Switzerland Sweethearts

Gabel and I had been looking forward to this weekend for so long!! Double dating with our lovebugs in Switzerland. 

Gabel flew out to see Alex on Thursday the 19th and Matthew and I flew out to join them Friday morning to them. We left from Southampton airport again and it was just as painless as last time. We landed in Geneva and then thanks to Gabel and Alex's guidance were able to find a train to bring us to Bern (the capital of Switzerland). 

Gabel and Alex met us there and gave us a fun tour of the city, showing us some of the sights and giving us some of the history as well. We took a break in a local bar for a drink before heading back to the train station to carry on to Lyss, which is where Alex lives. 

Alex's parents are so nice and welcoming and they were very generous hosts. They have the coolest house which is hard to describe but it's very different from houses back home. If you're picturing a Swiss cabin in the mountains that is far from reality. His house is much more modern. Helen and Chris (his parents) prepared THE BEST dinner for us. It's a Swiss dish called Raclette and Matt and I had to get a quick tutorial from everybody before you begin. Basically you start with some boiled potatoes and you cut them up. Then you take your Raclette tray and place a thick piece of cheese in it, put a slice of bacon over top and then some onions. Next, everyone places their tray on top of the special Raclette cooker and you wait for your cheese bacon onion creation to melt. Once it starts melting, you remove it from the cooker and scrape it on top of your potatoes. On the side you nibble pickles, mushrooms, mini corns, etc and they had also prepared an amazing salad. I need to figure out how Gabel and I can buy a Raclette tray in England. 

That night we met up with all Alex's friends at a lounge bar in Lyss. His friends are a lot of fun and made such a nice effort to speak English to us and around us. We stayed out late but not too late because we all knew the morning would bring:

SKIING! 7am wake up call from Gabel and then we were off. Alex drove to our ski hill destination which was a Swiss mountain called Jungfrau located right next to the famous Grindelwald. As soon as you park the car you can just tell it's better than any ski hill we'd been to back home. Alex brought his snowboard and we popped into a ski shop in the village to get Gabel and Matt fitted up. The skiing was a bit pricey and since I'm not necessarily the best skier and didn't have my ski jacket or snow pants with me anyways, I decided not to partake. Instead I paid for Matthew as a Christmas present because I know it's his dream to do this. It would have been great to do it as well but I still had a nice day. I paid for the train ticket so we could all ride up the mountain together. Basically you park your car at the highest point you can drive to and then you get in a train with all your equipment and it takes you up the massive mountain. It makes a few stops along the way because there's little ski villages as you go. We took it right to the top and took a bunch of pictures of the amazing and clear view. It was so bright and sunny and not too cold at all. I think it must have been about 4 or 5 degrees. I said goodbye to my trio of skiers and headed to the lodge. I parked myself in there for the morning and finished reading one of my books. They met me for lunch at 1pm and we spent an hour having the best feast of creamy soup in a bread bowl with smoked sausage and french fries with gravy. In the afternoon when they went back out, I sat on the outdoor balcony in the sun and took in the view while I started my next book. We called it a day around 4pm and took the train back down to the bottom. I am so happy and excited for Matthew who got to cross skiing in the Alps off his bucket list. I could tell how much fun he was having and I couldn't ask for anything better. Alex's parents had chilli waiting for us which was perfect after a long day outside. 

That night we took the train to Biel, a larger city to the north of Lyss and hung out at a bar with Alex's friends. It's fun seeing what nightlife is like in other places and what people from other countries wear and drink. Gabel and I go out plenty and have lots of fun on our own, but this was perfect - surrounded by our boys :) 

Gabel and Alex walked us to the train station in the morning and Matthew and I promptly passed out on the train until we arrived back at the Geneva airport. It was a quick flight back to Southampton and as that trip came to an end we realized our Europe trip as a whole was at an end as well. From London, Paris, Berlin, Geneva, and Southampton, we couldn't have asked for a better time. We were so lucky and fortunate in all of our endeavours and have so many blessings to count. 

From Paris to Berlin Part 2

Matthew and I landed in the Berlin Tegel airport around 11am and had the funniest airport experience. We only had our carryon luggage so we didn't need to stop at the baggage check but we were surprised to learn there was absolutely no security or customs whatsoever. We simply walked off the plane and through the small airport in about two minutes and were outside. Nobody stopped us! That left us with more time for exploring. 

We got in a cab to our hotel - another great find on Hotwire. It was called the Holiday Inn Alexanderplatz and was another 4 and a half star establishment for less than 80$ Canadian a night. It's located in the city centre, technically not the former east side and about a five minute walk from the Alexanderplatz TV Tower which looks very similar to the CN Tower. 

