Wow... I've been here a month... It actually does not feel that long
Another week is over, and I can’t believe that it’s less than 2 weeks until I get to see awesome German people again! And go to Berlin! Wooo!
But enough ranting, time to put the thinking cap on and reflect on last week. How did it make you feel? Uhuh. Uhuh. Good? Well, that definitely means that you’re harbouring repressed sexual feelings for your father.
But seriously, Freudian allusions aside, it was pretty good as far as weeks go. Saturday was pretty nondescript. I was exhausted from getting hardly any sleep on Friday, so it seemed to go really slowly. Whilst half of the girls cooked dog biscuits with the dept. House mistress, (and don’t even get me started on those. Like gourmet canine cookery... wtf? It eliminates the best part of cooking – eating... not that that really stopped me from trying one of the parmesan and oat biscuits when no one was looking. Shush. It’s our little secret. But anyway, the dogs seem to like them), I watched the girls practise their acts for the talent show. A lot of them are doing dances. Watching them dance is kind of worrying. For 13 year old girls, they sure seem to like to use their hips. And each other. And basically anything that stands still long enough for them to grind up against. However they’ve assured me that that classifies as ‘dancing’ in Nigeria, and promised never to dance that way in front of the Headmaster.
Sunday was a trip to the London Science Museum which is actually a lot more interesting than it sounds. It has so much interactive fun stuff to do, and tbh with a group of 12 yr olds, we were hardly going to be reading anything that wasn’t on a computer. However it was exhausting and I must admit there were moments when it was extremely tempting to steal the girls’ chocolate biscuits for a little extra energy. Lol dw, I wouldn’t actually. They’d never forgive me.
Monday... I actually have no idea. I slept until midday and only just made it to lunch in time. Then I probs called Louisa, and I think Yve, Caitlin and I watched a few episodes of HIMYM. And then I probably had a nap.
Tuesday...worked, ate lunch, and then I think I had one of the most amazing naps ever. Now don’t get me wrong, I think all naps are great. Sometimes I think I should just be an old granny already, just so i can have regular naps. But this one was particularly spectacular. It was so hard to get up at 6 to get ready for work again.
Wednesday... can’t remember anything of interest.
Thursday was a bit exciting. I got to sleep in, something which I really look forward to. However I always stay up late on Wednesday night if only because I know that I have Thursday morning off. But I end up getting even less sleep than normal. Which is a bit annoying. But after supper we had a bit of a surprise for the girls. We decided to have another fire drill, something that they wouldn’t expect, because they’re used to them happening early mornings. By making it as real as possible we’d be able to properly assess the girls’ abilities to react to such an emergency, without the reluctance normally associated with fire drills. So we’d liaised with the local fire brigade who came in to help us set everything up. Smoke machine in the kitchen? Check. Fire engines waiting to come to our rescue? Check. Girls in the house, chilling, doing prep etc? Awesome.
Anyway, it was really full on, but kind of exciting. The smoke poured out from under the kitchen door really fast, and the girls started freaking out and everyone evacuated in under 60 seconds. It was actually a bit scary as well, even though us staff knew that it wasn’t real. I also did admit to a couple of girls that it was a drill, because a few started crying and freaking out a bit down at the meeting point, but overall it worked really well. And we got to watch the firemen do their thang. (The girls were sliiightly obsessed with them. ‘OMG THEY’RE COMING!! Get ready to wave!!! Oooh they’re soooo fit’ so yeah, typical 12-13 yr olds really) and then afterwards we simply went back and I got to eat some of Olivia’s delicious chocolate birthday cake. Good day. But dreadfully draining.
Yesterday (Friday), Yve, Caitlin, Greer and I headed down to Oxford for a day out. The forecast said 10 degrees and I was so so excited that I decided that if I wore a big woollen jumper, I could go without a coat. Big mistake, I spent all day freezing in my 40denier tights, with really strong winds. I think I might be getting sick now
But oxford was incredibly beautiful. We bussed in which only took 50 minutes or so. By the time we got to Oxford, we’d all decided to compete in weekly or fortnightly ‘masterchef’ competitions with each other, and yve and I had decided to start sewing/making/altering clothes again. I really need a hobby. Like my free time is a joke. I do nothing worthwhile at all.
I digress. Anyway, we started off by walking through the gorgeous streets and looking at beautiful architecture. We stopped at an Oxford souvenir shop and checked out the Covered Markets which had the most amazing cake shop. They had such wonderful displays in the windows, especially of wedding cakes. We zoomed off to the Oxford Castle and took a tour. It was great, as the guide was a character from its history – a thief who had twice escaped – and she kept us well entertained, especially when it came to the Castle’s history of being haunted!
We also drank this really yummy hot chocolate and climbed a grassy hill. It’s more exciting than it sounds.
We hat lunch at EAT which was pretty good, and had a Mcflurry on the way to Christ Church. Christ Church University was so amazingly beautiful. Like it had all the spire/turret romantic scenery thing going on, and the buildings were just spectacular. And to think about all the smart people who learnt there... right back to when it was first built. Ahhhhh! I would actually love to study there.
