My final days in England

But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near
~Andrew Marvell

I came across this quote a few years ago and it has stuck with me ever since. I have found that my life has been divided into many chapters and as I near each chapter's end, however long it may be, I find myself very pensive. There is a certain sadness that comes with the ending of each chapter as I feel it approaching. I find myself wishing that I could stop time dead in its tracks. But for me, the important thing is that at the end of each chapter, I can look back and truly appreciate all I experienced and all I learned about myself. My chapter in England has been no exception.

My last two days of work for Richard Language college are on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and then I fly back to the US on Thursday. I will be ending my job on Wednesday with a half-day excursion to Winchester. My friend Jane is going to drive me to the airport on Thursday....such a sweetheart. She volunteered to do that for me and it means I don't have to pay to ride a coach for four hours to the airport!

I'm trying to squeeze in as much as I can these next two days, but my job doesn't leave me much time for that. I have a few things I'd like to do in/around Bournemouth, loose ends to tie up as I prepare to pass my job along to the next person, and of course, lots of packing to do. The amazing thing is I think I will leave England with less than when I came in. For anyone who knows me, that is truly a miracle!

This past week, my host "parents" had their three granddaughters stay with them. The girls are ages 7, 6, and 4 and they are absolutely adorable. They are so sweet and polite, and full of questions! I always wanted to laugh because each time one of the girls would want to ask me a question, they'd begin with, "ummmm.... (long pause while they're trying to remember my name)....Dee Anne?" I loved the way they turned my first name into two names. The littlest one especially took a liking to me. Her name is Bea and she is a tiny thing with wispy blonde angel hair, little freckles across her nose and cheeks, and a precious little voice. She asked me, in her sweet little English accent," Um, Dee Anne? Will you come back next year please? When we're here?" I wish I could have spent more time with the girls but unfortunately my job keeps me on the go and leaves me little time with my host family. Each of the girls gave me a great big hug on Saturday morning when we said our goodbyes.

On Saturday, I led my last full-day excursion. We went to London and I was the only guide since we were a smaller group. After I led the walking tour through London, I released the students for their free time. I suddenly found myself standing completely alone in the center of London. I was so excited! A few hours all to myself in London? I couldn't believe it! All the other times I had been to London, I was with Marco, the other social organiser, and many times a few students would choose to stay with us during their free time. The unfortunate thing is that though I have been to London many times now, I still have never had the time to do some of the things I've really wanted to do there. When it gets to be "free time," I only have two hours or so before I have to meet the students back at the coach, so I don't have enough time to say, for example, go visit the Tower of London (which I'm still dying to do). I technically could have visited London on my own on one of my days off, but I've had so few days off that I've really never felt ambitious enough to do something like that. Mostly, I've just wanted to catch up on sleep! It was lovely to eat lunch sitting in Leicester Square and then spend the afternoon wandering the streets and shops of central London. I can't wait to go back someday!

I hope you have enjoyed hearing about some of my adventures in England. It has been fun sharing updates and photos! I have learned so much about myself in my time here and I know, in ways, I will be forever changed by England. One thing I so relish about traveling is falling in love with a place, whether it be a restaurant, a coastline, a village, a city, or a country. When you leave, you take a part of that place with you and carry it in your heart. It is always with you, and always whispering to you, calling you back once again.

Signing off for my last time from England......

Cheers!

About to start our Friday night BBQ...

Grilling some burgers and chicken with Chris, a student.

The sun shining on Leicester Square.




I took this picture just because I thought this building looked lovely.

Trafalgar Square. You can't see it in this picture, but there was a giant
screen in the square broadcasting the Olympics live.

Love these trademark phone booths.

Looking out over the River Thames, saying goodbye

to London (for now).

A cream tea. Very English.

Me with my cream tea and scone. I think I might adopt "afternoon tea"

into my daily routine when I go home.

I had to chase this little guy off of the road in the New Forest.

He decided to come back to get a second look at me.

We found this small estate for sale. I was SO tempted to buy it!

We found this randomly on the side of a country road in the New Forest.

It reads, "Community Service Bisterne Style." I was just checking

to make sure it wasn't a real person!

Fields of heather.

Time flies when you're having fun



Stonehenge.