Once at our hotel we realized how exhausted we were and promptly wasted a couple hours taking a nap. We woke up in a panic around 230pm and figured we better go out exploring! Our main purpose in Berlin was Christmas markets as they have arguably some of the best in Europe and of course I love Christmas! I studied the map of Berlin I had found at the airport and we set off walking. There was a neat little Christmas market close to the TV tower that we went to first. It had a lot of stalls, a skating rink with lit up ice sculptures and a lit up ferris wheel. Matthew and I managed to order some food "rostbratwurst" and started looking. 

We then walked to Gendarmenmarkt which is probably the best known of all the Berlin Christmas markets and it came highly recommended to us. It was about a two and a half km walk from our hotel but we managed to do it without pulling out the map to double check! Without a doubt, this was my favourite experience of Berlin. The market costs a mere 1 euro to get in and you could be there for a whole day easily. I loved that were were there in the evening because it was dark and all the Christmas lights were out. The market itself is surrounded by two huge dome type buildings with incredible architecture and lights hanging from them. Theres a massive stage with a  disco ball up ahead hanging from columns of another beautiful old building. The disco ball gave the effect of falling sparkling snow everywhere. In the centre was a fountain and close by was a real Christmas tree about 30 feet tall with beautiful lights. Theres so many stalls it was hard to make sure we visited every single one. Some of it is indoors and some of it is outdoors. One thing you can count on is the food and beverages. I would say 60% of the market was devoted to the most delicious goodies ever. Everywhere you turned was some new smell that made our mouths water. We noticed fairly early on that everyone was sipping a mysterious beverage from these small blue mugs and Matthew finally summoned up the courage to investigate what it was. Luckily someone in line in front of us recognized our Canadian accents and started talking to us in English. We told him of our plight to discover the drink and the guy (from Texas!) told us it was probably Gluhwein. So Matthew ordered a Gluhwein and it turned out to be the tastiest drink. The best way to describe it is like warm, dry, sweet wine. We got to keep the mug too and it has neat little sculptures on it so it makes for a good souvenir. We loaded ourselves with lots of Christmas present goodies and sampled as many snacks as we could. I absolutely loved every second of it. After Gendarmenmarkt we made a quick stop at another Christmas market called Nostalgique which I assumed meant Old Fashioned Christmas Market because everything inside was old fashioned. The food was cooked and smoked on wood burning stoves, the rides were wooden; the atmosphere was just different. It was nice to see such variety in the Christmas markets. 

We then went for a late dinner at a restaurant near our hotel and then spent the night going through all our pics. We found a really neat breakfast cafe the next morning and then set out for some exploring and more Christmas markets. We did the touristy thing first, taking pictures at landmarks and then went to Potsdamer Platz Christmas market by the Sony Center. This one is a newer one right in the heart of the city where the west and east side mixed together. It had a toboggan run down the middle and we got more Christmas prezzies there. What I loved was that out in front, there were huge blocks of the Berlin Wall on display so I got to cross another thing off my bucket list and touch The Berlin Wall. I only touched it with my foot though because apparently it's a thing to stick your gum to the wall and each chunk was completely covered in peoples chewed up gum. Another neat thing about Berlin is that wherever the Berlin wall once stood, they've kept red coloured bricks on the ground so you can technically travel the whole line of the wall. Matthew and I intersected bits of that red brick trail lots of times on our journeys. 

Here was my disappointment with Berlin: the entire city is under construction and some parts of the city centre in the former east side are fairly shabby. We walked down the street that's supposed to be the most beautiful street in all of Berlin but about a third of the buildings are covered with scaffold and from any place that you stand, your view is obscured by at least 12 construction cranes. When we were there the weather was horrible as well. The second day  it was so foggy we couldn't even see the TV tower when we were standing right next to it. I thought we were lost because we often used it as a point of navigation. 

Not to say that it was bad- there really are some incredible buildings to look at and we got some great pictures in front of a few of them, including the very impressive Berliner Dom Protestant Cathedral which was more unique than any building or cathedral I had seen in Europe thus far. There's lots of history to see still and plenty of renowned museums and art exhibits that we just didn't have time to venture in to. 

We flew home to Gatwick Airport in London that Thursday night and made the train trek back to Southampton. I had managed to find some advance tickets on sale and the train only cost us 5£ each when the regular price is 31.40£ each! We reunited with Gabel and I braced myself to have to go into work the next day. Travelling to The Isle of Wight would seem a little lack lustre on the back of that amazing trip with Matthew. We both agreed it was the best experience of our lives and I'm so grateful we got to share that together. I'm really proud of how well we got on in foreign cities and for how thrifty we managed to be in our travels. Sorry to end on such a corny note but those three days were the trip of a lifetime. 

From Paris to Berlin Part 1

On Monday December 9th, I went to work at Ryde but could barely contain my excitement. That evening Matthew and I would be flying to Paris!! 

