A Weekend in London

This weekend Kelsey and I made the voyage to London. I left on Friday morning at 8:30 to take the bus, a 5 and a half hour ride. It's not a bad trip though, we were a little delayed because there was an accident on the highway, a lorrie turned over or something. I arrived in London and found to the tube station to get to our hostel where I was meeting Kelsey. Our hostel was really nice, but kind of far away so we changed for the evening and set out again for the British Museum.
It was really hot in London this weekend and there was a ton of ppl, more like the London I am used to. We met Patrick at the museum and he took us to where he is staying in London. It's really close to the museum and pretty central in London, so that was nice. We met his roommates and some other friends, they are all from FSU... good thing they were nice.  Patrick, Kelsey, and I went out to get something to eat. Then we met up with his friends and went out in London. It was a really fun time!
The next morning Patrick met us at our hostel for breaky and we checked out of our hostel and headed back into town.
Our first quest of the day was to find Phantom tickets. We ended up going to the actual theatre and getting pretty decent seats. We had some time after that and went and got Pizza and then walked over to Leicester square where there was a Thai fest going on. It was interesting. By then it was time for us to head back to see Phantom. I was so excited! And rightly so, the show was amazing and I loved it! The music, everything was spectacular, I am really glad that I got the opportunity to see it.
We had some time after the show before our train left so we went and saw some of the sights of London. It was a nice day walking around with Kelsey and Patrick, who is always entertaining. We were pretty sure our train left at 8:30 so we wanted to get to the train station at 8. We said goodbye to Patrick at the tube station and made our way to Paddington. When we got there at 8 we looked at the board and realized our train actuall left at 8:06... PANIC! I ran to get my ticket and Kelsey ran to find our platform. Luckily the train was running late, otherwise I don't know that we would have made it. We did though and finally made it back to Plymouth at midnight. We got a taxi back to Marjon and went straight to bed. It was a really long day, but really fun. I had an amazing time! Tomorrow is back to school and we are going on another field trip, which should be interesting as usual. :)

Plymouth: A week in class

This week the students were on their mid term holiday so we went to class!  Our supervisor, Keith, taught our classes and he is really intersting. I feel like I learned a lot about schools in England and their national curriculum and also just how to be a better teacher in general. We did a lot of hands on activites and learned things that can make us better teachers in the future. The frist day we talked abot Teacher behavior and the National Curriculum, yesterday we talked about assessment, and today we talked about learning outside the classroom. Yesterday we talked about PE in schools, because here they don't have specialists, the classroom teacher is expected to teach the students art, music, PE, etc. We did some fun activites in the afternoon with another instructor in the gym that tested our speed, balance, adgility, etc. They were pretty hard activities, but really fun!
Today since our lesson was learning outside of the classroom we went to Morwellham Quay (prounounced Key), which is a historical town and copper mine. It was really neat because it is pretty much the way the people that lived there left it.  It was a port town that used to mine copper, tin, and arsanic. We got to eat Devon Pasties (which are DELICIOUS!) and go into one of the copper mines, which I thought was kind of scary. There was a boat there from that time period as well, the 2nd to last ship to be built in England. We walked up to the farm they have there and met the pigs, horses, and various birds (roosters, quails, turkey, geese, etc). It was a really neat place to visit and like our instrustor said it was different because a lot of England's history focuses on the rich and royalty, but thus was more about the common people and how they lived. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot.
I really liked this week because I felt that I learned so much in just 3 days, I wish the program was longer so we could learn more! I will be excited to go back in the classroom next week though (Monday we have another excursion, I think we are going to Dartmoor and sailing?), I missed the little buggers ;)
Tomorrow Kelsey and I are going to London for the night and seeing Phantom of the Opera at a Sat. matinee and then heading back to Plymouth after that. I am excited because I have never even seen the movie, so it will be completely new to me! It should be another good weekend in England! I can't believe my time is almost up and then back to the Sates. Anyway, I have a 8:30 bus to catch to london tomorrow, so I need to pack and get to bed!

Some New Vocabulary

TopDeck is an Australian tour company and so the majority of the people on our trip and anyone we come into contact with at the Sites are Aussies so we have learned some new vocab:


Dodgy: Same thing as sketchy

Cheers: They say this all the time, like we say cheers but also in place of thank you.

