Amsterdam Travelogue: My first trip to the continent!

Hey peeps!

As you will have seen from my photos on Facebook I took a trip to the Netherlands during my half-term break.  I travelled with a colleague from my school who is also Canadian (from Cape Breton), in his first year of teaching and still baffled by the British school system as I am and who had also never been to continental Europe before.  I don’t think I would have gone by myself so I am grateful that he was cool with letting me tag along!  While there I saw more bikes than I have ever seen in my life (and learned to stay out of their lanes or die), was constantly in awe of the stunning architecture and canals, saw the last names of every classmate that I had over the years in Christian education in various places and learned why they say “If ya ain’t Dutch, ya ain’t much.”  I’m still not quite on board with that statement but I love the people of the Netherlands even more after visiting them in their natural habitat.

The adventure began when a hurricane was predicted to hit the UK the night before we flew out.   Every two minutes on the BBC they announced that trains would not be running in the morning.  When it did hit, it was not exactly “Stormageddon” as some referred to it (nothing to do with ‘Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All’ the adorable baby Alfie from ‘Closing Time’ the Series 6 episode of Doctor Who where the Doctor reveals that he can speak ‘baby,’ begins working in a toy store and saves James Corden’s character from being turned into an emotionless Cyberman) but it did cause some significant damage in some areas.  As a result, I had to take a bus to the airport that dragged out a 2 hour trip into 3, making the bus ride officially three times the length of my flight to the Netherlands.

The rest of the journey was uneventful and after I bought some Stroopwafels from the Amsterdam airport we took a bus straight down to Museumplein which was only a few blocks from our hostel.  The hostel turned out to be decent with some pretty funky decorations and a resident kitty cat.  It was about 11:00 by this point and we decided to go for a walk and to see the city at night.  It was pretty quiet since it was a Monday night but most things were still beautiful under the cover of darkness.  At about 1:30 we decided that we should find our way back but since we were wandering a new city in the dark we got rather lost and did not make it back until about 3:00 am! 

I slept rather fitfully that night because I was in a room with four especially smelly guys and the one in the bunk beside me kept putting his feet in my face in his sleep and snoring.  Also, when I woke up I discovered that the guy in the bunk above smelly feet guy was not clothed…at all.  And his blanket had not stayed on in the night.  I was scarred for life.  That’s hostel living though!  I never ended up meeting the people who I was rooming with any night because they were always in bed when I came in at night and slept longer than me in the morning.  Needless to say, I was totally okay with this.

Day 1:

We set off to get pancakes found a little place that served us the most massive ones I have ever seen!  I asked for bananas, chocolate syrup and whipped cream on mine and as delicious as it was I could not finish that much sweetness!

Anne Frank House: We got turned around a couple of times trying to get to this museum waited for over an hour outside in the rain to get in, but it was undoubtedly worth it.  It was truly an emotional experience.  The first few rooms (the main rooms of the house) gave some background on the story but as soon as I walked into the actual annex where the families hid I was struck by the emotion of it all.  Anne’s magazine clippings of celebrities were still plastered on the walls and there were numerous photos of what the place had looked like when the Franks moved in.

What really hit me though was walking around the corner after room that explained what happened to each person in the annex after they were betrayed.  There was a massive, floor-to-ceiling black and white photograph of Otto Frank (Anne’s father, the only survivor of the camps) standing in profile in the room where his family had lived several years after the war.  It was one of the most powerful images I have ever seen and instantly brought me to tears.  The final few rooms had writings and interviews from Otto talking about coming out of the camp hoping that his girls were still alive, trying to get Anne’s diary published and not being able to bring himself to see the play that was made based on the diary because it was too painful for him, even years later.  I was such a mess through all of this.  I cannot even describe it fully.  It is something that has to be experienced.  I would recommend the Anne Frank Museum to anyone visiting Amsterdam.