I caught a train from Portsmouth after work that would bring me directly to Southampton Airport and I gave Matthew specific instructions on how he could train to the airport from my flat. We ended up meeting on the same train and arrived at Southampton Airport just before 5pm for our 6pm flight. Gabel and I had never used Southampton Airport before so I was to be the guinea pig. It turns out, it's amazing! It's a small airport which is a blessing. From the second we walked in to the airport, to the second we were clear of security took maybe 7 minutes. No hassle whatsoever and not too many commuters. The other amazing part is how cheap our flight was. Only 48£ each to fly to Paris!  At 6 we got onto our Flybe plane and had a laugh because it was such a tiny plane! It was a propeller one with only two seats on each side of the aisle and it wasn't very long. Both of our carryon luggage did not fit in the overhead compartment and it was quite a job to fit it under the seat. Luckily the flight to Paris is only just over an hour and so it wasn't too bad. We landed at Orly Airport at 8:20 (Paris is one hour ahead) and  took a cab to our hotel. 

As a side note, our hotel was AMAZING. We found it on Hotwire which is a website I highly recommend because we got our 4 and a half star hotel for very cheap. It was called Novotel Paris Tour Eiffel and as the name suggests it was a short walk away from the Eiffel Tower. The lobby area was decorated for Christmas like I've never seen with the most beautiful and unique decorations all made out of blue, green and turquoise glass. The hotel concierge delivered us the great news that they were going to upgrade our room to a superior room! We had a view of the Seine River and the Paris Statue of Liberty. We got settled in and had a quick nap because I was so tired from teaching. But at midnight we decided to go out and take pictures of the Eiffel tower. 

It's so beautiful at night! The tower is all lit up in gold light and every hour on the hour all these sparkly diamond lights go off all over it for about five minutes. Matthew bought me roses :) and then we took a whole bunch of pictures. It was such a magical and romantic night. I think it was much taller than both of us realized it would be. We stayed out until 2 in the morning exploring down by the river before returning back to the hotel. The whole thing was just so surreal for us. Here we were, reunited again and standing in the most romantic city in the world. 

The next morning we got up and went to the Eiffel Cafe and had the best breakfast. We each had a crepes stuffed with ham, egg, and cheese and then for dessert we shared a waffle with banana and chocolate sauce. I was really happy because I was able to speak to our server in french the whole time. From there we went back to the Eiffel Tower and saw it by daylight. It's still just as impressive. We decided to wait in the massive line to take the elevator all the way up to the top. It turned out that it takes three separate elevators to get up but it only cost us 13 euros. We were definitely lucky that we had amazing weather. It was a clear, sunny day and so the view was crazy! I didn't realize how huge Paris is. We stayed up top for awhile taking pictures, watching the hot air balloons, and gazing down the Seine River as far as we could see. From up top we saw some of the other sights we planned on visiting and were able to plan out our route!

Once back on the ground we both experienced the same sensation of feeling TINY! I felt like a little ant in a giant's world. We crossed the street to go over the bridge and took pictures overlooking the Seine. At the end of the bridge we were able to go to the Pallais de Chaillot which is made up of two really interesting looking and symmetrical curved buildings with lots of statues. The great part about it is that it offers some of the best views of the Eiffel Tower so we were able to get even more pictures (you don't even want to know how many we took!). After that we walked a kilometre and a bit to the Arc de Triomphe. At first we couldn't figure out how to get to it! It's surrounded by a massive six lane traffic circle that I would never want to drive through ever. Turns out you have to take this underground passage and you pop up on the inside of the Arc. I loved reading the inscriptions and then Matthew made us climb up the stairs to go to the top of it on the inside. We were feeling pretty tired after all those stairs so we decided it was high time to navigate the Paris Underground system. 

The Arc de Triomphe has an underground station so we ventured down. I was actually pretty surprised by how shabby it is. The London Underground is much nicer. The Paris underground is also more difficult to figure out but we managed to do it. We hopped on a couple of trains that took us to the Notre Dame Cathedral. I was pleasantly surprised that we were able to go inside for free, especially when there was a mass going on. It was so beautiful of course, although I've been to some cathedrals in England that were more colourful on the inside. There was a massive Christmas tree outside all lit up though and I quite liked that. The Louvre is really close to the cathedral so we made that our last stop for the evening. I'm really happy we went there at night time because we got to see the glass pyramids all lit up. We had been under advisement not to actually go inside because it's so massive it easily takes more than a day and we didn't have that kind of time. To be honest, I was more than happy to just be on top outside. The whole gallery looks like an old castle and the pyramids are all surrounded by pretty ponds and statues. It was great to be there at night time. Underneath the main pyramid is the Louvre Mall and we found some really neat stores in there and of course the famous spot where the bottom point of the big glass pyramid almost touches the small stone one. 

By this time it was getting on to 730pm so we decided to call it a day - a very successful day! Five major tourist attractions in a day! We took the underground back to our hotel and then got all dressed up. My dad and Annette were extremely generous and gave Matt some euros before he came. We were under strict instructions to use the money for a fancy dinner in Paris (well if we haaaave to!). We chose Benkay - a very fancy Japanese restaurant where you can sit around while the chefs prepare the food right in front of you and you can get sushi that literally melts in your mouth. It was nice and different for a change. 

