I hope everyone at home has a lovely Thanksgiving weekend. Enjoy your day off, since it's 6.30 am on Monday in London and I'm up and ready to leave for work. Nope, no holiday here.
We did have a celebration though, which was wonderful. Kelly Baker made the most amazing dinner last night. Chicken, stuffing, vegetables, gravy....even homemade apple pie from a housemate. Absolutely perfect. It was a great dinner, a great night, and a great Thanksgiving.
Love and miss you all
Sabrina (and Mathew)
Monday, October 13, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
The first day of teaching
So today was my first day supplying in a London school. Besides the 1.5 hour journey (London is massive), it was great...but mostly, I'm still alive.
The kids were super chatty, but they were cute and no one bit me, hit me, cursed at me or gave me a hard time. They did a lot of tattling on each other though. I forgot how important everything is when you are 6 years old.
The kids were super chatty, but they were cute and no one bit me, hit me, cursed at me or gave me a hard time. They did a lot of tattling on each other though. I forgot how important everything is when you are 6 years old.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Our first week in London
London is a city. It's a city full of people from every where (in fact most aren't from London, England or Great Britain at all), restaurants, pubs, theatres, tube stations and porn.
It's awesome!!!!!!!
Our first week in London gave us a very accurate understanding of the city and its workings.
Here are the highlights:
* we stayed at the world's worst hostel. It was still in construction, so all of the wonderful things it claimed to have didn't actually exist yet. And whose bright idea was it to have 1 computer for 300 people?
* finding a nice flat, less than a mile from a tube station that doesn't look like it will give you hepatitis and charge you a million dollars for it is almost impossible. Lucky for us we found a decent room in a decent house share (only 5 other people) on a decent tube line. The price isn't so decent but that's London (I just bought 2 small tubes of lip balm for $6...WHAT??!?!?!)
* We had an amazing dinner with Kelly Baker and Ryan. Great hosts! They live only 4 short tube stops from us, so hopefully we'll see a lot of them.
* We watched my favourite Shakespearean play (A Midsummer Night's Dream) as groundlings (meaning we stood in front of the stage for 3 hours) at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. It was amazing! My favourite theatrical moment ever!!
* We celebrated our 4 month wedding anniversary (yay us!) with a visit to the Tower of London. We took a tour with a Beefeater and pretended to have assisted in protecting the mideval castle. We then walked through the city and finished the day by watching Avenue Q, a play that uses Seasame Street type puppets. Funny, Raunchy...FUN!!
Things we've learned this week:
* we learned that just because it's sunny in the morning doesn't mean that it won't rain...or that it won't be sunny again after it does. But it will rain. Not for long, often just a sprinkle, but rain nonetheless.
* NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING can happen in life until you have a permanent address. Cell phone plans and even a gym membership needs to be pre authorized on your UK debit card. Wow!!
* The tube is crazy and unpredicatable, but it will get you anywhere (time and amount of money paid are never guaranteed).
* People are super friendly.
* Fish and chips really are great!
* There is always something new to learn and discover in London!
Hope home is treating all of you well.
xoxo
Sabrina
It's awesome!!!!!!!
Our first week in London gave us a very accurate understanding of the city and its workings.
Here are the highlights:
* we stayed at the world's worst hostel. It was still in construction, so all of the wonderful things it claimed to have didn't actually exist yet. And whose bright idea was it to have 1 computer for 300 people?
* finding a nice flat, less than a mile from a tube station that doesn't look like it will give you hepatitis and charge you a million dollars for it is almost impossible. Lucky for us we found a decent room in a decent house share (only 5 other people) on a decent tube line. The price isn't so decent but that's London (I just bought 2 small tubes of lip balm for $6...WHAT??!?!?!)
* We had an amazing dinner with Kelly Baker and Ryan. Great hosts! They live only 4 short tube stops from us, so hopefully we'll see a lot of them.
* We watched my favourite Shakespearean play (A Midsummer Night's Dream) as groundlings (meaning we stood in front of the stage for 3 hours) at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. It was amazing! My favourite theatrical moment ever!!
* We celebrated our 4 month wedding anniversary (yay us!) with a visit to the Tower of London. We took a tour with a Beefeater and pretended to have assisted in protecting the mideval castle. We then walked through the city and finished the day by watching Avenue Q, a play that uses Seasame Street type puppets. Funny, Raunchy...FUN!!
Things we've learned this week:
* we learned that just because it's sunny in the morning doesn't mean that it won't rain...or that it won't be sunny again after it does. But it will rain. Not for long, often just a sprinkle, but rain nonetheless.
* NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING can happen in life until you have a permanent address. Cell phone plans and even a gym membership needs to be pre authorized on your UK debit card. Wow!!
* The tube is crazy and unpredicatable, but it will get you anywhere (time and amount of money paid are never guaranteed).
* People are super friendly.
* Fish and chips really are great!
* There is always something new to learn and discover in London!
Hope home is treating all of you well.
xoxo
Sabrina
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Berlin
Historical, political, artistic and dirty. That is Berlin.
3 day in Berlin is not nearly enough to discover all that it has to offer, but it is enough to get a feel.
We started with a walking tour of the city, which showed us the major highlights. We visited Museum island (a small island with 5 museums), the square where the Nazis held their book burnings (complete with the memorial) and marvelled at the abundance of graffiti. We walked past and through the remains of the Berlin walk, stood ontop of Hitler´s old Bunker (the place where he eventually committed suicide) and walked through the powerful maze that is the Holocaust memorial.
We joined a pub crawl to get a feel of Berlin´s night life, but since the parties don´t start until after 1 am, and we´re used to being in bed by that time, we only made it to 3am. We did get a feel of Berlin in the dark, complete with a stroll down the red light district where prostitution is not only legal, but the prostitutes have their own union. We visited a bar that has a 4 story complex of art galleries above it and had shots of Absynth provided to us on the stairs of an old church (I know we´re going to hell, but that´s where the tour guide stood).
Tonight we will board another bus and head to Hamburg, where we´ll catch a flight Tuesday morning and start things off in London.
Cheers!
3 day in Berlin is not nearly enough to discover all that it has to offer, but it is enough to get a feel.
We started with a walking tour of the city, which showed us the major highlights. We visited Museum island (a small island with 5 museums), the square where the Nazis held their book burnings (complete with the memorial) and marvelled at the abundance of graffiti. We walked past and through the remains of the Berlin walk, stood ontop of Hitler´s old Bunker (the place where he eventually committed suicide) and walked through the powerful maze that is the Holocaust memorial.
We joined a pub crawl to get a feel of Berlin´s night life, but since the parties don´t start until after 1 am, and we´re used to being in bed by that time, we only made it to 3am. We did get a feel of Berlin in the dark, complete with a stroll down the red light district where prostitution is not only legal, but the prostitutes have their own union. We visited a bar that has a 4 story complex of art galleries above it and had shots of Absynth provided to us on the stairs of an old church (I know we´re going to hell, but that´s where the tour guide stood).
Tonight we will board another bus and head to Hamburg, where we´ll catch a flight Tuesday morning and start things off in London.
Cheers!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Nuremburg
Nuremburg turned out to be better than expected. As the centre of the Nazi party, Nuremburg Germany, a now cute and quiet city, houses a deep past which cannot be hidden.
Nuremburg was the site of Nazi party rallies, the place where Hitler gained legendary status, and changed the course of history. We spent two nights in a cheap hotel in the centre of Nuremburg, learning of its past. We visited the documentation centre, which plays host to an interesting exhibit on the history of the Nazi party. Very candid...very surprising. We sttod on the Zeplinfield where Hitler gave speeches and walked outside courtroom 600 where the Nuremburg trials were held.
A short but interesting visit.
Now to Berlin!
Nuremburg was the site of Nazi party rallies, the place where Hitler gained legendary status, and changed the course of history. We spent two nights in a cheap hotel in the centre of Nuremburg, learning of its past. We visited the documentation centre, which plays host to an interesting exhibit on the history of the Nazi party. Very candid...very surprising. We sttod on the Zeplinfield where Hitler gave speeches and walked outside courtroom 600 where the Nuremburg trials were held.
A short but interesting visit.
Now to Berlin!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Oktoberfest!! Need I say more?
There isn't much to say about Munich, Germany during the first days of Oktoberfest, except....unbelievably amazing! The city gets crammed with over 6 times the normal population during the 2 weeks of Oktoberfest. Because of the insanity that is the first weekend, we decided to get there and get into this once in a lifetime chance. And what a chance. We're staying in a Youth hostel appropriately titled the Tent. Sharing a giant tent with 100 other strangers makes for an interesting night. Thank goodness for earplugs, and woolen blankets because this place is loud and cold. The nightime temperature right now is a not so toasty 0-5 degrees celcius. Yes it is cold, but the sheer quantity of beer consumed in the city is making people very unaware of this fact.
