Travel Bug's Christmas Chronicles, Pt. I

*I am typing on a Hungarian keyboard right now, and the location of the Z and Y keys is reversed, so please excuse anz errors that may occur*

December 22, 2005:

Finished school today! Hooray! Went into the centre to do some last minute shopping, and then came back to my apartment to start packing. I had originallz wanted to take mz small carry-on, blue shoulder bag, and backapck with me, but I was having space issues so I ended up taking the bigger suitcase.

December 23, 2005:

Woke up at 5am to get readz and leave by 6:15. I took the local busses to the Venice airport. I had originallz planned on taking the 6:55am bus to the airport, but was so tired that I didn´t realiye the bus was there until it was too late and the bus was full. Had to wait for the 7:25 bus, but still got to the airport in plenty of time for mz flight.

Landed in London and caught the train to Victoria station, where I met Matt. We checked our luggage at the bus station and wandered around town for a few hours. I saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Trafalger Square.

Then it was onto the bus for a 3 hour ride to Bournemouth.

December 24, 2005:

Shopping day! Went with Matt and his familz to Tesco grocerz-like store, then to the Gap to exchange mz jeans that I bought in Paris (thez had a twisted seam). Matt and I wandered around downtown Bournemouth, had lunch, and visited the seaside. It was quite lovelz. Then we went back to his place for dinner.

December 25, 2005:

Christmas Day! Woke up to some presents under the tree for me! How thoughtful. I spoke with mz dad and mom also. Had a lovelz and verz traditional English Christmas dinner with Matt and his familz. Of particular note were the parsnips (which are pretty good I think), brussel sprouts (not so good), turkez AND ham, roast potatoes (not mashed), and of course the mince pies and chrismtas pudding for dessert--both served with double cream (yummy stuff!).

We were so stuffed afterwards that we just watched TV, and went to bed relativelz earlz.

December 26, 2005:

Boxing Day! Leslez, the former computer teacher from school, came to pick me up at Matt's house in the morning. We drove to Dorchester where I spent the daz with her, her daughter Helen and son Joe, her husband, sister, and niece and two nephews. Again we had a traditional Christmas dinner, all the same as the last one, but with the addition of leeks and mushrooms (yum yum), and Christmas sausage (sausage with cranberries in it--also yum). More Christmas pudding and mince pies of course. Apparentlz mince pies date back to medieval times and are said to represent babz Jesus in the manger surrounded bz the gifts that he was brought. Anzwazs, zou are supposed to eat one for each of the 12 dazs of Christmas to ensure good luck for the coming zear. I think I am good for about 6-8 months! LOL

December 27, 2005:

Drove back with Helen and Joe to London. Wow traffic was bad. I stayed with Helen at her flat. She let me have her room as she went to spend the night at her friend's house down the street for the first night, and was working night shifts the second night. Pretty nice of her I must saz!

After we arrived in London, Helen took me around to see Buckingham Palace. It is as unimpressive as I had heard it was, but the cool thing was the when we were walking back through the mall, we saw a royal guard walking to the palace. We were able to stop him to get a photo, which I thought was pretty cool. He even spoke to me! Right at that moment, it started to snow too, so it was all very romanitc in front of the palace with the guard in the snow in London! LOL

Then she and I walked to Picadillz Circus and along Regeant Street to Oxford Street for some more shopping and sightseeing. Of course I found the Gap again, and the funniest thing happened there. While I was waiting in line for the changerooms, some girls tried to jump the "queue." Now I have heard that the British take their queuing very seriously, but I was completely surprised by what happened next! People actuallay started complaining to the girls, telling them off, and demanding that they go to the back. It got so heated that a sales accociate came over to sort out the mess. Wow! Now that would NEVER happen in Italy!!!

After that we strolled along through Leicester Square, had some traditional Cornish pasties, and then headed home.

