London Take II

Ahh, another day in the beautiful city of London! I got on the bus towards London around 9:30, and got there right around 10:30. Today was just Heather and I, as the other two girls had seen a lot of what we wanted to see for today. We managed to get ourselves to Westminster Church, which is above! It was in service so we couldn't go inside, hopefully I will be able to next time!

Here is me the first few minutes back into London for the day. To the right is Westminster Church, and straight behind me is Big Ben!

We passed this on our way to get lunch, and Heather and I decided we would both really like to see The Lion King musical! We are going to see it next saturday!!

Here I am with my first meal of Fish and Chips! Very exciting! We were in an adorable little pub, so it was a great experience.

This is one serving of fish and chips! I barely was able to finish half!!

I of course loved the chips. The fish really wasn't bad, it was just a lot of fish! I think I enjoy smaller chunks of fish, so there is more bread on each bite :)

This is the great station at the heart of London that takes me to where I am living in Dorking

AWESOME!

 Interesting note I learned today: In America, we have dollars, but slang for dollars is a buck. We would easily say, "I have 5 bucks." Well, I learned in England they have the same slang for their pound, which is quid. So today at the resturant I ate at, he asked for 5 quid. Haha, it took me a moment to realize he still meant pounds. Although it sounds nothing like pound, it's their slang for pound. Buck really sounds nothing like dollar either though... Interesting...

So, my favorite place so far is Buckingham Palace, where the Queen resides. The flag was up today, which meant that the Queen was in England. Also another interesting note is that you are able to tour Buckingham Palace, but when the Queen is present, no one is allowed in. Luckily for us, the Queen blessed us with her prescence, but unfortunately that meant we were unable to tour the palace.

Buckingham Palace is amazing. By far my favorite spot in London, as it should be, it's for the Queen!

Statue outside Buckingham Palace

Just one of the many entrances into Buckingham Palace

One of the guards protecting Buckingham Palace!! So cute!

What a day! I am exhausted after two full days of London, but it was so rewarding! Tomorrow starts a new week at school, and after only seeing it in service for one day, I feel like its my first day all over again! I am excited to start to learn techniques and the ways of my school! I can hardly believe that on Wednesday, I will have been here for 2 weeks already!

I'm going to try to get some pictures of student's uniforms this week for you all, you have to see how cute they look!

LONDON!!!

Well Folks, I finally did it! I can officialy cross of my #1 life goal of visiting London!! As you can imagine, this was quite a day for me, and I am very excited to share pictures with you. First, I'll give you a sense of my excitement on the train:

The train ride was about an hour long, and right out of the platforms I met with Heather, Jenna, Ashley, and Paula. Heather, Jenna, and Ashley are all student teachers in close towns to where I am, and Paula is the placement supervisor. We took the underground immediately, and this is the first sight of London I received:

The London Eye is on the left!

We came out of Westminster underground station, and this is the Westminster Bridge!

Coming right out of the underground station to the right is Big Ben, which has been there since 1858! This is the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament!

There he is!!!

You can kind of see this bus off in the distance in the previous photo, but this was official my first double decker bus that I saw!

This is taken while going over the Westminster Bridge! The London Eye actually wasn't running today because of high wind, but hopefully I  will be able to go up it in future visits.

This is the other side of the Houses of Parliament

The British flag being rasied over the Houses of Parliament. A interesting fact, the flag is only raised if the Queen is presently in England. If she is out of the country, the flags are not raised in the morning.

The statue towards the right is of Winston Churchill!  They make him look rather old and grumpy in his statue...

All cops ride horses in town

This marks the two most important streets concerning Parliament.

I am on the left, with Heather (who is from Minnesota) on the right.

There was a protest going on on Parliament Street arguing for England to help war in Africa.

London Eye off in the distance!

That brick building off in the middle is where the Prime Minister lives. The protest was occuring right outside the gate

This statue is quite new, only 3 years old supporting the women of WWII

This is the House Guard, which protects the ground surrounding the governmental buildings. The Horse Guards are changed every hour, similar to the guard at Arlington Cemetary. We were able to watch the changing of the guards for 12:00.

The new guards coming to take over

Note: The outfits are different during the weather. These are the guards that you would suspect to be wearing the big black hats and red vests.

