Canterbury!!

We finally took a day to explore with some great friends we have over here. We spent the day in Canterbury. Those of you with English Degrees, might remember Canterbury from such famous Chaucer works as "Canterbury Tales". While we didn't see the animatronic celebrity voice driven Canterbury Tales exhibit we did see lots! We saw the candy store which did all the candy for the newer Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Movie. we saw many neat shops and stores. We went on a little river cruise with Captain Thom and saw a duck!

One of the most amazing things was the Cathedral. It was so beautiful. With everything here being so old there are so many stories and tales about everything it makes each notch on every pew so rich in history. We just don't have that at home so it's very neat to see these things.













Above you see me enjoying some Peruvian Rice and Potatoes with Lime and Chili Sauce in Stir Fried Vegetables. I know crazy right? It's not cheese and bread. It was delicious. I hope I am this brave to keep eating weird (for me) food when I get home.

Below is Ben locking me into a phone booth. Not really, but I am inside and he is out. Sneaky. Overall it was a really fun day. We need to make sure we take the days like this to enjoy ourselves so we don't get burnt out at school.

Everybody's working for the weekend- and we work during the weekend.

The black cloud that sometimes hangs above us.
The lovely Kate :)

Here are some pictures of us working from last weekend. We haven't been great about balancing our life/work schedules. Which is crazy because exploring is what we came over to do. So here is a taste of our lives during the weekends.

Just a couple of random pictures

Might have posted this already- apparently I really enjoy thai food. Delicious.
A cool old building in Rochester- many old cool buildings in Rochester.
A trippy sunset in Rochester. Not sure why but the sky just seems to stretch on forever in this place. No mountains as a frame of reference I guess.
That's me there. Can you find me? London was very pretty but very windy that day.

Some more from our First Trip to London

Our Trip to BlueWater Mall

Above you will see me with a Starbucks. In heaven. Below, you see Ben with a skull and mini pirate ship pond. Also awesome.
This poster says: Some People are Gay. Get Over It. It's everywhere and it's awesome.
Took this from the train as we were going over the water. So pretty....

A whole new world.

So, we have been very bad at updating the blog. Mainly because we are so busy with learning student names, learning new jargon, learning colleagues names, being observed, marking workbooks ETC... that we have just not had the energy to post to the world.

Anyway, we are surviving. Teaching in England is really teaching in a whole different world. The curriculum isn't that different, it's the strategies and tools that motivate students that are so very different. We can't share many details as we have been warned the internet is not always a private place to tell stories about students. But all we can say is we are sort of re-learning how to teach. Many if not most of the strategies that were dynamite at home, are cause for laughter here. We have been told many many times now at the school that you must earn your respect, you don't simply hold it by being the adult in the room. And how to earn that respect we have yet to figure out. Yelling is one option- not one we are totally comfortable with. But when in Rome... or something....

We are really lucky that the staff has been very supportive and there are a few students here and there that say sweet things in their little accents that remind us why we are here. In the Year 9 class, which is approximately grade 8, we are studying Charles Dickens. We read Oliver Twist this week and it was SO adorable hearing them say "Please sir, I want some more" in their perfect little accents. And the other two Canadian teachers have been a huge support for us. It's like being a student teacher again and going into the staff room giving a fellow student teacher that look. And they just know what you are thinking. It's usually I need to cry/scream/laugh but they always know.

Anyway, on another note, we finally have broadband internet (yeah!) so I will post more pictures right now actually so that you can see more of what we have been up to.

Miss you all Canada. Miss you all.

The After Picture: After the first day with Students :)

Well we survived our first day of teaching. While we each only had to teach two blocks, as Ben said after school today, at least now we have an idea of what we can expect. We have been warned not to speak specifically about the students on any social internet way, so I won't go into details too much. Just lots of range of ability. Lots of really "bright spots" as far as students and learning moments go. Lots of "Miss, miss, miss" being yelled constantly in our ears. Students are very very chatty, punishment for my years of being the chatty one in the classroom I am sure! Lots of playing the firm hand to start and hoping we can ease off later. As always, the staff at the school have been so amazingly supportive. We feel really fortunate to have such a great safety net ready to catch us if we fall.