Rubbish: Trash

Chewey: Gum

Sunneys: Sunglasses

Mackers: Mc Donalds

Hungry Jacks: Burger King

Kiwis: People from New Zealand

This Afvo: This Afternoon

A Sammi: A Sandwich

Cheeky Bugger: Can be used affectionately or to say someone is being annoying or silly

Variations on Cheeky bugger: cheeky bastard, cheeky shit, etc.

Rubbers: Erasers

Breaky: Breakfast

Jandals: flip flops

Duner: A comforter/ duvet on a bed

Aye?: What?

Some of these are also from my time in England
I might add more that I forgot later :)

Penzance, Land's End, St. Ives, St. Michael's Mount

  Today Kelsey and I woke up, had a lovely breaky of Nutella and toast, and headed out for the day. We decided that we were going to go and see Land's End today and so we got a relatively early start.  We stopped by Pound World on our way to the bus station, which is like Dollar Tree, and got sandwhiches and snacks to take with us.  There is a bus that will take you to Land's End, St. Ives, and St. Micheal's Mount stopping along the way at smaller towns and we could get on and off wherever we wanted.
Our first stop was Land's End. It was really nice and not raining yet so we could see out a little ways.  We walked along the sea wall and stopped and took pictures, it looked like it was out of a pirate's movie.  We got hot chocoalte at the shopr at the top and sat and ate crackers. It was really lovely. Then we took the hike down to Sunnen's Cove. The walk was kind of fun because it was along the coast and rocky, it is about a 2 mile walk. Sunnen's Cove is a really cute little beach town and surprisingly enough there were people on the beach and in the water depsite the over cast and cold day. Kelsey and I sat and ate our sandwhiches and watched the crazy people on the beach.
 After that we got back on the bus on the way to St. Micheal's Mount. We decided not to actually stop in St. Ives, even though it's really beautiful, because the bus only comes every 2 hours and we really wanted to make it to St. Micheal's.  We took pictures as we drove through the town though.  Our last stop of the day was St. Micheal's Mount, which is a really cool castle out on an island off the coast off Marzion. If the tide is out you can walk to the castle, otherwise you have to take a boat. When we got there the tide was out, YAY, but coming in, boo... so we had to walk quickly! We had to take off our shoes part of the way there and the water got up to our calves, but it was still really fun. We were laughing because the water was freezing and I was really hoping it wouldn't get to much deeper otherwise I would have had to take my pants off! We got there and then made the trekk up to the castle. It was a little bit treacherous because it was raining kind of hard and the steps up to the castle were kind of treacherous. We made it though and the view was georgeous and the castle was really pretty and people actually live in it, which is cool. We had to take a boat back to the main land though because otherwise we would have had to swim and I forgot my swimming costume ;)
We got on another bus on the main land and headed back to Penzance. We were really tired and hungry at this point and quite frankly we just really wanted a beer. So we tried to find a place in Penzance, but everything here closes at 5. No joke. We finally found a pub that was open though and got a burger and beer... very American, but also sooo yummy! There was a rugby match on, I think I should watch more rugby, those boys are nice looking. Also, the bartender asked if we were on holiday and we said yes we were from America and she said she really wanted to go there because, "she really wants to go to Hooters." OOHH dear. Anyway, we are home now and exhausted. Tomorrow we are heading back to Plymouth, are train leaves at 10:30 am. And then back to school and no more holiday :( But this has been a really nice Holiday and Kelsey and I have had a really nice time!

