No blog today as I'm enjoying myself attending the dawn service and various international ceremonies held in Gallipoli, Turkey for ANZAC Day.
I'll be back next week with all the photos and details!
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Yes, it's late but I blame work and slight exhaustion. Here it is! The HouseI am fully moved in! I have the front room of a skinny, yellow, very English house. It's actually a lot more spacey than I imagined when I started looking at moving to London. The kitchen is a tad tiny and my windows don't open (yet) but there's a washing machine and a hot shower so I'm happy. It filled up very quickly once Sam and I put down a holding deposit so it was lucky we did. There is one other teacher who moves in while I'm in Turkey but otherwise it is a mix of people; a student who works nights at Primark, a businessman with long hours and a night security guard. So at any given time there will only be three people home, which works well with the tiny kitchen. We live in a residential neighborhood about 15 mins walk (20 on a slow day) to the nearest tube and bus station. In every direction there is a main road or corner store within 5 min walk. After waking up at 6.30 on Saturday I went for a 40 min walk to explore. There were a heap of walkers/joggers/runners out despite the shops not opening until 9am- which leads me to assume they were out to exercise and not window shop, unlike me. I do really like the area, though and the weather isn't even that bad if you don't mind the cold. With all this walking I'm doing I'm sure to come back #fitforsummer. Haha. FridayFriday was my 'shadow day' where I stalkishly followed a more experienced supply (casual) teacher around and asked ignorant questions. Luckily, I was placed with an Aussie named Nathan who was super supportive and helpful. When I admitted I was nervous, his automatic response was: "Don't be nervous at all! Worst case scenario is that the kids are devils and we have to run to the nearest pub as soon as we finish. Haha." If that is not the best response ever, I dont know what is. Suffice to say, I was much less nervpus after that. Interesting Facts I Have learnt...
SaturdayI was invited to my first ever pot luck Saturday night. What do you take to pot luck? Sweet, savory, hoy, cold, healthy or not? There are so many choices.
Originally, I was going to rep Aus by doing cheese and vegemite scrolls but I couldn't find the right pastry so I settled for the next best thing; FAIRY BREAD! Believe it or not, neither the English nor the Canadians had heard of this Australian delicacy. There was much skepticism in the explaining and making but I won them over in the end. I have no doubt they will take the recipe home to their families and start a new tradition. Haha. Aside from the (mountains of) food, I got the chance to meet some great new people, teachers and other professionals from all over. This being social thing has its perks! HAPPY BIRTHDAY VANESSA LEIGH!It's Nessa's birthday! It's the first big thing that I've missed since leaving and it makes me a little sad but time difference means I was able to Facetime her as she opened her presents and I got to see everyone at once. Add to that, she got to spend her day with people she loves and who love her right back so thankyou to all of you who were able to spend their day with her and made it great! This week...This week has been relatively quiet on the tourist-y front but mostly because I have continued to pretend to adult and have been looking for somewhere to live- nobody can explain how stressful that can actually be, it's insane! I think we’ve found the place, though! No photos right now because the furniture is en route and I don’t officially get the keys until Monday but as soon as I do, I’ll be putting them up. I did go to visit the London Nature Museum this week and found an enormous line worth an hour and a half, nearly two hours of waiting with screaming children and old people who complained a lot. Instead, I went around the corner to the Victoria & Albert Museum. The V&A Museum is kind of what I imagine Arthur’s (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082031/) house to look like. I may be kind of a philistine because my appreciation of fine art after this visit is very low however, there was one section of jewellery that I adored. I made an extensive shopping list to send home but I think there’s a wait on the tiaras. There were different sections (so many!) and I wound up staying for just under three hours wandering around to see all the statues and carvings, paintings, cupboards of silverware and gold amongst other things. I would recommend going just for the jewellery display. There was also an excellent theatre section with costumes from the stage production of The Lion King and Kylie Minogue’s dressing room from her last concert performance in the area, plus plenty more. I found that to be the most interesting but it probably isn’t somewhere I would go back to again. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice **SPOILERS**Saturday night I went to Walthamstow Movie Theatre to see the latest superhero movie: Batman V Superman- Dawn of Justice.
Keeping in mind that I have seen none of the previous Batman or Superman movies (though I’m told the previous Batman movies don’t really impact this one…) I guess it was ok. I think I was expecting the banter and conversation from The Avengers movies but this one didn’t have that so I found the storyline a little more difficult to follow. It was mostly two brooding, monosyllabic super heroes thinking they were doing the right thing by taking the other one down as violently and explosively as possible. I had to ask for clarification after the movie about why batman started attacking Superman and all, which kind of makes sense now- SPOILER: because Batman decided/thought Superman was getting too powerful without any sort of accountability. Obviously Batman was the original Gotham hero and had to take matters into his own hands because of the lingering guilt he carries about the deaths of his parents and his side-kick, who is given a nod very briefly by the glass encased suit he pauses at. Then there was also some sort of time-traveller who jumped into Bruce Wayne's dream to warn him about Lois Lane being 'the key'. I'm assuming its Rex Hunter and he'll be linked into future movies, but again, not very well explained. I think if I was really into the Batman/Superman series (either one) it would have made more sense and I probably would have picked up on the easter egg references that drag in bits of the comic book back story. Seeing as I wasn’t, I got lost and then a little bored by the continuous blowing up of things- I like a good explosion as much as anyone but even I found it a little excessive at times. I liked the Albert character, he and Lex Luthor (who was pretty cool for an insane guy) provided the most comic relief in the movie and I enjoyed the conversations between Lex and the Junior Senator. Overall, I think I’m going to stick to The Avengers, Arrow and The Suicide Squad- which looks like it is going to be awesome and cannot be released soon enough! Plus, there’s a new X-Men coming out, which I’m excited about. Superman and Batman justa ren't the guys for me. Sorry. It has been a busy week. I am starting to get settled into Lodnon life, though it has mostly consisted of grocery shopping, cooking and budgetting, so I suppose that is everyday life. I have gone on a few adventures to get to know the town, which was fun. The first three days back in London I was by myself 90% of the time and ended up going out just to hear voices. Haha. Silence is good but in a big, noisy old house, it can be creepy. I've been apartment hunting, shceduling viewings and trying to adult to the best of my ability. Aside from one now-pink bra, I think I've been doing an ok job. No deaths due to starvation or dehydration... yet. Missing everyone! xx Thursday, 31/3/2106
Sunday, 3/4/16
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AuthorMy home is Australia, with my family and their many, many animals. I have travelled all around the world with my family and by myself where I have made too many friends to count. |