It's a Girl!

I am very happy to announce my sister Erin has given birth to a healthy baby girl on November 23rd! Dani Grace came into the world at 7lbs 5 oz and 21 inches! I'm glad she was more on time than her big brother Gabe! Congratulations Erin and Jason! BRING ON THE PINK!!!!!!!!!!! (HAHA really, just kidding!)

As far as the "school police" go, so far so good. Halfway through my OFSTED inspection and most is going well so far! I pray I survive tomorrow!

Just thought I'd let you all know!

Will post soon!

Love,

~amy

OFSTED!!!

I'm sure most of you have no clue as to what OFSTED is. In short - the enemy. OFSTED (the OFfice of STandards of EDucation) is coming into my school on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and everyone is scared out of their minds! They do the most intense, in-depth inspections of schools all throughout England and Wales. They look at everything, including planning, assessment, classroom management, health and well-being of students, school dinners, administration, literacy and numeracy levels (and on and on and on...). These inspections occur about once every three years and people loose their minds over them! What are the chances that I've been at this school 3 weeks, my classroom is in an upheaval, and OFSTED is coming?! So unlikely that of course it happens to only ME! I spent all of my Friday night planning, all of my Saturday in my classroom, and all of today thinking about what I should be doing and haven't done yet! Sigh.

Christmas is coming up so soon I can't believe it!!! Just over a month! It has been Christmas here (as far as decorations and sales) since before Halloween! Sheesh!

I'm still mentally sifting through what I'm supposed to get done and I think that's why I can't think of anything else to write. I'm sure there are all sorts of things I could tell you, but I can't think straight!

My sister's baby was due on Friday. Still nothing...!

Where do my weekends go?!

It seems that when Friday afternoon is too far away and it can't come any quicker, Monday morning is right on its heels! I am getting settled into my new school, but things are really taking a lot longer than I anticipated. My classroom is in a state of disarray and I am trying so hard to get it, as well as all of the planning, sorted so that it is in functioning order. It is a process though!

This weekend I did two things that were fairly exciting. I went bowling with some friends on Friday (one of my new friends who has only bowled 3 times ever got 6 strikes in a row...whaaaaat!? Liar, I think!) Saturday I spent the ENTIRE day at my old bar doing planning. I wasn't going to get anything done at home so I decided to go there. I know it sounds bad - school planning and booze...could yield interesting results! But they have wireless internet and comfortable couches, as well as free food and drinks (non-alcoholic) so it ended up being very productive. Sunday though, now Sunday was a good day! It was a gorgeous day with the sun shining and mild temperatures so I went to the London Zoo!!!! It was amazing! My favourite was the pygmy hippo - it looked like a dinosaur! Very prehistoric! I REALLY wanted to touch it, but I think they frown upon that sort of thing. After the zoo I spent some time with a friend from Columbia (yes, Columbia) in Camden Town, eating traditional Venezuelan food and exploring Camden Market. What an amazing place - you can get ANYTHING there!

My pottery class is going SO well. I figured out that since I'm left handed the wheel has to spin the opposite direction, so I am fighting with fire now!!!! I can do it both ways, but left handed is WAY easier! I actually made a vase last week, and it looks exactly how it is supposed to! I can't wait for this Wednesday. I enjoy it so much! Those 3 hours go by so fast and I'm beginning to be the first one in, last one out to squeeze in as much time as possible!

I know this blog is rather short in comparison to previous ones, but really, nothing too exciting happened to let you know about! Oh, I got a haircut, and the weather is strange. Sunny, calm, windy, raining, foggy - all in one day - and generally speaking, at least 5 days of the week are like that!

Erin's baby is due on FRIDAY!!!!! Although, with Erin's luck he/she will just stay put for a week or two later!

Lots of love,

amy

STILL getting lost in London!