The next morning we were up bright and early and took a cab to the Charles De Gaulle airport and caught a plane to Berlin. We said a sad goodbye to Paris but were looking forward to Berlin. 

My overall impression of Paris is that it's totally worth it. I had worried that it might be one of those cities that has too much hype but it definitely lived up to everything people say about it. It's so beautiful, accessible, and there's tons of stuff to do wherever you go. Everything is very reasonably priced as well - much cheeper than London! 

REUNITED

On September 6th I hopped onto a plane to head to Southampton. Exactly 3 months later, on December 6th, Matthew was due to arrive. It's probably going to be too difficult to adequately explain what it's been like being apart for three months or what it was like that day I got to go pick him up from the airport. 

Obviously I missed him. That's an understatement. We've been dating since we were sixteen years old. It's been seven and a half years. In that time we've never been apart for more than a week and that only happened twice. Suddenly we were separated by an ocean and five hours time difference which often made planning Skype sessions difficult. We did an amazing job at keeping in touch and sending each other letters and little surprises. It was still hard every day and I just felt like something substantial was always missing from my life. 

On Friday December 6th, after a mere 3 hours of sleep and a particularly busy and exhausting week, I got up at 4:45am. I got ready, packed my bag, grabbed some water and walked over to the Southampton coach station to grab the 6:00am bus I had purchased tickets for. I was the definition of a mess. Besides being absolutely exhausted, I was an emotional wreck of giddiness, anxiety, and excitement. The bus ride to London Victoria (downtown London) was two and a half hours and that ride was basically a combination of me drifting in and out of sleep while occasionally crying with excitement and anticipation and then staring out the window wildly while tapping my feet in a frenzied rhythm. 

From London Victoria I had to take the London Underground to Heathrow Airport and that was a 50 minute trip (for the record it's only about a 1 hour and 15 minute drive from Southampton to Heathrow Airport but I don't have a car and I chose the cheapest mode of transport available). Another 50 minutes of me sitting there DYING with too many emotions. We finally got to Heathrow and I ran up those escalators until I was finally above ground in the arrival section of Terminal 3. I saw the gate I knew he'd be walking out of and paced back and forth like a crazy person for about 7 minutes trying to find the best vantage point. Suddenly I got a text from him saying he was in the airport, just claiming his luggage and I just kept sending back texts saying HURRY, RUN, GET OUT HERE. I honestly don't really know what happened after I saw him come through the gate. I remember running and then we were together and just couldn't let go. There's never been a more surreal experience in my life. We were together again. Standing in Heathrow Airport. I just know we didn't let each other go for a long time. 

After awhile when we finally got ourselves together again, we headed back to the underground and went to the Kensington area of London where our hotel (Ambassador's Hotel) was located. It was in a great spot but our room wasn't ready yet so we dropped off our bags and went exploring. Poor Matthew was exhausted too because he didn't sleep at all on the plane (but managed to watch 3 movies!). We got on the Underground at Gloucester Road which was just around the corner from our Hotel. We took it to Westminster station where I knew that Big Ben, the houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye were located. As we climbed the steps up to above ground, I looked at Matthew and warned him. I said,  "Just so you're warned we are about to walk up right into the heart of London!" And sure enough our first view coming out from underground was that of Big Ben, right there in front of us. Matthew was soooo surprised. It was definitely an impressive first view for him. We took tons of pictures around all those aforementioned attractions and then meandered over to Trafalgar Square for more pics. At that point we took a quick coffee break at Costa Coffee and then took the underground to Buckingham Palace. We walked through Green Park and the Canada Gate. For dinner, we wandered around Kensington before settling upon a cute little pizzeria and then we called it a night. 

The next day we had planned on getting up early but who were we kidding? We finally got going just before 11 and our first stop was to Leicester Square to get some half price theatre tickets! If you know where to look, and you get there early enough, there's some great deals to be had. Unfortunately as we didn't get that early start, the tickets we wanted for Once were sold out. I did manage to find some really cheap tickets (12.50£ each down from 40£ each) for a performance of The 39 Steps which is an Alfred Hitchcock comedy (weird right?!). With our tickets securely purchased we headed out to live out a bucket list dream of mine - The Globe Theatre!! The walk to it was through really quaint area of the city that had lots of side markets and shops. The original Globe Theatre burnt down of course but this recreation was pretty close to the exact location of the first one and was built in as close of a replica as possible. I was in heaven! Unfortunately the theatre only puts on shows during the summer but we were able to pay to the tour and walk around the museum exhibition. I was absolutely fascinated and could have stayed in the shop at the end forever. Matthew got the best pictures for which I am so grateful and I can now check that off the bucket list. I'll be going back to the Globe next summer to see a show for sure. 

