My Trip to Denmark

So as many of you know, I have experienced my first trip out of England. On Saturday, at the ridiculus hour of 4am, my housemate Gill and I left the house for Heathrow airport and a Danish adventure. The following is a description of the amazing trip we had:

October 25, 2008 - Day One

Upon our arrival in Denmark, Gill and I did what any world traveller would after arriving in a new city -- we went to the hotel and had a nap. That's right, the first thing I did was go to sleep. However, after waking up I was revitalized for the nearly 5 hour walk around the city we took. The walk was a self guided tour through all the major sights of Copenhagen. Throughout the entire walk I kept thinking to myself what a beautiful city it was and how I could see myself living there. It just seemed like the kind of city that you could really incorporate yourself into. The buildings where absolutely amazing - old, colourful, and full of character and history. I know that I wrote that I was in love when I first experienced London, but my flity heart has another city in its grasp. WOW!!

My favourite spot was the area called Nyhavn, which was a man made canal that allowed ships to enter Copenhagen's city center. The buildings were all different colours and there were so many people about just enjoying the beautiful day.

After our walk, Gill and I experienced fine dining Danish style and Kobehavn Korner (or Copenhagen Corner) which was a nearly all glass restaurant on the edge of the City Hall Square just minutes away from our hotel. It was an incredible meal which nearly broke my budget for the whole trip. Well worth it though!

October 26, 2008: Day Two

Sunday brought us to Helsingor (Elsinore) to visit the famour Kronborg Castle, or Hamlet's castle. Despite the rainy weather, this is probably a highlight for me, and not just because of the Shakespearean connection.

After exiting the train station, you can immediately see Kronborg looming in the distance. The rain actually made it seem all the more forboding and historical. This is probably the most touristy thing we did all weekend, going all the way and seeing the entire castle and snapping pictures all the while.

When we returned, we got ready for a night out on the town. We dined at the Hard Rock Cafe, I have a t-shirt and glass to prove it, then ventured out to find a jazz club. It was so great there. It was this tiny little place filled with smoke and a variety of people. We spent several hours there listening to great music. The best part may have been the one saxaphone player wearing a SaskPower t-shirt. What a small world!!

October 27, 2008: Day Three

Off to Sweden to see the oldest rennaissance castle in all of Scandanavia. I have to say this was a little bit anti-climatic and, after an hour and half in Malmo, we were back on the train to Copenhagen. Back in Copenhagen we took a canal tour of the city, then, sopping wet and cold, we headed back to the hotel for room service and a movie.

October 28, 2008: Day Four

A relaxed walk through the city and a walk up to the top of the Round Tower to view Copenhagen from above. This was a really perfect way to cap off the trip as I was able to see everwhere I had been over the last few days. All in all it was a marvelous trip and I highly reccomend adding Copenhagen to your travel plans.

Sorry Already

So the problem is that I'm just not that interesting. I don't much here that I wasn't doing at home. You know, eat, sleep, go hang out in London. It's all really becoming mundane...well maybe not the hanging out in London bit.

This last weekend was really great. While you all were celebrating Thanksgiving and filling up on turkey, I was enjoying a beautiful weekend in London - it was about 20 degrees. On Saturday Gill and walked to the Cranham Community Hall for a craft fair, it was a lot like the ones we have - a lot of old ladies selling homemade cards. So, instead of spending too much time there we went to the local pub.

This is me in the pub garden. Believe it or not the cardigan was too warm...how's the weather in Saskatchewan??

Then we went out for lunch at another pub with Gill's nan, and then shopping at Lakeside shopping centre were I spent far too much money.

On Sunday we went to London to watch Matt sing in Convent Garden. Then we went to, you guessed it, a pub for a drink. From there, we walked to the south bank to people watch and, yup, have a drink. Hmmm, there seems to be a theme to my weekend??!!

So here are Matt and I on our way to the south bank. That's the London Eye behind us to the left, and to the right is Big Ben.

And here we have James, Gill, and me sitting outside a theatre on the south bank (I can't remember which one!)

Will write again the next time I something remotely interesting.

Love and miss ya,

Heather

Birthday Celebrations

For those of you who read the title and thought, "Oh crap, I completely forgot Heather's birthday!!" don't worry, my birthday's not until March (13th) so you all have lots of time to buy gifts and ship them out here...:) Actually, it was my housemate Gillian's 30th birthday on the 25th, so we did some celebrating. I got to meet more people, and get to know some others better. On Thursday, Gill's actual birthday, Ben (housemate) and I threw her a dinner party. It was a lot of fun and I've included a couple of pictures so that now you can put faces to these names.




So, here we have Gill, the birthday girl, Ben in the middle, and Matt.

And Gill's brother Steve and his wife Sharon.

Then, on Saturday we ventured into London for a matinee showing of Hairspray which was absolutely phenomenal, supper and drinks. This is us on our way to the theatre.

It was a really fun weekend full of great new friends, but don't worry I still miss you all tons!!