We watched two parades, (one over 2.5 hours long) visited the carnival grounds, complete with giant beer tents (basically buildings put up over the last 4 months to house over 8000 drunken people from all over the world). The lineups to get into these places are insane, and once in you are shoulder to shoulder...thankfully since most people would fall over. It is the only time I think we will see people literally passing out on the streets, falling to the ground randomly, and grown men, being held by other grown men so they don't hit the pavement in their lederhosen. That is one of the best things, watching grown people, in traditional Bavarian clothes (Lederhosen and dresses--think beer wench) stumbling around.
There is truly nothing like Oktoberfest. We stumbled upon our personal beer blessing in the Radler, a 1 Liter Beer Stein half full of a light beer and topped off with a Sprite like soda. Amazing!!!!! This, paired with the best pretzels in the world, consumed in a giant beer hall with thousands of your closest friends singing, dancing and banging on the table, makes for an unforgettable time!
We watched two parades, (one over 2.5 hours long) visited the carnival grounds, complete with giant beer tents (basically buildings put up over the last 4 months to house over 8000 drunken people from all over the world). The lineups to get into these places are insane, and once in you are shoulder to shoulder...thankfully since most people would fall over. It is the only time I think we will see people literally passing out on the streets, falling to the ground randomly, and grown men, being held by other grown men so they don't hit the pavement in their lederhosen. That is one of the best things, watching grown people, in traditional Bavarian clothes (Lederhosen and dresses--think beer wench) stumbling around.
There is truly nothing like Oktoberfest. We stumbled upon our personal beer blessing in the Radler, a 1 Liter Beer Stein half full of a light beer and topped off with a Sprite like soda. Amazing!!!!! This, paired with the best pretzels in the world, consumed in a giant beer hall with thousands of your closest friends singing, dancing and banging on the table, makes for an unforgettable time!
The hills are alive in Austria!!
Oh Austria! Food, fun and f-ing cold weather.
We started off our trip to Austria in Vienna. Big and beautiful, there are enough museums and palaces to keep you busy for weeks. On our first day we stumbled upon an exhibit at a local museum about King Tut and the Pharoahs of Egypt. Luckily they had some English signs and we got an audio guide, so not all was lost. We wandered through some of the city, but the almost single digit weather did not make for fun times. We did find some gems within the city. I visited the Belvedere museum, the former home of a prince, which houses the original Klimt painting, the Kiss. It was beautiful, with real gold leaf within it, it sparkled from behind it's case. Mat found a museum on military history with the original car and uniform (complete with blood stains) of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand I, whose assassination sparked the first world war.
After three cold and rainy days in Vienna we headed to Salzburg, the home of Mozart, with it´s distant snow capped mountains, abundance of Mozart paraphanalia and sights from the Sound of Music. Since Mat has never watched the movie, we visited a Marionette theatre, which performed a shortened version with marrionettes. Unique to say the least. A visit to the fortress gave us a great view of the city and some history, while the Sound of Music Bus Tour we signed up for took us into the lesser known parts of Salzburg and the beautiful countryside to show us where the movie was filmed and where the real Von Trapp family lived. Even with the singing of songs from the movie, it was still a great tour and showed how gorgeous of a country Austria really is.
Next stop: Munich, Germany for the World Famous Beer festival known as Oktoberfest!!
We started off our trip to Austria in Vienna. Big and beautiful, there are enough museums and palaces to keep you busy for weeks. On our first day we stumbled upon an exhibit at a local museum about King Tut and the Pharoahs of Egypt. Luckily they had some English signs and we got an audio guide, so not all was lost. We wandered through some of the city, but the almost single digit weather did not make for fun times. We did find some gems within the city. I visited the Belvedere museum, the former home of a prince, which houses the original Klimt painting, the Kiss. It was beautiful, with real gold leaf within it, it sparkled from behind it's case. Mat found a museum on military history with the original car and uniform (complete with blood stains) of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand I, whose assassination sparked the first world war.
After three cold and rainy days in Vienna we headed to Salzburg, the home of Mozart, with it´s distant snow capped mountains, abundance of Mozart paraphanalia and sights from the Sound of Music. Since Mat has never watched the movie, we visited a Marionette theatre, which performed a shortened version with marrionettes. Unique to say the least. A visit to the fortress gave us a great view of the city and some history, while the Sound of Music Bus Tour we signed up for took us into the lesser known parts of Salzburg and the beautiful countryside to show us where the movie was filmed and where the real Von Trapp family lived. Even with the singing of songs from the movie, it was still a great tour and showed how gorgeous of a country Austria really is.
Next stop: Munich, Germany for the World Famous Beer festival known as Oktoberfest!!
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