Mind the friggin gap...

I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAACK! Just got home from England about 2 hours ago.

Wow. All I have to say is wow.

Ok, so that's not ALL I have to say... Come on, ya'll must know me a bit better than that by now. :P


First things first: I got accepted to the U of W and U of M Education programs and have decided on the U of W one. I actually decided that a long time ago but didn't think I'd get in. Apparently they liked my application cuz they got back to me a lot quicker than they said they would, even tho my application only got there way past the deadline, due to the whole me being overseas thing. so YAY! I no longer need to worry about being a bored bum next year! :P

Second things second: My phone is offically cancelled so that I won't have a phone bill in June once I'm already moved out. So don't try to call me. Either skype or email.


Ok, so England! Where do I start? How about.... I want to move there! No joke. It's beautiful. I mean, first of all we were plain old lucky. In 12 days we only had ONE DAY OF RAIN! Do you realize how rare that is for the coast of England????



The beach where Kevin Costner washed up in the beginning of "Robin Hood Prince of Thieves"!!!!!!!!!



So ya like I said, I was there for 12 days with 30 ridiculously pubescent 12/13 year olds and 3 other teachers. It was incredible. I loved it. Got along with the kids great and had girls hanging off both arms basically constantly. Literally. Somehow they mistook me for a very cool and fashionable role model... Hmmmmm. Don't tell their parents. Seriously, tho, last night I was in one of the girls rooms and they were laying on top of me, latching onto my hands and legs, and wouldn't let me leave! Got a little disturbing after a while...



Anyways, so the reason we were at St. Bede's prep school (rich kids joint) for 12 days was for the grade 7's English Experience where they went to special English classes every day.

We teachers spent the days "in the library" (<- insert whatever you think I mean by library here). Major highlight: 23 year old James Hamblyn, one of the 2 English teachers. Eye candy. Period. Plus everyone knows I'm a sucker for British accents. Let me see if I can find a pic (for all the single ladies... although i really don't have many single friends. sigh. maybe 2?) I took 396 pics total in England, so he should be in there somewhere. Hang on...

This is all I've got...



James trying to teach 13 year old german kids how to play rugby... Needless to say the girls were a little bit in love.








Lisa and James (the teachers) and John, who organizes this English Experience school for St. Bede's. This pic was at the "awards ceremony". Three of the coolest people I've ever met. Lisa is this crazy nutso awesome woman whom I love to death. She is funky and loud and ridiculously interesting. And John is really fun and great to have a laugh with. He made Canadian jokes all week. Was a good time. (Couldn't hit him back too hard tho...he's got five kids, including newborn twins, so the poor guy gets an average of 1.5 hours of sleep a night...)

James after dropping all the key chains on the floor. Clutz. :P



At the end of our stay we spoiled our hosts with some small presents. I had to come up with the gift for James, seeing as how he and I are the same age and all. This is him reading the note I wrote to him from Anne Hathaway, the love of his life. I have a great pic of his face as he's killing himself laughing about the note, but he might hurt me if he finds out I posted that one, so I'm not gonna. And there's John eyeing the Canadian maple syrup I bought James. I paid FLIPPING 6 POUNDS for, like, a spoonful! I cannot believe how expensive good syrup is outside of Canada. But he likes it, so whatevs.



John, James, and Lisa watching the kids' presentations on the last day. (Lisa also happens to be James' aunt.)




James once again showing off his rugby skills. Used to play semi-professionally. Basically broke every freaking bone in his body...and then some, even if that is illogical. It took him about 20 minutes to recite his list to me. And I'm guessing that with his bi-daily rugby concussions he's probably forgotten a significant amount of bone-crushing moments....




Anywho, that was my highlight. lol. It was hilarious because all the girls (and actually most of the staff strangely enough...) wanted me and James to passionately fall in love and elope or something. The kids kept telling me we'd look so good together...and we have such good chemistry...and we're both so nice. LOL! First of all ... what do seventh graders know about chemistry? They can barely spell "hormones". Secondly, ... WE'RE BOTH SO NICE???? SO NICE PEOPLE SHOULD JUST MARRY??? That's some kinda logic. Heck, then I should have about 30 husbands already. And thirdly, James and I talk to each other in English. 90 percent of which these kids can't understand anyways. How on earth would they know if we can even stand each other? lol. But it was funny. Sorry to disappoint, girls. :P Just eye feasting.


I'm so nasty. My parents are probably nervously drumming their fingers, wishing I would return to "the other continent". lol. No worries. In 29 DAYS I'M DONE SCHOOL HERE. THEN 19 DAYS OF TRAVEL AND I'M HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Crazy. Although James did tell me he's gonna come visit. He loves Canada or something... :P :P



Ok, anyways, I kept a list of stuff I wanted to blog about when I got back so here goes...