I was feeling pretty emotionally wrecked even after I pulled myself together so we went into some shops and sites like the Cheese Museum (where we sampled TONS to Dutch cheese), the Tulip Museum and touristy gift shops.  Looking through our tourist attractions guide, we decided that the Heiniken Experience would be a good place to go next and a lot less heavy than what we had experienced in the morning.

Vondelpark: We wandered around here for a while and enjoyed the natural beauty in the middle of the big city.  It's a really nice place to take photos as long as you watch out for the bikers!

Heineken Experience: We got to see all of the steps in how Heineken is made, learn to do a proper beer tasting and of course sample the finished product.  There were some random rooms where you could do things like send e-card pictures to your friends, make a music video and go on a simulation ride where you felt what it was like to be brewed into beer.  It was pretty cool if you like beer, but if you are not going to enjoy the drinks that come with the ticket then it is probably not worth the money. 

Dutch Mexican food/Night-life:: At dinner time, we were convinced by the “hype guy” for a Mexican restaurant that we walked by to come in and try their food.  Since it was the beginning of the week and it was not prime tourist season a lot of restaurants were trying to attract customers this way.  He offered us a deal and free drinks so we decided to try it and it was pretty good!  There seemed to be every type of restaurant in the city and very few that were specifically Dutch food.  From what we saw the urban Dutch seem to have a particular affinity for Italian and Argentinian food.

After dinner we wandered around looked for a nice place to hang out.  We ended up visiting two different pubs, one that said it was an Irish Pub but only had Dutch beers and was decorated with an over-abundance of Halloween décor and a little place with jazzy music and a piano with stack of board games on top and a generally cool atmosphere.  It was really nice to just explore the city this way.  I felt really safe the entire time, more so than I thought I would in a big city with a reputation that Amsterdam has as somewhat of a den of iniquity.  We never ran into the Red Light District at any point so that did help.

Day 2:

We started the day with more coffee and pancakes from a little café near Museumplein.  This time I had a bacon pancake with syrup and icing sugar so it was super delicious without the total sweetness overload.

Van Gogh Museum: This museum was another highlight for me. It has most of VanGogh’s works from over the years and showed the evolution of his style from his early days at art school to his final paintings when he had really come into his own.  There were numerous explanations of how art historians have examined his pieces and found other old paintings underneath and discovered his process in creating his art.  It was really fascinating and surreal seeing a lot of these paintings in real life.  What struck me was how many quotations were displayed that showed how critical of himself he was as an artist and how as I was reading them I was literally having to fight through crowds to get a good view of his work.  If only he had known how loved he would be and how much joy his art would bring after he was gone from this world (a la ‘Vincent and the Doctor’-one of my favourite DW episodes).  Unfortunately, without a time-lord this cannot actually happen. 

We were determined to find a canal cruise next so instead of stopping for lunch we went to a tiny little bakery and ate delicious pastries on the go.  My chocolate croissant was divine!

Canal Cruise: We finally got up to the docks by Central Station where the cruises began and had a 1 ½ hour tour of major sights in the city by water.  This is another must for anyone visiting Amsterdam I think.  You get to hear about a lot of history and get a good overview of attractions that you may want to visit and by the end you will probably want to live in a houseboat!

Nightlife Part 2:  This time we were convinced to try a little Italian restaurant and I had a vegetarian lasagna that contained the only substantial portion of vegetables that I ate over the whole trip.  Really, it was the only thing that I ate that was not purely cheese, chocolate or carbs.  Later that evening we spent a few hours in a tiny hole-in-the-wall bar called “Café de Dokter” which had the coolest décor, the friendliest people and some good dark, Dutch beer.  We met a tram driver named Michael who we chatted to for a while and who was the friendliest guy ever. He was determined that through his work he would show visitors that Dutch people are the friendliest and most welcoming people around.  He was super cool.  We found our way home much more easily this time which was good because exhaustion was definitely catching up to me!

Day 3:

When I woke up on my final day in the city and went to the common room for my morning coffee I met a girl from Minnesota who was studying abroad in Bath and on holiday with her classmates.  It was a bit of a Robin Scherbatsky/Marshall Eriksen moment, though we were a lot farther from our respective places of origin than New York City.  She was super sweet.