Salisbury Cathedral.





It's tea time! (again!)





Matt decided to finish up my tea for me...





Me and Kyra, one of the assistants for the French students. Such a doll!





Friday night with Bea (Hungary) and Annemarie (Germany).





In Oxford, Matt and I ate at the Eagle and Child Pub for lunch. This is
where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien used to meet with their literary
group of friends. They called themselves the "Inklings," and they
met here often while teaching at Oxford to discuss literature,
theology, and philosophy. Matt and I love these authors.





A view of the pub from our table. As we were eating,
a man wearing a traditional Scottish kilt walked by
outside playing the bagpipes! How perfect!





My lunch at the Eagle and Child Pub---a sort-of chicken pot pie.





A picture of ourselves at the pub, to document the moment.
Can you tell by my over-abundance of photos of this event
that we were so excited to be at the watering hole of some of our
most favorite authors?





St. Magdalen's church in Oxford.





Under our umbrella, trying to stay as dry as we could!





The University of Oxford's church with the Divinity School in the background.





A lovely view.



Christ Church College of Oxford. This is probably
the most famous of Oxford's colleges. Some scenes from
a few of the "Harry Potter" movies were also filmed here.
(I know, I know...I'm a dork!)



The clouds and the rain didn't hinder the beauty of Oxford.



More of Christ Church College.



Matt and me at the end of our day in Oxford.



Today was sad for me because Matt left to go home. I took him to the bus station and he left at 8:00am. However, this time it wasn't nearly as hard saying goodbye because I will see Matt again in only 10 days. Can you believe it? I only have 10 days left here in England!!! I'm so thankful that Matt was able to come here and share in my experiences. He met some of the wonderful people that I've been blessed to become friends with. I'm afraid it was probably more enjoyable for me to have Matt here than it was for him to be here, only because he had to "tag along" with me as I did everything that goes along with this job, and I know he got bored sometimes. He helped me a lot with work, especially at the BBQs! I know the students really enjoyed getting to know him as well as other staff members. Today, I received so many comments from people expressing how much they liked Matt. I'm not surprised one bit! :)

We stayed very busy this past week and weekend. We took about 50 students to the park to play volleyball on Monday evening but we were lucky that on Tuesday evening, bad weather cancelled our activity, so we had the evening to ourselves. Wednesday, we did a half-day excursion to Stonehenge and Salisbury. Matt's been to Stonehenge before but not Salisbury. Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of time in Salisbury as it was only a half-day excursion, but we had a chance to wander through the famous Cathedral (built in the 1200's) and then have some tea. On Thursday evening, we took some students to the cinema and Friday evening was, of course, a BBQ!

Our excursion on Saturday was to Oxford and it was Matt's first time visiting the city. We had some lovely English weather to complement our excursion---lots and lots of rain and wind. After we arrived, I took students on a walking tour of the city, giving bits of history and commentary as we went along....."This is the Bodelian Library, which was started in 1602 and contains over 6 million books...blah...blah...blah." At least the students seemed interested in what I was telling them! The students spent most of the day exploring the city on their own, so Matt and I were able to be alone for the remainder of the day, which was wonderful. We began by searching for the Eagle and Child Pub. We wanted to eat lunch there since this is where some of our favourite authors (Lewis and Tolkien) used to spend their time. The pub was full of character as it dates from the 1600's. The food was delicious and the pub was relatively quiet, which made it all the more enjoyable.

We spent some time in the Ashmolean Museum (England's oldest public museum) where I was mesmerized by amazing Egyptian, Greek, and Roman artifacts collected by past Oxford University archaeologists. We had tea in the museum's café and then we spent the afternoon wandering the rest of Oxford. At the end of the day, we found a bookshop nestled in the back alleyway of a street. I love buying books, and the older the better. There were so many amazing books in the shop, but I was able to maintain my self control. I was really drooling over a series of four books, written in French, costing 100 pounds each---books about the life of St. Marie Thérèse dating from the 1860's. I'm obviously not the least bit Catholic, but I really find the writings of this girl (she died at age 24) inspirational. Anyway, maybe someday I can come back and buy the books, if they're still there.

