Market Shopping Weekend!

I took this picture at Buckingham Palace a couple weeks ago. I forgot to post it, but I think it's so beautiful! This is a rose garden that surrounds the palace. They are the most fragrance roses I've ever smelled! The scent was so strong it was amazing!

The end of last week was good, nothing crazy with the kids. Unfortunately nothing funny or wild has been happening in the classroom. It's a real bummer. The weekend was really great. Nadia and I went market shopping during the day on Saturday and Sunday.

This is Nadia and I on our way to Borough Market. That market has the most amazing food! It has everything you could ever think to eat, it has tons of vendors selling the craziest things! You can go food shopping there or just buy food that ready to eat and eat it there. It was cool, Nadia bought some mushroom pate and we both got chocolate covered nuts. (we're obsessed) We ended up getting these excellent sandwiches from an Italian booth.

The weather was SO WARM!! It was so sunny and nice. It was the greatest day ever, everyone was out and happy to be alive. I was thinking "Wait..is it actually going to be warm from now on?" ...yeah not so much. It's back to being cold and rainy..ugh.

Sorry the one picture is sideways, since I'm not on my own computer I can't figure out how to turn it around!

After Borough Market we went to Portobello Market which is in Notting Hill. A lot of the stuff there was basically garbage! Half of it was a heinous garage sale. People just brought old junk from there house to sell, it smelled terrible! But then some of the other stuff was cool, a lot of clothes, jewelry home stuff..just about anything! On Saturday night we decided to go out somewhere local to us. For going out at night basically the only place to go is around Central London in zone 1 or 2, although you have lots of options it can be more expensive to go out in central. We tried to see if we could find somewhere to go more locally...in the end it looks like we'll just have to go to Central!! haha We spent the entire night on public transport! There was no good bars around, everything was super lame. Then we decided to go to Camden, but got on the wrong bus...after all of our attempts we just went home.

On Sunday we went to Camden Market. This is the place where all the freaks come out!

This picture doesn't really do this place justice. Although you can tell that it's pretty crazy looking you don't get to see the people really well. This is where all the punk/gothic kids roam about. It was really cool. A lot of good market shopping.

I decided this weekend that Nadia and I are going to have our own booth at a market. I think that cupcakes are getting really hot these days and we would do well selling cupcakes! Nadia's still warming up to the idea, but she'll come around. This weekend is our roommates birthday so we're going to bake cupcakes for the event. We're gonna see how this batch goes, and then we might be in business! Move over Sprinkles!!

Exciting news! Some of you may remember my concerns for not being in the States for the release of the Sex and the City movie?? Worry no more! London has been chosen to be the place for the worldwide premiere of the movie!! It's going to be is Leicester Square and I'm going to be there!! I'm soo excited! I'm going to see the movie before it comes out in the States! People are upset that the movie isn't opening in New York (which of course would make the most sense...) It's going to be so fabulous! Maybe I'll even get to see SJP! :)

Other than that everything here is great, we're getting ready for a big weekend. We have birthdays to go to on Friday and Saturday, a BBQ on Sunday and I'm showing the Brit's how we do Cinco De Mayo on Monday!! It's a bank holiday on Monday for May Day..but who wants to trot around a pole with a string when you can be drinking margaritas with guacamole?? It's gonna be awwesome!

Livin the dream

The past couple days have been good at school, it's nice going into a new classroom every hour. Some classes are better than others so it's nice to be able to look at the clock and say "Oh wow, look at that! Time to go!!" haha. It's nice also being at the same school for a couple of days, but now I know all the students in the school and the teachers too. Every one's really nice at this school and they make me feel really welcome. Every day I eat in the teachers lounge, I bring my own lunch, I don't know what they serve in the cafeteria. Although something strange is here they call lunch that you get at school "school dinners" and if you bring your lunch then it's called "packed lunch". I don't know why...but then again I don't know why they do a lot of things here!!

Today was great, mainly because I spent the 1st hour of the day hanging out in the teachers lounge drinking tea and eating a biscuit! (cookie) It was so nice. I don't know if I've mentioned this, but every school provides free tea! I really love tea now, I drink it all day long. They all put some milk and sugar in it, it's quite fab--very English!! They sure do they their tea!