After packing up and checking out I put my all of my belongings on my back and set out for a day of touring along while Dan moved on to Brussels. 

Rijksmuseum:

This place was huge and beautiful and full of art from the best Dutch artists from 1600 to the present.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, despite the fact that I had to take a few breaks on the couches that were placed around the building since my legs were really getting tired from all of the walking that we had been doing.

Exploring/souvenir shopping:  Since I had not bought anything to commemorate my trip at this point I finally hit up the museum gift shop and some souvenir places.  Again I went into a few cheese shops telling myself that I would probably buy something that time but in the end just snacking on a bunch of free samples.  At the Van Gogh/Rijksmuseum gift shop I really wanted to buy everything related to Van Gogh’s Almond Blossoms since it is one of my faves (being blue with flowers of course) but I did not think that a bag for €40 or a silk scarf for €50 were quite worth it.  I settled for a mug that was a fraction of the price which has made my tea times even brighter over the past week.  Of course I bought a couple of Delft Blue items for my kitchen as well.

In the afternoon I had to head back to the airport and I began the journey back home.  I finally got back to Southampton by 11:00pm and then had to walk through the city centre which was full of people in costumes suffering from the aftermath of Halloween festivities.  Good times.

It was such a fantastic trip but I was SHATTERED after three days of walking everywhere and getting very little good-quality sleep.  I immediately collapsed when I got in the door of my flat.  So many times over those few days I thought ‘When did this become my life?  It’s so COOL!’ which was a sweet feeling.  I cannot wait for my next European adventure and to later return to Amsterdam on my way to visit my sweet Carmen on Terschelling (hopefully this spring or summer). 

My next term break will be Christmas though, which means I will be heading back to the Great White North (43 days and counting)!  Love you all and I can’t wait to see you once again!

-Heather <3  

A Long-Expected Update

Hello all!

Since it has been awhile I thought I would split this update into two posts, one about my regular school/Southampton life and one about my first trip to the continent!  For those of you who I speak to regularly most of this will be old news, but there are still lots of you who I have been failing at communicating with and who I owe a serious update!  I am feeling fairly refreshed after my half-term break and ready to tackle the next six weeks before Christmas.  The first week back was crazy-ish in typical fashion but I’m getting used to the stresses that tend to present themselves in this particular job.

The last few weeks of term went on pretty much as usual.  I feel like I am getting into a routine and getting used to the two week timetable with different classes to teach during each period on each day.  It is totally different than the system I am used to but I am gradually starting to see the merits (as well as the drawbacks) of setting up the school year this way.  I am feeling more and more comfortable with my classes and with the school environment in general.  I have had to phone a few parents lately which I find utterly terrifying for some reason but now that I have done it a few times it does not seem as bad.  I have an intense fear of being berated by parents and being told that I am doing a horrible job of taking care of their child (but luckily this has not happened yet).  I am sure I will get over that someday.  The teachers who have been around for a long time seem fairly desensitized to it now.

Another recent work-related development is that I got my official Qualified Teacher Status for the UK which just meant sending a form and a letter from the OCT with proof of my qualifications to the Department for Education and waiting for them to send me confirmation.  It does not make a whole lot of difference to my teaching career here since I did not need any additional training to get it but I do feel more official now!  Plus it’s always fun to have more letters behind your name (I am now: BA, BEd., OCT, QTS).

I also made it through my first parents’ evening on the last week of half-term!  We spent the beginning of that week frantically making sure that the students had the final drafts of all of their projects finished so that we could mount them and get ready to display for the parents.  The kids were so exhausted by the time the evening came and they could definitely feel the teachers’ stress as we tried to get everything together.  We set up the theatre classroom with the final projects displayed and with the students’ books on tables with their drafts and feedback inside so that the parents could see the progress that they had made as they reviewed and revised their work in all subjects.  It all looked very impressive when it was set up.  As an added touch, some of the students even served the Japanese food that they had learned to make in food tech and a video of the students’ final routines from Dance class was projected on the wall so that all subjects were represented.