Next up was a chance for Matthew to live out one of his dreams and we took the Underground to Shoreditch station to go to Rough Trade East record store. Up until that point I had only really seen the nice parts of London. I wouldn't say this area wasn't nice but it was certainly rougher, vibrant and eclectic. I loved it because it was something different. We walked through the crowded streets until we came upon the store. Matthew was in heaven and I loved watching him there. He bought himself a record as a souvenir and then we went on to our next destination: Camden Markets. 

Gabel and Alex had been there the weekend previously and highly recommended it so we gave it a chance. The market area is huge!! The streets are so bustling, theres thousands of stores and stalls, and there's really neat decorations everywhere like lights hanging over the roads. We managed to get a lot of Christmas presents there and could have easily stayed for so much longer but we were conscious of the time and knew we had to get back and get ready before the show. 

Back at the hotel we got all dolled up and planned on going out for a nice dinner in Piccadilly Circus before the show. The 39 Steps was playing at the Centurion Theatre which is right at the heart of PIccadilly Circus. We hopped on the underground but life had other plans for us that night. At Hyde Park Corner (two stops too soon and a 30 minute walk to the theatre) the underground broke down and we were forced to evacuate and go back up to the top. I was wearing my high heeled boots and in no mood to walk 30 minutes. We walked about halfway and then using my phone I managed to figure out a bus route so we took that. The streets were absolute chaos because besides the underground being broken and all the theatre goers being forced up top, Hyde Park was host to a Winter Wonderland attraction which was drawing in thousands more people. By the time we got to Piccadilly Circus, our show was starting in about 25 minutes so we didn't have time for a sit down meal like we had hoped. We frantically searched the area around the Centurion Theatre for a fast food restaurant and of course the only thing we could find in the immediate vicinity was a McDonalds. So there we were all dolled up and standing in line at the McDonalds. Unfortunately a lot of other people had the same idea so by the time we got the food we only had time to eat some of it. In a panic, I shoved a McChicken in my coat pocket with the plan to sneakily eat it at the theatre. Unfortunately McDonalds smells very strongly so every time we tried to pull it out at the theatre, we decided against it. The 39 Steps is a very comical show though. The whole thing is done by only 4 actors and they each play multiple parts which is hilarious when they have multiple characters in the same scene. 

Outside the theatre after the show, Piccadilly was bustling and full of life like it is on weekends, which I love. We watched a bunch of street performers and took pictures of all the lights and then ducked inside a Cinnabon because we were unable to resist the smell. We carted our delicious feast back to our hotel and then sat in bed at midnight, finished our McChicken from my coat pocket, and topped it off with Cinnabon. I can assure you we are nothing but classy! 

The next morning we headed to the coach station and boarded our bus back to Southampton! I was so excited to show Matthew where I've been living the past few months. 

London is still one of my favourite cities and it was even that much better when there with my love! I should also make note here that Matthew was locked and loaded with a professional Canon camera borrowed from his company that's valued in the thousands of dollars range so our pictures from London and the rest of his visit are pretty spectacular. 

The Great Suffering of Britain

I've mentioned in previous blog entries how it seems that Brits suffer through inclement weather.  No one wears rain boots or uses umbrellas or hoods when it rains. Everyone just gets soggy. However, this observation has now extended to the colder weather. England clung on to summer for as long as it could however in November I would say fall finally hit. The leaves finally changed colour from their vibrant green (from so much rain!) and turned to a yellow (no red leaves!). The daily high stayed around the 10-12 degree range and at night it plummeted to 4 degrees. At this point I expected our football season to relocate indoors. It seemed crazy to expect that we would keep playing outside at night when it was so cold we could see our breath. But nothing changed! No domes were put over our playing fields and we didn't move inside. Gabel and I were shocked. As much as we are Canadian, an endurance for colder weather is not preprogrammed into our genes. In Canada we simply hibernate and avoid the cold. In England, they suffer. So at our football games it became a necessity to wear pants, gloves and hoodies. Those minutes when you were off waiting to sub back on feel like an eternity. The sting of the ball smacking your skin is that much more painful when your skin is cold and stiff. 

This suffering is not unique to the football season. My students (and all students) still walk to school wearing only their uniforms. No jackets over top their blazers. Ryde Academy is made up of many different buildings that are not connected by any indoor tunnel. In between classes, students suffer out in the cold. Additionally, before a class starts, students are not allowed to enter the room until invited to do so by a teacher. Therefore I always make sure to scurry over to my classroom right at the start so that I can get them in and out of the cold. On Mondays I take my year 7's to the library which is a good 2-3 minute walk outside without our coats. It never fails that they walk slowly, chatting with each other and I'm always at the back of the line shouting "Oi! Miss M is cold back here so lets pick up the pace!" 

Back home I adapt quite quickly to colder weather. Out comes the boots, hats, gloves, scarves, warmer jackets, etc. There's a barely perceptible difference in people's attire here. I am easily the most bundled up person at any point on my morning commute to work. Some people still wear trainers and a light leather jacket. It's December people! 