In other news, there's a teacher strike tomorrow!! Luckily the school that I'm at is not striking, but a lot of schools all across London are closing down tomorrow. I read in the paper that it's the union N.U.T.S that's striking for a pay raise.

I forgot to mention in my last post that my computer died! Funny how I always tend to leave out the important bits of information! It's quite sad really, the computer isn't connecting with the power cord so it just ran out of battery and cannot be revived! It's something that happened 2 years ago. When I get some money together I'll take it to a shop to see if I can fix it. It's unfortunate because I have all my music and pictures on it! :( Luckily I can use Nadia's lap top. Oh again sorry for no pictures..I know my blog is boring! I plan on taking a lot more in the future! I plan to take pictures this weekend.

I think the weather might be getting warmer! (it's always hard to tell) Lately in the afternoons it's been about in the 60's! Maybe in a couple weeks I won't need a coat! Next weekend the girls and I are planning a picnic in St. James park, so hopefully it'll be sunny!

Oh! Funny story! So yesterday I was on the phone with my bank and i was talking with a Scottish lad. He was so funny, he must have been in his 40's or 50's. He was saying "This is so exciting! I've never spoken to a Brittany before! I can't wait to go home tell my family!" haha and then just before we hung up he said "Alright Brittany, well you hold onto your American accent! And I have to say that we're delighted to have you in the UK!!" haha how friendly! I loved him. I'm constantly amazed by how few Americans are in the UK.

How I spent my Spring Vacation..

I can't believe it's been a week since I last posted! I'd like to apologize to my loyal blog fans... Perhaps I haven't posted much because well...there hasn't been much to post about!! The past week I spent settling into my flat. I was able to find some hangers. (I know some of you were worried..) Plumbing is going great...however the neighbors are still somewhat an issue. They're crazy, I don't think they have much going on in their lives so they concern themselves with everyone elses business. Nadia texted me today to tell me that she got in an argument with one of them and slammed the door on their face! Really interested to find out what happened there... Other than that I've just been visiting all the points of interest here in London, I think I've seen it all! By the end of the week my leisure lifestyle was really wearing on me!

Today was my first day at work, I was at Longfield Middle School which is the the Borough of Harrow. I was a floating teacher, so I was in a different classroom every hour. I think the teachers are having meetings so I go in to cover their classrooms.

Today I started to realize just how outrageous my job really is! Every hour I was in a new class, teaching a new subject. Each time I enter the classroom I have about 2 minutes to look after the lesson plans and get an idea as to A. what I'm teaching and B. how I'm teaching it! It's really amazing... So today I taught everything from- How to grab your readers attention, to the parts of plant and animal cells, to teaching about the different groups of people that originally settled England (that was tough!) The first two classes the children were fairly rotten. They were a little tough, not really looking forward to them...but the last classes were really great!

Otherwise every things going really well, I'm really loving the flat that I live in. I really like the two girls that I'm living with and I really don't mind at all how small my room is. It's a really great place and I'm really happy. My roommate Nadia and I have even started planning a trip to Sicily together!! I'm so excited, she's a beauty therapist at a hotel so she gets a really great discount on all St. Regis hotels!! We're going to be staying at a 5 star hotel in Central Sicily- it's going to be faabulous! ;)

Moving Day!

I went out Friday night to a bar in Shoreditch, it was a lot of fun! I met some new friends too! I was quite a hit at the party...sometimes I wonder if people like me for who I am...or if it's because I'm from America?? People go crazy about it! It's really funny, I just crack up because they get so excited. I figured Americans would be a dime a dozen here, but it seems like people don't see Americans very often, especially girls my age. They also love that my name is Brittany, it's not a common name here. They love to say to me "High five dude!" or "Awesome!" they think that's very American. haha. I thought it was really cute what someone said to me, they said "America is like our older brother, we all love America..no matter what they do we'll always be behind them and love them!" aww how cute..I love British loyalty! :)


