Monday, October 26, 2009

Hey there!
I hope everyone had a great weekend! I heard the Riders won and are still tied for number 1!!! WOOOOHOOO! Remember when the Riders won the cup?????

Its been a while since I've written again (sorry) but we STILL don't have Internet in our place! UGGGHHHH! Our landlord is supposed to call the company TODAY and get on it for us finally. SO...once again I find myself sitting in the SAME internet cafe with the same weird-o's around me. I think it's time to get Internet because the guy who works here thinks we are bff's now or something. The other day he offered Marlee cake! Hahaha...

I taught Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this past week. Thursday and Friday were at the same school and I had an AMAZING time! The school was beautiful, the kids were well behaved and the staff was helpful, what else do you need! I didn't show up until around 10 am on Friday morning because it took the time that it does to have a baby to get to the school. On the way to the school though, you'll NEVER believe what I saw....COWWWSSSS....CABOSS! I tried to contain my excitment on the tube but was smiling like I just saw a miracle being performed! People like usual thought that I was crazy! But cows, yes a field of cows, is something I didn't expect to see while here! ANNYYWWAAYYYSSS...I WILL NOT let cows totally take over my whole blog and get compeletely sidetracked. I got to the school and my class was in their room and I walked in and a little girl said in amazement "WOW..YOU are beautiful!" How cute is that, after that ego boost I knew it was going to be a good day, and it was! I read them some books, played some games, did some school work and before I knew it was I was sending them home! It took me another three days to get home because their were severe delays on the tube. Their was a "person on the track" issue like there is at least once a week.
On Friday I also had another great day at the school. The kids and me had by this time got to know eachother and they laughed at me for things I said and I laughed at them for things they'd said. For example I said to one little boy "WOW awesome work!" He looked at me like i was nutso, turns out they don't say AWESOME here. I didn't say pants at all this time so that saved me some embarrassment! The whole afternoon we just made halloween crafts.Hard work!
On the weekend me and Marlee didn't do anything much at all. Just relaxed and watched some television and some walking around. On Saturday night we were GLUED to the TV for X-factor which is the England version of Canadian Idol. ITS HUGE here. Everyone watches it! So we decided it's best if we also got addicted. Simon from American Idol is on it. It's much more extravagent that American Idol with backup dancers and fireworks and yada yada yada.
On Sunday we woke up around 8:30 and did some tinkering around. Marlee called our landlord around what we thought was 9:30. Turns out the time had changed, meaning Marlee had called her at around 8:30 on a Sunday mornin! WOOOPPSSSS!!!! Our landlord said "did you KNOW the time changed today??" We were totally out of the loop, we would have gone on with our lives and not even known the difference! We are now only 6 short hours ahead of you now! We decided to go exploring in our backyard (literally almost) we headed out to this park across from our house and found out that there were all these trails and a river and nature. We walked around and all of a sudden I spotted something...an APPLE tree. Not any apple tree, this particular apple tree had huge, juicy, red apples hanging from it! I knew right then and there that i HAD to get to that tree. I had about 1938927349 attempts to get through the most prickly raspberry bushes. Whew. It was worse than trying to get through the jungle. Today I'm all scraped up from it, but it was totally worth it! I walked around these bushes trying to get to the prize..apples. Marlee stood on the sidelines laughing like it was the funniest thing she'd ever seen. I finally found a clearing and got to the apples. I got a stick and started knocking apples out of the tree! Amazing! They were delicious! I would like to take this time to thank my Grandpa John for the NEEEDD to get to the best fruit tree in the bush. After the apple extravangza me and marlee continued. We took about nine thousand pictures of us in the autumn leaves. it was SOOO much fun! (See facebook for all these adventures photographs)
We then went home and had a couple beer and played some MOOSE with meaghan and her friend from london Andy. It was a blast! Then we settled in for a quiet night of the x-factor result show.

Overall, although we didn't do anything crazy i had a great weekend! Next weekend we are going to find somewhere to go for Halloween. Right now schools in London are on midsemester break, a whole week!

Thing's I've Learned...

1) Orange Squash...ISN'T orange mixed with the fruit of squash like I thought. It is a concentrated orange juice that you add water too. They call it Orange Squash because the orange is literally squashed! It is their version of juice crystals or frozen juice. hehehehhehehehe.

2)Janelle asked me to ask the kids what a donkey said. We say "eeeee---aahhhh" however HERE they say "eeee---orrr" (apparently that is where eyore from winnie the poo got his name) Although I forgot to ask the kids I asked Andy...he said they say eee--orr how funny is that!! (I bet everyone just said that outloud to try it!)

3) Kids here do not know what a backpack is. I said that it was time for them to get their backpacks and they looked at me like I had said something in French! It's a bookbag and ONLY a bookbag---there is no different words for it!

Alright! Until next time....see ya later!

Cmjw!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Hey Everyone! Hope all is well back in the home land!


All is well here in the land where pickles and Kraft dinner are hard to come by.
I have been teaching the past two days so that has been just brilliant. On Monday I taught in the same nursery that I taught in the other day. it was great as i had the same class and everything. I didn't get called in until around 8:30 meaning I didn't get to the school until almost ten! I walked into the classroom and all the kids were like "Crystal's back!" "Hi Crystal" it was pretty exciting to see all the kids remembering me! I loved it! The day was easy peasy because I just got to play all day again!
Tuesday....was another story in the teaching scene. Whew. I got called in around 8 am and had to travel around an hour and 15 minutes, making me again late. I was teaching Jr.7 which is actually year 6 which is actually grade 5 in our terms. confusing..i know. So I get into this classroom and the kids are already there working on their "numeracy" great. I introduce my self..blah blah blah..and then we get to work on this math. I take one look at it and pretty much have a panic attack. Fractions are NOT my friends. Pie charts with Fractions are NOT my friends! And guess what, that's exactly what they were learning. Oh.My.Goodness. I took a deep breath and sucked up my big girl pants and began. Eeesshh. I had to sit down and figure out the problem myself and surprising myself..i DID IT! I think I was more excited to understand it than the kids were! We made it through the math and all was well. This kids were absolutely nuts. Crazy. Loud. Unimaginable. I decided around 2:30 that I would count the minutes until I could leave. I needed ear plugs. BUT on the positive, at the end of the day i got to go home rather than jail. I got home and went to bed seriously at 8 o'clock.