1) England is breathtakingly beautiful.



St. Bede's prep school is located in Mede's Village (belonging to the city of Eastbourne) where all the rich snobby people live. It is right on the ocean and is just a phenomenal place for a holiday. The houses are so English. The countryside straight out of the movies. Sheep everywhere. And where there are no sheep there are cows. Just gorgeous.

2) London is the new coolest city on my list. Definitely wanna experience it someday minus 30 little brats (even tho I do love them) and with people my own age. But seriously, it's a city unlike any I've ever seen. Part of it is just the FEELING you get there. It's so .... nope, not even gonna try. Just go. I'll post all the good pics on Facebook and give you the links cuz I'm tired of uploading here on blogger. Such a hassle.


3) The fashion in England is INSANE! It's so over the top crazy! I have literally never seen anything like it anywhere else. Ever. No wonder London is one of the fashion capitals. Seriously every other girl here has just nutso taste. Crazy. And the other half just have crazy outta this world you'd never believe people actually wear that kind of stuff taste. lol. And I got to shop in TOPSHOP!!! Kate Moss's stuff!!! How freaking cool is that???

4) The girls think I look like Angelina Jolie. Um, I think they need to start eating some more carrots or go for eye laser surgery. I would need some serious botox, a major nose job, an eye lift, and about 25 other procedures to even come close! haha. I almost choked on my Starbucks frappuccino when Julia S. told me that...

5) We played a lot of Rounders. The English version of baseball. Frick was that fun! I haven't played baseball in years! Kicked some ass, I did. Boo ya! Definitely couldn't get used to the whole 4 base thing tho...much to James' amusement.

6) Sarah and Nancy think I'm going to make an amazing teacher. They told me they loved my classes. Awwww. I'm so excited! I'm gonna be a teacher!!!

7) THEY STILL HAVE SEPARATE HOT AND COLD TAPS IN ENGLAND. LIKE, WHAT CENTURY ARE WE IN????????????? Apparently technology is one of England's weak points. That's what I've been told. BUT BASIC INDOOR PLUMBING? I MEAN WHAAAAAAAAAT? Ok, so some places have regular taps, but I could not believe how normal it was to have a tap for only cold and a tap for only hot. Do you understand how complicated that makes washing your face? I would fill my hands with freezing water and then quickly thrust them under the boiling water to end up with a handful of unevenly warm water so half of my face was a numb ice block and the other half bore 3rd degree burns. This must be why the English need so many pubs. To drown their water temperature sorrows. HOW DO THEY LIVE LIKE THIS???? lol. Flipping thank goodness the showers were normal!!!!!!!!

8) Ladies beware of English garbage men. Walked from our boarding house (Down's House) to the school for lunch. Garbage truck drove past. 6 men in it between 20 and 50 years of age. All 6 men stuck their heads out of various windows and garbage truck ... openings ... and stared at me. For a full 10 seconds. Including the driver. Was sure I had something stuck to my pants. Turns out I didn't. Anyways, major "ew" experience. Stay away from the garbage men of Mede's Village.

That's all I've got for now. I'm sure much much much more will follow. 12 days of crazy awesomeness is hard to keep organized in my overtired brain. We had to leave for the airport at 2:45am today. Not cool. Thankfully I have all weekend (including Monday) to do nothing but sleep. And relax. And not wonder what the thirty hormonal boogers are up to. We had three couples this week! (Nancy and Robert broke up, but the other two are goin' strong...woot for 3 day anniversaries!!!)

Oh wait, one more thing. My list of cool British words. I fricking love British English. Always have always will. Here are some of my faves. If I think of more, I'll let ya know...

- knackered = exhausted, wasted, finished, drop-dead tired, hammered (well, the literal meaning is actually castrated, James informed me. ew)

- gap: I realize this is a relatively normal word for us, too, but think of how often you actually use it. (Other than when you're talking about the store.) In England, they use 'gap' ALL THE TIME. Everywhere. It's so funny. Or maybe that's just me. "Mind the gap", "gap year students", the list goes on...

- nappies = diapers (like I said, John has newborn twins....heard this word a LOT)

- buggy = stroller; hahaha. who still says buggy? The English are so strange....

- mate = friend/buddy; i thought that was an australian thing, but apparently not. i love how everyone calls everyone else "mate". just sounds cool. and british.

- I also love that British men can use words like "lovely", "darling", and "thanks, love" without sounding completely gay. Brilliant

Oh, here, in my search for a decent picture of Sir James (seeing as how I don't have any) I found one! He added me on Facebook, so I stole one of his profile pics. Is that creepy? I'm just doing it so you can all comprehend/partake in my 12 days of joy. :P