December 28, 2005:

London Solo! Todaz I woke up and went to the Tower of London. I was pretty impressed that I managed to navigate the underground alone--it is pretty complicated at first glance. The Tower of London was cool. I started to take one of the free tours on offer bz the Beefeaters, but quicklz decided to just wander on mz own since the Beefeater tour did not include going into any of the actual towers. I saw the Crown Jewels, which was pretty neat. The most interesting part of that was when zou first go into the Crown Jewels tower, thez had rows of wooden chairs for each monarch of England with the crest of that monarch on the back of the chair. It was prettz neat. The crown jewels themselves were pretty nice, but you zip by them on a little conveyor belt, so zou can't reallz get a good look.

After that I met Joanne, one of the other second grade teachers, at Embankment Station and we walked along the river Thames, past Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and across the Millenium Bridge towards St. Paul's Cathedral. We stopped for lunch, and then strolled along some more and stopped for coffee. Then Joanne had to leave, so I went back along Oxford and Regeant Streets to pick up some souveniers before heading back to the flat and to bed because I was exhausted.

December 29, 2005:

To Budapest! I woke up earlz todaz and took the tube to Victoria station, and then the Gatwick Express to the airport. I caught my flight to Budapest, and took an airport mini-shuttle bus to mz hostel. I figured after dragging mz luggage all around London, I wasn't readz to face doing it again so soon. And I am glad I didn't because mz hostel is on the TOP floor of a building with no elevator!!! I had to take mz luggage in shifts! *phew* But I made it ok and all in one piece. The hostel is verz nice and I have met some of the people staying here. Thez seem nice as well.

So that is all for this installment of the Travel Bug's Christmas Chronicles. I will keep you posted as the adventures continue.

Bournemouth, Budapest, and Beyond

Today at 12:30pm, all the little kiddies went home to their parents for a two week Christmas Vacation, and all the teachers jumped for joy (some silently) that they had survived the holiday lead-up, the Christmas play, classroom parties, and the general insanity that comes along with children and the holidays.

Tomorrow morning I am leaving to go to Bournemouth, England to spend Christmas with a co-worker who kindly offered me a warm home to stay in since I wasn't going home to Toronto. It will be my first Christmas away from home. Ever. In my WHOLE life!!! It will be weird to be away from home and not see all my family and friends, but I am looking forward to experiencing Christmas in England. I will let you know if there are any different traditions.

After my time in England (6 days), I will be flying to Budapest for New Year's Eve. It should be fun. I have heard many good things about Budapest so I am really looking forward to going there. One thing Budapest is apparently known for is its cheap, luxurious day spas, so I will definitely be checking those out while I am there. Maybe spend New Year's Day relaxing at the spa. Sounds like a great way to start out the year to me!

Then I will probably take a train to Vienna, Austria, depending on my boredom level with Budapest, finances, and my overall tiredness level of course. I would like to spend two days in Vienna touring the sights, and spend a third day on a day trip to Mauthausen to visit the concentration camp there.

Next I will train it back to Budapest for one final night before catching my flight back to Venice/Padova the next day.

So those are my big Holiday plans. I will update when I can and promise to take lots of pictures. Happy Holidays everyone!

A presto!

Procrastination: It's Just So Easy

I am supposed to be planning right now. "Planning what?" you foolishly ask. Well I'll tell you.

Before we go on our Christmas holidays at 12:30 this Thursday afternoon, we responsible teachers are required to hand in our planning binders (you know, the ones with all the plans) to the principal so she can spend her wonderful two week vacation rifling through them, checking to make sure we have all our plans. I have been giving this some serious thought since the time she made the announcement that she was collecting our binders, but I am still yet to come to a reasonable conclusion as to WHY, exactly, anyone would want to spend their vacation surrounded by 20 or so binders full of plans. Nope. No idea. Maybe that's why I'm just a teacher and not the principal.

But I digress.

As I was saying, I am supposed to be working on these plans right now, but am not having the easiest time of it. Yes, it's true. I am having a hard time looking twelve weeks into the future and coming up with a concrete plan of what's to be taught when. And it's not even twelve weeks starting tomorrow. Oh no, it's twelve weeks starting three weeks from now, which would really be 15 weeks into the future. *sigh*

But I still haven't answered WHAT exactly it is that I am planning. Well really, I am not succeeding in planning anything at the moment. What I should be trying to plan, or what I am kind of trying to plan is the upcoming science, history/geography, and art lessons for the next 12 weeks from January 9th to February 17th.