This is the British National Gallery, that has over 2,300 paintings included.

There is a massive statue, with 4 lions covering each side in front of the National Gallery

Reminded me a lot of some of the buildings in the Smithsonian. It was very busy too!

This was amazing wood work on one of the buildings. It's hard to tell, but each sliver was so precise, and it was a massive wall!

Another side of the wall!

I really wanted to ride this, but it was closed!

Today since Paula was with us, she wanted to give us a quick tour of the city, so we could get a feel for the underground, buses, and trains. We managed to get from North London to South London, and then she left us at a market (there are no malls, just markets). A lot of the day was mainly figuring the system out and getting used to the buses and what not.

I am hoping to find myself out in London again tomorrow if the weather permits. It is supposed to snow again tonight and tomorrow, so I have to keep a close watch on the trains. If my train is cancelled into my town, I will get snowed in at London. I will keep you updated, and as always, will post any pictures if I head out again tomorrow. :)

It was a great day, and I am still in shock that I just managed to do something that has been a dream of mine since I was little.

Still....Snow....

Well, today was another snow day in school... So much for coming here to teach! I have had one day of teacher meetings, one day of school, and three days of snow!

Although I am sure most teacher loved the days off, I found myself quite lonely here by myself. Not to get sappy, but it really made me homesick just sitting at home and not keeping busy. On Wednesday, I took a great walk, but the evening and all day Thursday were very quiet and lonely. After taking a long shower and talking to good friends online, I promised myself I wasn't going to let me be alone today.

I woke up at 8, and hopped on the bus to school. Even though school is closed, there are about 180 boarders that live there full-time, so I thought I would stop in and say Hi. I managed to get there in time for breakfast, and spent several hours hanging out with other staff members and boarders. I met GAP students (In Britain, and several other countries,  its common in between high school and college to take a year off and travel, do community work, or other things. They call this a gap, hence the term GAP students) The GAP students at Box Hill School are great, two are from Australia, and one is from South Africa. They are about 18, and were great to hang out with.

I then spent quite some time getting back home, some of the buses don't run because of the snow so I had to walk until I found one that was working. I managed to get home, and ran back into town for paper and a binder for school. Came back, ate dinner, chated on Skype for a bit, and am now sitting here!

Tomorrow is a great day, my first journey to London! My placement supervisor, the big guru Paula, and four other student teachers around London will all be meeting up at the train station tomorrow at 11. Paula is going to be taking us all over, and showing up the ropes of London! Don't forget to take a look tomorrow, I promise great photos are in store!!

In the meantime, here are just some photos I took today while walking:

The amazing church next to the school. The boarders attend Church on Sundays. This is the Church of England, not to be confused with a Catholic Church. When Henry the IV asked for a divorce from his wife Catherine, Pope Clement refused. With years of fighting, Henry split from the church and was regonised (notice spelling!) as the supreme head of the Church of England. Hundreds of people are buried all over, and in, this church, its quite honorable.

Close up of the church, isn't that beautiful!?

This is The White Horse, the main pub in town. I love the history behind this pub. Notice the large parkway in the middle? This was because in the 1800's travelers would bring their horse carriages through that walkway, and leave their horses in stables around back! The entry is big enough for carriages, which is quite massive, and they haven't changed a thing! I am hoping to sit down for a drink on Sunday in here :)

Here I am FREEZING outside of the church! Notice all the snow still! It was -5c when I woke up this morning!!

I will get London photos on here asap tomorrow!!

Snow Day!

Last night around 6:00pm, it started snowing pretty heavy. Woke up this morning to school cancelled, and about 6 inches of snow! Had to take a walk around town and get some great photos of the white scenery! Here is my favorite house in town, it's huge!

I walked into the main market to see this this, along with these shelves:

Pretty darn empty!

The main church in town! Beautiful!!

It's backwards, but it says "Dorking Market" and looking through it is the big park in the middle of town!

Those little dots are children and parents sledding down the hills in the park

Came to a pond, and look at all of those ducks! This woman was giving them about 6 loaves of bread!

Lake is frozen over, but the birds don't mind :)

Good painting, I should have bought it for Chris, but it was 250 pounds!

Pretty cold outside!

Also, just received word that school is closed tomorrow again due to the weather. Looks like another sleep-in day!