The best way I can describe it is that nationally there's a universal lack of adaptation. They just carry on the same as always. Some months are great, some months you suffer, and that's just the way it is here! I need to toughen up!

A Week in the Life - November

What have we been up to?! Here's a look at a typical week in the life of Kat and Gabel in good old Southampton. 

Monday: 

We get up at 6:00am and go to work. 

We catch the 6:53 train to Portsmouth and Southsea. Take a taxi to the Hovercraft. Hover over the Solent to The Isle of Wight and then taxi to Ryde Academy. 

We get home from work exhausted from the kidlings who resist Mondays just as much as we do. 

Make a quick dinner while watching a show (most likely Sons of Anarchy to which Gabel does a fantastic sing a long of the opening credits). 

Then Gabel heads off to German lessons at the University of Southampton and I sink into lesson planning, marking, and falling asleep while doing both. 

Living the dream really. 

Tuesday:

It's really imperative we get home quickly from teaching on Tuesdays because we have soccer training at 6:00pm. So we rush home, make dinner and then our lovely friend Louise comes and picks us up and brings us to training. It's only an hour and we usually do a skills type warmup and then split into a few different teams and play 5 versus 5 games in a mini tournament style. It's pretty fun and a great workout. We've met tons of really great girls at football. 

Tuesday is also grocery night. The reason that this is worth mentioning is because I dare you to try and do your weekly groceries without a car. Especially when you love food as much as Gabel and I do. So before we go out we have to plan out every meal we want for the week and then turn that into a food list that we strictly stick to so as to avoid going nuts at the store and buying more than we can carry. We always bring backpacks and a suitcase with us. I'm not joking. Tuesday nights at 8pm you can find us roaming the aisles of ASDA with a  rolly suitcase and backpacks. We then have to cart everything back to our place. Luckily it's only a 5-7 minute walk but I can't tell you how many times I've broken my back on that walk with a backpack loaded with 10 cans of soup and multiple jugs of water. 

Wednesday: 

Wednesday can go one of two ways. Its either the best night of the week when we have nothing. Or once a month we play in our women's 11 a side league for the Chamberlayne FC. This is a lot of fun but very time consuming. We usually have to leave around 5:30 (so only 45 minutes after getting home from work) and don't get home until just after 10pm. By the time we shower and make our lunches for the next day, there goes the whole night. We always carpool with our lovely teammates whom we've started to get to know pretty well. 

Thursday: 

This is our regular football game night for our 5 a side league. Gabel and I play with Louise on a team called The Black Swans and we're really good! We score lots of goals and our keeper Katy is brilliant. She's hurt right now though so hopefully she makes a speedy recovery for our first week back in January. The games last 45 minutes and are usually after 7:30pm.

Friday: 

This is known as pigout night. When we come home on Fridays it's bust out the beers, wine, vodka, etc and we order as much crappy food as we can. It's usually some sort of pizza deal with garlic bread and chicken wings and then our own homemade poutine. I'd like to say that we party on Fridays but usually we just go to a  movie or put on a movie in one of our beds and get cozy watching TV all night until we fall asleep. I remember the first Friday back after half term (so the first full week in November) we got into Gabel's bed to put on a movie and we fell asleep at 7:30pm and that was it for us. We were so wiped from that stressful first week back! But it's not always that sad I promise. 

Saturday: 

After sleeping in finally, we party on Saturday nights. Our club of choice is Oceana because its massive and only a 5 minute walk from our place and we really love the music. 

Sunday:

I look forward to Sunday morning breakfast alllllll week. Its our tradition to make our home fries and poached eggs with hollandaise sauce on english muffins with ham and spinach. And then we always make a hungover trip to Shakeaway to get a large chocolate raspberry shake. 

A big part of november was also my illness. I'm still sick. It's getting ridiculous. I got sick the first week of October and I'm still trying to fight the remnants. I have tried every single drug store cold medicine available but I just have not been able to kick it. . After I got over the laryngitis, it seemed like I just had a mild cough left over. However by mid November, the cough had flared up again and was quite disruptive to my teaching. Then added to the mix was severe lung pain in my right lung. It was unbearable to cough, I couldn't laugh or sneeze without being in pain, breathing deeply was a no no and I couldn't prop myself up at all or lean on anything. Gabel finally insisted on bringing me to the hospital one weekend and they gave me antibiotics but it didn't do anything. Eventually after a couple weeks the lung pain kept gradually subsiding. Right now at the end of December I'm just down to a mild cough again but I'm hoping a return home to the Canadian climate clears it up!