In a nearby classroom I had my little desk for brief interviews with parents.  Many of the students came in with their parents which was nice because I felt like I was talking to them and not behind their back and being open and honest about their progress.  For most of them it was a great chance to praise them and to share what I appreciate about them individually beyond what I get a chance to tell them in class on a regular basis.  I enjoyed meeting most of the parents and none of them seemed to surprised by what I had to say about their children, for better or for worse.

The last BIG thing that has happened at school is that our Head Teacher resigned on the last day of term and we got a new Head at the beginning of this week.  Basically, he was pressured to go because of unsatisfactory exam results, even though in the years that he had been serving at the school he had improved school culture and academics immensely.  It is all very political and even more so now that our school has been an academy for a year and their board has control over staffing and school operations to some extent.  It’s complicated but no more so than teaching is in Canada, just in different ways that still confuse me.  I think I will do a British education system evaluation/rant in a future post where I point out the merits and flaws that have struck me most.  I’ll wait for a night when I am feeling especially fired up about something and use it as a way to vent my frustrations. 

Regardless, the new Head she seems really lovely and she has set up half hour meetings with each of the teachers to get to know us and to hear about what we like and what we would change about the school if we could.  She really seems to have our best interests at heart based on what I have seen so far and I am quite pleased with how things have turned out after the abruptness of the situation at a strange time in the year.  She will likely only be there until the end of the school year but at least we know we will be in good hands until then.

Believe it or not, I have been having some social, fun times outside of school over the past few weeks as well which have been keeping me sane.  Home group and church are great as always and I am really feeling more and more at home at Above Bar.  Other notable fun times over the past few weeks have included my first bowling and cinema experiences over here and my first ever bonfire/firework/Guy Fawkes night festivities at the beach outside of town.  It’s pretty bizarre, celebrating attempted terror plot by blowing things up and setting fires, but I have to admit it is pretty fun.  A bunch of us are are going to the Southampton fireworks display tomorrow night as well so I have become well immersed in the tradition this year.

I definitely have met a couple of kindred spirit, life-long type friends here and I feel like I am always getting to know new people through Glo events and hangouts.  I discover more and more what a definite extrovert I am since I am really enjoying constantly meeting and talking to all kinds of people and I am sometimes really struggling with living on my own!  If all goes according to plan in the new year I will be looking for a flat to share with a friend or two so that I will not be on my own forever.  I am still loving all of the newness and excitement and adventure and spontaneity in the form of deciding a few days in advance that I am going to fly off to another country for a few days (which I will write about later this weekend).  I feel like I am living my dreams and they are turning out to be super awesome. 

Of course my life is not all rosy and perfect.  School is exhausting and difficult and frustrating and even maddening at times but still I love it here.  When I was in Amsterdam by the end of the trip I felt homesick for England and Southampton and I had people here that I missed and could not wait to see when I got back.  It’s so cool that I am at that stage after being here for less than three months.  When people ask if I miss home all I can think is that I honestly don’t.  I miss people, but not places.  In other words, if you could all come over here and live closer that would be a fairly ideal situation :) 

I will write a travelogue-type post giving you the low-down on my trip to the Netherlands (aka the motherland of nearly EVERYONE I grew up with in my school days).  It was so lovely. 

For the moment I will say ‘so long, farewell…”

-Heather <3

Pressing On...

Hello everyone!

Another week has gone by and I am starting to really look forward to half-term!  Only two more weeks and I get a break to get refreshed and to start school again feeling more like I know what I am doing and less frantic.

It was a pretty average week school-wise but I had a pretty nasty cold so I was really exhausted.  In our department we are starting feel the crunch as we have a parents’ evening on the 23^rd where we will be displaying all of the projects that the kids have been working on over the course of the term.  Everything has to be display-ready asap so we are all keeping busy with marking and the kids are busy reviewing, reflecting on and revising their work. 