It has been well over two months now that I have called London home. However, this does not qualify me whatsoever as a someone who knows her way around all of its nooks and crannies. Friday night I went to Selfridges (a very posh department store) to meet a friend of mine for a piano show down in the music section of the store. When neither one of us could find each other (that's another story in itself) I ended up talking to someone who worked in the store and was invited for drinks after the store closed. Since I made an effort to get there I figured I might as well take the opportunity to make some new friends. Well, after a little detour from Oxford St. and a few drinks later I said it was time for me to go. Not realizing which direction I had come from and being confident in my abilities I just decided to figure out how to get home myself. That is not a big deal. I've done it plenty of times and London is not a hard city to navigate using the tubes and trains. However, when the tubes and trains have shut down early for the night and unless you know exactly which bus number to take, you're pretty much up sh*t creek without a paddle. Standing at Canary Wharf after I had done a big circle around the city taking the trains and tubes that were running, I wasn't exactly lost, but lost as to how I was going to get across the Thames and into my bed! Being cheekily resourceful I saw a guy hailing a black cab, one after another they kept driving away. I asked him which way he was going and why he wasn't being picked up - he said he was headed to Lewisham (just beyond Greenwich) but no one would pick him up. I said I was headed that way and he told me to pretend we were a couple and maybe we could get picked up. It certainly worked and I got a free ride very close to home! I walked in my front door laughing... oh the situations I get myself into! It was as random a night as they come! 

Work is fantastic. Things have changed drastically however! I am no longer at the school my contract was extended for. Someone dropped the ball communicating the proper information and what I had been hired for was an Early Years Practitioner, not teacher! NO WAY was I taking a pay cut for that! However - minus the packed bus ride in the mornings, my new situation is MUCH better. I have been hired on full time until the end of the school year in July for a kindergarten class which I run by myself, with one TA. I have 25 children in my own classroom and I am the boss! At my old school I was team teaching in a double class, so I wasn't in charge. Now, I am. And I love it. Of course there are so many kinks to work out and things to learn, planning to put in place, and a classroom to sort out. But, I am SO EXCITED! Unfortunately... no free rides on the train :(

I gave myself a birthday present of pottery lessons! I had my first class last week and absolutely loved it. I actually made 3 things that resembled some sort of pot or container! The instructor said she had high hopes for me! I didn't realize how much muscle was required for being a potter - glad I'm getting some exercise with it! It was a lot of fun, however, I tried to get up after I had finished a piece and nearly fell flat on my face - I didn't realize I had become so dizzy! I tell ya, my life would be much easier if everything didn't make me nauseous...buses, trains, planes, boats, cars, and now pottery. Geeze! 

There is a tradition around the 5th of November in London. I feel a little sheepish not knowing this previously, coming from a commonwealth nation, however, I am now quite informed. Massive firework displays go on around the city (called "bonfire night") to commemorate Guy Fawkes' failure to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605. Fawkes was a Roman Catholic trying to displace Protestant rule with his "gunpowder plot". However, he was arrested before his plan of blowing Parliament with all of it's aristocracy, including King James 1 inside, to smithereens came to fruition. You may have heard this verse before:

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

The gunpowder treason and plot,

I know of no reason

Why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

England has not forgotten the gunpowder treason and every year on Nov. 5th they remember with bonfires and fireworks at many different locations!

I am very busy with work, pottery, piano, seeing friends, making new ones, getting lost, talking to strangers to thumb a ride home... plenty of things to keep me busy! I hope all is well back home - I hear it's getting cold! It is still totally tolerable here :) Grey and little wet, but I can deal with it. I also hear swine flu/H1N1 is taking over the province?! WASH YOUR HANDS!!! 

Gramma thank you very much for the card and letter. It sounds like you and Grampa had a great time on your cruise! The postal strike is still on, but things are seeping through, so thank you for sending the card! 

I will keep you all posted with new developments in amy's awesome adventures! 

-13 days until my new niece/nephew is due

-39 days until Ali comes to visit!

Much love

~amy

My Heart's In The Highlands

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,

The birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth;

Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,

The hills of the Highlands for ever I love. 

Robbie Burns couldn’t have said it better. I feel like a piece of me I didn’t know was missing has been found. Scotland has the most beautifully stunning landscape, jaw dropping architecture, and unbelievably dark history. I will try my best to fill you in on my adventures with Diana, the things we saw, the people we met, and the memories made!

