Great Friends, Great Sights, Great Nights

Our week was another great one in England. Jeff and I were reflecting, as it was a busy week.  I spent a few days hanging out with some close friends, catching up.  Jeff played squash a few times, and we also had a night out with some work friends at a great pizza place.

Friday came quickly, and our friends from Cambridge (& the states) came to Nottingham.  We ate a great Chinese restaurant and went bowling for the evening.  The bowling alley was great and reminded me of the bowling alley in my hometown. We played a few games of cosmic bowling.  It was a great place to people watch as well.

We spent Saturday, driving about 45 minutes through Grantham to get to the little village of Belton, where the Belton House is located.  All four of us, have National Trust memberships (Thanks, Lori) so we were able to get into the site for free.  We had not used ours in a while due to our traveling outside of the UK, so we were glad to get back into traveling locally again.  This house was beautiful, and definitely one of our favorite visits of the manors, houses, mansions, halls...you get the idea. 

The front of the house

The back of the house

When we first arrived we were lucky enough to catch the basement tour that shared all about the experiences of the service people of the house...all 100 of them for 2 people. Insane, right? The tour was 50 minutes long, and totally worth it.  We went into various rooms learning about the services they provided, lives they lived, and how glorious it was to be a lady/man of service during those times. They really had some great perks as all the necessities of living we covered by the owners, so all the wages they earned was just "pocket change"...some of which were paid to what is equivalent to $32,000 in those days.  That is a LOT of extra money. We were really impressed with the tour and our knowledge, as this is what we expected to learn when we visited the Highclere Castle.

 Great listeners during our tour... 

The bell system was impressive.  The bell would ring once, and the service crew would have to figure out which bell by the pendulum system. Pretty cool!

After the basement we explored the upstairs, which was impressive.  We also walked around the gardens, and still didn't make it around the entire grounds.  1,700 acres would have taken us a while... I think it was a spot we could have spent more time at, but we were starving and Jeff and I had plans later in the evening.

 The library was my favorite room. Apparently each book has been read at least once. 

Loved this staircase

 Loving having our friends here to travel with

The gardens

We grabbed some food, and parted ways.  Jeff and I came home just to leave again within the hour.  Enough time to make some pasta salad and head out... We headed to a BBQ at friends' house.  We enjoyed our "American" bbq, and hanging out with friends. And apparently I need to do a better job at taking pictures of our friends and events like this. You are probably starting to think we are lying about times with friends...

We ended our weekend getting caught up on everything as our next adventure is quickly approaching again.  Jeff went into work to catch up on a few things, and I caught up on some laundry...boo!

Onto the next adventure...

Work Trip turns into Mini-Getaway

This past weekend, we had planned taking a trip to the beach...of course depending on the crazy England weather. We had another opportunity present itself to us.  Jeff had to take a work trip to Glasgow, Scotland on Friday.  I decided to join him!  We hopped in the car around 5 in the morning, and made it to Glasgow about 4 hours later.

We grabbed an early lunch and Jeff headed to work.  I was planning on spending the day in the hotel getting caught up on my online class.  I didn't feel well and spent most of the day napping off a yucky headache.  When Jeff came back, we walked around the city.  Later that night, we met up with one of Jeff's Scottish work friends.  We met at a local pub, had a few drinks, and enjoyed hearing about the local culture and life there.  It was interesting to converse at first, just because of the strong Scottish accents.  We definitely got used to it and had a great time.

The next day, we explored the city.  We grabbed some breakfast at our favorite spot, Pret A Manger, which has the best double blueberry muffins. We had our muffins and coffee on the square of the city.  It was a nice start to our adventure for the day.

We then walked to Glasgow Cathedral and the Glasgow Necropolis.  The church was very simple and we both agreed it was in our Top 5 churches we've seen since we've been over here.  There was something special about the fact that the tombs in the basement level didn't have gold draped all over them or the fact that there wasn't fancy details throughout the whole church.  We liked the change and the small details in this one!

Glasgow Necropolis was something special as we haven't visited a cemetery since we've been over here.  It was huge and interesting to read the engravings in the tombs.  One of them that stands out:  the husband died at age 40, the wife lived another 34 years.  The sad part was they had a child the same year the father died, and the baby only lived to age 2.  What a sad, sad situation.

The cemetery overlooked the city, it was quite a view!

We ended our short adventure at a local brewery that was recommended to us by local friends.  The building was great, and we really enjoyed the beer! We were able to get one of our favorite German dishes while we were there as well, currywurst (not the best picture of it).  We headed home, so we were able to have a "chill day" at home on Sunday to recuperate before the work week starts again.

 We would have loved to sit outside, unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating. 

I leave you with this picture. I just thought it was so cool that this tux shop had these on display. Jeff said that his friend wore one at his wedding. What a cool cultural tradition!

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.

Final Goodbye At Work

This wasn't my favorite day, but definitely one I will remember my entire life. Saying goodbye to my students and coworkers was rough. I really tried hard all day to be strong for my 23 third graders. I made it though the day and let loose the river after mostly everyone was gone. Not sure what I would do without my support system at school. They truly are not only the best educators, but amazing people and friends. 

It is so crazy how things happen for a reason. I remember having trouble getting a job when I first graduated. I remember not understanding why I was not getting the jobs, and then I was hired. I was so excited to have a job, to experience this new school, and to begin my new professional life as well. I know I was meant to be at that school, and learned so many different things while being there. 

I learned to never take life for granted. 
I learned to be strong and stand up for myself. 
I learned how truly blessed I was a child. 
I learned to be open and honest.  
I learned that you have to take the long To-Do list one day at a time.
I learned how hard teachers work for so little recognition. 
I learned that teachers make the best friends. 
I learned how to become a great educator. 
I learned to listen. 
I learned to take a stand on my own beliefs.  
I learned to step out of my comfort zone. 
I learned to find the answer and find the help needed for any situation.
I learned the only way to get through the stress is to just laugh and smile.
I learned to give. 
I learned new technology. 
I learned teachers are not only role models, but support systems.
I learned it's okay to be a little crazy.
I learned to believe in myself. 
I learned to go above and beyond to help out. 
I learned that teaching is absolutely an amazing profession, and I learned I'll truly miss it.