Matt then waited for me at our final stop, "The Alice Shop." Lewis Carroll, the author of the children's story "Alice in Wonderland," taught mathematics as Christ Church college (which is located just across the street from the shop) for many years. Carroll wrote the story for a real girl he knew named Alice. The Alice Shop used to be a general store where the real-life Alice shopped as a little girl. Now the shop sells every kind of Alice in Wonderland memorabilia imaginable. It's really an adorable shop!

On Sunday, Matt and I slept in, or as the English would say, "we had a lie-in." Then Jane took us out to lunch, her treat, to get a traditional English roast dinner. It was delicious! Jane is phenomenal and probably one of the most self-less and giving persons I have ever known.

Now I am trying to focus on enjoying my last 10 days here. I still can't believe the end is so near, but I knew the time would fly past, as it always does. It has been absolutely incredible here in England. I'm off to add onto the priceless memories I've made here, as I try to make the most of my remaining time here. So much to do, so little time! Ah, such is life.

Cheers!

My Husband is Here!!!



The little town of Burley in the New Forest.




Matt is here! We're about to depart on our Fireworks Cruise.



 



The boys -- Marc, Edward, Jonas, and Marco.




One of my favourite girls, Sarina. She loves me!





In Poole, about to re-board our boat to watch the fireworks show.





Bath Abbey.



A view of Bath over the River Avon. It was a gorgeous day!



We couldn't leave Bath without first having tea
at Sally Lunn's house, where we tried her famous brioche buns.





The Christchurch Priory. This place enchants me.



Well Matt is FINALLY here, but I’m going to start my tale from the day before his arrival. Last Wednesday, I took the students on an excursion to the New Forest. This is an ancient forest created by William the Conqueror in the 1080’s as his personal hunting grounds. Today it is an area of forests and grasslands where cows, ponies, and donkeys roam wild. There are several villages dotted throughout the New Forest, each quaint and charming in its own way.

Before departing for our excursion, I was waiting outside the University for our coaches with the Japanese and French students. One of the Japanese leaders, an adorable woman named Akiko, asked me if my eyelashes were “real.” After I replied ‘yes,’ she said, “Oh! Really!” and rushed over to a group of Japanese girls. After saying something to them in Japanese, I suddenly found myself encircled by about 6 Japanese girls all staring at my eyes, going “oooohhh!” I assured them that I was telling the truth by pulling rather forcefully on my eyelashes and the girls erupted into giggles. They started asking me about the kind of mascara I use as they inched in to get a closer look. I noticed that all of these Japanese girls were wearing fake eyelashes! Then they all started pulling out their cameras and asking to get a picture with me. They made me feel like a celebrity! It was a funny and slightly embarrassing moment for me! J

Matt arrived on Thursday, August 31st by coach at around 3 pm. I went to meet him at the station and I saw him standing there waiting (his coach arrived early). I started walking towards him and as I got closer, he turned and saw me and then I broke into a run and we met and threw our arms around each other. It was a wonderful, amazing moment! We couldn’t let go of each other for a few minutes, just looking at each other and smiling (and kissing, of course). For the rest of the day, we would look at each other and both break into a huge grin. Matt coming here has almost become like a second honeymoon for us! It’s incredible!

Matt arrived in time to join us on an evening excursion. We took a small group of students on a cruise to the next town over, Poole. The sky threatened rain but during the hour-long boat ride to Poole, we all sat on the open deck, talking, laughing, and enjoying the fresh sea air. We arrived in Poole and the boat dropped us of at Poole Quay, in the center of the street festival. The quay was full of live bands, street performers, and lots of people. We grabbed an ice cream and strolled around for a bit. Just before we got back onto the boat, it started to rain. Once we got on board, it started absolutely pouring. We rushed inside the covered part of the boat and relaxed there. The rain was so heavy for a bit that I was afraid that they wouldn’t set off the fireworks. But the rain let up a bit and we did indeed get to watch a lovely fireworks display from the warmth and dryness of the indoor cabin,

It was so much fun to bring Matt to work with me on Friday and introduce him to everyone. He even accompanied me to our weekly staff meeting! Friday night, we had a small BBQ for about 15 people, and Marco had the night off, so it was just Matt and me running the show. We did the shopping together in the afternoon and Matt cooked ALL the burgers on the grill. He did wonderfully and I was so proud of him!