Saturday – An early start to Victoria Station in London to hop on the Mega Bus for 10 pounds all the way to Glasgow (ugh!) where a relative of mine, Georjean, met us. She brought us back to her flat where we met her 15 year old daughter, a barrel of laughs, Kirsten! Georjean had prepared an AMAZING dinner that I still dream about, a week later! We spent the night in with them, getting to know each other and talking about all sorts of things, including our plans for Glasgow the next day.

Sunday – We woke early for a traditional Scottish breakfast prepared by master Chef Georjean that included haggis and black pudding! For those of you who do not know the ingredients in either, try them before you look it up! I polished mine off no problem, however, Diana struggled a little bit J then, we were off into the city! Diana is an incredible travel companion, as we are both fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants kind of girls who really like to look at old stuff! We checked out the Medieval Cathedral and the Necropolis (really, really cool old graveyard with massive memorials and tombs) for the majority of the morning and got some amazing pictures! We also went to a Medieval Tower where they used to drag witches to pierce their tongues so they couldn’t cast any more spells before they were burned at the stake!!! We walked the city seeing the sights and also went to the Glasgow School of Art (where my housemate studied) the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Religious Life, Sauchiehall Street, and the seedy part of town where I stumbled upon the “Oldest Chippie in Glasgow” where I found a deep fried mars bar! That’s right, it exists! I am positive I am now going to die a day earlier, but I think it was worth it. We went back to Georjean’s for a traditional Scottish Sunday Roast and good conversation.

Monday – Up early with nice breakfast by Georjean and packed lunches for our travels! I can’t say how much Diana and I appreciated her generosity and thoughtfulness, as well as her skills in the kitchen! A big warm THANK YOU goes out to Georjean for being so incredible to us! I can’t wait to come back! We left Glasgow with full bellies on our way to Inverary! We mostly took the Scottish City Link bus between all of our destinations – cheap, dependable travel! In Inverary there is a castle, still inhabited by the current Duke and Duchess of Argyll, who Diana is related to! Very cool! We also got up nice and close to some Heiland Coos! (er, Highland Cows!) We sat by the pier and enjoyed our packed lunches while we waited for the bus to take us up to Oban. Arriving in Oban mid afternoon, Diana had a plan. Her ancestors originated in the Oban area and so we thought we might be able to track some down. So, we found a phone book and looked up all the McMillans in the area and started knocking on doors! Unfortunately, we didn’t seem to make any connections to Diana! While trying to find a road a McMillan may have lived on, we came across an old abandoned castle high atop a rock! Obviously, we tried to get in. Very successful! Inside I climbed up a wall to get a better look out of one of the top windows. The view was unreal! After that, we went to our hostel and got settled in. After a bite in a local pub we continued pub-crawling and met some really cool folk! It was really busy everywhere we went because unfortunately, a funeral for a 24 year old had taken place that day, and all his mates were out. It was still a really fun time – I even played darts with some locals! Back in bed by 12:30 for our next adventure!

Tuesday – We hopped a bus from Oban up to Fort William. We had no intentions of visiting this little town, but had to use it as a connection to the Glenfinnan Viaduct… also known as the Bridge used by the Hogwarts Express in Harry Potter! This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. It was POURING rain out, but that didn’t stop us. We took a half an hour train ride to the little town of Glenfinnan, over the beautiful bridge, and were the only ones to get off at the stop. We trudged through the forest until we were soaking wet and covered in mud and came to a clearing where we could see the infamous bridge. To see it from ground level wasn’t enough for us – we hiked the highlands to get a closer look! It was one of the most adrenaline filled experiences of my life. It was ABSOLUTELY breathtaking. We spent a good few hours hiking and returned to the tiny town (which only had a little hotel and a run down candle shop!) and went for hot tea and biscuits in the dead quiet tea room of the hotel. We sat by the fire alone and dried off until our train was due. Back in Fort William we found a bus to Inverness for the evening where we just went straight to sleep!