What else...still no Internet at our house so today I am going to call them and give them a piece of my mind (because being a grumpy-rude person ALWAYS works) hahaha. instead I will charm the people I think..."Heyyyy..I'm from Canada and really need the Internet" some sort of long explanation why it needs to be done today. That's me..angelic.
Today I have also applied for about 23482834908092438905689475 teaching and nursery jobs on the Internet. I want to get a job that I know I am going to everyday and one that I know exactly how to get there and exactly how long its going to take me! I don't like surprises..my mom can attest to this with Christmas presents at our house! Hopefully something will come up for me like it has for marlee! She got a full time job at a nursery about an hour away from our house (close!!!)

Things I've Learned....

1) Kids here think that we are movie stars from America. Yesterday a child asked me if I was from Mama Mia because i sound like one of them. I know that Rochelle also told me that for a whole week a young boy stared at her because he thought she was from High School Musical...like how funny is that.

2) It does get a little bit chilly here! It's a different kind of cold though, it's a wet-chill-through-your-bones kinda chilly.

3)The tube is always broken down somewhere. Yesterday I sat in a tube for half an hour before it took off.

Alright! Well that's all for now!
enjoy your Wednesday!
cmjw
PS...keep sending me your addresses so i can send some letters/post cards/etc.
ok.great.thanks.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Hey Everyone! Hope back to work Monday wasn't too horrible!

I've been not too busy since the last post but was just sorta waiting on my Internet, BUT STILL we don't have it! I'm starting to feel right at home in this Internet cafe. In fact, I'm thinking I may start singing Michael Buble soon.

This weekend...
Friday we decided that it was time for us girls to finally hit the big city night life. We traveled for approximately 1.5 hours just to get to the house where we were going. We were going to some sorta housewarming for Nikki's friend. After the house party we went to this pub. At the front it was a pub and at the back it was a club. We had tons of fun dancing and meeting new people. Us and this one group of guys had a blast making fun of each others accents. It's always hilarious when you ask then to talk like you. A "Canadian accent" always comes out in a sort of whiny tone. It's hilarious. I still have not mastered the English accent and am afraid i never will. These guys were from Ireland so that was impossible too. This guy asked me "when you guys hunt, do you hide in trees or up trees." First I thought he was kidding, but nope he was serious, he thought we climbed trees like a bear or something and waited for our prey. I straightened that up pretty quick. This guy also worked for John Deere. Pretty cool! After the pub/club we decided it was time to go home. However....we were soo far away from home we had to catch all these buses. On the bus I decided it was best to make some friends. There were guys from Ireland on there and I said to them "Hey...do you know James from Dublin." I guess that ONLY works in Canada that we know everyone! We didn't have a map or a clue for that matter of how to get home so i used my famous "in-my-head-compass" and managed to get us from one side of the city to the other. three cheers for me. I wish i would have had a camera on the bus because at 3 in the morning you see some HILARIOUS things! I was seriously laughing out loud to myself. Everyone was sleeping and bobbing around. This one guy managed to spill his whole water bottle on himself because he fell asleep. Another guy, clearly homeless, must have just wanted to ride the bus for a warm sleep. He was banging his head everywhere and was googly eyed. Marlee and Meaghan were both catching flies too! hahahahahahahahahahahaha. SO much to see!
Saturday night we went to the movie Couple's Retreat. See it- it's cute and funny!

Sunday me and Marlee hit up the famous Camden Market. NEVER AGAIN on a Sunday. It was super cool and we found some really sweet souvenirs and some cool jewelery and stuff such as that. We also found Canadian Flags that we snatched up for our Halloween costumes. For Halloween we are simply going to be "Canadian tourists"--how fitting--how clever--i know! We have the whole outfit planned out and have bought red tights and red hair extensions and the whole nine yards. I'm really excited to see the whole things together!

Today I worked at the same nursery as last week. I love it there! The kids were all awesome once again. I'm getting to know the staff and today one of them asked me "which part of Ireland are you from" Apparently I CAN do an Irish Accent!

Things I've learned in the past couple day...

1) Canadian people have the reputation to be the ones to wear the flag on their backpacks. Again someone asked me at the bar..."do you have a flag on your backpack so people know your Canadian NOT American" hahahaha..i said hells yes I'm NOT American!

2) Chocolate is better here than at home. (big fat excuse) Me and Marlee are finding ourselves always eating some form of chocolate. Mars Bars seriously are better here, and that's the truth.

3)There is a Canadian Store here which apparently sells things like kraft dinner, Bicks Pickle's and tins of Tim Horton's Coffee. I bet you actually have to cut off your arm and sell it before you can afford it, but it may be worth it come January!

Alright! Thats all for now!
Love you and miss you all!

Ps. I'm still waiting for the bear skin rug....

Thursday, October 15, 2009

HEEEYYY YYYYYOUUUU GGGGUUUYYYSSS

I hope everyone is having an extra special day!

I wasn't going to write a blog today because I find myself in the SAME creepy internet cafe as yesterday and OF COURSE I pick the stupid computer. At least all around me is a little quieter today. whew. I mean don't get me wrong..still crazy's but in a milder form. Maybe I'm early tonight? However, I decided that it would be nice to get into the "one-a-day" blog again.