All in all it was an amazing day, and I’d definitely love to go back if we have time. It’s funny. I imagined being at Godstowe and travelling everywhere and anywhere, being able to see everything. But now that I’m here I’ve actually begun to notice how little time I actually have to see everything. It’s all just disappearing so so fast and I’m worried that I won’t be able to get everything done!
I really want to buy a map of Europe, if only to mark out all the places I’ve been and everywhere I want to go, but still haven’t found a shop selling them yet :(
So that’s about all for last week. Oh funny story though. So the school has a ‘no running inside’ policy, like most schools normally do, but they way they enforce it is actually so cute. They’ve convinced the younger girls that there are speed cameras situated throughout the school, and that they catch anyone going over 1.4km/h. And they’ve hung up pictures of blurred girls running through the school with captions like ‘Caught speeding. Who is this girl?’. So now everytime i see some of the little ones sprinting down a corridor I like to yell out ‘Girls! Don’t forget about the cameras!’ to which they sheepishly slow down and look about them worriedly. Heheheh.
(I also tried this with the fourths... but they’re like ‘uhhh Miss Egan... who do you think posed for the photos on all those posters?’ ah well, it was worth a try :) )
So there it is, fairly boring and nondescript, but that’s England for you. Have a great week and I’ll write more soon. Maybe.
Oh and p.s. I totes just booked my flights for Easter Holidays. Hellooo Italy, and TURKEY (Gallipoli for ANZAC Day anyone?)
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Looking Forward to Half Term
Yup that's right bitches! Half term in less than a month and I'm looking forward to it! That's all for today, hoped you enjoyed the post.
...
lol jokes, keep your hat on, I'm still going to write stuff about stuff.
So, going back to last Saturday... after coming home from London, I immediately popped onto the World Wide Web to search for flights to visit Louisa in Germany. However seeing the prices just made me depressed, and it was impossible to find a flight for less than £300 on the Friday evening of half term. I was kinda grasping at straws when I went to see my House Mistress to double check that I actually was working Friday. But she was sooo lovely because when I told her what I had been planning to do, she gave me the day off, and told me to get the cheapest/earliest flight, so I could spend as much time there as possible. I am so glad that I chose to work in Turner House, because they are just all so wonderful. (and also, unlike the other houses, they always order the chocolate cream biscuits. Which means there are always packets just sitting in the cupboard. Pilfering schmilfering. I like to think of it as helping the girls. I care about their health and fruit would definitely be better for them than chocolate biscuits! Hence I take – nay, am FORCED to take – those sugary treats. It’s for their own good! But in all seriousness, they are there so that us staff can take a packet as well)
Half Term is now completely booked. Caitlin and I zoom our way over to Stuttgart on Friday evening and while she goes to meet up with long lost relatives, I bahn it to Ilshofen. Then after three awesome days, we’ll meet up at Stuttgart again and fly over to Berlin to see all the others. And we all fly back the next Saturday morning.
I am so so so so so so so so so so pumped! I may have been to Berlin two or three times already, but there’s always more to see! I love that city so much. But most of all I’m just so excited to see my host family again, even if it’s only for a weekend. And just Germany in general! I feel like it’s impossible to exhaust the potential of phrases like ‘beruhig dein Bauerhof’ and just denglishing it up in ‘general’. Damn, I wish there was a way of typing the German pronunciation of English words.
So the girls came back on Sunday night after spending the weekend with family etc, and Monday meant back to work as usual. On Tuesday, we went into town to try catch a movie, but alas, we got the cinemas wrong and hence just ended up shopping instead, which was still quite fun. Except when I got a zip stuck. And then broke the zip. Effectively imprisoning myself inside a lovely Zara skirt. Like, I know that the word awkward is really overused, but it describes the situation quite aptly. But it all turned out ok, the shop girl just had to rip the skirt off me. Pity, it was really nice and the last of its size.
Wednesday was Australia day, and we at Turner House celebrated with a little fire, barbequing pork and vegetarian sausages and marshmallows. The lucky teaching gaps, who had the evening off, went into London and hit up the pubs, whilst us boarders drank wine and watched inappropriate TV shows.
Thursday was boring. Nothing exciting happened. That’s kind of typical of Thursdays. Cool.
Friday: Our day off, which was lovely! I slept in. Majorly. After lunch, we made chocolate slice and then went and saw The King’s Speech (finally), which was actually so so good. But at the end it was just like wait... nothing actually happened in that movie. But it was good anyway. We came back, ate chocolate slice (yum!) and watched the awesomest dating show ever. Then Caitlin, Yve and I went out. And danced. And continually avoided creepy old weirdos. And overall had a great time.
