What do I DO During the Day?

Many people have been asking me: "What are you doing to keep yourself busy while Jeff is at work?" I don't take any offense to it, but I thought I would show people what I have been up to in our first month here. By the way, can you believe we've been here a month already!?

One of my tasks during the day is creating curriculum for an online course through my school district back home. I am creating 4th grade English Language Arts lessons through this program called My Big Campus. It is a combination of Blackboard and Facebook. Students have access to it, as well as teachers. I have been creating "bundles" for numerous topics. Within each bundle is a lesson I have designed with videos, games, assessments, and me lecturing. The lecturing part is not so fun...I hate my voice on video. Ugh!

Just a few of the lessons I have created for just Unit 1. I have 3 more units to complete before I am finished with the first semester.

Another thing I have been working on is my store on Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT). I have created printables, lessons, activities, etc. on this site and other teachers can purchase my downloads. I have hit this pretty hard, and have even added a teaching Blog called: 3L +1T.  I have been enjoying the design aspect of both TPT and the teaching blog.

 My Teachers Pay Teachers Store

  My teaching Blog.

Food Preparation

It has actually been fairly difficult cooking over here. I know my mom and sister can vouch for me that I have really developed a love for cooking over the last few years. We are always sharing recipes and sending things to each other via Pinterest. So I am trying to make some of Jeff and I's favorite meals, but have been striking out because of lack of ingredients over here. I mean really, no black beans?! That's pure craziness.

I told Jeff a few weeks back that I was sorry I was cooking like a college student. I didn't have any spices or any of the staple pantry items. I was struggling...and we ate a lot of bland chicken.

So many of you have read about my confusion with many things at the local grocery store.  I have ventured out and bought things I would not normally buy at home. It is nice walking to the grocery every other day to get fresh fruits/vegetables. Food does not last as long here in terms of expiring or the lack of preservatives. I am proud to say not much as gone to waste (2 slices of bread and a few tortilla shells).

People online drive me nuts when they post pictures of meals and dinners they make. I am officially being one of those people. I'm proud of myself that my cooking skills are coming back despite the lack of my normal ingredients. Thank goodness for COSTCO and their spice racks!

 

Hooray for spice racks!!

 I ventured out and made curry....yum! I think curry might be the replacement food for my mexican food addiction. Which by the way, still have YET to find a Mexican restaurant. They apparently built a Taco Bell in London, and it quickly closed down! I would totally take a 2 hour train ride just for a double-decker taco.

I made an Italian chicken with pasta. It was pretty good!

I promise that unless I serve the queen or something REALLY exciting, I won't post anymore pictures of our dinners. :)

Impromptu Visit to Salisbury

Our plan for the day was to see Stonehenge, grab lunch, and see Windsor Castle on our way back to Nottingham. We ended up heading to Old Sarum. There used to be a castle and cathedral that stood within the fort. All that is left is some of the remains. Jeff and I were in awe to see not only 1, but 2 drop offs where they kept invaders out of their land. The views were beautiful, as you could see the entire town of Salisbury. 

We decided to go to the town to grab lunch, and we ended up seeing one of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever seen in my life. We were about ready to drive out of town, and made a quick turn-around so we could tour the cathedral. 

Now, pictures do not do the fort justice as we were inside the fort, but consider clicking the link above to see what it looks like from a bird's eye view. 

We're inside the grounds of the fort, but where the church once stood. The "hill" is where the castle stood. 

 The remains of the buildings. This might have been part of the chapel.

 More of the remains. If you looked closely you would be able to see arches, windows, steps, etc.

 Salisbury Cathedral. Beautiful.

 The last picture, if you look closely, you can see the depth of the building. It was huge!

 

They are renovating due to receiving a huge grant.

Overall, it was a really fun day. It wasn't what we expected, but we knew we needed to make the most of our time in that area. We can always visit Windsor Castle another weekend.

Stonehenge

Our trip to Stonehenge was...muddy! I thought I wore the right shoes this time, but they quickly filled in with mud. When will I learn? (And no, this is not Jeff typing)  It was a beautiful windy day, despite the mud. It has rained here a decent amount within the last few days. 

We drove 3 hours in our car on interstates, scenic routes, through small quaint villages, and back roads. It was odd...we'd be going 70 MPH, and all of a sudden we'd be reducing speed because we were in a village or hitting a round-about. We were arriving to Stonehenge, and you could actually see the boulders from the main road we were driving on. We were shocked. It was pretty amazing! 

We found the visitors center, and jumped on a bus that took us closer to the the mysterious boulders. We were able to snap a few photos and learn the "who, what, when, where, why" kind of thing. They were really incredible, and even bigger than I expected. 

View from the car

 Unbelievable sight!

 It measured how strong you were and how many more people you'd need to move the boulder. Jeff only needed 95 people to help him...

 I needed 99...

Video of our Flat

Crossing my fingers that this video uploads correctly. :) 

Here is a short video tour of our flat. Sorry Mackey is being creepy in one of his many hiding spots.
Enjoy!