SOO..my day. My day was super great! I left the flat around 7:15 and walked the 13 minute walk to te tube. At the tube I jumped on, road on the picadilly line for 30 minutes then switched tubes to the Hammersmith line and road that for about 15. Then got out of the tube and walked to the school. Thats about an hour of travel time just towork! whew! Could have driven to Yorkton Humpty's in that time! Anyways, I found the school really easy basically because my agency gives you stupid proof instructions (lik...take ten steps and turn left...take thirty one and a half steps and turn right) it's nice! ANYWAYSSS I walked into the school and immediatly felt as if I was at home! It looked as if I walked back into Peggy Adamack's classroom and I was basically in heaven! The only thing I did all day was play. I mean it was tricky to colour in the lines and to put a puzzle together and make the perfect sand castle, but in all I think I did well. I didn't have to teach anything.NOTHING. not even read a story! HAHAHA I lucked out! I was basically just another body in the classroom. It was a great first experience. There was great documentation panels and it was all reggio inspired! I was inspired!!! Oh...I also was caught saying "pants" today to a kid" we were playing in the sand and he kept pouring sand on my trousers s i said to him with out thinking "please don't put sand on my pants" he looked at me and i quickly rephrased. still silly!

After school I went home had a little cat nappie and then read a book. I finished The Pact, good book! Now I'm reading a book from the library called "Things I want my daughters to know" seems good, it's in British lingo so maybe i'll learn a thing or two! ALSO, we got our internet/tv/phone package in the mail today! I was sooo excited to set it up. I got to the SECOND step where it told me to connect the coaxil to the wall outlet box. wtf is that. We searched high and low and low and high and then high and low again, BUT no box? We then decided we should search for a phone jack. Seems pretty easy to find-right? NOT, for the life of us we can't find it anywhere. UGGHH..so we have to wait for our landlords brother Derek to come home from work and help us. We left a note on his door. lol. Derek sort of lives in our flat but not really. He lives in a room in our front entrance way. He can't get into our house with a key tho. He's pretty cool I guess. HOWEVER--everytime I say his name I think I'm on Save The Last Dance. He kinda looks like him toooo! hehehehe. Hopefully soon we'll be able to find this secret box and have the internet up and running. woot woot.

Things I learned today...

1)Kids and Kids are Kids.

2)It takes hours to get anywhere. Like an hour to get somewhere so close--what's up with that!

3) Tim Horton's is famous. Today I was talking to a teacher and she said to me "Do you miss Horton's." Took me a minute to figure out what she was saying because when the heck do we call it Hortons..."hey guys wanna get some Hortons" no. Timmies/tim/tims yes. She said that coffee is the best coffee in the world. Anything is better than what they drink here. Instant coffee stinks. yuck.

4) Sidewalks here really need some work. The sidewalk is an uneven mesh of different pieces of cemet. Me or Marlee trip at least once a day. They need some pavement istructions here or I need to get steel toe shoes, both seem like a good option!

Okey. dat's all for now!
Talk to you Rascals soon.
love y'all.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Hey Everyone! Hope you are all doing well!

I'm doing well, it's been a looonnng hard week, but we're getting through! I haven't been working because it is a slow week for the agency. UGH! Tomorrow I am pre-booked in a nursery clasroom. Here, nursery is ages 3 and 4 year olds and it is in the school and part of the Uk's education system. (which is unlike nursery school in Canada) I am excited to get back in the classroom, and let's talk about it, how hard can little 3 and 4 year olds be. Just pray that there is no poop on the floor for me to deal with! After tomorrow I'll FINALLY have a story about teaching in London. YAY! Me and Marlee have been both applying for teaching jobs directly to school divisions to see if we can nab something from them!

Other than waking up by 6 to be ready to possibly leave the house by 7 we've been keeping ourselves very busy. Me and Marlee are having a BLAST figuring out our new little area. We are discovering so many little gem's like a bakery which makes the best bread ever and this HUGE grocery store! We also discovered the local library and got ourselves a fancy library card...are you impressed?!?!?! I've also almost completed a novel. (SEE Janelle--I CAN READ :) ) Me and Marlee have also completed a "London Bucket List" of things we want to see and do while we are here. It was pretty sawweeett to see all the things that London has. We're planning on making a dent in that list very soon! We also made a plan of other countries we want to visit while here some of which include Greece, Scotland, France and Italy. Pretty stoked about that! Next month we are going to hit up Ireland for a weekend with Rochelle! I can't wait to take all my special visitors around to see some of these things!
We are getting very settled into our little life in London and in the cute little house! I'm going to post some pictures right meow here as I sit in this "creepy guy filled Internet cafe," you guys are lucky! As I sit here I decided it would be best I fill you in on my current atmosphere. To my Left is Marlee creeping on facebook, to HER left is a man who can clearly NOT type and is pecking at the keys with one finger pressing hard enough on each key that it may go through the table--sweet. Behind me is a young gentleman with ear phones on, I can hear Michael Buble's sweet song "You're my Everything." This gentleman also feels the need to loudly mumble the words like he knows them when clearly this is his First Michael Buble experience.. I guess the crazy's come out at this time of night....me included.

