourists that we met throughout the night..)

(PS, how cute am I, all ready to celebrate??)


Vodka, cider, Guinness, rugby, Irish kisses, German kisses and really persistent Italians, Russians and French guys. That sums up how Dublin does Paddy's day. Rather than give an entire run-down of the day, I figure that list pretty much sums it up. We met up with Heather's friends from New Zealand and we all went out for dinner before wandering toward Temple Bar. The streets were so crowded, we couldn't even walk down them, let alone get into a bar. So, we figured it was best to head back toward Murray's, which was playing live music. Angela fell asleep at the table so after she went off to bed, the rest of us wandered back across the river to see what was going on over there--a lot of drunks and more grabbing than I care to remember.

Rounding off the night with some deliciously unhealthy food, Heather & I decided it'd be a good idea to get a couple hours of sleep before flying back to England the next day. When I woke up the next morning, I decided that I shouldn't have bothered with the sleep and should've kept drinking...probably would've felt about the same.

Planes, trains and hangovers later, I was back in England and just in time for another week of work. How lucky I am.

Definite bonus to this week...Mary, Hannah & I booked our Easter holiday! We're taking over Tenerife for a week before I head to Norway for the second part of the break. Only 5 more teaching days to get through until then. Not that I'm counting down or anything.

Go For the Ruins, Stay for the Tear Gas

That pretty much sums up my vacation in Greece. This update is long over-due and so won't rattle off every single detail but will instead just be a summary of the most eventful trip I've taken so far.

We arrived in Athens around 2:30 Sunday morning and headed to bed. Sunday, we wandered around in the rain, exploring Athens and scoping out places we'd like to visit throughout the week. We went to a restaurant where a man (who I'd love to be my grandfather) loved our accents so he kept giving us free food, free wine and telling us to enjoy our stay. After lunch, we started noticing huge crowds of people walking all down some streets toward the same general area. I figured there was a football match or something on...that was until I noticed the riot police. Turns out, there was a huge protest planned that evening against the government and we had front row seats to the action. The police told us to return to our hotel and it would be best if we stayed there for the night. We got supper and started walking back to the hotel. By this time, the protest had started and tear gas had been fired into the crowd to disperse the protesters. So not only were we walking back through mobs of angry Greeks toward our hotel, we then had the tear gas to deal with.

For the rest of the evening, we started hearing the protesters get closer and closer. We went downstairs and were told that no guests were allowed to leave the hotel for security purposes and we were told to go back to our room and it would all blow over in a few hours. Angela, Heather & I spent most of the evening on the balcony, watching the fires be set in the street, looters break into stores, buildings being set on fire and the general chaos in the streets.

The next day, we walked around to look at the damage done during the riots and it was so surreal. We had watched the footage on TV, viewed it from the balcony, and it was still strange to see the damage first-hand. While I completely understand the frustration of the people, it was still heartbreaking to see a little old man cleaning up the smashed glass and rubble from his shop that had been broken into and completely torn apart by people who stole nothing but just wanted to wreak havoc. It was completely senseless in that respect.

Throughout the rest of the trip, we visited the most popular tourist spots in Athens...Acropolis, Parthenon, Temple of Zeus, museums, more ruins, historical sites, and exploring the city in general. The food was absolutely amazing, definitely overindulged in that respect on holiday.

Greece was a really fun holiday...it was sad to see all of the graffiti and destruction going on around the city, but I really enjoyed my time there (tear gas aside) and would like to go back to see some of the Greek islands and other cities. Other things about Greece that I wasn't really expecting...there are so many stray cats and dogs. Literally, they were everywhere. I started naming the cats, really original stuff too...Acropolis Kitty, Athens Kitty, Won't Leave Me Alone At A Restaurant Kitty...so nice. Also, in tourist shops, there is a huge penis fixation. I really don't understand it. There are penis bottle openers, mini statues of men with giant penis', calendars, Greek sex guides, you name it and there is a penis on it. Talk about your family-friendly vacation.

Work has been going well, keeping me incredibly busy. Only two weeks until I go to Ireland for Paddy's day, can't wait! East break is coming up in just a few short weeks, definitely need to figure out a place to go. Hopefully will be going to Norway for a few days to visit with Sarah & Kristian. Let's start another countdown...

Can't Wait!

Greece in 2 weeks

Ireland in 6 weeks

Home in 175 days!

Best countdown--EVER.

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.

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.

So Long, Farewell...

So here it is, my 75th post on my blog, and I find myself saying goodbye, yet again. It's the last day of my vacation home, I head back to England tomorrow and start work on Tuesday morning. (Thank God I don't teach until Wednesday morning, the jetlag will be bad enough on Tuesday for staff training.)

This holiday has been full of friends, family, coffee, hockey, snow, lots of food and times that I'll always cherish. This is a rather reflective post already, look at me go. Saying goodbye seems much harder this time then when I left in July. There are many people, and some in particular, that I am going to miss so much when I'm so far away from home. This is the part about living abroad that I don't like. I know that I'm supposed to appreciate being home even more because I get here so rarely, but saying goodbye and leaving these people behind...it never gets easier.

Instead of an all-inclusive and detailed list of every single thing I did over the holiday, I'll sum it up with: family dinners, late-night drives & movies, coffee, hockey, snow, family, friends, saying goodbye, laughing and crying, and talk about 'what comes next.' I'll be home in the summer, I keep saying, and yet that seems so far away. 7 whole months. I know I'm so lucky to be able to live in Europe, travel and see so many amazing places...but I have given up a lot. I've left a lot of people and things behind that I never realize how much I miss until I'm faced with saying goodbye, yet again. The goodbyes never seem to get easier, just more numerous in number.

So, Happy New Year to friends on both sides of the ocean. Due to the winter weather (that I admit, I missed a lot), I have to stay home tonight. I wish I could ring 2012 in very differently, but I've already had my kiss & that'll have to do. So, all my friends, I'll be back in 7 months...hope you'll still be waiting when I get back. I already miss & love everyone; all those I saw and spent (not enough) time with, and those who I didn't get to see this visit home. I'll be back soon, please know my heart is with you all when I leave tomorrow.

England, be warned...I'm gonna be one cranky little Canadian come Monday morning when I touch down in London.

The Grey Cloud

I've had to start the 'goodbyes' already, and it's the worst part of the holiday. Family, friends, all of the special people in my life that are so far away, I hate to say goodbye.

Back to England in just 3 days.