So last week was great, except I seemed to have developed a really annoying habit of singing what I’m doing in different voices and accents, attempting to beatbox – very very badly, or just humming randomly whenever we’re using the computers. Now this would normally be perfectly fine, considering that Yve, Greer and Caitlin have long resigned themselves to my weirdness, but I tend to forget that we don’t always have the boarding houses to ourselves during the day. Maintenance guys, house mistresses, school girls who’ve forgotten work... all occasionally stick their head through the doors to check where the random noises are coming from, before quickly pretend that they haven’t noticed. Oh you polite English people! But still, it’s so hard to stop once you start. It’s like this vicious circle, and sometimes I worry that there’s no way out of this downward spiral.
Ah well, I should probably reply to some emails and then clean my room. The sink in my bathroom is completely blocked and I have to use my bath to wash my hands etc which is really annoying. So I need to tell the maintenance guys about it, but my room is actually so messy that I can’t stand the thought of them going in there to fix it. But at least it’s incentive to tidy everything up.
Have a good week.
...
lol jokes, keep your hat on, I'm still going to write stuff about stuff.
So, going back to last Saturday... after coming home from London, I immediately popped onto the World Wide Web to search for flights to visit Louisa in Germany. However seeing the prices just made me depressed, and it was impossible to find a flight for less than £300 on the Friday evening of half term. I was kinda grasping at straws when I went to see my House Mistress to double check that I actually was working Friday. But she was sooo lovely because when I told her what I had been planning to do, she gave me the day off, and told me to get the cheapest/earliest flight, so I could spend as much time there as possible. I am so glad that I chose to work in Turner House, because they are just all so wonderful. (and also, unlike the other houses, they always order the chocolate cream biscuits. Which means there are always packets just sitting in the cupboard. Pilfering schmilfering. I like to think of it as helping the girls. I care about their health and fruit would definitely be better for them than chocolate biscuits! Hence I take – nay, am FORCED to take – those sugary treats. It’s for their own good! But in all seriousness, they are there so that us staff can take a packet as well)
Half Term is now completely booked. Caitlin and I zoom our way over to Stuttgart on Friday evening and while she goes to meet up with long lost relatives, I bahn it to Ilshofen. Then after three awesome days, we’ll meet up at Stuttgart again and fly over to Berlin to see all the others. And we all fly back the next Saturday morning.
I am so so so so so so so so so so pumped! I may have been to Berlin two or three times already, but there’s always more to see! I love that city so much. But most of all I’m just so excited to see my host family again, even if it’s only for a weekend. And just Germany in general! I feel like it’s impossible to exhaust the potential of phrases like ‘beruhig dein Bauerhof’ and just denglishing it up in ‘general’. Damn, I wish there was a way of typing the German pronunciation of English words.
So the girls came back on Sunday night after spending the weekend with family etc, and Monday meant back to work as usual. On Tuesday, we went into town to try catch a movie, but alas, we got the cinemas wrong and hence just ended up shopping instead, which was still quite fun. Except when I got a zip stuck. And then broke the zip. Effectively imprisoning myself inside a lovely Zara skirt. Like, I know that the word awkward is really overused, but it describes the situation quite aptly. But it all turned out ok, the shop girl just had to rip the skirt off me. Pity, it was really nice and the last of its size.
Wednesday was Australia day, and we at Turner House celebrated with a little fire, barbequing pork and vegetarian sausages and marshmallows. The lucky teaching gaps, who had the evening off, went into London and hit up the pubs, whilst us boarders drank wine and watched inappropriate TV shows.
Thursday was boring. Nothing exciting happened. That’s kind of typical of Thursdays. Cool.
Friday: Our day off, which was lovely! I slept in. Majorly. After lunch, we made chocolate slice and then went and saw The King’s Speech (finally), which was actually so so good. But at the end it was just like wait... nothing actually happened in that movie. But it was good anyway. We came back, ate chocolate slice (yum!) and watched the awesomest dating show ever. Then Caitlin, Yve and I went out. And danced. And continually avoided creepy old weirdos. And overall had a great time.
So last week was great, except I seemed to have developed a really annoying habit of singing what I’m doing in different voices and accents, attempting to beatbox – very very badly, or just humming randomly whenever we’re using the computers. Now this would normally be perfectly fine, considering that Yve, Greer and Caitlin have long resigned themselves to my weirdness, but I tend to forget that we don’t always have the boarding houses to ourselves during the day. Maintenance guys, house mistresses, school girls who’ve forgotten work... all occasionally stick their head through the doors to check where the random noises are coming from, before quickly pretend that they haven’t noticed. Oh you polite English people! But still, it’s so hard to stop once you start. It’s like this vicious circle, and sometimes I worry that there’s no way out of this downward spiral.
Ah well, I should probably reply to some emails and then clean my room. The sink in my bathroom is completely blocked and I have to use my bath to wash my hands etc which is really annoying. So I need to tell the maintenance guys about it, but my room is actually so messy that I can’t stand the thought of them going in there to fix it. But at least it’s incentive to tidy everything up.
Have a good week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)