I have also officially joined a teachers' union and there is a strike day scheduled for this Thursday that some of us will be participating in.  My membership just became official so I am not sure if I am going to be actively involved yet.  If enough teachers do strike then the school will be closed on Thursday.

I went to a murder mystery party on Wednesday night which was really excellent.  It was a 1920s American gangster theme and we all had fun getting into character.  I did not figure out who the murderer was (it got really crazy and complicated) but it was a good time!    

This week I also decided to become involved in my church’s production of the Mark Drama which will take place at the end of November.   This video explains what it is all about:

http://themarkdrama.com/intro-video/

The church in the video is Above Bar so that is exactly what it will look like when we perform.  We will memorize all of the scenes over a month and a half and then have an intense week/weekend of rehearsals and performances.  We are still trying to recruit two more men to complete the team (which is surprising in a church of 500+ people) but we are going to go ahead and hope that two more come to complete our group soon!

Finally, I have bought my tickets for Christmas and I know for sure that I will be in Canada from December 23 until January 2.  I am excited to see some of you then!!

Basically, I am pressing on knowing that I will get a break soon, but emotionally and mentally I am still in quite a good state.

I hope you are all well!

-Heather <3

Amusing Anecdotes and Repressed Memories

Hi lovely people!

I decided to write another post today because I kept thinking of stories that I had either been too stressed to talk about at the time (and that I now see the humour in) or ones that I had just forgotten to tell here.  

So, without further ado...

The time when a strange man walked into my flat whilst I slept

On the first afternoon that I lived in this city, I decided to take a short nap since I had flown through the night and then taken the train for two hours immediately afterward.  I was sleeping peacefully for a few minutes before I awoke with a start to see a strange middle-aged man standing by my bed.  In my groggy state I was more confused than afraid.  He began to apologize profusely to me and to back out into the corridor saying that he had thought that the flat was empty as a tenant had moved out the day before.  I sleepily replied, sounding more perturbed than I meant to “but I moved IN toDAY!” 

It turns out that he was my landlady’s repair man and he had come to see that everything was in working order in the flat.  He apologized about fifteen times before finally leaving and I could tell that he was mortified that he had walked in on me.  Unfazed by the whole situation, I went right back to sleep.  This shows you how exhausted I was when I first arrived here.

The time that my Canadian bank account got frozen

I was trying to get my funds transferred to my UK account and it turned out to be a much more complicated process than the agency made it out to be.  When I was finally able to transfer my funds the bank believed that someone in England was trying to steal all of my money.  Thankfully, a  quick call to the fraud line got this all fixed.

The time that my UK bank account got frozen

Last weekend I tried to pay my landlady three months’ rent at once through online banking (since she had failed to give me her banking information until I had been living in the flat for almost six weeks).  I had tried paying it at the bank initially to avoid a situation like this but the teller said that there would be a £20 charge unless I did it online.  I followed her advice and I ended up having to call the fraud line and then having to go to the branch the next day to get it all sorted out.  Luckily I still had my Canadian Visa card to use for the day while I could not access my accounts!

The time that I got on the wrong train on the first day of school

It was my first day of teaching and I was planning to arrive at school at 8:00am before the 8:30 staff briefing.  I walked to the train station and got there at approximately 6:20am which gave me just enough time to get to my 6:30 train.  I bought my ticket and rushed to the platform across the station so as not to miss my train since any of the later journeys would have gotten me to work too late.

When I got down to the platform the train was already there.  I hopped on and was about to find a seat when I thought that I should just check to make sure that there was not another train right before mine.  I peeked out the window the screen and sure enough the train that I was on was the 6:25 train which was going in the opposite direction that mine was!  I tried to press the button to get off but as soon as I pressed it the light went off and I was locked in.

I frantically ran through the train with all of my school bags (looking like a complete madwoman I’m sure) to find someone who worked on the train and finally I found the man who was giving information over the loudspeaker.  We were still beside the platform and the train was moving slowly so in my head I was still holding on to the hope that they could stop the train for me.  I was not thinking completely rationally at this point.  I was going to be late for my FIRST DAY of work!  The first day of my real career that I had been training for over the past FIVE YEARS!