Today we decided that we had to do something fun because we were getting bummed out about not working. I mean we ARE in London, I think it MAY be the international "getyourassoutathehouse" place. So, after thinking about our Bucket list we decided that Madame Tuassad's House of Wax is the place we had to be today! After a hour long tube ride we FINALLY got there! One positive about the tube is you can do some major people watching. I want to make a shirt that states "Dear London, stop making out." Like the casual peck on the cheek is fine, but do we HAVE to have down right-hands on ass- tongue down throat-make out session at the tube stop?????? Anyways...that was a rant. So we get to Madame Toussad's and were COMPLETELY taken away. Basically it's this place where there are celebrities made out of wax. Probably the coolest place I've ever been and let's face it I've been to cool places (Preeceville Heritage Museum) I was totally freaked out when I first got in their because I honestly didn't know who was real and who was not. For example, this man kept standing their when i was taking my picture with George Clooney and I mentioned to Marlee that he was just staring- jokes on me. We saw Zac Efron, the Queen, Obama, Michael Jackson and Tiger Woods to name a few. It's like a maze to get through and somehow me and Marlee ended up in the line for the scary part of the wax museum. I now need to buy new pants--shit I thought the Preeceville/Sturgis youth group haunted house was scary. WHEW. Me and Marlee held hands for dear life, we did make it out alive so that's the main thing, but holy! It gave you a warning that people who were pregnant, people who have high blood pressure and all these other health warnings couldn't go in there- I now know why! Also, it is important that whoever you go in there with good circulation in their hand because holy cats did we grab onto each others hands! Anyways, it was UBER cool to see, so when you guys come we'll for sure have to hit it up! One thing on our bucket list---complete!

Things I've learned in the past couple days:

1)If you are in a car, it gives you the right to hit another car while parking. I've seen it about 2134897 times. A car pulls into to do a NICE parallel park and BOOM nicks the car behind or in front. The driver then finishes his park gets out and goes about his business! I don't think this would fly in Canada? Also, you can park any direction on the street whether it is the right or wrong way, if you fit (or even if it's close) you can park there!

2) Cheese here is strong. There is no ranch dressing. The eggs come like they come from Zoria or grandma....fresh from the hen, still with feathers on some of them. Fresh buns and bread is ALWAYS the best (too bad there is no cheese whiz though)

3)The word "Tire" is spelled "tyre" here. We have to walk past this grungy tyre shop to get to our shops and there is this guy who is always whistling at us. Today as we walked by he said "chchchcheeckcking em oouuuttt." Now if I have EVER heard a pick up line--thats it! hahah. We get such a chuckle out of it!

4) The "Post" strikes pretty much every other day. They don't do a big mean strike that lasts for weeks instead they do a pansy lets strike for a day and go back to work tomorrow. I'm thinking that our internet will be in the mail on like Friday or Saturday (Yup they do mail saturday too) Can't wait to get internet at the house!

Alright..Love ya all.
Talk soon.
remember my number is: 011447833372415 call anytime!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Hey Everyone!
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! I wish I was eating some turkey tonight with some dressing and pumpkin pie..but I'm not! hehehe.
I have SOOO much to be thankful for this year:
1) My family..thanks for supporting this big trip!
2) My friends at home. You know who you are, I think about you ALL often!
3) The people who read this silly blog! I love finding out who's checking it out but even more..I LOVE COMMENTS!
4) The opportunity to do this big trip!
5) My friend who is here with me. I'd be lost without her.

Anyways....My Friday to Sunday in a flash!

First thing Friday morning we had a meeting with Protocol, another teaching agency like SMART. We decided that it would be good to go through two agencies, that way if one didn't have us work that day, hopefully the other will! After our meeting we bummed around having some burger and a beer at a local pub. You guys do not even KNOW what I'd do for a jug of Clam, If you told me if I hopped up and down on one foot down a street naked, I'd do it! Beer just isn't the same without some juice. During dinner time, we decided to flip a coin for rooms at the new flat. Marlee called it in the air, as the quarter landed, it landed in this big thing of salsa! I dug it out, turns out I won...weird, I NEVER win! Anyways, I ended up with the master bedroom, complete with a fire place and beautiful bay windows (once we get the net i'll post some pics) Marlee's room is SO cute (I'm jealous) she's got it decorated so darn cute!

After dinner we went to our hostel and picked up our stuff then headed to our new flat! YAY! I was so excited I nearly peed my pants (I held it in though, don't worry) We got into our house around 4:30 and had a meeting with our agency lady. By this time it was around 5 and although we had a flat, we didn't have ANY bedding! We then mapped out a close way to get to IKEA, boy were we WRONG! hahahaha, it seemed we traveled 18 days just to get there, but boy let me tell ya, once we got there, we were in business. We got blankets for cheap, we got plates for like 20p (thats like 40 cents), and garbage cans and all those essential sort of things. IKEA is super cheap here because it is a company from Sweden, we loaded up! After IKEA we made the big trek home with all of our belongings and then got to set it all up! YAY! I could sure spend a pretty penny OR in English terms a pretty "pense" at that store.

Saturday:
Saturday we slept in and really did nothing for the first part of the day. Around noon, we decided that groceries MIGHT be a good idea because our cupboards looked worse than mother hubbards. We hit up the bus and started going then TA-DA we found this HUGE grocery store called "LiDL" and right beside it was the "pound stretcher" YAY! We were SOO stoked! First we went to the pound stretcher and loaded up on cheap one pound items that we needed. Then we hit up the grocery store. Groceries are cheap here, which was so amazing to see! All fruit is so cheap, Banana's are like 10p a pound...20 cents a pound..and like apples are 6 for a pound. It's sweet! We overshopped, no doubt about it, and we failed to think that whatever was loaded into our cart, WE had to carry home! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! We loaded the bags and realized we could hardly carry it all! Quickly decided that a cab would be in order to get home. It was only 8 pounds...like 3 pounds each for a ride home.. THANK YOU FARMER! We got home and unpacked and Rochelle was knocking on our door! WOOT WOOT WOOT! It was AMAZING to see someone familiar and was also experiencing the same things we were. We laughed for hours at the things that are different here. It was amazing, then we went for supper and laughed some more. It was great!