I took my Dad's advice and took a cab to move all my stuff. Really good idea, I hadn't thought of that. This blog is coming in really handy for me. I was so excited when I got all my stuff in the flat! It feels really good to finally be settled!! I've been on the go since March 8th so it's really nice to be able for the first time to unpack and have a home :) Although I haven't unpacked too much yet because I don't have any hangers... turns out hangers are really hard to come by. At home I could think of so many different places to buy them, I ask people here and they look at me like they've never thought of it before! I set out to go buy some today and close to me is the biggest Sainsbury I've ever seen! Every grocery store I've seen here is like a glorified Circle K. This Sainsbury is like a legitimate grocery store! It was so luxurious :) I figured that they would HAVE to have hangers! I asked a worker where they were and he said they don't sell them, and then he said "We only sell hangers during Christmas or special holidays..." after he said that I felt that I needed to make sure we were talking about the same thing..haha I guess over here hangers are a treat. I would feel that way too if they were only sold once a year and I could finally hang up my clothes!! He said that they might sell them at a pound shop, but they're closed on Sundays..


Funny story...well funny now, extremely stressful at the time! So yesterday it was about 1 hr after me living in the flat, I flushed the toilet and after I did that there was a loud banging/rattling noise coming from the bathroom. I've never lived in a really old place before. I remembered when I was at Elyse's house in Brooklyn the house made weird noises all the time, and when I would ask what they were they would say it was the heating or something. So I figured strange noises, old place - normal .... The bathroom is on the other side of the flat from the living room and my bedroom so I wasn't at all bothered by it. Then there was a ring at the doorbell. I answer it and it's the neighbors from downstairs; two Eastern European boys probably my age. They wanted to know what all the noise was..I said that it was the plumbing and they looked at me like I had 4 heads!! I said "I don't know..I just moved in..I'll see what I can do." They were really irritated but I didn't think it was my fault.. so I went to the bathroom and started fiddling a little with the toilet to make the banging stop. Then a couple hours later I get another ring at the door. The neighbors...this time they asked if I've been drilling holes because now there's a leak somewhere and water is getting on their stuff! I told them "I don't know what to do, I just moved in..I don't know why that happened..I didn't do anything!" they told me "well you have to sort it out because we can't live like this, so you need to figure it out.." I was so stressed out! I didn't know the landlords number, Nadia's out of town and Jim was at work! Luckily the landlord called me later that day so she's dealing with it now, but it was very sticky at the time! I wanted to tell the boys "Look I've only moved in 3 hours ago..I only been in the country 3 weeks now.. give me a break!" haha. Every things good now..I hope..I tip toe around the flat so they don't know I'm home :)

I am a lady of leisure

Ok so the whole "job during break" thing isn't really working out... I tried, I really did. I was going to tutor two french kids..but I think the Mum was kinda crazy, so that fell through. I signed up with a childcare agency and told them I only wanted to do holiday work. Similar to what I am doing now with teaching..I would just let me know when I want to work and they'll find me something. The pay is soo much less though!! I'm really not that excited about it... that's what really discourages me from finding a job for a week..the pay is so bad. Anything else that I would do during this time in a week..I could make in a day teaching. Soo instead I've turned into a lady of leisure! Let me tell you..it's fabulous!

I spend a lot of my days being a tourist, walking around finding things I've never seen before. It's very fun. Here's some of my latest pictures..

This is a picture I took from a park where I was reading. You probably can't tell, but that's an ad for Sex and the City. Movies don't come out too much later here than in the states, so I think I'll be able to see the movie when it comes out!! yay :)

This is another picture from Trafalgar Square. I like going there because it's like tourist central, and I can let me inner tourist run wild!!

I took this picture from a bridge over the Thames River. After I crossed the bridge closer to the London Eye, there's all sorts of crazy street performers. Many of them pretend to be statues, and their costumes are out of control! It was really cool! I'm definitely going to go on the London Eye sometime very soon :)

I'm going to start moving into my flat tomorrow..really I can move in anytime, but I told the girls I'd be moving in over the weekend. I'm also delaying because I'm really not looking forward to bringing luggage on the tube! People do it all the time and it's really not a big deal..but I just don't want to! Especially my huge backpack--I'm going to be so embarrassed! I have to go at a time when there's not many people around! I'm going to take many trips and only take one bag at a time. That's really not a good reason, I should really be getting out of this hostel. If any of you saw it here you would scream! It's funny how you can get used to things, no matter how bad they are. Lately though I've been getting really ready to leave!! My top bunk bed where you can feel every spring is really wearing on me! And hiding from the gross creepy landlord guy is getting old too...I can't wait to leave..maybe I'll leave now...