On Saturday, we went on an excursion to the city of Bath. I remembered my camera this time, though! I was worried because the morning started off with quite a bit of rain. (Rain….in England…go figure!) Once we arrived in Bath, I led the walking tour through the city. We had such a large group that sometimes I had to stand on a bench to be able to speak so everyone could hear. Bath is one of my favourite (notice the English spelling) cities and about 20 minutes into the walking tour, the rain stopped. About ten minutes after that, the sun came out and soon everyone was pulling off their jackets. The rest of the day turned out to be quite warm and absolutely beautiful, without a cloud in the sky. The buildings in Bath are especially beautiful in the sunlight because they have a golden color to them that is really only visible when the sun is shining. After we sent the students off on their free time, we relaxed by the river Avon and I tried to get a little sun on my very pale, no wait-- stark white legs.

I didn’t have to work on Sunday and Matt and I really enjoyed sleeping in. We ate a traditional meal with my host family at lunch. It was called Toad in a Hole and it was sausages in Yorkshire pudding. It might sound strange but it was really delicious! Matt and I are getting quite spoiled by my host mom’s wonderful cooking. I will have a lot to live up to when I get back to the US!

After lunch, Matt and I took the bus to the little town of Christchurch, which is located just to the east of Bournemouth. We walked around High Street and spent some time visiting Christchurch Priory, which I absolutely love. It then began raining, AGAIN, and we ducked into a tea room to share a cream tea and scones. Then it was time to hop on the bus back to Bournemouth, as we were meeting my friend Jane for dinner.

Jane picked us up and we ate at a restaurant called Harry Ramsden’s, which is located right along Bournemouth’s beaches. We had a table with a great view of the sea and we could see several people surfing. Jane took us to this restaurant because I asked her to take us to the place we could get the best Fish and Chips. We topped off our meals by enjoying some Butter Bread Pudding with custard.. Soooooo good! It was a great evening and I was glad for the chance for Matt and Jane to get to know one another a bit better!

This week’s been fairly quiet and tonight Matt and I happy to find that we have no evening activity! Once again, rain has “put a damper” on our plans, so to speak, and we had no students show up to do an activity. Matt has been waiting patiently here in the office with me as I write this blog. God bless him! So now I must finish so we can head into Bournemouth for a bit and enjoy an evening to ourselves.

Tomorrow is an excursion to Stonehenge and Salisbury, and Saturday we’ll go to Oxford. Of course I’ll update you again with more of our adventures!

Cheers!

Always tired but always happy

We're finally experiencing beautiful summer weather here in Bournemouth but unfortunately I haven't had time to go to the beach. My friend Jelsea, who had this job last summer, mentioned that she was "working all the time." And let me tell you, she sure wasn't kidding! Since I have been here in England, I have only had two days off. Other than that, I've been working seven days a week. I have accepted that always feeling tired is my state of being with this job. Even if I get a decent amount of sleep, I use up so much energy during the day that I don't think I'll ever feel truly "rested" while I'm here. But that's alright....I knew before I came here that this job would be demanding on my time and energy, but I have to admit, I kind of like the challenge. And the rewards are far worth it.

Last week we took some students to a place called Game Stadium for one of our evening activities. It's a really posh place where you pay 3 pounds 50 to play any Playstation 3 game on your own giant, flat screen TV for one hour. I chose to play Guitar Hero---I've become addicted to that game since Matt got it last Christmas for his X-Box. On Wednesday, we went on a half-day excursion to the beautiful city of Portsmouth, famous for its port (hence the name). Thursday, we went to the cinema to see the film "Hancock," and Friday was a BBQ. We have BBQ's every Friday and the students really enjoy it.

This past Saturday we went on an excursion to Monkey World. This was not a typical full-day excursion for Richard Language College but we thought it might be nice to try something new. Monkey World is an ape rescue center. The park appears more like a zoo but the foremost goal of the center is to rescue apes that are being abused or that have been abandoned. There is every kind of monkey you can imagine and they were so much fun to observe. The park was quite large and really beautiful.