Lots of love

Heather

Homework

Not much to write about today, but I did want to share a little piece of writing on the subject of homework that hangs in our faculty room. Before you ask, yes this was written by one of my students, but not for me. It was written last year. Here goes, as best as I can remember it:

"...teachers shouldn't assign so much homework cause we'll just forget about it and then our parents will get mad...I understand that homework helps build up our brains, but that's not really the point of it, it's just to keep us busy."

Hmmm!! Seems to me this one could stand with a little more brain building. Funny how she hit it on the nose and didn't even realize it.

Love you all, miss you lots, feel free to drop me a line,

Heather

FINE

So, my apologies for not writing so often, but the thing is I'm really not that interesting. I truly belieive that I'm doing you all a favour by not writing down every little detail of my rather mundane and boring days. I don't have any funny stories this time - sorry - and I haven't gone on any adventures lately - too tired, feet hurt, trains are a mess, lots of work, etc., etc. So once again, I apologize. But quickly ask yourself this...are you bored yet?? I thought so.

For those of you who haven't googled something more interesting yet, here's what I've been up to in the last week:

1) Weekend - My housemate Gill had a friend and her daughter over. I made quick friends with a six year old (a really great kid!) and went blackberry picking in the park, during which I was introduced to England's famous stinging knettles. Awesome! Oh, I had some really good Indian - Chanty, have you ever had the coconut naan bread? YUM.

2) Monday - I realized that world dominance is a lot harder than I thought. That's right my housemates took it upon themselves to teach me how to play risk. I took over Europe...rather fitting I think!!

3) Tuesday - longest day in the history of the world. Emerson Park School had their open house, an event where parents in the borough come to visit the school, check out all the displays the departments put on and we try to convince them that Emerson Park is the best choice for their child's education. It ended at 9:30pm!

4)Wednesday - Inset Day, no students, ahhhh!

5) Thursday - Pretty good day, not much happened. I confiscated some football cards. That was exciting.

6) Tomorrow - well, you'll just have to wait and find out won't you.

For those of you that have been nagging me to update this I hope you're happy and not too bored.

A Little Quiz

So, my first full week is over and so far things are going well. The students are starting to settle down, I've only had to dole out a few detentions. For the most part though, they're really just like any other kids. They even make marking interesting. See if you can complete this analogy:
eyes :: sight as nose : ____________?
Any quesses?? Chances are that you probably got this one right. Well, I had one boy in my class answer this with pick!! That's right, eyes are to sight as nose is to pick. I'm not sure if he was "havin' a laugh" (as they say it over here), or if he really thought that was the answer!? Either way, pretty funny and worth a good laugh in the faculty room.

Other than that not too much exciting this week. I'll probably go to London tomorrow, though my feet are kind of sore and blistered - I walk about 1.5 miles to school and back every day - and I'm really looking forward to sleeping in one day, and Sunday seems so far a way. Good news is I have lots of time for that.

Talk to you all again soon and sorry Chanty that this update took so long. I'll try to do better in the future.

Heather

Apparently I really do have an accent!

Sorry it has taken me so long to write again. I've been quite busy with school and socializing...but mostly with school. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the new curriculum and structure of the school system. So far I feel like I'm doing fairly well, and in now time will have it all figured out comfortably. My first three days of school went well, though, in good ol'Heather fashion I do have a coulple of stories.

First, the kids are really all very nice. They started off chatty, obviously trying to so how much they could get away with in the Canadian teacher's class. Well, one girl found out just how far she could go and I handed out my first detention - not just in England, but ever. She just wouldn't quit talking and start paying attention when I was trying to instruct the class. So now she and I will spend a lovely half and hour together on Monday:) Kids really need to realise that we don't want to give out detentions because that's my time that's being used up too! And, I just don't like it when kids make me punish them.

My other story is a little more embarassing, and the subject of many laughs this weekend. I'm sure you can all appreciate it. In my year ten class (Gr. 9 in Canada), I was going over their required couresework for the year. One of the assignments is an original piece of narrative writing, which had several subtopics. As I read through these I finally got their full, undivided attention when I read the topic, "A Personal Horror." All the faces in the room looked at me with shock. One girl raised her hand and said, "Excuse me Miss, what did you say?" I instantly realized that my accent had let me down in a rather unfortunate time and place. We Canadians, it seems, tend to be a little sloppy with our pronunciation, and the last syllable of the word 'horror' blends in with the rest of the word. I'm hoping that you all have realised what I told my students I wanted them to write a story about!! That's right, they heard me tell them to write about their very own "Personal Whore!" Just imagine my embarassment. We all had a good laugh and I was taught to say it properly - horr-ah, horr-ah (English accent remember.) I'm sure there will be many more of these in the future. I'll keep you all posted.

Fortunately, after my day of misspeaking and detention giving, I went into London to attend a fundraiser one of my housemates friends was throwing at a pub in Soho. I can't believe it, I actually partied in Soho. It was a really fun time. The people there were really friendly, and the pubs were absoluely packed - more than any place I've ever been to back home. So much fun!!

The rest of my weekend has been consumed with prepping for school next week. I'm actually procrastinating right now, and should really get some work done. Just a few more emails and I'll buckle down.

Talk to you again soon,
Heather