Sunday:
I thought I slept until 10:30, but it was actually noon. My bad? When 2 in the afternoon creeped up on me, I commented to Marlee that it seems i've been only up for like 10 minutes, she then informed me i got up at noon! whooppss! We then hit the streets on a midly rainy day to explore our neighbourhood. We went one way and had a great time figuring out things. We finally found a store called Wilkinson's. It's like Englands Wal-mart. AMAZING! I want to work there! We found a hairstraightener..and a toaster (FOR 4 pounds!) Pretty darn cool I think. We also then mapped out a quicker way home, I was TOTALLY pumped for that! We got home and had a sandwhich then me and marlee made some little brain break kit to start teaching with. I'm uber nervous about teaching (hopefully tomorrow) not about the actual teaching, but getting to the school! Navigating here is sooo damn hard! wish me luck! AHHH, I'm sure if I do teach tomorrow I will have many a story to tell.
Now, I sit here in an internet cafe writing this blog and thinking, yup, life is good!

Now a little about our flat:
I wish I could just post some pictures to explain it..but thats not happening until i have internet at home! It is a two storey, three bedroom masionette. The bottom floor has a sweet living room with leather couches and the kitchen has everything a kitchen has + a washing machine. We have clothes hanging in every possible place around our house because there's no dryer! What a show, I created a clothesline in our backyard, but it rains so damn much that that is almost pointless too! Upstairs are the three bedrooms and the bathroom. My room is the master bedroom with nice big windows and a fire place. I was wondering..does anyone have a bear skin rug they could send? My address is 76 Elthorne Park Road, London England, W7 2JD. Ok. Thanks. Marlee has the babe room but its super cute. Meaghan has the middle size room, which is also cute. Anyways, this is really pointless. I'll post pics asap.


Things I learned in THREE days:

1) All the women here drink wine with every meal. All the men here drink beer every meal. Does that make me a man?

2)Their is a national shortage of ketchup here. Everywhere you go in a public place you can NOT find ketchup. On Friday we ate at a pub and they only had little little packages of ketchup, between three of us we went through I think around 30. People look at us like we're crazy. Then we had supper at IKEA, no ketchup to be found even. I am seriously contemplating carrying around a ketchup bottle in my purse!

3) Here the electricity is a "pay as you go" system. You pop into your local conveniece store and get a five pound electricity card. You then take it home put it in the electricity outlet box and it gives you a credit. I think thats pretty damn sweet. She said five pounds would last a couple weeks. I'll keep you informed. Just my luck, our card will run out when I'm in the shower at ten o'clock at night.

4) I LOVE MY CAR. It's so hard to get used to the fact that at a store, if you can't carry it- you can't have it.

5) Here you have to pay a yearly TV license to even turn on your tv. 142 pounds a year for this license. If you don't pay this license and the "television police" knock at your door, and the tv is on, you end up with a thousand pound fine. nutso!


I'm sure over the past three days I have learned a million other things, but I fail to remember them thus far.

Happy Thanksgiving momma and dadda and ashley and the rest of my fambam! Love you!

I get the interweb hopefully on Thursday so then I will be wanting to msn chat with anyone and their dog. BE READY! I'll probably wonder to this little cafe again soon, so look for another post soon!!

Love you all and think about you often!!!

Cmjw

Janelle...leave a comment already.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

monet and money.

Hey there! I hope everyone is having a great chilly day!!!

Today we had a fairly unstressfull but yet still riviting and eventful day! We got up around eight thirty and had some excellent breaky from the hostel, I'm going to miss those breakfasts. Everyday I eat Frosted Flakes and a yummy croissant. The interesting thing is that the hostel in the morning smells like my Grandma Ward's. I don't know why but it does!!

Next thing we decided that we would head down to Trafalgar Square where the Canadian Embassy is located. In front of the Canadian Embassy there is a square with this huge statue that is like really high in the middle. It is called the Nelson Column and was made in honour of some Horatio Nelson. Around it there are these HUGE lions on each side. Pretty Cool. Then there are sweet fountains in this square to. It's really hard to explain, I took some pictures so check our my facebook Album. We then wondered into the National Gallery. That was pretty amazing and breathtaking. I saw Monet, de Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh paintings. For a second I couldn't believe I was actually looking at the REAL picture, so cool. It reminded me of Mrs. Kirychuk a lot! All the pictures were just so amazing and we got these cool headsets so we could listen and learn about the pictures. I sort of wanted Marlee to push me into one JUST to see what would happen to me. he he he. OR better yet I should have nudged someone into one and then stood back and watched what happened. next time.

After this we wondered to the ever famous, ever spectactular, Bryce and Shelby's favourite place of employment...SUBWAY for some lunch (you will notice this in the things I learned today) We then headed back to our hostel to collect our funds so we could go sign our lease and pay for our rent and security deposit. All three of us had a LOT of cash so we didn't want to take a chance to get mugged or something. Thus, I shoved my money in my ever handy "chest of drawers" and I am pretty sure Marlee's was in her pants.. (remember what "pants" means here) hehehe. Needless to say, we got to our agency and signed the papers and all is well. We get to move in..TOMORROW! We then took a venture to our flat to see how long it would take to walk there from the tube, etc. I think it was just an excuse because we were so excited to see it again! Just as I remembered, it's a cute little red bricked house with nice old bay windows. The whole street looks like it is straight out of a movie. (See Facebook for pictures) My address is..dah dah dah dahhhhhh...
76 Elthorne park road
London
w7 2jd
The first person to send me a letter wins a prize yet to be determined by me. I LOVE snail mail, so please send something! :)

Now we are back sitting in our hostel just getting excited to move tomorrow! Tomorrow we have a meeting with Protocol, which is another agency like SMART. Me and Marlee decided that just in case SMART doesn't have a job for us that day, maybe Protocol will, that way we will be working all the time! yay for jobs!