I know the general topics, but now I need to sort out the specifics for each lesson. You know, stuff like exactly what about the human body we are going to learn, etc. But as you can see, I am not having much luck. I suppose the fact that I left most of my curriculum binders, and resources at school isn't really helping me out here. Oh well. I still have three days left starting tomorrow.

And The Award Goes To...

Every Friday at my school, we have a Golden Book Assembly for all the grades. What this means is that all the classes come and sit in the assembly room and each teacher stands up one at a time to award Golden Books to a few students in her class who have done something special during the week. It's really a crock of shit since there is no actual Golden Book for the kids to be in, but hey. They totally eat it up so what the hell.

"So and so gets a Golden Book for really trying hard to finish all her work this week" etc. etc.

Then all the kids clap and give high-fives to the Golden Booker as she comes up to the front of the room all beaming and happy to accept her bogus certificate. As teachers, we all dread the Golden Book Assembly because it means that we have to try and find some student(s) to give the damn certificates to.


Anyways, last night during our staff Christmas dinner, one of the teachers suddenly got up with a stack of papers under her arm and proceeded to hold a Golden Book Assembly for us teachers and assistants right there in the restaurant. It was pretty hilarious!

I am now in the "Golden Book" for:

"Standing - on her two feet (no more broken bones!)"



It was my proudest moment! I would just like to say thank you to everyone who made it all possible, especially My Little Pink Bike!

Worst Cold Ever!!!

I just have to document that I totally and completely feel like ass. My sinuses are SO CONGESTED that I feel as though snot should be pouring out my ears with every sneeze. I am quite surprised it hasn't happened yet.

My ears are completely blocked, and have been for about 3 days now. The only bonus there is that it lessens the skull-spliting racket experienced during play rehersals.

I missed a day and a half of work this week, my throat feels like it has been slashed by knife-weilding gnomes in the middle of the night, and I am becoming delirious with fever. Not to mention the insane pressure building up in my head. All my top teeth feel like they need root canals.

And every time I cough, the sound reverberates through my stuffed head like a foghorn in the Grand Canyon. I even broke down and decided I should take some medicine, rooted around in my medicine bag and found some Sinutabs that I had bought the last time I felt like complete ass. SCORE! Hopefully that should ease the pressure. If not I will tap my skull.

I am going to bed now.

People BUG!!!

Last night I was pretty tired, so I decided to get a good night's sleep. There I was, sleeping soundly, snug as a bug in my little bed when I was awoken by some loud voices coming from the apartment next door. I figured it was no big deal since I had gone to bed pretty early anyways and had no idea how long I had been sleeping for. So I got up to go to the bathroom and get a drink of water, and then returned to bed.

Well, the talking continued. And continued. And continued. I was a little fed up by this point, so I looked at my clock: 4:36 am!!!!! That was the last straw, and I did what any neighbour would do when being awoken at that time. I banged on the wall.

And what happened next TOTALLY floored me!

They guy next door (who doesn't even live there---he is an American living in Milan or something but comes here to visit what I assume is his girlfriend) came over to the part of the wall where I had banged and yelled something like:

"You need to remember one thing. I speak English. I understand EVERYTHING you guys say. We will be quiet now, but as a teacher (I had talked to him once out front of the building and mentioned what I was doing here) you need to learn when to SHUT THE #$%@ UP!"

WHAT THE #$%@?????

I was so traumatized by the whole thing that I didn't get back to sleep until around 6am. So much for my good night's sleep. Where does he get off anyways??? If someone banged on my wall because I was being too noisy, the first thing to come to mind would not be to send that person to hell!!!

Unbelievable. Un-#$%@-in' believable.

Thanks For the Compliment?

I pretty much did nothing with my kids today at all due to the constant inturruptions and schedule changes from the Christmas play (note to self: run and hide next play practice). I managed to read them a story and send them off in partners to make a Wanted Poster for the main character of the book while I cut out gingerbread man and lady templates for an art activity that we are going to be doing sometime soon......as in, whenever we are not practicing for that damn play!!!

