I'm a little overdue on updates from the past few weeks so let me try and catch up on how we've been spending our October.
Teaching -
Of course Gabel and I have been teaching during the weeks and we both now average about 4 days a week. Every single one of my teaching days this month have been at Ryde Academy on the Isle of Wight except for one day at Winton Academy in Andover. I never thought my life would revolve so much around an island as it does now. It's also crazy to me that since moving here I've only taught at three different schools. It's kinda of nice because I'm fairly well known at all three schools, especially at Ryde of course. The weather is getting worse as the season gets closer to winter so the Hovercraft can be quite late some days making me late for school but that's a regular facet of island life. There have been terrible winds recently as well so being on the Hovercraft is more like being on a theme park ride and it's all I can do to not barf everywhere because I'm quite prone to sea sickness. If you had told me in teachers college that I would be getting seasick on my way to teaching, I would have laughed in your face but here we are. One good/bad thing about the hovercraft is that Gabel and I discovered a special hover pass that is meant for teachers and for 40 rides it costs 135£. We purchased it and it makes our rides go down to about 6£ a day instead of 17£ a day. It's good because we are obviously saving a lot of money now but bad because I shudder to think about how much money I wasted in the first month and a half I taught at Ryde. Sigh. Most of my teaching at Ryde is English but I do a fair amount of PE (gym) as well which is mostly hell. There is nothing like teaching boys only PE to make you question why you became a teacher. I honestly don't know how PE teachers do it day in and day out. Letting loose an entire class of 13 year old boys has often proved dangerous for me and I come home without a voice. I have never once taught a PE class without at least one of them ending up on the ground crying and in serious pain. I'll have to ask questions like "WHY IS TOM ON THE GROUND CRYING?!" and they will tell me back nonchalantly, "Oh Callum whipped a ball at his face." One day I was supposed to teach hockey to the boys but the other PE teachers wouldn't let me because they were afraid the boys would use the sticks as weapons. When I was giving a basketball lesson last week, I had to stop about 16 times to remind them that biting, elbowing, shoving, kicking, or violent shoving was not part of the game. I got so fed up at one point, I lined them up against the wall and just screamed at them for a good five minutes. Everyone (in Britain and back home) tells us that British kids are among the worst behaved students in the world and that we should be prepared for hell but besides PE, both Gabel and I have managed pretty well actually. My regular year 7's and 8's that I teach every Monday and Friday are adorable and I'm getting on so well with them. I've been trusted now to do all the lesson planning and marking for them and I taught them what jeopardy was last week because none of them had ever heard of it and I had made us a jeopardy review game of the novel we had just finished reading. I love walking down the hallways at Ryde and hearing "Hi Miss M!" The only one negative experience I had was last Monday when I was severely terrorized by one year 11 class. I was supposed to give them a test and they absolutely refused to be quiet but I had three boys determined to break me. They would not stop making noises, throwing paper airplanes at me, running in and out of class as they pleased, swearing at me, pulling out their cell phones, insulting me, etc. At one point they started a huge drum banging beat on the desks that nearly everyone joined in with. Normally when I have students that misbehave, I just have to give them my death glare or yell at them once in what I call my "scary angry voice" and they stop. It was nooooot working. They think they are clever but I knew all of their names and I reported the three main culprits to student services where they all received hour long after school detentions, as well as got demerit points on their record and a notice home to their parents. Plus I told their regular teacher and she punished them as well. The other teachers in the school informed me of their procedure for what I could do in the moment if that ever happened again so the next time I get any more spawns of Satan, I will know how to get them removed from class. Overall though I feel really proud of my teaching and I know that I'm becoming a really good teacher (Gabel too of course!). It's been quite an enjoyable experience and I know that if we can handle it here we can handle it everywhere. Something else really cool happened a couple of weeks ago. In the UK, schools get inspected a couple of times a year by Ofsted which is a school quality inspection agency and they come an inspect schools and give them grades and if a school gets a bad enough grade it will be shut down and all the teachers out of jobs and the students would have to be relocated. Of course I ended up teaching on an Ofsted inspection day but I was just doing general supply cover and I got stuck with a period of science, a period of PE, a period of geography, and a period of drama. None of which are my teachable subjects! And of course wasn't I the lucky one who got Ofsted inspectors in my classroom watching me teach science. All about immunization which I know nothing about. I was in the middle of winging my lesson when without warning, the vice principal and the Ofsted inspector just walked into the classroom and watched me from the back. You can imagine how quickly my heart was pounding. However, at the end of that day, the vice principal came and sought me out and said I did amazing and she was so proud of me. And then the next day, she came to me and said the Ofsted results were back and that they had received really great comments about me and that I was engaging with the students and in control of the class and doing a good job, etc. The actual teacher who I had been covering for also came and found me and thanked me for doing a great job with her class and getting such great feedback for the school. So I am obviously elated with the positive feedback.