Today I'm going to go on another adventure walking the streets of London. Tonight I'm going out for one of Nadia's friends birthday. I think it's really sweet that she invited me, because I only met her once. Nadia's not even going because she's in Lithuania. She invited me to come so I could meet more friends, how nice! :)

Best Weekend Ever!!!

On Saturday I had a fabulous day date and we went to Leicester Square..the intention originally was for him to show me around London a bit, but the weather was pretty bad and was raining off and on. So instead it turned into a mini pub crawl! We would walk around and then when it would rain we'd run into the nearest pub and grab and pint and talk. It was lovely :) Then we had dinner at Chaquitos which is a Mexican place...I love my Mexican food! Then the weather was better so we were able to go for a walk. London is so beautiful at night. All the gorgeous buildings are all lit up really pretty..it was like a scene out of a movie, it was really wonderful. We had a really great day.

Then on Sunday I woke up to this! Snow! I couldn't believe it! Let's talk about how unpredictable London weather is... I finished my last post saying how warm and nice it had been during the week...now it's snowing! haha. I grabbed lunch with a couple girls from the hostel and then Jill and I had plans to go to Camden Market, which is apparently really cool on Sundays..but it was freezing so we went to the British Museum, which is right around the corner from where we live.

I wish that I could go to museum and look around the read the little blurbs like I care..but I just don't!! I have such a short attention span for things I don't know/care about! So we went into two rooms gave it a really good shot...and then I started to feel quite sleepy so we went to the cafe for a coffee...then we ended up spending maybe an hour sitting there talking! lol by the time we were ready to see more museum it was closing! However I do think the overall trip was a success because in the cafe we talked about religion and politics.. So you see we are very cultured and grown up. We spent our Sunday afternoon at the British museum chatting about religion and politics! :) Great success.

When we came out it was still early for us and we didn't feel like going back to the hostel and the weather was a bit warmer. My favorite thing to do on Sundays now is to stroll around London with Jill. We never have any exact destination, we just walk anywhere..and along the way we find the most fabulous things!!! When we see them we feel as if we had just discovered them, and they're our own secret place. I took a couple pictures to show you what we stumbled across...

This place is called Trafalgar Square! I had never heard of it...but it looks so grand! I loved it. I love how they illuminate the buildings in London :)

Then we found this amazing clock tower!! It's called Big Ben!! It's big :) It's seriously so much prettier in real life, it's unbelievable. The detail that was put into it is incredible. This picture doesn't do it justice. It was sooo beautiful! I can't wait to go back. Jill and I are going to come back again during the day so we can get better pictures.

Right next to Big Ben was the London Eye! I couldn't believe all in this close area are all these fantastic finds!!

This picture didn't come out too well...but that's the London Eye behind me. It's gorgeous. I'll go again another time and take pictures so that these great landmarks can actually be seen!! It was so much fun! We were so excited about all our finds we just kept walking and walking to find more! London is so much fun.... Then we started to freeze so we had to head back home!

Today is the first day of my semi-unemployed life. I haven't found a job yet for these 2 weeks. It's not really easy. Temp agencies aren't calling me back. I had an idea to be a nanny during this time..I saw an ad for it on gumtree and I figured that there's gotta be parents that need someone to watch their little darlings while there on break..and who better to watch over them then a teacher?? But...no luck yet there. Now I have my heart set on something like that. I got a call from a lady interested me in tutoring her children, but I haven't heard back from her... I'll find something to do either way.

What a difference a day makes

I really love supply teaching because every day has the potential of being so radically different! I spent my last day with the orphans yesterday..and it was still pretty challenging. I do have to say that they were good with all the activities I had planned and did do a good job. However the transitions, and when they walk into the classroom is extremely exhausting trying to get them to calm down. Every one's all over the place, pushing each other, stealing things from one another. I'm definitely NOT the Michelle Pheiffer at this school, I don't have it in me to turn these kids around...but I sure hope someone does :(. I got a chance to speak with a kid about their teacher (while he was being held back from playtime..) I asked him "So do you have a permanent teacher?" he said yes, but said.."Our teacher is Mr. Ghazi, but he's sick...the children were shouting a lot and it made him sick.." I asked "So how long has he been sick for now?" he said "over a month, he did come back one day..but then the children were shouting again and it made him sick, so he left at 12...and he left very quickly" :**( How sad! I asked the aide later in the day about Mr. Ghazi's condition, and she told me that's just what they tell the children, and they don't have a teacher for next term!! Heartbreaking...