Penzance, England

So after a good first week in classrooms in Plymouth, we have arrived at the weekend! AND it's a long weekend! This being the case, we all wanted to go someplace for the weekend, however it's a bank holiday weekend and so everything was expensive or sold out. Kelsey and I found a place to stay in Penzance though, which is in Southern England and it was cheap to stay and get there! So we booked it and made the trek down this morning.
We had a train ticket for this morning at 10:30 and we decided to take the bus to the train station. We left the house this morning at 8:45 and stood IN THE RAIN for at least 30 mins before we finally got on the bus that would take us to the train station. By the time we got there it was 10:05 ish and we had to scramble down to the station. My first bump to get over was that I had accidentally booked my ticket for Sunday istead of Saturday, genius I know. I managed to switch it quickly and for only a small fee. Kelsey made a very true statement about traveling in Plymouth, "the busses are late and the trains right on time... makes things interesting." The train ride was uneventful and pleasantly warm and dry so we had a really nice ride down to Penzance. When we got here we asked the tourist center where the place we are staying was, it's YMCA Cornwall. We, of course, got a little lost but managed to get there and checked in.  It's actually pretty nice and the people here are really friendly. We were going to go down to Lands End today and St. Micheals tomorrow, but we can get an all day bus pass tomorrow so we decided to save all of our sightseeing for tomorrow. Today we walked back down to the Town Centre and walk around. We got the most delicious fish and chips I have ever had at a place called The Fat Fish Cafe. Then we walked around town and down to the Barbican. The town is really pretty and right on the ocean, it was especially nice when the sun would poke out. We got ice cream after that (because we weren't feeling like we had enough fat for the day) and walked back to the hostel. Now we are relaxing and getting ready to write Dr. V's paper and then prob an early night as tomorrow we are planning a full day of tourist activities! Maybe tomorrow night we will see what the town has to offer for nigth life, although like Plymuth things were closing here at around 5:30 tonight. We are just playing it by ear pretty much. Today was nice though and we are excited to be seeing different parts of England.

Plymouth: First day in the classroom!!!

Today was our first day in the classroom. It started out with my alarm not going off, I was supposed to be up at 6:30, but didn’t wake up until 6:50… oops! At least I woke up! I was still ready by 7:45 though and Reid, Kelsey, Heather, and I headed to the bus stop to start our journey to St. Peter’s Roman Catholic School. The bus ride is about 30 mins., I think. The bus drivers are really nice here and they always help and let you know where to get off at. Once we got off where he told us to we had to find the school, our head teacher already told us that we were probably going to get lost and not to worry about being late… but the other Americans weren’t from UF and we were determined to get there on time! We asked a few people and some school children, who laughed at our accents, and finally we made it, on time! They showed us to our classes and we began our first day in an English primary school. The first thing that I came across was my last name, Bumsted here would be the equivalent to Buttsted in America, and so everyone got a good laugh about that. Some of the children later in the day told me my name was offensive, HAH! It’s pretty funny; I told them that if they wanted to they could call me Ms. B instead. The school day here is structured differently than ours, they have a 20 min. break in the morning and the teachers go and drink coffee and tea while the children play. Also at lunch it is an hour and the whole school goes at the same time, granted there is one class for every grade, and the teachers all get break at the same time. It was very different, but kind of cool to all be in there together. It’s also funny because we are the Americans and we are International students, which is a foreign (BAHAHA) idea to us. The students are really cute, they wear little uniforms, the girls in gingham dresses and the boys have little ties, and they are very interested in America and my accent. There is too much to put here about all that I observed today, but it was really fun being in the classroom again especially one that is different and offers different things for me to learn (Dr. Jacobbe would love the way they do math). I am excited to spend more time here and with the students! Also, the 5th year teacher is REALLY cute and he has a really nice accent. The four of us today were practically drooling at him! Should be an interesting 4 weeks 

An Introduction to Plymouth

Today was our introduction into Plymouth. We woke up early and got a tour of the Marjon Campus, which is teeny tiny, we had basically seen everything  . After that we had lunch with the head teachers (principals) and talked about the schools we would be at. Then we were off on a tour of Plymouth! Plymouth is really lovely and the weather here has been unusually warm and sunny which means everyone is out and about. We went down to the ocean and saw where the Mayflower left from and there were the names of all the Pilgrims there as well. It was really neat! We walked up the hill from there and saw the community pool down by the ocean, it’s a cool pool… if it were warmer I might have a go, buuuut. There were some boys jumping off the cliffs into the ocean, we asked them if it was cold and they said freezing! Guess I won’t be doing that either. After that we got ice cream for a pound (what a deal!) and then explored Plymouth on our own. Kelsey and I took the bus back to Marjon and just hung out the rest of the evening. We made baked potatoes and Mediterranean veggies (came in a pack at ASDA, don’t be too impressed) for dinner which was very yummy. We are trying to figure out what to do this weekend, but as it is a Holiday weekend and it’s so close everything is booked or REALLY expensive. So I think that we might stay in England and maybe go south, we aren’t sure yet. Anyway, tomorrow is going to be an early day and I am a little nervous about the bus and the classroom and everything, but we’ll see how it goes!