This weekend Rochelle is coming to visit us in our new home! I can't wait! It will be so great to see a familiar face and drink some Bud and play a game of Moose!


Things I learned today...

1) If you don't want your sub toasted from subway you get cold, almost frozen, maybe raw??? bacon and chicken. They do not microwave it for you, the toaster machine is how they warm everything up. gross. Today I literally came back to the hostel and warmed up my chicken and bacon.

2) Art is better appreciated in real life.

3) I really want to kick a pigeon. Really really really bad. You can't walk somewhere without a pigeon near. I just get this urge to kick one, it's a goal I have before I leave this city I will kick one, possibly to pigeons.

Alright! this may be the last post until we get internet in our new place! I'll post some pictures asap of the flat!

Buhbye for now!
xoxoxo

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Spice up your life!

Hello everyone!!
From what I'm reading on facebook...Happy Snow Day!!

Today was a good day! Not once did we get stressed out. AND we made it to a building without getting lost on the streets. We are quick learning grasshoppers. We went to the area of London Wall. Never have I seen so many suit's on men. It was crazy. Some were very good looking too, I can't wrap my head around that there are so many people who work in business here, what happened to the farmers? Who would want to wear a suit and tie and pointy black dress shoes all day- maybe my husband? I don't know!

We had a meeting with CXC global today. They are a company that helps us with our taxes. Basically every week we claim what we have spent that week and get money back on our cheques. WoooWhoooo! We can claim things like 50 pounds of groceries, our oyster cards (oyster cards is basically like a card that you put money on to use the tube and buses) our flight here, our rent and things like that. So she said we'd probably get 40-70 pounds back each week, so that'll be a help.

To be honest that is the only thing we did today. Unless you count the nap me and Marlee had for like two hours. We also watched Bridget Jones and ate a banana. successful day..i think so.

We waited around all day for Natalie our letting agent to call us to give us details about our flat. We 100% have it, which is AMAZING news, however, our landlord wants to put new locks on the door for us, so we have to wait until Friday to move! Which means..one more night in a hostel! I can handle it, I'm cool..I'm calm...I'm gonna be ok uh huh! :)

Things I've learned today...

1) If you plan on visiting, bring an umbrella, it's raining sexy men in suits all the time. (Which isn't always a bad thing) But seriously, it poured all day, again.

2) Here when you order a pizza it doesn't come cut. You get your own pizza and a knife and a fork. The knife is a butter knife, meant to cut...BUTTER, not meant to cut pizza. I have to hack away at my pizza every freakin time just to eat it. By the time I leave my pointer fingers will be able to bench at least 120 pounds, you'll see! William you know how good I am eating properly with a fork and knife, needless to say, I'm quite the sight.

3) "Spice up your life..everyboy and everygirl..spice up your life!" a quote from the ever influential Spice Girls. No matter where you go here, you can be assured the smell of curry will be in the air. I'm sure if you traveled to every tube, bus, train, plane, boat, skateboard park, stable, you'd be able to smell curry. What is up with that!!!!

4)Also, where ever you go, if you do not smell curry, you can be sure to smell something else not natural. For example, me and Marlee constantly are commenting on the scents around us while walking down the street...most of which are not good.

5)The taps here to turn on the water are weird. In the potty room, there is a sink and TWO taps. One is for hot water one is for cold water. Following me? However....they are on the opposite side of the sink, meaning the two waters can never mix. Thus, you either wash your hands in scorching hot water or in freezing cold water. No luke warm water here. I hope our flat has a normal tap.


Alrrrriiiigggghhhhttttyyy then! I'm gone to bed! Have a good evening everyone!

cmjw

Ps. love you and miss you all!

not. homeless?

Hey everyone! Hope everyone who is reading this is having an awesome week so far! I'm still living the dream here in the land of British men! I couldn't write my blog my last night because we had no internet connection! weird!!! Anyways, I see on my computer (which I left at Canada time) that is is only 2:46 in the morning, so I'm safe!

Today..today..today...the day was supposed to be an overall quiet day full of waiting and finally relaxing. It is hard to believe we've already been here this long. Everyday we are up early and getting stuff done, it is starting to have a wear on all of us as we are getting sleeeeeppy!

While we were getting ready this morning, we got a call from a "Letting Agency" notifying us that we did NOT get the flat I was so stoked about in my last blog. wah wah wah wah. aheartbreak. The renters decided they did not want to rent it to us basically because we are Canadians, are you kidding me?!?! I mean I totally understand because there was ALREADY a line up of our friends lined up at the door ready to party like it was 1999. Hahaha..are you kidding me. Anyways, I quickly decided it was time to be a little bit more optimistic.

First thing this morning we ran to our SMART office to set up our bank accounts. It will be SO nice once we start getting paid in pounds. Getting paid in pounds means there will no longer be any damn converting our canadian money all the time!! So by the end of the week I will have a fancy bank account here, with my very own debit card!

After we got our bank's set up we went for a stroll within the area of Earlham street and you will NEVER believe what we found.....a CARHARTT store. Marlee quickly noticed my frown turned upside down and in we went! YaY! Even though there were no hot guys wearing Carhartt's, there was a very different and interesting collection of clothing. They had some super cute girl's t-shirts and lulu lemon such sweaters from the company. Very cool. When I have some cash flow you can gaurentee I will be visiting there again! My day suddenly got better--yes I got excited by this store rather than a store like gucci..hate me.

We then decided to go back to SMART teachers to use the internet there and make some calls about some places. We got onto two computers and just started calling 1938442343498234.98 people about their properties we found online. We got some answers and set up some appointmens. So...by the end of the day......we found a place!!!!!!! It's super cute. Three bedroom with not green BUT blue carpet. It's two stories and has a nice size kitchen and living room. We put a security deposit on it to gaurentee it to us. Now we just have to sit and wait by the phone with the lady telling us we can move in!!! pray..pray..pray..pray

Things I learned today...