Football -
By football I really mean soccer but you can't tell the Brits I said that. Every Tuesday night is our training session and the women there think Gabel and I are quite good so they all started fighting over us to join there Thursday night competitive match league. Gabel and I chose to play on a team called The Black Swans and we've made friends with someone named Louise who drives us to and from the games. It's loads of fun but different from back home. It's only five a side here instead of eleven and you can use the boards and you're allowed to pass back to your goalie. At first Gabel and I broke a couple of rules getting used to it but we're doing well now. So every Tuesday and Thursday you can find us at the Goals Soccer Center (its called soccer for some weird reason) on Millbrook Point Road having fun out on the pitch. Steph has always been a loyal fan and comes and watches and takes pics of us. I'll miss having her there with us.
Shakeaway -
Gabel and I are both huge booster juice fans and with there being no Booster Juice in the UK we had to find a replacement. Well, were we ever successful. There's a mall in Southampton called The Marlands which is a really crappy mall located across the street from our grocery store ASDA and down the street from the real mall, West Quay. However, we were walking through The Marlands one day and walked past a place allied Shakeaway. They specialize in milkshakes but also dabble in smoothies and juices. Naturally we decided to try it out. OH.MY.GOSH is it ever amazing. Gabel often gets one called The Alan which is a mixture of banana and nutella with minstrels (a really awesome type of Cadbury chocolate) on top. I am obsessed with the chocolate raspberry one which isn't on their menu but I requested it and it's unreal. Steph tried it when she got here and now she only gets the chocolate raspberry one as well. Steph actually said that she doesn't know how she's going to go back to Canada because there's no Shakeaway there. Basically every Sunday morning we wake up hungover and go to Shakeaway for relief. But if we happen to run into one somewhere else, we will definitely run in. KGabes has gotten addicted to The George (reeses peanut butter cup) while she's been here as well. So everyone, come visit us and we'll bring you to Shakeaway!
Clubbing -
We finally found an amazing nightclub in Southampton. It's called Oceana and it's simply unreal. About a 7 minute walk from our flat is a massive complex called Leisure World. Inside you can find a a movie theatre, an arcade, all types of leisure activities like bowling, and then Oceana nightclub. It holds up to 4,000 people and it's incredible inside. There's crazy stages and a huge bar area, a massive dance floor, crazy lights and chandeliers, balconies, VIP rooms, and an excellent DJ. It's Euro clubbing at its finest. Steph, Gabel and I went last 2 weekends ago and it was a blast. The cover was only 5£ so I think we're going to be going back there a lot.
Movies/TV -
We've had a lot of movie and TV nights curled up in my bed the past two weeks. Steph, Gabel and I watched Taken and then Taken 2 and now Im terrified of travelling because although my dad's pretty bad ass, he ain't no Liam Neeson as a CIA agent. I've also gotten Gabel hooked on Sons of Anarchy so I'm rewatching the first three seasons with her and then we'll watch seasons 4 and 5 together. And somehow I've never seen the movie The Breakfast Club and I really want to and it's Gabel's favourite movie so we keep trying to watch it but its like an ongoing joke that whenever we try and watch it, something happens and we can't. It's been going on for a month now. Hopefully at some point in the next month I finally get to watch it.
Exploring -
On my day off last week, Steph and I went exploring around Southampton. There's a huge park called the Southampton Common thats at the north end of the city and we walked over to it. It was so worth it because the park is gorgeous and full of hiking trails and lakes and fields. It was lots of fun and we got some amazing pics. I just love how green Southampton is and how many parks there are. On our way home we stumbled upon a Gelato Bar not too far from our place. Obviously we went inside and were blown away. That's going to become a regular spot I'm sure. I love living in a city where you don't know everything and can still be surprised. It was a fun sissy date.
Counting Down The Days -
I am finding it so incredibly difficult to be away from my love Matthew so I'm just continuously counting down the days until we get to be together. What's helped is that we planned out our itinerary of our trip when he gets here on December 6th. We're going to do a weekend in London, go to Paris and Berlin, hang out in Southampton and see a Southampton FC game against Newcastle, sleep overnight in a Castle called Thornbury where King Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn stayed a couple of times, go to the Eden Project, Bath and then finish our trip in Switzerland with Gabel and Alex and go skiing in the Alps. I'm so excited for the four of us to be all together.
Half Term -
The last week of October is half term in England which means its a week of school for both students and teachers alike. Gabel and I have a crazy amount planned and I doubt we'll find it remotely restful but stay tuned to hear about our half term adventures! Check out some pics below
We goin out
too poor to cab: use a shopping cart 
Oceana 
Sissy date in Southampton Common 
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