Lovin' The London Life!

Hiya everyone!
I have been sitting in an internet cafe for 3 hours and 7 minutes. It is freezing in London and they refuse to close the door to this place, it is steadfastly held open. I am a human popsicle. I have been in here for ages because I had loads to do. I had to do expense claims for work, travel research for work, check my 74 Facebook notifications (I love you guys!) and my 37 emails (mostly work related ... and related to 3-4 days ago. ) We finally got our internet/landline/cable tv kit in the mail ... only to find out our house has no jacks for any of these things?! WTF?! Apparently no one who has ever lived in our house has had these things? I need we lived pretty far in the outskirts of London but SERIOUSLY! I didn't know we'd gone so far we'd hit Ireland! (Haha just kidding - I love you, Ireland!) Life has been CRAZY busy and super hectic and not having the internet BLOWS and I never have time to make it to the internet shops, so I'm really sorry for the lack of posting. I'll try to fill you all in.

WORK: I've been working LOTS! I was a bit worried because I've been hearing these horror stories about supply teachers getting no work here. I have a GWA (Guaranteed Work Agreement) so I'm guaranteed to get paid anyways, but still ... I came here to work! And work I have! Here's the deal. We try to get pre-booked so we'll KNOW if we have to work the next day or not, but this usually doesn't happen. The joys of day-to-day supply! SO, we get up for work at 5h45 or 6h00 am, shower, do our hair &makeup, eat a hearty breakfast (mmm Wheatbix!) and get dressed. At 7h00am sharp, we call into our agency and state our name and ask if they have work for us. They put our name on the availability board and say they'll call us back. Sometimes they never call. So you just got up, got ready, and got fed for NOTHING. Other days, they call back and you do a cartwheel and go flying out the door cos it will take you at LEAST an hour to get ANYWHERE (from our house, anyways!)

My first day available was Tuesday ... no work. I met up with my new friend Lindsey and we did some sightseeing and shopping instead. Lindsey is a cool chick from Ontario that I met on our Facebook group. We've spent every day except today together for the last week and we get along great and have a ton in common, and we both don't like to waste our days off so we hit the town! Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I got jobs! Yes! Teaching here is so different and so the same from teaching in Canada. They have different rules, kids wear uniforms at every school, and little things are different here and there. One rule that threw me for a loop was that every recess, and every lunch hour, you may have to take your kids right out to the playground, but you ALWAYS have to pick them up from the playground. I sure did not go out to pick up my kids on Wednesday. Whoops. Luckily, all the schools I've been to have been calling my agency and leaving good feedback about me, which is awesome and means I'll get placed more, because they know I'm doing a good job. One school has already called back and asked just for me again, this Thursday! It was probably the toughest group of kids I've had so far, but work is work, and I'm not here for a cushy job so I'll TAKE it! My contact for my agency called me today and got me pre-booked for tomorrow, which is GREAT.... BUT ... she said it will be by far my most challenging placement ever ... I'm going to a pretty rough school in a tough neighbourhood ... yikes! But I have confidence that I can handle it! I came here to become a better teacher and this can ONLY help me! Here's hoping! Wish me luck!

My roomates were NOT having good luck with work. They don't have contracts, they are day to day supply, and weren't getting much. Luckily, Crystal has now been called to do Nursery (pre-K) at the same school twice now, and Marlee actually got a full time job with a private Nursery so that's AWESOME! Things are looking up!

So the school I went to today was about two hours from my house, no lie. I had to take a bus, two subways, an above ground train, and walk (there's always walking to be done here!) for about 15 mins. I got my call at 7h10, and ran into the school at 9h05. Late. So, I had this lovely 2 hr trip home to look forward to ... until our tube (subway) stopped because of a malfunction in the tube signals for about 45 mins in a dark tunnel ... NOT FUN. I did strike up a convo with the 15 yr old girl across from me who was really sweet and told me she wanted to visit Canada. We're now BFF's and even swapped e-mail addresses. New London Friend Count : 3 (Lindsey and I met two randoms at dinner last night who gave us flowers!)

Social life wise, it's not bad but I'm a bit bored. I think I expected more. The thing that really sucks is that there are no nightbusses to our neighbourhood so all transport to our house is over at 1am. If you go to a club until 2am , you have to ride the bus as far as you can and then pay a small fortune for a taxi for the rest of the way. We learned this the hard way on Friday. My amazing friend Niki was in town so we went to her friend's housewarming party to meet some lovely Londoners. The party was fab and we headed out to a cute little pub 'n club (two in one!) in Balham. Just getting to the party itself took us 1hour and 25 minutes, door to door. Crystal fell asleep on the tube clutching her plastic bag of beer which was cute. We went out, had some drinks, danced, had a lovely time, etc etc. I even met NBF #2 ... A lovely boy named Ricki who was way too cute. NBF #1 is not an honorable mention, if you're wondering. Haha. The night was great and we were having fun. We ditch the bar, the booze, the friends and the booze shortly after one and begin the adventure home. About 3 busses, 3 hours, and a big nap later (Thank GOD Crystal stayed awake!) We still weren't home. It's after 4am, I'm exhausted and lost. I literally ran ahead of all the people and desperately waved down a taxi in the middle of the street. £16 (almost $30cdn) later, we were home. THAT will NOT be happening again! We need to come up with a new plan on how to get home! It was a fun night tho, for sure!

Not sure what else to write. UK kids have no school for more than a week next week. I'm not sure what I'll do with my free time. I believe my buddy Steve and I will head to the Franz Ferdinand concert this week (OMG YAY!) and I'm contemplating a mini trip up to Scotland, and a visit down south to my one true love ... Paris! I'll keep you all posted. For all you know, I'll try to get some actual sleep and relax for once! Who knows? I hate sleeping and staying home here. Every second that I'm sitting around being lazy drives me nuts because I can't help but think 'I'M IN FREAKIN' LONDON ... I NEED TO GO EXPLORE!' I have been all over so much of this city but there's still so much to see ... I can't wait!

I talked to my family the other day and my sisters are going thru some tough times ... it makes me feel really guilty to be away from them while they're going thru these things. I just want to give them big hugs. I think now I will probably be going home for Christmas because I miss my peanuts and want to smother them with love. I'm not homesick at all - I love my life here and I love being here so much. The only reason I wasn't going home for Christmas was because of my fear of planes and I appear to have overcome that! Yay! So I will prob come home for the holidays but have plans in Paris for New Year's so we'll see what happens. Miss everyone lots and lots back home but I sure don't miss HOME! I love my new home! Hope you're all doing well! Please post comments so I know people are actually reading this ... it doesn't encourage me to write anything when I think no one's reading my random rants! Hope you're all doing well.

xoxo MEGS