On Sunday I went to Heathrow Airport to meet a group of Japanese students arriving from Tokyo. At the international arrivals gate, I had to hold a little welcome sign for Richard Language College and when the group approached me, we did the traditional Japanese bow to one another. The group consists of 25 students and 3 leaders and they are all just lovely. I think they might be the most polite and respectful students I have come across thus far! They truly are precious.

Tonight I had to sort-of "double work" because we had a Welcome BBQ for the Japanese students but I also had to arrange an activity for the other non-Japanese students. We went shopping this afternoon for all the food for the BBQ and then I spent the remainder of the afternoon slicing tomatoes and making fruit salad. Then I took a group of 18 non-Japanese students to play "quasar" or laser tag. It was so much fun! Each one of us came out of the game absolutely dripping in sweat, which was gross, but we didn't care because we had so much fun. I also have to brag a bit. The teams were divided into 9 persons against 10. I was on the team with 9 and our team had the only 4 girls that came along; the other team was all guys. But OUR team won! Ha. Then it was back to the college to help finish up the BBQ and do the clean-up work. It's been a long day, but a great one.

The countdown is 2 days......2 days until Matt arrives!!!! He flies out tomorrow evening and he'll arrive on Thursday at 3 pm my time. Seriously, the anticipation is killing me. I absolutely cannot wait to have him here so he can share in all my experiences with me. I know he'll love it! Matt will stay with me in my host family's home and they will feed him, although we're paying them extra for that. He'll tag along with me all day and on all the activities and excursions, but as I've said a million times, it's all fun stuff, not like "work." Matt will be here over the next two weekends, in which we'll visit the cities of Bath and Oxford, and possibly London one or two times. He leaves on August 11th and I return to the US on August 21st.

I'm at the point where I feel really adjusted to the life and culture here. I've gained confidence in my job and I've made so many new friends. One thing that always makes me smile is that the international students always think that I'm English! I've even been told that I sound like I have an English accent (by a German girl), but don't worry, I'm certain that I still sound 100% American. I think most foreign students haven't been around a person with an American accent before and therefore they can't recognize one. I've also been told that I "look" like I'm English with my fair skin and red hair. There are quite a lot of redheads over here!

It is now 10:15 pm here and I must make the two minute walk to my host family's home to get as much sleep as I can. I'm sure that as always, I'll have no trouble falling asleep and I'll be having sweet dreams of when Matthew finally arrives and joins me here in England.

Cheers!

My Students

I call them "my" students because I am assigned as the social organiser to a specific group of students here at Richard Language College--the students ages 16-18 who have their classes on the University of Bournemouth's campus. I am thrilled that I have been assigned to these students because they are so much fun and I've really come to cherish my time with them.

Most of the students who study here only come for two or three weeks in the summer and I have become such good friends with so many of them that it becomes hard to say goodbye. At the University, the students come and talk to me during the day just to say hi and tell me about something they did. Then we're all together on activities and excursion days and we all laugh and have such a good time together. For example, the other night, about 45 students went with me to the park to play volleyball and football (soccer). Afterwards, we stood around talking and our conversation drifted to a disco that the students like to go to. It's called "Crank" and it's an under-18 disco, i.e. no alcohol. Somehow the subject moved to dancing and I ended up showing the students some "classic" dance moves they could use....really they're just dance moves for people who can't dance and need to look like they can do something on the dance floor. The moves can be explained by their names: the Sprinkler, the Lawn Mower, the Shopping Cart, Riding the Pony. We were all laughing so hard and two days later, a bunch of the students ran up to me and said, "Deanne! We went to Crank last night and we did the dance moves you showed us!" Again we laughed! It actually has been difficult for me because I become really attached to these students and then they have to go home and I find myself rather sad about it. After the BBQ last Friday night, I had a lot of students come up to me to say goodbye since they were leaving on Saturday. I was so touched as each one of them thanked me and gave me a big hug. It was one of those happy/sad moments; I could see the sincerity in the students' eyes as they thanked me and told me they'd miss me and I knew that most likely I will never meet these dear friends again. Despite knowing that fact, my memories of these students are absolutely wonderful and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world.