While I was busy cutting out templates, much to the fascination of my children, cat vomit boy came up to me about 100 times to see what I was doing---more because a) he can't sit still to save his life, than b) he was actually curious to know what I was up to. At some point he came over when I had switched from cutting out gingerbread men to cutting out gingerbread ladies.

"Oh. Another gingerbread man."

I, of course, corrected him and said "Gingerbread lady," to which he replied "Oh, a gingerbread LADY. She looks like you."

Let me get this straight: I look like a gingerbread lady. Not the first descriptive I would have come up with for myself, that's for sure. And not only do I look like a gingerbread lady, which might be fine and dandy if he were referring to a nicely decorated COOKIE, but I apparently resemble a piece of featureless cardboard cut in some semblance of a gingerbread lady shape!

Thanks, I think.

Really, you have to wonder where kids come up with some of this stuff sometimes. Best not too think about it too much though. It boggles the mind.

Oops...Part II

So I washed my beloved IKEA slippers yesterday. You remember, the ones I was so determined to get I even broke my thumb for them? Right, those ones.

Well, it seems that IKEA slippers, along with bus tickets, aren't meant to be washed.

The unfortunate outcome is posted below.

Now I guess I need new slippers. But IKEA doesn't have any more. Boo.

Christmas Top 5

Maybe I am not very festive, or perhaps I am too particular, but I don't have 5 favourites for either category. So here are the few that I love...

Top Christmas Songs:

4. Some Dominican Christmas song about a donkey (tooki tooki tooki tooki)

3. Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas

2. This Christmas

1. Let It Snow (Ironically enough...)


Top Christmas Movies:

2. Irving Berlin's White Christmas. It reminds me of my grandfather.

1. The Muppet Family Christmas. I have loved this movie since high school. I watch it every year! It rocks!

That's it.

Cat Vomit, Van Gogh, and Other Second Grade Follies

Sometimes I wonder how I manage to do my job every day. Really. Often you find yourself saying things you NEVER imagined anyone would EVER have to say, like "Please explain to me why you are eating soap bubbles," or "It's not a good idea to stick your pencil in your nose," while your rational side is standing there shaking its head thinking "Why am I even having to say this?" and trying not to laugh. It can be quite amusing sometimes.

For example:

Today in math we were talking about measuring liquids and thinking of things that were 1 litre, like a bottle of water; more than 1 litre, like a swimming pool; and less than 1 litre, like a raindrop. But before we got into that, I had to make sure they knew what a liquid was, so we started brainstorming different kinds of liquids. Water, milk, paint, glue, blood, honey. Pretty normal responses. Then one of mine puts up his hand and says "Cat vomit."

"Yes, that's true. Cat vomit can be liquid, sometimes..." Why am I even having to say this?

Moving on...for art we have been studying Vincent Van Gogh. For the past few weeks my students have been looking at samples of his art. Last week came time for them to make their own Van Gogh painting, so I made a little painting station at the side of my room and hung up 5 of his pictures for them to choose from. We discussed the paintings and I explained how they were to paint in two stages: first the background, and then this week go back and paint in the details.

I must admit that I am not a huge fan of painting since it is so messy. Plus I was a little skeptical about whether my kids would "get" the activity or not. It can be hit and miss sometimes. By now though 3/4ths of the class have added the details, and I am totally impressed! The paintings look WAY better than I had imagined! Kids can surprise you sometimes.

Here are the Van Gogh pics we used as examples:

(I couldn't find a picture of the 5th one)


And here are the kids' interpretations of the same paintings:

They really look great don't you think?

In other news there are 14 and a half days of school left before the Christmas holidays and things are getting hectic as is want to do around this time of year. We have started practicing for the Holiday Production so the schedule has gone out the window, which never helps much. These last few weeks of December are less about teaching than they are about trying to slow down the inevitable spiral into chaos.

But the kids are fun. When they're not driving me nuts that is!