I shouted at him “I NEED TO GET OFF!  I AM ON THE WRONG TRAIN!”

He shouted back “You can’t get off!  The train is moving!”  He was quite nasty about it too which I resented at the time.

I got off at the next station and tried to figure out how to get to my destination as quickly as possible.  I went to the ticket office and the sweet lady there printed out the train times for the ones that I would need to take.  I had to take three more trains that day in order to get to school! 

After this I made a quick phone call to one of my co-workers and asked me to pick me up at the station because my train was going to get in only ten minutes before school and it was at least a twenty minute walk between the train and school.  He came to my rescue and I got to school on time!   I was pretty stressed and flustered at the start of the day but at least I made it in one piece.

That evening the same co-worker introduced me to the teacher that I now drive into work with.  I have not had to take the train to or from work since.  PTL!

The time when there was no power in my flat

I woke up one morning and tried to turn on the lights and none of them worked.  I tried the outlets and none of them had power either. Using my powers of resourcefulness I got ready in the dark by the light of my school and personal laptops.  I even did my makeup and ended up looking like a normal person! 

I called my landlady and it turned out to be what she called the “trick switch” which was just the main breaker for my flat which was in a box by my front door.  I figured this out after being home again for an hour or so after everything in my fridge/freezer had been left to thaw all day because I did not have time to deal with the issue before school.   Oops!  At least now I know to check that first.

The time when my students were convinced that I had a secret husband

One day when I was teaching my Maths class, minding my own business when the Head of the Maths department who I team-teach the class with brought a young man into my room.  He told me that this guy was a Maths genius and was training to be a teacher and that he could help me out with my class once a fortnight.  He then introduced this young man to the class as Mr. Hutchinson. 

At first, the kids just stared at him in disbelief and confusion.  I knew exactly what was coming but I waited for the first student to call out “Mr. Hutchinson!  But you’re Miss Hutchinson!  Is he your husband?!?” 

I insisted that I had never seen the man before in my life but kids kept on asking me if we were married and/or in love whenever I came around to help them for the rest of the hour.  I thought I had them convinced that I did NOT know him by the end of the lesson but sure enough the next day one of the boys looked up at me completely innocently and asked “where is your husband?”  *sigh*

The time when my classroom became a haven for Yu-Gi-Oh card players

I don’t even teach these kids.  On Friday they just asked me if they could come into my room at lunch so that they could play their game and not get bullied.  It was so cute!  I told them that they could come back any time that I was in my room at break or lunch time.  I love that my classroom is seen as a safe space.

There you go!  Some more snippits from my days here.  Some of them are pretty ridiculous but with so much going on I just had to repress them for a while before bringing them out for your amusement. 

-Heather <3

You'll Be Alright!

Hi everyone!  I feel so badly about not posting for two weeks!!  I am doing fine but things have been pretty nuts.  I don’t quite know where to start…

Most things to do with school I cannot really go into detail about in a public space like this, but I will say that over the past two weeks I have:

-Been sworn at by my most behaviourally challenging student (who was then suspended for three days).

-Been told that said student would be placed in another teacher’s class, only to see him appear in my room again on Tuesday and to be told that he had been given another chance before being moved (which is good and bad).

-Been inspected by our school improvement advisor and scrambled to get ready from government inspectors who will come this Monday.

-Been left less-than-prepared with no resources or guidelines for teaching lessons to my Maths class on three consecutive days.

-Been bombarded with information at new teacher induction meetings (which were helpful but stressful!!).

-Survived my first ‘open evening’ (when prospective students and parents visit the school before they apply for enrollment for next fall).

-Been driven crazy by students for many reasons.

-Got home from school between 7:30 and 9:00pm on at least three occasions.

-MARKED my brains out for many nights.

-Functioned on very little sleep.