Tonight we took the students to play mini-golf in the town centre. Bournemouth has beautiful gardens in its town centre and in the evenings they are filled with smiling faces, music, the smell of flowers, and sounds of laughter. As we were playing mini-golf, a band was playing swing music in a pavilion nearby and the gardens were lit with the beautiful light of the setting sun. As I laughed with my students and watched others in the gardens surrounding us, I drank in everything around me. It was one of those moments that you wish you could hold onto for all time and always remember the sights, the smells, the sounds, and most of all, the way you felt. It is in these moments that God reminds me just how deeply He has blessed my life. Of course like every other person, I have my petty complaints about things in my life, but when I really take a step back and look at my life, I couldn't ask for anything more. Especially here in England, with this job, as I am making endless amazing memories with each passing day.

I have just passed the "half-way" mark of my time here in England. In fact, one month from today, I fly back to the US. Time has flown by thus far, as it always has, but I know the second half of my time here will go even faster. It is basically divided into three sections: 1) these next nine days leading up to Matt's arrival 2) the eleven days that Matt will spend here 3) the ten days after Matt leaves that are my final days in England. I am already feeling a little sad at how quickly the time has passed, but I know I will leave here with enough memories to last a lifetime.

I'll leave you now with a few more pictures of people and places here in my adventures in England...

Cheers!

 

Sophia (South Korea) and myself on an excursion in Poole.

Dominika (Poland)--she brought me Polish sausage. Delicious!

Me -- on another excursion to London!

Playing mini-golf in the gardens of Bournemouth's town centre.

This is Monika (Czech) and you can see the live band in the background.

Learning a new language

No, I'm not referring to learning a new language such as Spanish, Italian, Russian, etc. I am talking about learning how to speak British English. It has been quite interesting and a bit more challenging than I expected. For example, before I came over here, I already knew that the English can refer to the restroom as "the loo," or garbage as "rubbish," and that they use the phrase "Cheers" a lot.

I'm learning "new" words every day and I've started keeping a list for the fun of it. For example, the other day I learned that the trunk of a car is called "the boot" and the hood of a car "the bonnet." I've had to learn to use the word "lift" to mean the elevator, a "trolley" to mean a cart, and a "corridor" to mean a hallway. I did actually know before I got here that the English refer to their jeans and slacks as "trousers" and not what we would call "pants." To the English, "pants" means underwear. So......oh yes. I have embarrassed myself quite well several times by absentmindedly using the word "pants." To save myself even further embarrassment, I'm not going to tell you exactly the things I've said that made me turn red in the face the moment after I said them! :)

Another language difference that threw me way off guard when I got here was the phrase, "Are you alright?" or "Are you OK?" To the English, these two phrases are used as the American equivalent of the greeting "How are you?" after one says hello. So often when I run into someone in the "corridor," they'll say, "Are you alright?" For the first two weeks or so after I arrived here, this phrase continually threw me off guard because in America, when a person asks me if "I am alright" or if "I am OK," that means he/she thinks that for some reason I'm NOT alright. For example, when someone trips and falls, most people in the US would ask "are you OK?" in this situation or after something negative in general has happened. So in these first weeks, I found myself startled as an English person asked me this in greeting and my initial gut feeling was to say something like, "Oh! No, no no! I'm perfectly fine!" in order to reassure the person that I was indeed just fine. However, I am very pleased to report that this "new" phrase has become second-nature to me and I find myself using it all the time. Please remember what I have just described here upon my return to the US---I just might greet you without thinking by saying, "Hi! Are you alright?"

For the past week, it has rained nearly every day. Usually I don't mind the rain and I even rather enjoy it sometimes but not in the situations where I am walking as my means of transport or when rain accompanies an excursion day. Today we led an excursion to Oxford and we only had to deal with rain for about 20 minutes, thankfully. It has been really cold over here---the HIGH'S have been only in the mid 60's. Then of course Bournemouth is a seaside town, so we experience lots of strong winds coming off of the sea. I am regretting that I didn't bring more long-sleeved tops to England with me! Don't be deceived by that tropical-looking picture of Bournemouth's beaches on my first entry from England....I definitely have yet to experience weather like that here!