Another facet of November life was our heating debacle. As it was so mild here for so long Gabel and I never really made it a priority to figure out the heating. Once November hit we realized our flat was quite freezing and especially upstairs. The floor heating seemed to always be on and working on the main floor but you could quite literally feel a temperature change of a few degrees as you start walking to the upstairs. All of our windows let in a noticeable draft. My room is pretty bad but Gabel's is definitely the worst and of course she put her bed right against the window. We tried calling our landlord to inform him that we didn't have any working heaters in the flat and especially nothing upstairs but he was unreachable for about two weeks. It therefore became quite funny to watch our nightly routine of getting ready for bed. Gabel fashioned herself a turban out of a small blanket to stop the heat from escaping through her head. She also bundled up every sweater she owned and lined the windowsill with it to try and act like a barrier. My routine involved spreading out one of my two blankets flat on my bed and then lying one the very edge of one side of it. I would then roll myself down the blanket while holding the edge so I effectively became some sort of mummy/sausage thing. I would then have to slither my way like a worm back to the top of my bed and under the other cover and thereby achieved the result of sealing in as much heat as possible. Taking a shower was even more unappealing now because besides the slow and unimpressive water pressure, we now faced the instant freeze that happened coming out of the shower as our hair almost became icicles. Finally our landlord came through one day and had four heater delivered to our place!! We instantly put one in each of our rooms and life has been a lot better since! We'll have to see what our resulting electrical bill is but it's going to be worth it. 

No matter what day of the week it is, we're basically inseparable. We do everything together, tell each other everything. If theres a day where Gabel doesn't come into Ryde with me, we can't watch TV while we eat dinner because we spend the whole time catching each other up on what we missed in the  mere 9 hours we were apart. We sleep with our doors open at night so we can call out to each other across the hall. We have so many inside jokes and we've basically developed our own language. A really funny thing I did in November was take a picture of each of us on the train ride to Ryde in the mornings. Gabel always passed out hard in the first 15 minutes of the train taking off and I could never sleep. She has that conditions that babies have where they fall asleep in moving vehicles. So I took a picture every single work day of November of Gabel sleeping on the train in her various different poses and positions (leaning forward, leaning sideways, mouth wide open, furrowed brow, etc) and then took a funny picture of myself. I've been sending the pics to Jen (her sister) for a good laugh and I just revealed all the pics to Gabel herself. I said to her, "That's what November looked like from my perspective!" 

So thats an average week in the life for Gabel and myself in November. It's not all glitz and glamour. Sure some weekends we're jetting off to London or Scotland or Switzerland or something but if it makes everyone feel better we have fairly average lives most of the time!

 Getting ready for football!

 Chamberlayne FC

 Drinking beers on the train on a Friday 

 just joking around at school

 Going out!

If All Else Fails We'll Open a Restaurant

If All Else Fails We'll Open A Restaurant

I always start to make the joke that "for students we eat very well!" But then I remember that we're not actually students anymore. - we're the teachers! Nonetheless for overworked first year teachers in a new country without a lot of money - we eat well! A lot of it can be attributed to our mutual love for food and cooking but I've also been collecting recipes from Pinterest. The result is that we have some pretty wicked dinners. Here's a sample menu of some of our mouthwatering endeavours in November . 

1. Chicken Cordon Bleu: chicken breast brushed lightly with chipotle and coriander and stuffed with light mozzarella chunks and cooked ham strips. Baked to perfection and served with green onion mashed potatoes, green beans and gravy. 
2. Fish Tacos: Finely chopped and fried Halibut and Salmon. Sprinkled with cumin and lemon juice and then rolled into soft tortilla shells. Toppings include shredded cheddar cheese and a homemade salsa chutney consisting of diced avocado, tomato, mango, and onion. 
3. Gourmet Deli Salad: Cooked shrimp sizzling in lemon juice, coriander and cumin sitting on top of a bed of avocado, tomato, light mozzarella, and green onion. Drizzled over with balsamic vinegar. 
4. Maple Dijon Chicken: Known on Pinterest as "The Best Chicken Recipe". Baked chicken breasts marinated in equal parts maple syrup and dijon mustard with a little bit of white rice vinegar for seasoning. Placed on top of penne pasta with sliced fresh peppers.  
5. White Chicken Chilli: Chicken broth cooked with salsa for thickening with shredded chicken breast strips, avocado, mixed beans and green onion. 
6. Fajitas: A new twist on a classic favourite. Substitute jarred salsa for homemade tomato, red onion, avocado and balsamic vinegar topping. Served with the classic tortillas, green peppers, onions, and seasoned chicken strips. 
7. Crepes: Homemade crepes stuffed with a cream cheese, raspberry, and chocolate mixture, then drizzled over with homemade chocolate sauce. 
8. The Healthy Desserts: Black Cherry yogurt mixed with fresh pomegranate and cereal. Served with a tray of freshly diced pineapple
9. The Best Breakfast: Homefries cooked in chicken broth with onion, poached eggs with ham and spinach atop an english muffin with homemade hollandaise sauce. Lightly sprinkled with pepper for seasoning. 