1)"Things happen for a reason." A random lady at a Letting Agency told us that when we told her about our yesterday extravaganza. I think its true, everything does happen for a reason.

2) Showers are an important start to the day! DOOO ITTT...take the time and shower! Today we were in a hurry to get to our SMART office that we didn't shower...by the night we were gross. nasty. ewwwy. We probably smelled worse than a pig rolling around in a dump.

3) sandwiches are beautiful...sandwiches are fun...I like sandwiches...BUT i swear to god if I see another one today I may puke.
These people LOVE sandwiches, they are in very little store ready made..what happened to buying the loaf and creating your own masterpiece?

4) Fish and Chips and a Stella are an awesome way to end a somewhat stressful day. Yuummmyyy..

5) Rain...rain...go away..come again..next year. It's still rainy here and so damn muggy that we can hardly breathe. I guess it's better than the snow I see is in your forecast, suckers!

6) There are Carhartts here too! WOOT WOOT WOOT. I see men wearing them as they work, and everytime I just HAVE to point it out to Marlee, I'm sure she is getting sick of it, but it sure excites me. Simple minds simple things?

Anyways....Have an awesome day!!

Crystal Mary Jane Ward.

ps. keep the comments coming..i'm loving them!

Monday, October 05, 2009

h-o-m-e-l-e-s-s

Hey there!
I am still homeless. Who is jealous?

Our day started bright and early at seven am (or a late midnight for you guys back home) when we had to run downstairs in our hostel to find out if someone had canceled their room for tonight. Turns out...we got booted because they were all booked up for that night, so we had to move hostels! UGH! that meant we had to quickly pack up our bags and move on out. The only problem was that we had our meeting with SMART teachers, the company I will be teaching for at 10. That meant there was no way we'd have time to run to this new hostel and make it to our meeting, so we settled for throwing our lives into this luggage room for the day.
I was stressed at it was only 9am...it was going to be a looonnnggg day!!

We arrived at our meeting exactly on time because we have the tube mastered! We then did lots of paperwork for our job and had a little interview sort of thing, easy peasy! Gabby our consultant was happy that we chose West Ealing to live and assured there would be lots of work out there so that is refreshing!

After we found out that West Ealing (the place I told you we fell in love with yesterday) was a good place to teach the hunt for the perfect little flat begun. We called around 18093737493827 places and set up a few viewings. All the places we'd looked were very cute but more suited for a small family--a lot like our place in Regina. We were looking for somewhere with a bed and a washing machine..thats it. After we were ALL very very very grumpy and I was ready to get back on the plane to Canada cuz i was sooo sick of trying to find a place. Such a hassle to find all these little streets and not knowing where the heck we were going. However, the last place we went today was like a breath of fresh air! Just what we were looking for! It's an upstairs three bedroom flat with funky green carpet, life doesn't get better!! Very cute. So we basically told the dude that we wanted it! However...to make our lives harder, he wasn't the actual guy in charge of it, so we have to wait until tomorrow for a lady to call us back to get it! AH! Another hassle. So we wondered from our paradise on Demark Road back towards the tube. I promise you if I do not have this place tomorrow you will see me very soon back in Canada! (totally kidding) I hope if we have it I will take some pictures of it and the houses around it to show you how cute it is! After this horribly stressful day, we wondered to McDonalds..what a refreshing way to end the day :)
I'm now in a better mood and am excited to start tomorrow! Hopefully by the time you are all getting up we officially have a home. Then we need visitors to see our extra cute place..book your tickets!

Things I've learned today....

1)The pickle's are very different here. You can sure tell there are no Baba's to make good ones. (hint hint hint hint...send some pickles)

2) Everything needs some SALT. We are finding the food very bland. I don't know how dad is going to handle it, pack some salt dad.

3)There are no bugs here obviously because their are no screens on the windows! Can you imagine if we didn't put screens on the windows there, it would be an open invitation for a bug partay in your house!

4)People here drive like the world is ending. holy smokes, slow down, today me and Marlee both were so car sick seeing this property. whew. Then they make these crazy turns the opposite way we would. eeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkk. But truth be told...i gotta get my dirty little hands on one of these cars to give it a rip!

5) There are some big slugs here. WHEW! I think it was actually the size of a small country. We were at a property and all three of us were literally bent over checking out this slug. It was at least 6 inches long just sluggin' away. gross!

Alright! That is all for tonight, this chickie is sleepy!

Momma Kellyyy....are you reading this?????

Flat Hunters

Hello Everyone!

Had a busy day full of adventure once again today. Me and Marlee started the day bright and early by having a great breakfast at the hostel we are staying at. The breakfast is not bad actually, I enjoy the frosted Flakes and toast. The toast is not the same as at home, it is super heavy..weird. The orange juice is also very different. It is so strong, like almost to strong to drink. I don't know what's up with that.

After breakfast we checked email and started booking appointments to look at places. Me and Marlee spent the whole night before sending emails and giving out my number to people. We got a call last night and Marlee just kept laughing...I wanted to push her out of the room. I guess she thought it as funny how suprised I was that my phone was ringing that I almost didn't know what to do. Then I was talking to this dude and we started chatting about Canada and Saskatchewan, as if I was a Baba discussing how BINGO was the night before. Anyways, complete side bar. To the point...we had two appointments with different people to check out the property. Marlee, Meaghan, Niki and myself all set out for a day of house hunting. Niki hung out with us for a bit then left us. Oh dear...for the first time we were left to fend for ourselves to travel by tube!!! AHHH..but the moral of the story is...WE DID IT!!!