Today I was at a completely different school called Yeading Junior School, which is in west London in zone 5. In a word, the school was charming! It was such an adorable school!! The children were SO well behaved, they were soo polite I couldn't believe it! (esp after my last two days..) It was the greatest day ever! We watched the Secret Garden and everyone was silent, it was so relaxing :) Then in the afternoon they worked in the computer lab, I did nothing today all day! These were the best children I've ever seen. It was as though they were created in a lab to be perfect students. Before they'd leave for playtime or lunch, each one as they passed me would say, "Have a lovely break Miss!" and when they would come back they'd ask me "Did you have a wonderful break?" I loved them. Today was the last day of Spring Term. Now all London school are off for Easter break for the next 2 weeks. School starts back on April 21st for Summer Term. As of yet I don't have anything lined up for Monday, I'll probably be stalking temp agencies for work.

Last night I finally viewed the flat with Nadia. It's extremely close to the tube and bus and lots of shops are close by, the neighborhood looked cute too. The flat is extremely clean and new looking. It has wood floors and fresh white paint. It is really small, like a dollhouse small....my bedroom especially. I've never seen things this small. I was a little shell shocked when I saw the place, but I had to remind myself that I knew that coming over here!! Flats are small here, especially if you want to be in a good location and don't want to spend loads of money. It's just really small, and I'm not used to that..but that's not the point of why I'm here, I'm not supposed to be doing what I'm used to- I'm here to experience a different cultures, and I won't be staying in my room the whole time (this has been my mantra since viewing the flat..) The pros are: I really really like the girls I'm living with, it's very clean and nice, my bed is comfy, it's cheap, it's really close to tubes and buses. So I'm definitely moving in, I think Nadia was worried that I wasn't going to based on my reaction..but I am! it would be foolish for me to not move in just because I'm used to things being more spacious.

In other news...the weather has been fabulous!! Clear skies, warm weather, it's been great! :) Now it's the weekend and the afterschool adventures begin!!

"We love you Miss Hannigan!"

Today I went to a new school called Little Stanmore which is in a town called Harrow in zone 5. I was on the tube a long time to get there, but I don't mind it much. I like taking the tube to work...u can just sit and relax, I much prefer it to sitting in traffic on the 101!

This is a photo taken on my walk to school from the tube. It was quite cute. (I've had requests for more pictures..so I'm trying, but I don't always think they're so exciting..)

I was in a Year 5 classroom, and the classroom was really nice! The school was pretty nice too...however I was warned ahead of time that it was a pretty tough group. Apparently the kids don't have a teacher??? I don't know what the deal is. There was an assistant in the room with me and she was telling me something about how the kids have had several teachers and now they just have supply teachers. The class is quite large, about 30 kids and there's no structure. The poor kids have a different teacher everyday...they're like orphans!! I feel so bad for them! But they were pretty good for me, I was pretty impressed. For being a new teacher I have pretty good classroom management. I was riding these kids all day, I didn't let them get away with anything. Kids are funny because you'd think they hate you, but they don't - it just makes them love you more. The kids all day were saying "Can you be our teacher forever?" "You're such a nice teacher.." I'm thinking -I've been reading you the riot act all morning!! During one break I was talking to some girls and they said "Could you please be our teacher? We really like you..you can control us, none of the other teachers can control us...everybody is being really good for you today" Poor kids :( They just need more structure and a routine, they don't know what to do! But I really liked them, it was a challenging day but still really good. I actually managed to have a really good intellectual debate about which city state is better -Sparta or Athens? I'm going back there tomorrow, and it should be easier since they know me and know my expectations for them.

I'm actually a bit worried that the school might like me too much and want me to be there permanent teacher! eek! I don't know about that...