-Felt frantic and overwhelmed.

BUT

Strangely enough I have not once felt the need to ask “what on earth am I doing here?!?” or to say that I wish I had never moved to this new country all on my own.  I HAVE asked myself why I decided to become a teacher a couple of times but I know that everyone in this profession has done that numerous times.  It’s difficult and emotionally and physically draining but as much as the kids get on my nerves at times they are also the ones that make the job worthwhile and enjoyable.

This will sound pretty weird but I genuinely feel like a celebrity at school sometimes.  Students are eager to say a cheerful hello whenever I am walking through the halls.  Sometimes I walk through the quad and hoards of them will excitedly shout “HI MISS!” because I’m the cool Canadian girl.  When I cover other teachers’ classes there are usually students who come running in all excited that they get to have me as a teacher for a lesson and I will hear the ones that have me for a mentor or in other classes bragging to their friends about it.  As I have never felt especially cool at any point in my lifetime, I find it all pretty amusing.  It’s just these simple things make me feel like students like me and it encourages me throughout the day. 

Although I am stressed, I am generally happy in my life.  As nothing can quite capture the essence of emotions and experiences like music, I have had two theme songs over the past few days which I think sum up my feelings pretty well. 

One is You’ll Be Alright, an original song (to the tune of a ‘Spring Awakening’ number) from our Faculty of Education musical last year which was centred around the adventures of a stressed out new teacher. 

There’s a moment you think ‘I’m done’

It’s all just work, it’s not more fun.

I’m tired oh yeah, just wanna quit

When you think it’s time to get out of it…

You’ll be alright put up a fight

You can kiss your worried mind goodbye. 

You’ll be alright keep your head on tight

Somehow we will survive…

My second theme song has been “Never Once” by Matt Redman: 

Standing on this mountaintop
Looking just how far we've come
Knowing that for every step you were with us.

Kneeling on this battle ground
Seeing just how much you've done
Knowing every victory is your power in us.

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Yes, our hearts can say

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did you leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, you are faithful.

There has been some good time with friends in between all of this madness though including a lovely Thanksgiving dinner!  Some sweet friends here fit it into our Home Group schedule since I will be missing out on celebrating with family next weekend.  I had a lot to share when we went around the table to talk about what we are thankful for!

That is all that I really have to say about the past two weeks.  Again I am so sorry for the long gap between updates.  I will try to post something much sooner next time. 

I love you all and I hope you are well! 

-Heather <3

Fandom and Phantom in London and Other Weekend Adventures

Hello friends and family!

So after my insane week I had a pretty fantastic weekend to make it all better.  School is open again tomorrow and since the fire was limited to one end of the school my normal routine should not be affected very much at all.  It is still a horrible thing that happened but it does not really add stress to my life at this point now that all of my students are safe.

On Friday I ran a bunch of important errands that I had not gotten around to taking care of yet and in the evening I went out to a pub in my neighbourhood for a social with all of the Canadian teachers in Southampton who came over with the same agency as me.  It was really nice to meet them and I found out that most of them live in the same building as me!  Crazy!  One of them even went through both Trent and Queen’s in the same program as me and we had several classes together over our five years of university.  It certainly is a small world!  Lots of us were from Ontario with three from Halifax and one from Alberta. 

On Thursday night when I found out that I would have an extra day off this weekend I contacted my friend Ketsia (who I met at Queen’s when we were in the B.Ed. musical) and we started planning an epic day in London for Saturday.   I found some great tickets for Phantom of the Opera on the West End for only £24 each so we scooped those up pretty quickly!  I think buying them the day before did help price-wise.

I started the day at 7:30am walking to Southampton Central and boarding the 8:00am train to London Waterloo.  I was in London by shortly after 9:00 and I went down to brave the Tube on my own for the first time.  

Laura taught me well the first time and there were a lot of helpful signs so I had no problem getting on the right line.  I got up to Ketsia at Euston and we walked straight to King’s Cross to see Platform 9 ¾.  