The kicker is that most of the dinner recipes we actually made during the week after work and not on weekends. I love cooking with Gabel cuz we're both really messy cooks and eaters. Plus we're just a dream team in the kitchen, divvying out tasks. When we sit down to eat and you survey our kitchen, you would think that we had cooked for about 6 people and you would probably start to pull out the vacuum and every cleaning product you could find. It's a definite Enter At Your Own Risk zone when we're cooking, albeit a very delicious one. 

Cheers! 

Kat

I'm A Real Teacher!

So I know there's been a shocking lack of blogging going on since I returned back to work after my half term adventures. It can all directly be explained by a dramatic life change for me that was quite unexpected. 

As you know, I've been working part time at Ryde Academy on the Isle of Wight every Monday and Friday. The majority of all my supply work has been at Ryde Academy as well. Even though I worked part time, I was still really just considered a supply. Two of the class I taught on Monday and Friday were co taught with another teacher (not at the same time) and so they would leave me cover lesson plans and do any marking. One of the classes was my own but I was given a slideshow with a scheme of work on it so I had to do little prep or marking. 

When I got back from half term everything was different. You could tell there was an atmosphere of change around the school. We had a new English department head (Karen). On that first Monday back Karen told me they were going to be reevaluating my timetable. I instantly panicked and thought that maybe they no longer needed me. I summoned up the courage to ask Karen what she meant by that and she said, "Well we'd like for you to be full time now." 

My jaw dropped. But to be honest, I didn't even really have time to think about it. It all happened so fast. One minute I was a supply teacher like I had always intended and the next minute I was given a full weekly timetable.  I inherited seven new classes. 

I hadn't come to England to be a full time teacher. I had come to be a supply teacher which gave me the freedom to work when I wanted, to travel, and to not take home any stresses at the end of the day. No marking, no lesson plans. Nothing. I had also only planned on staying until Christmas but this new job opportunity would have me staying until the end of next summer. So why did I take the job? Besides a lack of time to consider it, there was something so tempting about it. I love teaching. Supplying is babysitting and crowd control. But I absolutely love teaching. I also figured that at the end of the day when I come back to Canada, it's going to be a lot better on my resume to have not just been a supply teacher but to also be a real teacher. Furthermore, I had really only just begun to do all the travelling I wanted. England is beautiful and I needed more time to explore. 

So there I was. Finally a real teacher! It was not all glamour though. Once the excitement of getting my name badge, staff laptop, special desk area in the english staff room, and new classes wore off, the workload was insane. Sorry to use cliches but it was literally baptism by fire and sink or swim. I was replacing a teacher who was leaving immediately and that left me no time to do any shadowing, lesson planning, or familiarizing myself with the British curriculum. I left school on Monday as a supply teacher and came in the next day to teach year 9 English on a book I had never heard of. I printed off multiple worksheets I had found online but of 

course when I brought them in I discovered that the students had already done all of them. That left me with an hour and a half to kill and little concept of what they had been previously studying. Nonetheless I managed to completely wing it like so many other things in the beginning. I was given 150 different students spread out into 7 different classes. I have two year 7 classes (ages 11-12), one year eight class (ages 12-13), two year nine classes (ages 13-14), one year ten class (ages 14-15) and one year 12 class (17-18). I absolutely adore every single one of my classes except for one. Most of my students are so great and I have a lot of fun teaching them. I just have one demon class but realistically I think it's good to have such a challenge because it wouldn't be helpful to me as a new teacher to only have easy classes. I need the constant challenge and stress that they bring so I can keep working on my teaching style and learn how to handle myself. They are a super challenging bunch though. The first three lessons I had with them I had to shout at them up and down so loudly until they quivered in their seats. After that I kept trying different ways to break them and it's been a lot better since. They keep me on my toes and although I used to dread our twice a week lessons, I now actually look forward to teaching them. 

In terms of how else I got on at the beginning: the first two weeks were hell. There's no other way to describe it. Up almost all night every single night of the week. Non stop working. There were tears. Every day there was something else added to what seemed like an already insurmountable workload for me. Every day there was something else to stress about or something else that went wrong. Two weeks of misery. Then finally after a lot of sweat and tears I managed to complete all lesson planning for all seven of my classes for the rest of the semester (so up until Christmas). I taught myself how to do marking the British way. I taught myself the Keystage 3 and Keystage 4 curriculum. I taught myself what exam boards were and what exam board Ryde was using (WJEC) and how to prepare my students for it. I had two very helpful teachers at Ryde who guided me in all my multiple questions. I made seven new seating plans and memorized the names of my now 150 students. I tried to get on top of all staff expectations for the school and leaned all the rules and customs and systems in place. It's so different from Canada it's not comparable. 

I can tell you that it was worth it though. There is no better feeling than walking down the halls and hearing "HI MISS M!" and having a student tell you that you're their favourite teacher. I genuinely never minded being a supply teacher, but the feeling of walking down the halls as a permanent full time teacher is so gratifying. 

So for now the challenges are difficult but I am really loving overcoming them and becoming the teacher I've always wanted to be.