Lately

My life has been very busy lately with work and trip planning. I've been at the same school in East Ham and took over a Year 4 class while the teacher was off sick for just over two weeks. It was actually the very first class I ever taught in and was really nice to be in the same class for a solid amount of time. As I was in the class for that long I had to help out with planning the lessons which was a good experience and showed me how much work goes into the lessons (not that I already didn't know.) Katy, Kylie and I constantly discuss the fact that we really prefer the education system in Canada as compared to the UK.

This is the last week until the half term break, which means only 4 more days of teaching then I get a week off! On Saturday I am flying to Krakow, Poland with Katy and Lauren and we are staying there for 3 nights. While there we are going to visit the salt mines and take a trip to Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Then we will be taking an overnight bus to Berlin, Germany for 3 nights and seeing the Berlin Wall and taking a day trip to Potsdam then flying back to London. The three of us are all history lovers, and are looking forward to seeing those iconic historic sites. I know that seeing Auschwitz will definitely be a haunting experience and has been something I have wanted to see since high school. The week after we come back from half term my mom is coming to visit me in London for 9 days. I always get Groupon getaway deals emailed to me and noticed there were some amazing trip packages for really cheap. My mom and I decided to book a three day excursion to Budapest, Hungary in the beginning of March when she will be here, so very excited for that too! Overall, I have a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks and I am really enjoying my life in London lately!

In October I got tickets to see one of my favourite bands, Alt - J at the O2 theatre in London. I invited Katy to come with me because she likes them too. Even though we were very high up it was a great show and was cool to be at a concert in London.

The concert was sold out - the stadium is HUGE! 

I was lucky enough to go see the Black Mountain range in Wales. It was a rainy, foggy day but what I could see was so beautiful. We stopped at the side of the road on the trail and I took some pictures of the rocks. There were also lots of sheep along the side of the road. 

Two weekends ago I went to Windsor to see the famous Windsor Castle which is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. It is also where the Queen often spends her weekends. We went for a tour of the castle which was very overpriced, it was £20 each! It was close to closing time and we only were able to tour the State Apartments and St. Mary's doll house but it was so posh and each room had so much detail. Windsor was a very nice city, it was a cold day so we didn't spend much time there but I would definitely like to go back once the weather is warmer.

This past weekend I went on a surprise overnight trip to Lincoln in Northern England. We stayed in an amazing hotel room and we went out for a really nice dinner and then toured a bit of the city. Lincoln is a medieval town and dates back to the Iron Age. I loved it because it was so quiet and peaceful, as compared to the constant business of London. Definitely a wonderful weekend!

Pretty sunset from hotel window