Wednesday – Off to Loch Ness to see Urquhart Castle and to search for Nessie! Honestly, this was TOTALLY overrated. The castle was packed with tourists, and of course, the monster was shy. We saw a short film on the history of Urquhart, which was very interesting, and I learned so much, but I quickly came to realize I enjoy doing things much differently than mainstream tours! I guess we just felt that we couldn’t go to Scotland without going to Loch Ness. Now that it’s out of the way, my next trip will be to see things that are completely off the map! Mid afternoon we took a bus to a tiny place between Inverness and Edinburgh called Pitlochry. We happened to just stumble upon the town’s Autumn Festival! The main highlight of the festival was something called the Enchanted Forest. Diana and I decided to get tickets and go for it. It was amazing! It was a music, light, and sound production that had visitors walking through a misty (naturally misty!) forest, wandering through Scottish myths and legends brought to life! We even bought the soundtrack it was so incredible! Back in the town a live band was playing – the lead singer a 60 year old Scottish man proudly tattooed wearing his tartan kilt and singing his heart out! That night we had the best sleep!!

Thursday – Up early for a hike up the highlands! We climbed about 3000 ft up into the mist just to do it! The one thing that never ceased to amaze me was the SHEEP. Those animals are EVERYWHERE!!! Even way up there! Did you know that there is still an offense you can be hanged for in Scotland?!!! I’m not sure it’s still in practice, but the law has never been changed and that law states that you can be tried and hanged for STEALING SHEEP!!!!! Good thing I didn’t try! HA! After a good 4 hour hike we went back to the town to catch a bus to our final destination, Edinburgh. We arrived and found our hostel, the Castle Rock Hostel, right beside the Castle (duh). Since we had our share of Scottish food we decided on Thai food, right beside the hostel. Grabbed a nice relaxing dinner, headed back to the hostel where we found out they were hosting a “fancy dress” pub crawl! We both thought, why would a hostel have a fancy night out?? BUT, that translates to COSTUME PARTY! They had a trunk with all sorts of costumes in it, so Diana and donned some garb and out we went! What a HILARIOUS time! With people from all over the world! 5 different pubs and a few different karaoke songs later we were snug back in bed resting for the next day.

Friday – Up early and out to explore one of the most haunted cities in the entire world! We went to see Edinburgh castle and inside saw Scotland’s crown jewels, the place where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to her son, and the Stone of Destiny, among other things. From the castle we went on to see Princes St, the road from the opening of the movie “Trainspotting”, walked the Royal Mile, which ends with the Queen’s palace when she is staying in Scotland, as well as various other landmarks! We ended the night with a ghost tour in the underground – one of the most haunted places in Scotland – the South Bridge Vaults. It was here that criminals, pregnant women out of wedlock, and the scum of the earth were sent to live. The life expectancy in these vaults was 6 months. What haunts these vaults is not a ghost, nor a poltergeist, but both, something called the South Bridge Entity – and the stories that have come from this place are more than enough to send a cold chill down your back. Being in them and experiencing cold spots and feelings of being watched sure was fitting for Halloween! On a brighter note, if you like Harry Potter, there are other things in Edinburgh that are worth seeing! The small coffee shop where J.K Rowling wrote Harry Potter, as well as the school that inspired Hogwarts, and the graveyard where she took names for many of her characters, including Hermione Granger and Tom Riddle are there to see! After all of this exploring, Diana and I thought it was about time to go to the airport. Yes, that’s right. Our flight wasn’t until the morning, but we weren’t about to pay for another night in the hostel! We arrived at Edinburgh airport at around midnight and attempted to sleep until checking in for our flight at 5am. Unfortunately, the airport was testing its alarm systems…and someone also thought it was warm enough to put on the air conditioning. It was a long night.

Back in London now I feel so lucky to see the things I got to see and Diana and I have already made some plans for the late spring to head back to Scotland. We never got the chance to see the islands and those are definitely on the list! It is back to school tomorrow and it is also my birthday. Low-key plans for Thai food are on the agenda, but nothing more. I am getting old now! 26! AH!

I hope all is well back home – I know this was long winded and I haven’t eloquently described my experience, but that is it in a nutshell! Until next time,

All my love,

Amy