London Part 3: Westminster Abbey, Streets of London, & the Tower Bridge

As we were waiting for our tour to begin for The Palace of Westminster, we explored for a bit. We saw the outside of Westminster Abbey because for some reason we weren't allowed inside for a self guided tour. Hoping to do that next time we come as well. 

Did I mention we could barely move our legs by the time this trip was over? We wished we had kept track of how many steps/miles we walked. I did a little research and this doesn't include walking indoors (tours, museums, etc) as well as Nottingham walks to/from the station. I think we easily walked over 11 miles. During our walks we took a few pictures of just neat buildings or things we found interesting. 

This was my little research project this morning. Obviously, it is not 100% accurate, as I do not remember every street name. But generally, this was our 11+ mile route.

I was getting disappointed because I was only seeing modern double decker buses. I was refusing to take pictures of them, until this one was quickly approaching so I snapped a picture!

 The River Thames.

 View from the other side of the river.

 I couldn't resist. How can you be in London and not get one of these pictures?

 This was outside of the train station: London St. Pancras Station.

 This was a hotel we found when walking to The British Museum.

I believe this is another rail station, but don't quote me on that!

This is the London Eye. It is a giant ferris wheel. Each capsule can fit a decent amount of people (like a small room). I was doing some research and you can have a specialty capsule (i.e. wine tasting, events, etc). Pretty awesome. We didn't want to wait in line, so once again this is something we'll do next time for sure!

Before hopping on the metro (instead of walking our entire route back...hello 22+ miles?!) we visited the Tower Bridge. This was one thing I was REALLY looking forward to seeing. It closed at 5:30, so we were unable to go up to the top, but this place was beautiful. I'm glad we were able to see it at night. 

 

After the metro ride back, we grabbed some food & beer. Then we hopped on the train and headed home. What a day! As you can tell we had a packed day, but still many things left to do in London. We're so glad it's just a 2 hour train ride away so we are able to check some more things off our London Bucket List. Amazing.

London Part 2: Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, Palace of Westminster

I didn't realize how much we actually did in our short amount of time as I am sitting here trying to organize the posts.


Next on our "Jeff Created Walking Tour", we saw Buckingham Palace. Of course, this place was beautiful. We missed the Changing of the Guards, but hoping to hit that the next time we visit London. You could tell this was a tourist spot because we couldn't find anyone who spoke English to take Jeff and I's picture in front of it. So please excuse the "selfie" we took below. :)

 

 

 

As we made our way to The Palace of Westminster, we walked through St. James's Park. This was the land of BIRDS. My goodness, they were everywhere! Pigeons, geese, and swans...oh my! There was also this crazy man feeding squirrels where they would climb up his leg and eat out of his palm. Weird. 

You can see the London Eye faintly in the background. More pictures of that to come!

The Palace of Westminster was our next spot. This was definitely one of our favorite spots from the day. We were able to take an hour and 15 minute tour inside. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures, so we only have a few from the outside. We enjoyed this tour filled with gold decor, beautiful paintings, sculptures, and the places where parliament meets. We saw many of the places the Queen sits during her duties. Fun fact, the tower is not called "Big Ben". It is called the Elizabeth Tower, and the bell inside is Big Ben. 

It was only a little after 5 when this picture was taken. It gets dark around 4:15 here.

London Part 1: The British Museum, Oxford Street, & Piccadilly Square.

What an AMAZING day in London we had on Saturday! It was a full day, as the train left Nottingham at 7:30 in the morning and we didn't get back until a little after midnight. It was well worth the long hours and painful feet!

First up on the agenda was The British Museum. This place was HUGE! We saw many different exhibits focusing on different continents and specific countries around the world. As you can tell by the photos taken, we loved the Egypt and Greek/Roman exhibits. As always, pictures do not do the real items justice. We were in awe looking up at some of these massive and ancient artifacts. 

 The outside of the British Museum.

  

The Egypt exhibit. 

 The God of Wine. I thought this was fitting given my love for the drink!

 

Real mummies! Pretty insane, there was a room dedicated to these guys and the mummification process.

Next up on our list for the day was Oxford Street. This is comparable back home as Rodeo Drive or 5th Avenue. All the name brand stores and international stores were located on this street. A coworker of Jeff's told him during the holiday season it is packed shoulder to shoulder. 

We went into a few stores, one of which was called The Liberty. Apparently you can get ANYTHING here. If they don't have it, they will get it for you. Beautiful building inside and out. This is one store we weren't going to buy anything in...so expensive!

 The streets were well decorated as you can see. H&M and Nike Town were both over 4 stories tall. I made Jeff go into H&M with me, and he was lucky I had enough self control because all I wanted to do was start grabbing clothes to go try on. Maybe another day...



 Next up we went to Piccadilly Square. This is a mini version of Times Square in NYC. It was very cute, but nothing we stood around and looked at for too long.