Anyway, lots of planning and prepping to do and we are both exhausted so going to bed very early tonight.

We will try and post pictures of our classrooms, but until then, here is the picture taken immediately following our first day- in which, not including travel we spent we spent 11 hours at the school. Not bad for first year teachers, not bad at all!

Cheers as they say!!

The Before Picture: Before we started teaching.

Pictures we took before our first day of school, where it was most administrative stuff and meeting the staff.

Step 1: How to Make a Comment

Some of you have asked how to make comments on the blog. It is really nice to hear from people who comment on the blog and so I thought I would include these three easy steps for how to make comments on the blog.

Let me know if you have any questions, oh and we miss each and every one of you.

Yes, even you who is reading this right now.

First step is easy, locate the little blue hyperlink or link that says "Comments"

Step 2: How to Make a Comment

Second step is just click on the spot where it says "0 Comments". Of course if someone has already commented, it will reflect that in the number.

You'll see in the next step a window should pop up. If this doesn't happen make sure your browser does not have a pop-up blocker up. You may need to allow it.

Step 3: How to Make a Comment

Finally, this window should pop up all you have to do is write what you want to say, (remember that everyone will be able to read it!)

If you use Google you should be able to log in as yourself and comment, or if you would like to not bother logging in, just click on anonymous and sign your name at the bottom of your comment!

Thanks for making a comment!!

Because, how could I resist?

L-O-N-D-O-N what is it about you?

When we walked out of the Train station in London, I was fiddling with the camera not paying attention to what was happening, Ben taps me on the shoulder, tells me to look up, and what do we see, but the theatre where Wicked is playing. Right out of our train station. Coincidence? Never. Meant to be. Definitely.

We found out that tickets to Wicked if you have a student card are only 25 pounds! So I may be sneaking off to London to see Wicked many times over the next year.

Down the street is also the theatre for Billy Elliot, which I am DYING to see, but will wait for a special occasion, like a Thursday :)

We did however score tickets from the TKTS booth. Those of you who love NYC  like I do, know that this is a great place to get half price day of tickets. We settled on seeing Avenue Q for the evening and it was great! Nothing like some innappropriate puppetry to start off a year in the UK!

As well you see our beer choices for the evening, dark and light, like ourselves, a guinness (of course) and an Amstel, my new beer of choice.

Love is all you need.

We walked the "Westminster Walk" as recommended in our guide book, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben (meant to be, obviously), as well as the parliament buildings, and the national gallery.

Then we visited Denmark Street, where there are MANY guitar and instrument stores which have been visited by a few bands you may have heard of, The Beatles perhaps? It was really neat, and Ben pretty much was in Heaven. In that picture you see him playing and admiring some guitars he has until now only interacted with through the internet. This store sold many vintage guitars and I am sure we will be going back very soon.

London Baby!

I will add more photos when we are on Broadband internet. For now here is a taste of our first trip into London!

Walking around Rochester

Charles Dickens, A Rochester Legend.

Rochester is the town where Charles Dickens spent the last few years of his life. He used the town and the people as inspiration for his books (this is a direct quote from Ben who paid attention to the signs more then I did) In these couple pictures you see the courtyard dedicated to things about him, as well as the house in which he died.

The Golden Lion: UK Edition

Here you see the Golden Lion, which is not a Chinese food restaurant on King George Highway in White Rock. It is in fact the pub we have been to many times because they have wireless internet, cheap drinks and serve food until 10pm. It is a great pub, might be a chain but we like it anyway.

Rochester High Street

 In these three shots you see the entrance to High Street, the beginning of High Street and the greatest Thai food we have had since we arrived from a building from the 15th Century, Thai Four Two.

A couple of shops close to our home