As you can see from the photos it is all very official with staff and a gift shop.  We waited in line for over half an hour before choosing our house scarves and taking our turns going through the enchanted wall.  The man whose job it was to put scarves on people and to direct the crowd was adamant that we had to come up with enthusiastic poses – he was very funny when interacting with the crowd. 

Next we went over to North Gower Street to see the outside of 221B Baker Street from BBC Sherlock.  The door is replaced during filming but the rest of the building and adjacent café are exactly the same as they are when Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are there filming the brilliant series.  I was fangirling out big-time!!  The flat was to let as well so Kristy (my little sis) and I have discussed moving in so that when they decide to film Series 4, we will be there!

After this we made our way down to the real 221B Baker Street (which I realize is not actually real since Sherlock is a fictional character, but anyway…) to see the Sherlock Holmes Museum.   We waited for almost an hour outside since the building is quite small and they only let a few people in at a time.  

We took turns in the gift shop while we waited and before we knew it we had made it to the front door. 

It was so cool inside!  It was set up like it was actually Sherlock and Watson’s house in some areas but there was also a floor of wax figures of characters from the stories and artefacts from various stories on one floor.  It seemed really real.  It is definitely work the £8 admission for anyone who is a Holmes fan!  I took a ton of pictures so if you want to see the rest look on Facebook :)

Finally we went down to the Baker St. Tube station and went down to Picadilly Circus because it was almost time for the show!  

On the way I saw Benedict and some Sherlock Holmes silhouettes.  Perfect photo op!

We picked up our tickets at the box office and stopped at the Nero café across the street from the theatre for a quick sandwich since by this point we were STARVING. 

Since I had been waiting for probably a decade to see Phantom I was exploding with excitement by the time we went back to find our seats.  I took a few pictures inside the theatre even though we really were not supposed to just so that I could remember the moment. 

As soon as the initial auction scene began I was completely enraptured by the magic of the story and the music.  I knew every word and note that was coming up from watching recorded performances and the film but seeing it all live was an incomparably enthralling experience. 

I cried at the end of both acts, during “All I Ask of You” and in the final scene from “pitiful creature of darkness, what kind of life have you known?” onward.  I felt emotionally spent afterwards.  It was beautiful and heart-shattering and frightening and perfect and everything that I had ever imagined it would be.  Christine, the Phantom and Raoul had brilliant singing voices.  The costumes, sets and effects were world class.  Geronimo Rauch who played the Phantom portrayed him as a perfect blend of sinister genius, seductive captor and tortured soul, with all the complexity that makes me simultaneously love, pity and fear him.  I would honestly see it a million times over. 

After this we went to M&M World down the street since Ketsia was determined to find the new dark chocolate peanut variety and I wanted to see what the place was like.  I ended up with a bag of chocolate in all of the different shades of blue.  My fav!

By the early evening we were exhausted so we went back down to the Underground to go our separate ways and to find the trains back to our home towns.  All in all, it was an emotionally and mentally refreshing but physically exhausting day!

Today I went to church in the morning and then went out to lunch with a bunch of people to a pub called the Red Lion which is in a building that dates back to the 12^th century.  It was really cool inside!  It is supposed to be the most haunted building in the area but I did not see any ghosts during the meal.  Apparently Henry V once held a trial for treachery there in 1415 and the three men were convicted and later executed down the road by the bargate.  It was definitely full of character and was decorated with several suits of armour.

 

We dug into a Sunday roast which was delicious but included A LOT of meat!!  I had chicken breast which was huge in itself and was also filled with stuffing and covered with thick slabs of bacon and accompanied by a side of crispy potatoes and veg and a whole lot of gravy.  

It tasted so good but I definitely did not finish it!  I don’t think I will even need to eat supper tonight after all of that. 

Now it’s back to reality and I have been planning for the week ahead this afternoon and evening. 

On that note, I should get back to it!

I am feeling more and more like I am where I am supposed to be and I cannot wait to see what crazy adventures month two in England will bring!

-Heather <3