Tomorrow, Sunday the 13th, I will be able to sleep in for my FIRST TIME since I've been in England. In fact, I'm going to take advantage of the situation and head to bed early tonight so I can get lots of sleep but also enjoy my first totally free day off! I really, really love this job! Matt noted that this job could be compared to a job at a camp in terms of the amount of energy expelled and the lack of rest. I agree with that much, although thankfully the pay here is quite a bit better than what most camp counselors are paid!

I can't believe I've been here for four weeks now. The time has really flown by except when I think of being away from Matt. Only 19 more days until he arrives in Bournemouth! We absolutely can't wait! I'll be sure to keep posting more pictures and especially when Matt is here visiting. Signing off from England...

Cheers!

I've become a Busy Bee

My first two weeks of work here in England were fairly relaxed. That's because the insanely busy summer season had not yet begun for Richard Language College. Well, the craziness began this week as the college received a huge influx of students and my job has been transformed. I work from 9:30 each day until 3:30 while I am going back and forth between Richard Language College's campus and Bournemouth University's campus (either by walking or by bus, depending on how much time I have). I generally stay at work until 5 pm each evening to finish work and to use the computer for emailing Matt. :) Then I go home and have dinner with my host family at 6:30 pm. Then I'm out with the students for about another 3 hours in the evening for the activities we have each Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings. Wednesday afternoon we take half-day excursions. Then on Saturday I lead a full-day excursion, leaving at 8:15 am and returning around 7:00 pm. I am now also working on Sundays as I lead other full-day excursions, again from 8:15 to somewhere around 7 or 8 pm. So here I go....starting to work 7 days a week for the next several weeks, or perhaps even until I go home!


It's really quite exhausting, but I LOVE spending time with the students! And even though I'm in the "office" for some time each day, it's easy work--signing students up for activities and excursions and taking their payments and then making the arrangements for everything.My evenings are spent with the students playing volleyball, going on balloon rides, hosting BBQ's, watching fireworks on the pier, playing mini-golf, or going to the cinema. And then the weekends are spent visiting wonderful cities like London, Bath, Oxford, Windsor, etc. So although I've become quite the busy little bee running all about England, I really can't complain! Everything I do is fun, and what's even better is getting paid for it!


Although things are great, one can always expect some "incidents." I had one this past Thursday night. I was leaving the cinema with a group of students at around 11 pm. After chatting for a bit, I began to walk home with some of the students. We were in Bournemouth's town centre, which is not the place most people would want to be at night because the centre turns into a huge, out-of control party scene. So as we're walking along, a car speeds down the road and throws two eggs at me as my back is turned to them. By the time I turned around, the culprits were already gone. I could NOT believe it! The eggs hit my over-sized purse and broke all over it, but I would rather it be that than my clothes or hair. UN-BE-LIEVE-ABLE. The students with me were as shocked as I was and they felt very sorry for me. My feelings at the moment were more like anger, maybe extreme anger to be more precise. But I managed to keep my cool as I continued to walk home with the students. Thankfully, I was able to wash all the egg off of my purse when I got to my host family's house. And of course it had to be my favorite purse--a very expensive knock-off Coach purse. (my sister has the REAL thing, lucky her!)


Today we went on an excursion to Windsor Castle, one of the residences of the Queen. I now consider it a Must-See, if I were to recommend places to visit to any persons traveling in England. You can see some of the pictures below. It was a beautiful day outside and the little town of Windsor is charming and full of character. The Castle itself is truly breathtaking. Of course it was swarming with tourists as it is July, but fighting the crowds was most definitely worth it. Visitors aren't allowed to take pictures inside the Castle, but pictures wouldn't do it justice anyway.


And today I had an almost "incident" at Windsor Castle....with the Queen's Guards. Yes, it's true. They march about the Windsor Castle grounds quite a bit and as I was strolling along in the Castle's courtyard, I looked over my shoulder and jumped out of the way as 6 silent, stone-faced soldiers marched right over the spot where I had just been standing. I had about 2 seconds before they literally would have bowled me over--although the Guards usually completely ignore tourists, they are known to be quite harsh if someone gets in their way. I definitely didn't have any verbal warning from the guards as they approached but thankfully their bright red, polished coats caught my eye in the nick of time! Whew....I almost became a casualty of an army of 6 of the Queen's Guards. But barely avoiding it was also quite memorable!


Cheers, and God save the Queen!