The Redhead Jumped Over the Pond (And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon): Back Streets Back, Alright-- loving the 90s pop

Here's an update on the second part of my week.
On Thursday, I had a half day booking at the school I was at last week. So I knew where the school was, which bus to take, and I didn't have to worry about getting there in the morning. I had a serious dilemma: because it was an afternoon booking, could I sleep in in the morning? I was afraid if I slept in, that, knowing my luck, the agency would call me for a morning booking... So while I was awake at the normal early time, I was able to lay in bed and have a relaxing morning. I walked up to the city centre a little early to walk around and get a few things. I mailed off some letters, bought mailing envelope for one of my packages to send home... I find I'm buying sweets to send home... my thought process "I don't think we have this at home. Let's buy it and send it to someone!" I already have the beginnings for Anne's package, and a few other things to send home. Who will be the recipient?!?! Experienced my first English rain today! It didn't rain for long but allowed me a chance to use my UK umbrella from Anne!

As I waited for the bus, it pulled up earlier and parked. Just as I started to walk towards it, the bus driver looked at me and said "nope," and went back to his paperwork.. I guess he was about to switch out for a new driver. So I just sat down on the bench to wait. Got to the school a little earlier than anticipated so I walked past the school to discover a nice park-- Awesome!! I was told that I'd be in a Year 5 class, however once I got there (and the receptionist recognized me from being there last week) I discovered I wasn't in a year 5 class, but covering classes ranging from year 1-3 for 165 minute periods at a time. Basically I was covering the class while the teacher raced out to a quick meeting. I found Maggie, sat with her and then just as lunch was ending, found my first class. The teacher was very nice. My task for the year 1s was to collect them from outside, let them get a drink, and then do the afternoon register and by that time, she said she'd be back. So I did exactly that. It went well, and I found a kid who's name was Jenna-Leigh. Had to resist urge to tell her that was my name, too!! Once I finished the register, the teacher wasn't back yet, so I started talking about Canada.. "Can you tell I'm not from here? I'm from Canada. We say things a little differently. For example, what you call a plaster, we call a bandaid." What this started was then they would ask me what everything is called by pointing to it.. Mostly, I had to tell them that it was the same thing.. they enjoyed it. The other classes went well. The last class I went into was doing art with paint. The teacher left me (no kids had any paint on them) and somehow when she came back, there was paint... everywhere. Well, not everywhere but more than when she left.

I'm going to refer to Liz my roommate as Alex from now on, to avoid confusion with Liz from downstairs. So basically, Alex has to go to Aldershot for her school everyday with a guy she's carpooling with. She messaged me saying he was staying late and if I could help her figure out how to catch the train home.. So I tried and I thought we figured it out. On the way home, Maggie and I stopped for Subway (we were so hungry!) and they didn't know what sub sauce was!!! Alex didn't end up getting home until 10 o'clock!! She'd gotten on a few wrong trains headed opposite direction than she wanted to be. In the end, she had quite the adventure figuring out the train system.

On Friday, I was up and awake, ready if a call should come but it didn't. So I fell back asleep and had a heat nap for a few hours. Over the course of the day, the agency called me 3 or 4 times about bookings for the upcoming weeks. I owed with Simon that he was just calling to talk to me haha In the afternoon, I left with my camera with the intention of walking around, and perhaps using a few things. I got some great "out and about"pictures and also found some stores with good prices. I'm trying to slowly "british-ize" my wardrobe. I walked down by the water, past the point I've walked before.. Found the Ikea, AND walked past some people with ice cream. Of course, I couldn't resist so I found where they got it and ordered some. a single scoop cookies and cream (didn't have any pralines and cream! :( ) came to £3! It was TINY!!!
By the time I got home after 5, the girls were home and I chatted with them about their days. We ended up hanging out in our flat, playing Cards Against Humanity online and just having fun. Alex got stuck in the same area as her school. Her ride stayed to go out and she did as well. She didn't get bcd until Saturday AM! After getting a snap from Sarah celebrating Friday, I gave her a quick call. It was so good to hear her voice and catch up!! We decided to Skype on Sunday to actually see each other face to face!

Saturday proved to be a pretty relaxing day. Hannah and Liz made pancakes and we got the invite! They were good-- and we had maple syrup! (a hot commodity here!) While Alex napped, Liz, Hannah and I did some knitting. Making quite the progress!! Alex and I walked up to the West Quay, and found a new dollar store (the 99pence store!) In the evening, we had plans to make burgers as the group-- potluck style! They turned out delicious! In the evening, we all went out to PopWorld for some awesome 80s/90s music. But not before I had a great Skype chat with Oksana!!! It was so good to chat with her, we haven't talked in so long! It was like no time had passed. We bussed up to PopWorld, and had an interesting night bopping along to the music. Hannah made friends with a Hen party (bachelorette) which led to an eventful night for them! Actually, though, walked into the bathroom and she was in there with the brides maid, the bride, and the mother with a jar of peanut butter-- skippy!! They were passing it around and we had to try! It was amazing ad so creamy!! It tasted like home! She ended up giving us the container, and we took it out onto the dance floor with us! Also, did you know that a Kabob and a Kebab are two different things! Kabob is on a stick and Kebab is like a pita.. Apparently, an after the bar trend for young drinkers haha.

On Sunday, Hannah, Liz and I went to church, same one as last week. I found that this week, the message was lost by someone talking the whole time about a specific organization and asking for funds-- definitely a worthwhile cause but I missed the message like there was last week. Afterwards, We had our weekly lunch date with Team Canada. Each week, we've decided to go out for lunch at a new spot. I had a panini-- slowly stepping outside of my box.. not really a sandwich person.. Oh well. This afternoon was pretty relaxing. I fell asleep for a little bit in bed but the highlight was skyping with Tyler! (Sarah and I rescheduled). I loved catching up with him and Lauren!! An hour and a half went by quickly chatting with him, mostly because my internet kept cutting out every 19 minutes--- very frustrating!! I'm making good progress on my snood- just started on my second ball of yarn!! Made a mix mash of leftovers for dinner with Alex and Hannah. And then afterwards, they decided to make cookies.. Didn't have any vanilla so they used a little bit of maple syrup! Today was pretty relaxed.. We're all still tired from the late night last night!

Until next time,
Jenna

Here's the Facebook album ( you don't need to have Facebook to see album) of my pictures from my Friday walk. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10204282945987811.1073741834.1653360044&type=1&l=391477904c