The first place we checked out was very very cute, however...we did not feel safe walking down the street in the day light--scratch that place. The next place was wayyyyy in the west side of London, the last tube stop to be exact. The moment I got off the tube I was in love. It is sooo cute there! There was a park and lots of cute shops and trees and green grass. The people were wearing normal clothes such as sweat pants...woot woot. we finally felt at home. We then went to the place to check it out and on the way there was a street called `regina` street. We think it is our calling to live there. Although we can not live at the one we checked out because it is not available until November, it was still awesome to get out to west london! We are now looking for places out there. We have a few prospects..so cross your fingers!!!! We can't stay in our hostel tomorrow night because it is full-so we are lkely going to have to stay at another hostel tomorrow night..uggghh...

Things I've Learned Today....

1)I CAN TRAVEL ACROSS LONDON BY TUBE...it was great, I felt so proud of us when we got on all the right tube's and everything. In three days such progress!

2)I don't feel like I'm a hundred million miles away from home. Everything is much more the same here than I thought it might be. That's a relief.

3)People like to wash clothes here in their kitchens. The washing machine is located in a place where we would normally put a dishwasher. They also don't believe in dryers....I guess for nine months I will have crunchy socks!!

4)Crisps are chips..chips are fries...fries are ???

5)Chi hair straighteners do not work here. whoops! Me and Marlee may have blown both ours up before consulting the internet and reading the ONLY USE IN CANADA AND THE USA..DO NOT USE WITH CONVERTERS. whhhoopppsss...At least I do not have massive curly hair that I can not maintain. If you notice in our pictures our hair is crazy...it's because we have no straightener.

Thats all for today! If you actually read this, send a HI comment!!! I am interested in who is reading it!!

Mom and Dad...why are you never home?? I've tried to call 8999076766 times already!

I'll let you know how house hunting goes tomorrow!!

love you all!

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Hello everyone again!

First of all, Happy Birthday Chantal, sorry I can't be there to celebrate and do the regular.."here's to you here's to me..." cheer. (ps. niki taught us it is tradition if you are going to cheers with someone you need to look them in the eye. We have had many laughs doing this so far.)

Second of all, I now am the proud owner of a brand spankin new purple neon cellular device. If you would like my number just ask me. You can send me a textie or call me sometime! I will never personally remember this number because it seems to be 90000 numbers long. The cell phone was fairly cheap..only 30 pounds..which is about 60 Canadian..and i own this phone--no contract! sweet! Texting internationally costs around 24p each, which works out to like 50 cents a text or so. So I'll probably send a couple but not too many.

Today our game plan was to get a cell phone and a place to live--cell phone check--place to live not so much. We went for walk down Oxford street (which is like the big shopping street of London) It was really cool seeing all these fancy places that you see in the movies! At abercrombie there was a LINE UP--like one you would see at thirsty Thursday at the pump--all to get a picture with their model. Topless I might add. We also saw places such as gucci, prada, Tiffany's and other fancy stores. Saw Tiffany's, i wanted to have breakfast at tiffany's but didn't. he he he. Also saw "the ritz" fancy dancy hotel that's for sure...a little too ritzy for this cat, but nice none the less.

After our walk through shopping experience crowded with people, we walked to Buckingham palace. wowza..that was pretty cool to say the least. the queen was in the building as the flag was flying, didn't get a peek at her though! We saw the Canada war monument which is just outside the palace. It is basically a monument thanking the Canadians who fought in the world wars. thank you grandpa!! As we were taking these pictures, i heard someone from another country say "Canadians always wear the Canadian leaf on their backpack." I thought this was funny because Jenny sewed flags on all my bags! After the monument we took some pictures in front of Canada Gate and got a picture beside the Saskatchewan coat of arms. After we took some pictures of the palace and of the sweet guards we wondered about 18 miles to see Big Ben and the London Eye and the place where the Prime Minister lives. All were very cool to see in real life..breath taking almost! whew! We then caught the tube back to our hostel. The tube was definitely much better today without all our luggage. It was super crazy busy on the tube today. Almost lost my dear Marlee in the door of the tube as it closed on her as she was getting in! Being the super hero she is she managed to escape. thank baby Jesus again. I got a chuckle out of it, I don't think she thought it was too funny though!

Now we are back in our Canadian sized bathroom we call a hostel ready to start the search for a hostel. It's so hard to believe that it is only 11 where you guys are! You guys are thinking about what to eat for lunch and I'm thinking about what we should do tonight!

Things I've learned today...

1) Anything goes in London, you can wear absolutely anything and everything you think looks cool. It's crazy, I'll take some pictures of crazy things i see.

2) All the buildings here are beautiful! For example, even the building which KFC or Pizza Hut is amazing.

3) Here it is all about what you wear rather than your hair and makeup. No one has died hair or crazy makeup or gel nails. girls rather have plain hair in a tossled pony tail and little or no makeup. fashion is the fashion i guess.

4)heels are a must--everyone wears 40 inch heels to shop in. crazy i think, marlee and me suggest you go with the ever trendy nike running shoe.

5)The word "toque" is a funny strange word to British people. It is either a hat or a beany. it'll be my mission to send the word toque around England while I'm here. Marlee chose to wear a hat today, i thought she looked fine, but she felt she was the odd man out.

6)Buckingham palace, big Ben, the London eye..etc..are much better seen in person, thus you need to come visit.

7) The guards actually move around, strange i thought, but there they were marching around rather than standing on stand still. I personally don't think they are guarding anything..it's the 19000 police officers with their hands on their triggers that i am worried about!

Alright, that's all for now as I need to start searching for a place to live!
If i get a chance I'm going to post some pictures on facebook tonight!

Love you all!!

Happy Birthday Channy!!